Project Wrapup and final numbers

We all made it back to the US safely, although it took some others longer than others (right Mariela?). I am still in the process of posting photos to the blog and have already posted videos of the Ecuator fun during excursions. Please note that the misspellings are from typing the majority of the posts on my blackberry. I will leave them as is and not correct the poor grammar - it is a reflection of the conditions and my state of mind and body when it was posted (call me a purist!)

Also, we have secured a site that everyone can view the pictures from the trip. It is a link on the right hand side under "Links".

After I have had time to reflect on the trip and decompress, this really was an amazing trip. This was our largest group yet (44 members), had the most people sick (up to 1/4 of the group was in the hotel one day) and had the most challenges thrown at us.

In spite of that, we accomplished our goals. With apologies to Mastercard, I will recap the numbers below:

• 1 church completed = many tired, sick team members; multiple sunburns; multiple trips to the restroom for Rachel Wolff (thanks to Ray making her drink a gallon of water a day); numerous lost tools (anyone find my trowel??); and an amazing bonding experience for everyone to see the power of God at work, especially on Friday
• 80 dental patients treated = hours of tireless labor from Doctor Dewar and his team (Roxie, Arlene, Michelle and Daniel); extra suitcases of dental equipment and multiple doses of medicine from Ed Dewar, Bush Doctor (for himself!)
• Over 1300 medical patients treated = hundreds of pounds of medicine transported by the team; multiple trips back to the construction site and hotel to care for fallen team members; trips to Quito to operate on patients; super effort for the entire team to make it through the week
• Over 70 people baptized as a result of the evangelistic meetings = priceless

Thanks again for all of your help, comments, feedback and participation. We are already starting to plan for next year's trip, so stay tuned!

Last post from Ecuador

We are in the airport in Guayaquil getting ready to fly to atlanta. We had a great day and a half in Guayaquil.

We arrived last night to heat, humidity and sea level oxygen levels! In otherwords, it was like being back home in Houston.

After we retrieved our bags, we checked into the hotel and had a leisurly dinner. Magdiel then suggested we take a walk to the lighthouse overlooking Guayaquil. He said it was about a 20 minute walk to the base of the lighthouse base and then another 10-20 minutes walk up the hill. It was 20 minutes there and then 444 steps up to the lighthouse. It was well worth the effort and we have some great shots. We walked back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Part of the group ready for the climb

The long path up the stairs

The last step!

At last - the lighthouse!

View from the top of the lighthouse

We all thought this looked straight from "The Matrix". It was actually a monument to all those that donated funds to the Maleceon 2000.

This morning, we walked down the Maleceon 2000, which is a boardwalk along the river and is a great place to learn about ecuador and the plants. We also did a little shopping in a knockoff area. Rachael got a 5 dollar nike watch!

Maleceon 2000

The traditional ice cream on the last day. Every trip, I have to find ice cream on the last day. It wouldn't be the same without it. I had three that day, I am ashamed to say.....

One of many shots of the plants and flowers along the boardwalk

We then went to the iguana park by the hotel. We had been by there at night and all of the iguanas were up in the trees. They were out in the day and thery were everywhere. Some were more aggressive and chased Andrea around. Others were mating, which was a little interesting.

Iguanas during the day.

More iguanas

Mell petting an iguana

We then went to lunch and went to the indian market where a lot of folks bought paintings. We then walked back and took showers, ate and headed to the airport. We got there about 3 hours early - before the Delta staff got there! We finally got checked in and had to say goodbye to Magdiel and Susan. We will miss them and look forward to seeing them next year in Chile!

Rachael, Susan, Magdiel and me at the airport

This has been a great trip-in spite of all of the challenges. God has really led and is in charge of this trip anf the church. We will make sure to post pictures when we get them. Magdiel told us that there wasn't a group assigned to paint the church yet, so the Tambillo church has asked to get the paint and they will paint iit themselves! I am not surprised by that at all.

I will post pictures as soon as I can and send out another note letting people know. Thanks for all of your prayers and support during this trip.

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Last day in quito

We visited old quito first thing this morning. We saw the colonial square, governors palace and four cathedrals. Old quito had 83 catholic cathedrals within a very small space at one point, in some cases having 3-4 in one block!

Presidential palace

Main square

Cathedral interior

The one I liked best was the new Basilica, which started construction in 1956. We have some great shots of it from the inside and feom the towers which some of us climbed.

Basilica

Interior of the nave

Rose window

Rose window from the inside

Shot of me from the roof because Rachel Wolff said I was never in any pictures. Well, now I am.

Climbing ladder on top of nave to get to roof.

Shot from roof of the famous statue on the hill.


Climbing down staircase to exit basilica

We then went to the TeleferiQo, which is a ski lift that takes you to a mountain overlooking Quito that is 13,000 feet in elevation. It was cold, but not as cold as our first trip there. We had lunch atop the mountain.

Traveling up the mountain

Up into the clouds.....

Finally, the skies cleared and we got great shots of Quito

It was cloudy when we first arrived, so we didn't get the greatest pictures. Some of our group hiked firther up the mountain and got up to 13500 feet just to say they did.

After we came down the mountain (with a game of Uno played at 12000 feet in the cablecar on the way down!), we returned to the hotel to get our luggage and head to the airport.

In all likelihood, the only game of Uno played at 12000 feet from the TeleferiQo!

We said goodbye to the pastor and his family at the airport. We will miss them, but will keep in touch with them! We also said goodbye to our bus drivers that have been with us the entire trip.

We are now on our way to Guayaquil for our last day. We will be back at sea level, which should help some of our teams various resperatory ailments. I will be interested to see how our breathing changes after being at 9000 feet for over a week.

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The great adventure

Our day took an in Interesting turn yesterday after the ecuator visit. We were headed to some indian markets for shopping. Our bus drivers have been great. They are two brothers and they switch off the driving duties.

We had a member of the church with us and said he knew a shortcut to Otavalo. It was not. We were treated to a three hour tour of some incredible countryside (up and down the sides of mountains. It was only supposed to take 1.5 hours to get there.

We had some adventures. The road was NOT designed for buses, so we had to get out a couple of times to get the weight out of the bus in order to negotiate some turns and descents.



Yep, those are the roads we were going to drive on in a bus!


Beautiful scenery


We had to exit the bus a few times to negotiate turns - we had to get the weight out.

After the great scenery, we were able to do some shopping. Some more than others of course (Danielle). We went to the indian market in Otavalo and the leather goods district in Cotacachi. We then headed back to Quito to eat and back to the hotel.


Finally eating in Otavalo. Michelle eating her french fries with a tiny fork.

An adventurous day, to say the least.

We are now headed to see Old Quito, the Teleferiqo and the Artisian Market.

We fly to Guayaquil tonight for our last day before we fly out.

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First excursion

We just left the Inti Sun museum, which is where the ecuator passes through. It has a lot of information on the original indian culture and on the sun.

Dale trying his hand at a blowgun

Handheld GPS on the ecuator

It also has some very cool experiments about what happens on the ecuator. The centrifugal forces meet at the ecuator and cancel each other out and makes interesting things happen. For instance, water drains differently on the ecuator versus in the northern and southern hemisphere. I will try to post video of it later.

The first video shows water draining right on the ecuator - notice that there is no spin for the water.

The second video shows the water draining in the southern hemisphere. Note the direction of the water draining.

The third video shows the water draining in the northern hemisphere. Note the direction of the water draining.

It also affects your strength. The tour guides did experiments where they pull pur hands down and fingers apart off the ecuator-and they struggle to do so. However, on the ecuator, it is very easy to do so. I will post video if I can.

This video is of our tour guide performing the strength experiments on Eric and how it affects your strength on the ecuator.

Lastly, the two forces make your equilibrium act strange. We have great video of people trying to walk a straight line with their eyes closed. It is shown below. The end shows Mell walking the same way not on the ecuator.

We are now headed to lunch and to two indian markets for shopping.
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The long goodbye

We had a great day at the church today. We started out with an inaguartion service to dedicate the church before we headed in for worship. We had a lot of participation from our group in the dedication.

Group at church on Sabbath before the dedication

After we cut the ribbon and welcomed the church inside, we had sabbath school and church, again with a lot of participation from our team (and a lot of translation by Carolina). Frank Ottati preached the sermon and they baptized over 20 people in the new church! It was very moving to see that many people give their lives to Christ at once.

Cutting the ribbon to the church

Gino handing the key to the church to the head Deacon

Guy opening the doors to the church

Presenting Pastor Pillajo and his leadership with t-shirts to remember us by

An absolutely packed church for Sabbath service

Pastor Frank Ottati preaching the first sermon in the church. My only regret for the week is that we didn't get the chance to go to any of Frank's evangelism meetings. Over 60 people were baptized as a result of the meetings. We were going to attend on Friday night, but we worked late to finish the church and weren't able to attend. I think it was a good outcome!

Baptismal tank. The church members arrived early and had a portable stove warming up the water. however, the tank had not been sealed and all the water was leaking out. So, they went and got the portable bladder you see here and re-did the work. There wasn't much water, so the pastor really had to work to get the people immersed in the water!

Pastor Pillajo in the baptismal tank

Pastor Pillajo, his wife and his daughter in the tank getting ready for him to baptize.

Pastor Pillajo and me at the end of the church service

The church also expressed their thanks to us and gave each of us gifts to remember them by. It is always an emotional goodbye, but especially this year. That church, town and pastor are really special. And we will never forget them.

Pastor Pillajo, Gino, Magdiel and me

Church members giving us gifts and thanking us

After the long goodbye (which includes shaking hands / hugging every church member), we headed back to our hotel for lunch (an hour late!). They had a GREAT meal prepared for us. As a bonus, they had some ecuadorian musicians playing live for us during lunch. It was a great way to celebrate all that God has enabled us to do during the week.

Owner and staff of the Hosteria la Estacion at the farewell lunch and celebration

Ecuadorian musicians for our lunch music

Our faithful guide and translator, Magdiel, was there as well in his traditional Chilean costume. Magdiel and his wife are from Chile, which is were next years mission trip will be. Everyone was very excited to hear the news when we told them last night and magdiel will help us with finding the best places to go.

Magdiel in his Chilean outfit

We are now on our way to Quito to our excursion hotel and to take the people who are leaving tonight to the airport. We are all looking for a good break from our (fruitful but tiring) labors.

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