Day 7

We were allowed a whole extra hour this morning as Esther our facilitator could see that our team is feeling more tired each day. So, after breakfast at 8 (typical breakfast is bread of some sort, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bizcochos – a pastry that is only made in Cayambe, and fresh fruit juice) we had devotions that focused on Peter and Cornelius and then headed up the mountain. We stopped in Cangahaua to meet a man from the church who would be taking Jim and Mark to a lumber mill to buy wood to make benches for the Compassion program. We did take a minute to take a team photo in the square and we’re able to appreciate that we were standing in the spot where Ricardo Lanchimba (our guest from last night) had been doused with gas and was about to be set on fire because he was a Christian.

The rest of us headed to Lote Tres and we were able to get to work on a few projects. The people from the church had gotten the trusses up on top of the building and were working on welding the cross pieces together.

So, our welders Annabelle and Ethan got straight to work. Others helped in the kitchen or worked on some planning for future ministry events this week or just spent time visiting with the people who were around.

After lunch, which was rice with some boiled beef and vegetables on top, we quickly set up to run our VBS program. At 2:00 the advertised time we had about 20 kids in the church, but we’re told that the public bus would be dropping off a lot more children closer to 2:30. Many families send their children to school further down the mountain and these kids must ride public busses to do so. We decided that the 20 kids who were in attendance should be taken outside for some games and recreation time. This was supposed to be a planned rotation in our VBS program, but we had to improvise! The children loved playing games like duck duck gray duck, red light green light, and more. Once we could see that other children were joining us, we headed into the church for our program. The team all acted out the story of David and Goliath which the children loved…Carter was a great Goliath and Matthew was a great David. Jim played King Saul and the rest of the team were either Israelites or Philistines. We then broke the children into 2 groups and had half watch the Veggie Tales version of David and Goliath and the other half colored in David and Goliath coloring books. We switched places and then ended with all of the children together in the church where we sang a song about David.

During part of the VBS the teens and young adults in our group had a youth group meeting. They had a devotion and shared a bit about their lives with each other. They also made some popcorn and added M&M’s to it for the teens there to eat.

When it was time to leave, we said our good byes but the one truck we needed for transportation was not there. Seeing as most of the team had to walk to where our van parks each day (the van we ride in cannot make it up the mountain for the last 1/4 mile) we all started walking to the can in the hopes of meeting up with the truck. No such luck… The truck did not show up by the time we got to the van. There is not enough room for everyone in the van, so Camilla, Carter and Ethan volunteered to stay back with Esther and wait. The rest of us wished them luck and headed back. It turns out that the truck took quite a while to get there and the 4 of them decided to walk to meet the truck. They were able to walk all the way to the school in Lote Quattro before the truck picked them up!

We all returned to the hotel and had dinner. It was so delicious tonight… Small pieces of pork that had been simmered and then fried, rice, fresh cucumbers, a beautiful onion salad, potatoes with several sauces to choose from for on top and some delicious pineapple. We all ate quickly and then most of the team headed to get ice cream and to the supermarket to shop for treats to bring home.

Most of the team had not even showered or changed out of work clothes before this so most headed to their rooms and then to bed. We had such a wonderful trip and when some people realized that tomorrow is going to be Friday there was a lot of amazement that it has gone so quickly.