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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The day time stood still

We started the day off with sunshine. We got started with a bang and we made good progress through lunchtime. We all decided to eat a shorter lunch. We got the baptistry front and back finished and grouted by lunch, which was our goal.

We still had a lot to do (three inner walls) and weren't sure we could finish. Then the challenges/miracles happened.

First, the electricity went out. It goes out when it rains in the valley. Without electricity, we couldn't cut any block nor could we put the rest off the roof on. That would have ended our day. We worked as much as we could, but that ended pretty quickly. After a while, we all gathered inside to have prayer that if it was Gods will for us to finish, that the electricity would come back on. The rain was still falling, but about 15 minutes later, the electricity was back on-truly a miracle.

Then the rains started. Most of the church roof was on, but they were still working on the back part where we were still laying block. They can't work on the roof in the rain-it is too dangerous. The rain stoped just long enough for them to finish! After the roof was completed, it started a steady, heavy rain for the rest of the day-soaking everyone who went outside, but the team was able to lay block inside.

Putting the roof on

The last miracle was our block saw. Ray is our block cutter (and resident amateur weatherman) and said that the saw blade was new at the beginning of the week. Midway through the week, it started to show wear. The maranatha foreman brought the two replacement blades, which had no cutting surface left (useless). So he kept working. Today, the blade was totally ineffective. It was basically burning through the block rather than cutting. It had no diamond tip on at and would turn red as it was so hot. It took a lot longer to cut block, but, somehow, God let it work.

Even with all of those miracles, it took an incredible effort by all of the team today. Everyone pitched in and was willing to stay a bit late to complete the church. By Gods grace. We got all walls completed! I still don't know how we got so many block laid this afternoon. As some of the team said, it was as if time stood still in the afternoon. One wall had 19 courses laid, another had 11 and another 6 courses- all after lunch-with all the challenges mentioned.

Working frantically on one of the last walls

Completed interior walls


Completed walls

When we were completed, we all celebrated with the church members and maranatha crew members. We have some great pictures of all of us that we will post when we can. The team looks like we really worked that day. We were tired, filthy and sore, but have such as sense of accomplishment and awe at what God allowed us to do.

Wet and tired group

Our entire work crew on Friday - jubilant in what God allowed us to do!

Danae and Dale Spencer

Handing out the project shirts to the Maranatha crew

Other crew members

Daniel (middle) was the Maranatha foreman. He did a great job on the project. About 3:00 on Friday, I asked him to help lay block to get finished. Diego completed the roof while Daniel and Rachael laid up one wall, Guy worked on another and Gino and I on the third. I am still amazed at how much block everyone laid Friday afternoon. Time truly stood still that afternoon.

Maranatha crew members with their project team t-shirts

We got back at about 6:30. The medical/dental team was so worried about us getting back late, that they were praying for us. We will worship with the church members at the new church tomorrow. We can't wait.

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Rain, rain, stay away

We had a good day today. Only one team member was sick. We were greeted with sunshine wheb we arrived at work. We all prayed for no rain so we could complete our work.

We had a very productive morning. Some rain clouds showed up about 3:30 and had real bad lightning. It look like it was headed straight for us and we prepared to take cover.

Ray Wolff works outside cutting block all day and been tracking the storm. He assured me that it would pass us. Others were more skeptical (like Gino!). By Gods grace, we got a little rain, but the worst passed us by.

We got our oxygen tanks on Wednesday or Thursday. Ray made good use of the tanks since he was outside!

Carolina taking a hit of oxygen

We made good progress today and everyone decided to tay an extra hour to get more done. Both end walls are completed and the baptistry wall is completed to 15 courses. The inner walls are to 13 courses on two and four on another. We got most of the roof on that we could before the rain came.

We will get the baptistry and the roof on tomorrow. Not sure about the classroom and bathroom walls, but it will be close.

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Another rainy day

We had a good day at the work site today. We were down 4 people to start the day and 5 at the end. We got the front wall of the church completed, the back up to 16 and the middle up to 8. We got very close to our goals. We have a real good shot at finishing IF it doesn't rain too much tomorrow and friday.

Progress at end of day

It rained hard from about 2:30 onwards. It really slowed us down and got cold. We wrapped up a little early.

We celebrated Roxie Wolffs birthday tonight. The cooks made her a cake and we all sang to her.

Roxie and her cake

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Rainy day

We got almost completed with our goals at the job site. We got the 13th course laid and with the help of the maranatha team, we got it grouted. However, we didn't get the scaffolds torn down.

End of Tuesday

That is great considering we were 7 people down to start the day and dropped down 2 more during the day.

We had to give an iv to three people on the job site because they were sick.

Eric Griffin getting an IV at the job site

Gino getting an IV on the bus to the job site in the morning (dedication)

It also started raining about 2:00 and it was COLD! We moved much slower in the afternoon. It was raining so hard that we were about to leave at 4:00 because we were so cold (shivering, etc).

However, we all decided to stay a little later to finish the grouting and the rain let up and we finished.

God is good and we made good progress.

The medical team dewormed 600 patients at a school today. Amazing!

More to come later.
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Response to comments

Sosheel did arrive safely last night and worked with the medical team.

We will post pictures of greg the dog when we get back to houston.

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Third day start

We are on our way to the job site. We have 9 people sick at this point. The devil is working hard to keep this church from being built and the medical team from doing their work.

Everyones spirits are still high and we have faith that we will complete our work.

Keep us in your prayers as we go through the day.

We have gained some new nicknames as a result of this trip.

Ed Dewar is our dentist. Because he helped the sick people with hebal remedies, he is now: Ed Dewar, Bush Doctor.

Andrea James is a nurse and on our medical team. She has been taking care of everyone all night. Someone called her our Mother Teresa.

Lastly, we have a dog on the jobsite that hangs around while we eat. Eric gave the dog some of his sandwich. We told him the dog would follow him around--and it did. He left to walk away and the dog followed him. I told him he needed to name the dog, so he did. He named it.........Greg. I didn't think it was so funny, but everyone else did.

Mell with 'Greg the Dog' - which, upon further inspection is actually a female dog....making the entire thing that much funnier (depending on your point of view)

Brandy with Greg the Dog on Sabbath. As we found out, the dog's real name is Cinnamon. Take that, Eric!

More to come tonight.

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Day 2: falling like flies

We are just leaving the medical team site after a very successful day! The dental team treated 18 patients (after treating 20 on sunday) and the medical team treated over 300 patients today (after treating 130 on sunday).

Medical team operations

Dr. Dewar and Roxie working on a patient.

Medical team personnel

The construction crew had a remarkable day. We started the day out short 4 people because they were sick. During the day, two more had to back to the hotel because they were very sick. In addition, we had at least 5 others that were not full speed. In spite of these challenges, we still completed AND poured concrete up to the 11th course of block. Our goal was 10 with the stretch goal of 11 and concrete poured. So, we achieved the stretch AND left the jobsite before 5 pm!!!!

Progress at the end of Monday

God was really with us today and allowed us to make good progress. We are all concerned about our sick team members. Most of them got sick late last night and had fever, diarreaha and nausea. Luckily, Dr Ed Dewar, bush doctor, was able to give them some remedies before we left for work. In addition, two medical team members came back to give iv fluids during the day and Dr Arguello is seing them now.

The sickness starts at the job site

Ray and Rachel feeling poorly

Ray sleeping on a pile of block at lunch

We think that the sickness is a combination of the altitude and some fresh cheese that many people ate at the church on sabbath for lunch. Everyone who didn't eat the cheese is just fine.

More to come later.

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