Day 9

Normal morning… Arrived at the church to see that the members had finished the roof that was barely started yesterday! It looks amazing and many team members commented that they actually feel like we have accomplished something on the construction this week now! There is still a ways to go on this project but I can guarantee that the church members will keep working until it’s done.

It felt a bit strange to arrive to a deserted church no one was around except for Pastor Segundo, his wife Maria and Victor (an elder of the church). Most of the members of Lote Tres were in a community meeting elsewhere this morning, but our team loaded up into the 2 taxi trucks and headed to some farm visits. These visits were arranged by Victor ahead of time.

The first visit was to Esteban and Roselina – an older couple from the church who are always around when we are there. They spend a lot of time watching their 2 small grandchildren. Esteban invited our whole team into his tiny dark house to pray for his family. He expressed his concern that his son and daughter-in-law do not attend church. We had a time of prayer together and his son-in-law produced a guitar and asked us to sing. We sang Jesus Loves Me, then the Ecuadorian sang it in Spanish, and we were surprised by the pastor when he sang it for us in Quechua!

Our second stop was at the home of a former church member. I don’t remember his name, but they were active members in the church years ago, something happened with some finances and this family left the church at Lote Tres. Mark had really had it on his heart to try to work on some reconciliation between this family and the church and had begun the process of asking hard questions. Victor had put this visit on our schedule because he wanted to thank this family for the hard work they had done at the church and invite them to come back (they have been attending church at Lote Quattro). As we pulled up there were a couple of children playing outside and a young man doing some work. Sue stated as we walked up “that looks like Christian.”

Christian was a little boy who Sue met on their very first trip to Lote Tres. She had broken her foot just before leaving and could not make it to the church. She spent her entire first day sitting on the bus when this little face peeked in at her. She invited Christian to sit with her and through very broken Spanish taught him some new math techniques. The next day Sue was dropped off at the school to help teach the teachers and saw Christian again. This boy has had a special place in her heart ever since, but she has not seen him for years as his family had left the church.

It was in fact Christian in that yard doing some work today! His parents were not home as they were in the community meeting. We got to have a nice talk with Christian and learned he is in the Ecuadorian military in Quito but just so happened to be home on a month vacation. There is a new home being built next to his parents’ home that actually belongs to Christian and has places in it for his parents and brothers as well. It has an amazing view of Mount Cayambe and Christian said he plans on sitting and drinking his coffee every morning while looking at the view. This was a wonderful thing to have happen today. We were able to pray for Christian and his new home today.

Our third stop was at the rose house of Emmanuel and his wife Wilma. They are the son and daughter-in-law of the pastor. The pastor gave us a tour of the green house that held rose blushes that were easily 8 feet tall. The pastor told us all about the hail destruction and a bit about roses. He asked us to pray specifically for his son as he has started to not attend church on a regular basis. You could see on his face and his wife’s face how much it hurt them.

We headed back to the church and ate some sandwiches that were ordered from a Subway kind of restaurant before we left this morning. They were delicious! After lunch we walked to a nearby pasture of Juan Ramone and his wife. They asked us to pray for their cows and their family. During the storms his wife had been in the community onion co-op working and the roof collapsed on all the workers. She was injured but had recovered but there was a boy who took 4 weeks to heal. They had 4 nice-looking cows grazing and Mark and Steve were able to talk to him about how well he was doing with them.

We went back to church and some of the team played with a few children who had shown up, and others did some work with the youth of the church to clean up the sanctuary and set up chairs for church. The youth then had their weekly youth meeting and from what I hear they had a good time. They studied God’s word and had some question and answer time together. They even celebrated Carters birthday with treats and gifts. We had a little bit of time to chat with people, take photos, and play with jump ropes and balls before the truck arrived and it was time to go.

We headed back to our hotel and cleaned up or did some more packing as it was our last night here. We all can’t believe the trip is coming to an end and know that tomorrow will be bittersweet, but we are also ready to be home again. Our facilitators ordered pizza for supper, we played Jim’s famous Ecuador vegetable game (you have to come to know), and celebrated Carters birthday with a wonderful cake from a local bakery. Everyone was tired and most headed to their rooms to finish packing. We will have a very long day tomorrow seeing that we have an early breakfast again and then will be awake all day to catch the red eye home.

Please continue to pray for Sarah’s back as it is still hurting a bit and she is nervous to fly with it like it is, and also pray for several team members as there seems to be some stomach issues happening right now….not sure what we got into.