Construction complete!

By Gods grace, we completed both of the churches in Urcuqui! We had another great weather day with mostly clouds and no rain! With those completed, the construction crew gets the day off and can take it easy tomorrow!

Our medical and children's ministry had an interesting day. They were at the building that the church is renting in Natabuela and it was VERY small! They made it work and had over 60 kids and treated over 100 patients. A very great day for them.

One of the helpers for medical is Marco Polo and it was his birthday so we had another celebration tonight!

The Maranatha leader working with us is named Javier. He has been great to work with. With the work finished, he is leaving us tomorrow. We said thanks to him and gave him his projects team tshirt. We will miss him and hope to see him again.

Claudell is leading us in a game of Mafia tonight so It should be fun.

He are some pictures from today.
Site as we arrived
Completed churches
Group with the church members
Marco polo and dr Arguello
Javier
Claudell and his Hello Kitty water bottle (he lost his and bought a new one that fits him perfectly)

The tale of two churches

We had a GREAT day on the job site in Natabuela. We finished both churches by 4:15 in the afternoon! The Lord is good and we had great weather and help from the church members. It was an awesome experience. We can only hope that God blesses us tomorrow with a similar day.

The children's ministry team had a great day with over 100 children In attendance. Te medical team saw about 120 patients and they were visiting an Indian community that is very under served and really needed the assistance.

We hope for just as good of a day tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from today

Tuesday night report

All groups had a great day on Tuesday. The children's ministry team had 67 kids. They also had a great addition of Dussan, a theology student on his break who is helping out and translating for the group. He added some great new music for the group

The medical team also had a great day, in spite of the rampant dogs running through the clinic! They treated 180 patients, many of them families. It was a wonderful day and they were able to touch a lot of lives.

We had a great treat after worship. It was Rachael and my anniversary today and I surprised her with an anniversary cake that the hotel made for us. We have been happily married for 19 years and she is still my best friend, 30 years after we met.

We also had our first entertainment of the week. Mell and Lisa were late to the bus and had to perform a skit for us. They reenacted the scene where the two women argue over the baby in front of Solomon. Ray played the part of Solomon

Here are some pictures from the day
Cake
Scene from our entertainment

Cotacachi construction pictures

Here are some pictures from today.

Site as we arrived
View from the site
Completed church
Team picture

The Six Hour Church

God is good! We completed the church in Cotacachi at 1:55 pm today! The team has gotten really good and knows their role.

We were going to go to the next site to get started there, however two things prevented that: I told the bus and the truck to be there at 2:30 at lunchtime and should have told them earlier. Also, the site at Natabuela is unprotected, so we can't leave any materials or tools there overnight. So, by the time we got the truck and bus there and loaded, we wouldn't get enough done to leave them secured. We decided to head back to the hotel a couple of hours early and get an earlier start tomorrow and stay late. The team has an ambitious goal of getting both done tomorrow! If all goes well, we can make it happen, God willing.

More to come tonight.
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Pictures from Monday and medical/VBS report

Our medical team had a great first day. They saw about 180 patients! The setup and volunteers worked well and they had a good system.

The Children's Ministries crew also had a great start. They had about 55 children plus their parents.

The pastor for the last two locations came by today and had a wonderful worship for us. The pastors have both been very supportive and excited about the work here.

Here are some pictures from the job site today.

Job site as we arrived
The beautiful view from the job site
The 98 year old man napping in the sun
Gino and I working on the roof
The road up from the job site to the bus. Not fun!
The completed church (with all the roof on!)

Long day in Chinchinloma

We are on our way back from the jobsite. We completed the church, but had to wait two hours again for the last two pieces of roof tin. We are going to check first thing in the morning tomorrow to ensure we have 24 pieces.

Other than that, it was a great day. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was cool and we had a breeze all day. The breeze picked up as we were setting the roof tin, but everyone was careful and no one was hurt.

We are getting more efficient. We got to the jobsite late (long drive) and we still would have been done at around 3:30 except for the missing pieces of roofing. Tomorrow is our final dry run before we have two churches in a location.

One of the gentlemen at the jobsite today was a local that was 98 years old and walked up and down the steep hills with no problem. The hill down to the jobsite was very steep so carrying all of the equipment back up the hill was quite a workout. Boot Camp workouts have nothing on a mission trip at 8000 feet in altitude.

Contests are part of the jobsite, especially when we are waiting. Yesterday it was trying to throw rocks and hit into a small bucket. Today was rolling a rock down the steep hill to see whose went furthest (Cornell and Claudell tied--hard to verify). The last "contest" was that they decided to race up the hill. They regretted that one once they got to the top out of breath.

We also had a proposal on the jobsite today. Joel Estrada and Renata Santos are now engaged! This is actually the third engagement we have had on mission trips (hard to believe, but true!). Congratulations to the happy couple!

I will post more later with pictures and an update from the first day of medical and vbs.
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Pictures from the job site

Here are some pictures from the job site. The first is of the site as we arrived, the second is of our work group and the last is of the finished structure.

Awesome first construction day in Guayllabamba

We are on our way back to the hotel from our work day. We completed the first structure by 4:30 in the afternoon. We had to wait for a bit because we were short two pieces of roof tin.

Very proud of the team especially considering that we have three first time team members AND that it was hot and sunny, neither of which we expected. We were planning on cool and rainy. Oh well!

Also, we were swarmed with some sort of gnats or biting flies. Everyone that didn't have a long sleeve shirt got bit up, especially Curtis!

The church members were great today and helped on site in the morning. They brought some wonderful fruits for us for lunch. It was fantastic and a nice treat. We brought the leftovers back for the medical and VBS team.

We are looking forward to a cold shower and a good meal. We are pumped for tomorrow to get a bit more efficient and have fewer mistakes.

What a great day!!
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On our way to Guayllabamba

We are on our way to the first construction site, Guayllabamba. It is about an hour away from the hotel.

Mell and Lisa were late to the bus this morning, so they will have to perform for us this evening.

It is a beautiful day so far and we pray that the rain won't interfere with the work.
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Sabbath at the hotel

After a late night of sleep, we got up and had breakfast. Since it was so late, we had our own worship at the hotel.

Eliel Reeves led out in the Sabbath School, but everyone participated. It was well done and we were able to worship outside.

Tito then had a great worship sermon for us. While we may have missed out on worshiping with the church members, we had a very worshipful experience

Sunset over the ocean

Picture from the plane. Beautiful!
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Safely in Quito

We arrived in quito safely after an uneventful flight. It took a long time to get through immigration.

Everyone got their luggage except one and they should arrive tomorrow.

We are on our way to Otavalo. It will be a late night, so we are going to sleep in this morning and have a later church service.

Praise God for safe travels and that we get there soon!
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Cornell's plane attire

Cornell decided to save weight in his luggage so he is wearing his boots on the plane. VERY fashionable.....


Greg Hatch
Managing Director
Alvarez and Marsal Business Consulting
700 Louisiana Street Suite 900
Houston, TX 77002
Mobile 832.492.4023

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Ecuador Mission Trip

We leave today for our mission trip to Ecuador. Our trip will consist of constructing seven church structures, a medical mission and children's ministries.

We have 25 missionaries going from the US, mainly from Houston with some from Atlanta, Tennessee, Dallas, Washington and Canada.

We are excited about new challenges. We will only be in each location for one day, so that will be a logistical challenge.

I hope to have access to the Internet to post on a daily basis.

Please pray for Gods guidance and leading on the trip!