Ecuador 2007 - Part One

Buenos noches everyone!

I wanted to do a blog posting about my recent trip to Ecuador on a mission trip with my church, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta. However, as I'm still without a camera (can you believe it stopped working the day Luke was born?) - I'm relying on the kindness of friends that are sharing their pics with me! I'll do Part 2 of the posting with many more details and more pictures shared after our picture party!

Here's a picture of Tungurahua, the volcano that erupted the day we left camp last year!! Camp Chacauco is where we stay while we are in Ecuador (other than the first and last nights at the Howard Johnson's in Quito - more on that in the next posting) and the camp is 5 miles from the base of the volcano.

Camp Chacauco is home to the people that we love and pray for and love some more and pray for some more and on and on. Steve and Carol Thompson are the missionaries that started the camp and God is using them as an integral part in spreading the gospel in Ecuador. They are joined at the camp by several truly "divine" staff members that I'll post pictures in Part Two -

• Sweet Ovidio that leads VBS better than anyone could ever dream of doing
• Handsome Estevan that shared the plan of salvation with all the people that came through the medical clinic
• Phenomenal Sadie that is finishing up 2 years at the camp and is patiently praying for as she says "finding where God's plan and her desires meet"!
• Awesome Sarah that is the new "kid" on the block but jumps right in to help at every opportunity!
• Wonderful Carlos, a seminary student in Quito that's spending a few weeks at the camp and who was so patient in translating for the medical team all week!

We miss all of them already and can't wait to hug them next year!

This is a picture of the church in Montalvo where the medical team worked all week and where we did VBS in the afternoons. The pastor and his family are remarkable people and the church touched our hearts in ways that we will never forget! More on all of them in the next posting with their pictures!

I'll post a group picture of all 18 of us next week but for now here I am with the the "youngsters" in our group in our 2nd most often mode of transportation - the handy pickup truck. The big "buss" (how it's spelled on the bus) is great when all 18 were traveling together but there's nothing like being in the back of the pickup with the wind in your hair as you go around seriously winding curves on the sides of very big mountains!

Anna and Caroline (2nd year for both on the trip!) are the youngsters' names, daughters to Steve and Susan Sanders, and goodness what a family! The parents are spectacular and the girls... there are no words for how great they are! Both are so smart, witty, special, and as Anna would say "beautiful"!!!

Now, the way the week works is that part of our team has a medical clinic all day in the community that Steve has arranged for us to assist. The other team does VBS in the afternoons but how do we spend our mornings you ask?? CONSTRUCTION!!! And let me tell you how much fun it is! Lots and lots of fun. I would have never guessed that hard work such as this could be so much fun!

We worked on an "education annex" for the church in Patate led by the amazing Anhil and his fabulous family who are also very active in Camp Chacauco and very special friends to Steve and Carol. I'll post a picture next week of the inside of the church a year later as when we were there last year, there was no roof!! Now it's stunningly beautiful!

Here's the before shot:

And here are two of the after shots:

Tongue and groove boards make a very pretty wall, huh? Ok, how many people that know me well are saying what? When did Sheri learn "tongue and groove"?? Um... last week! And you know what else I learned? How to use a nail gun - watch out! - and a chisel to leverage the boards and pull them in line to nail down as demonstrated here -

Seriously, can you believe it? I still can't! Not only was it fun learning how to put up the walls but I didn't hurt myself which is a feat for me! (And no, I didn't hurt anyone else either!).

Now, may I brag for a moment? See the concrete part at the bottom of the last picture? My great friend, Sabre, and I notched out the piece of wood to go around the concrete all by ourselves... Maybe you had to be there but oh, the pride we felt when we did it without yelling, "Danny!!!" (that had to come help us on more than 100 occasions)!

Oh, and we kept up with "Quotes of the Day" so I'll share one now and more in the next posting. Here goes (and this is probably a had to be there kind of thing so mainly for my fellow trippers): Did you know you shouldn't operate a nail gun while you have the hiccups? Safety first!!

And for the final touch... Proof that we were pros with the hammer, nail guns, levels, and chisels. Note, I didn't say ladders as we drew the line at climbing on something we could fall off of - we left that to the youngster, Anna, the hammer master! Yes, we could have faked this picture but we didn't, just posed at the end of a long day!

Thanks for taking the time to share in Part One of the Ecuador experience! Please visit again in a few weeks for Part Two that will include many more pictures, more of the stories and fun from the week, introductions to other brother and sister team members, etc.

It's amazing how God can work on you and through you at the same time and that's been clear to me both years in Ecuador. I can't wait to go back in July 2008 (serious Spanish cramming this year though!).

Adios!