2013 Ecuador Mission Report #7: Mon, July 15, from the airport at Guayaquil, Ecuador at 9:30 A.M.
Dear Family and Friends:
Here we are at the Guayaquil airport waiting to fly out at 11:20 A.M. rather than 11 P.M. last night as scheduled. We have been through Security and are in the waiting area, and very glad to be here.
Sabbath night the group of Pathfinders was supposed to fly out but their flight was cancelled because of mechanical problems (brakes didn’t work). At 4 A.M. Sunday (the next day) they were given vouchers by the airlines to stay and eat at the Marriott Hotel and fly later that day. But that flight was cancelled also (we were scheduled to be on it too. There is a volcano that erupted (don’t know yet which one) and left ash in the air which the planes can not safely fly through. Since our flight was cancelled on “Climate grounds” we could not get the free hotel and would either have to pay $100 per room or wait it out at the airport. Then the Pathfinder group (led by Dr. Hold the Dentist) arranged to regroup their people into a lesser number of rooms and let us have the extra seven free on their voucher. So Jonathan slept with me in a double bed and Katie slept with Grandma in the other double bed. (Certainly an upgrade from sleeping on the airport floor). We could not eat free and the breakfast would have cost $12 each, so we were glad for the leftover food we brought from home and dined on that. I did buy two small bottles of water for $3.56 and insisted that none of it be left to throw away at Security at the airport.
We had Internet access in our room and so were able to get word to Melinda and David not to try to pick us up in Nashville at the previously scheduled time. They had been on line too and had already discovered the delay but not the reason for it. (Yes, Internet does have some advantages over Pony Express or even Snail Mail)
Fortunately, here at the airport they have free Wifi access and so I’m trying to get this out to you all before we leave. We will get to Nashville (hopefully) at about 11 P.M. rather than the noon we had anticipated.
There is always humor in something connected with difficulties. Some of our group were called to report and have their check-on suitcases checked for drugs. When the Inspector opened one he suddenly held his nose and said, “no drugs here” and slammed the lid down. It contained the dirty laundry that apparently had a powerful effect. If they checked with dogs, there could have been a
lot of howling and snorting!
It is inspiring to see and hear the Pathfinder group having morning worship here in the waiting area with songs and Scripture and prayer. We trust the other passengers not of our group noticed and were blessed too.
There were some surprises at the last group meeting in Salinas at our hotel assembly room. All the people from the ten sites of our evangelistic meetings were invited to attend and they filled the place. Must have been about 400 there. Afterward there was a baptism of 25 people in the swimming pool and two were from our Santa Rosa site. (One was first and the other last). The last one was a small boy and I wondered if they still believed in “infant baptism” but was relieved to learn that he was 9 years old and had studied through all the lessons before. The church seemed very happy to see him baptized.
Afterward I learned that Jonathan had given him his Sabbath shoes and is now traveling back on the airplane in his ‘CROCS’ that are a little large for him. We tried to buy him a pair of new shoes in Guayaquil yesterday on our visiting day before the expected flight but could not find any that fit him properly. Sacrificial gifts do carry some consequences of disadvantage, but it ends up as a real advantage in God’s economy of things. The look on the face of little Christian (name of the baptized boy) was total joy and transformation. Sorry I didn’t catch it on camera at the moment. Friends said they will fill the swimming pool with tears when we leave because they are so sad we are going. They would “come to Arkansas in a moment” if that were possible. The hard part about leaving is always the fact that we may never see any of them again except in the Kingdom when Jesus comes. That is a great hope. There is wonderful and warm bonding in such a short time.
We spent the first night in Guayaquil in a hotel that was very adequate and provided by Quiet Hour. They offered free breakfast and it was filling. That was a good thing because we were pretty much on our own for meals the rest of the time. We bought some at the Super Mall where our group spent a lot of time while waiting for the expected flight that was cancelled. There were a few comfortable seats in eating areas too.
Other treats during our waiting time were the visit to a park for the lizzards , Iguanas, that are all over here, the Catholic Cathedral we visited while Mass was in progress to catch the flavor of much of the worship here in Ecuador and a later visit to another park that was like a zoo. Then on to an area where there were many kiosks for native Indian wares so we could check them out for last minute souvenirs. They make use here of the US coin dollar and some of their US coins are marked with Ecuador on them. We wonder if they will be legal tender in USA. Fortunately, we don’t have many of them.
It is soon time to begin boarding so I’ll close this and try to get it off before then while we still have Internet connection.
If all goes well, there will be one more sign off report when we get to David and Melinda’s place.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice, (Grandpa and Grandma) and twins, Jonathan and Katie
PS Some of the Reports have come back as undeliverable so we have removed them from the list. Maybe we should give the rest of you one more chance to remove your name from the list receiving these wordy reports. Just let us know that your inbox (computer or brain) is overloaded without our adding to it.