October Timeline

Thursday, October 1: Our friend Daisy came to visit us and help our with our Spanish. Lacey officially started the LAMP language learning method. It went really well as she met some new friends. I set up a dinner with a friend. We also watched as the city had a parade and marathon.

Friday, October 2: It was a rough morning for me. I went out for my daily walk to meet and talk to people and was rejected by a few people. However, I did have a great conversation with my friend Don Rouque in the mercado and tried one of his homemade smoothies. I got home and a guy that I met yesterday came and took us with him. We honestly had no idea where we were going. We ended up at a chicken farm. He offered us a live chicken to take home and cook. We politely declined. Then we went out to the country and picked some oranges. He dropped us off and I thought we were done. However, he came back to get me and I worked with him for the afternoon. After work, Lacey, Sophie, and I went out and talked to Lacey’s new friends that she met earlier. They were really nice and we felt comfortable talking with them. 

Saturday, October 3: The internet guys finally came and hooked it up. We went to dinner at our friend Jose Luis’s house with his family. We had a great time with them even though our Spanish is not well and they cannot speak English. We had pig skin with our meal and it settled hard in my stomach! We then walked through the community and saw some fireworks.

Sunday, October 4: We went to the Sunday market and got some things to make homemade salsa. Then we watched Highlands Church live with our new internet. We also went to the park with our neighbor and her son Mateo. We watched another Church message after dinner. While we were having our prayer time, we experienced a decent size earthquake.

Monday, October 5: We ate breakfast at Esperanza’s then I went for my daily walk. I had some great conversations and made dinner plans with Don Rouque next week. I also got my first Ecuadorian haircut. Then Sophie and I bought a soccer ball and invited Jose Luis and his family to come eat with us on Thursday. We have no idea what to cook so prayer is needed. We hope that we don’t offend them.  

Tuesday, October 6: I washed the clothes in the morning. It takes about 2 hours to wash and all day to dry. We finally got to go to the pool and had a great time swimming. Sophie needed the physical exercise. Aside from a lot of walking, there is not a lot physical things to do here. 

Wednesday, October 7: Balsas had fiestas and parades all day long. we had a great time and it was a great culture experience. We also ate at a new restaurant. They gave us a huge piece of chicken. They were very friendly and we had a great conversation with them. 

Thursday, October 8: Tough day to talk to people. The fiestas lasted until about 3am and most people did not want to talk. We also had our friend Daisy come and help us with our Spanish. We played frisbee on the basketball court and talked with some kids. One of them is our friend Joel. He meets us there every other day. Lacey spent the evening preparing dinner for our friends. We bought the chickens at our new friends place. Dinner went well and I actually got to share a 2 second version of my testimony. They are very nice people and we hope to continue to meet with them. 

Friday, October 9: We spent some time in prayer this morning and then went for our daily walks. I had a great conversation with Alex (owner of the chicken restaurant) and then had a great conversation with Don Roque (smoothie guy in the mercado). Home school is going well and we have been spending quality time with Sophie each day.

Our current prayer is that we find new ways to spend more time in the community. We currently go out about 2 or 3 times a day for about an hour or 2 at a time. However, we want to go and just sit somewhere and pray that God will place people in our path. 

Sunday, October 11: We went to the market to get some fresh fruit and then went to the playground. Then we watched Church online. Our friends from Loja came and visited us and we had a chance to catch up and share our experiences over some Chinese food. We had dinner at Jose Luis’s house. His wife cooked and Lacey helped and learned a few things and we watched a movie with his family. 

Monday, October 12: We had dinner plans with a new couple, but they had to cancel on us at the last minute. Sophie went with me for my morning ministry walk. We shared a smoothie at Don Rouques.

Thursday, October 15: We ate breakfast at Exparanza’s  and then waited to catch a bus to Catamayo. It only took about 2 hours of waiting before the bus came. Then it took another 3.5 hours to get to Catamayo. We spent the evening at our friends house cooking out on the grill and roasting s'mores on the camp fire. Then we spent the rest of the evening discussing our first few weeks in our new towns.

Friday, October 16: We got up early and  I had an opportunity to do some construction with our friends. We then caught a bus to Loja and then another bus to Saraguro. We spent the day in Sagaguro doing some sight seeing. It is the most peaceful place that we have been to in Ecuador. It is a lot colder than Balsas. We hiked up the mountain and went to a place that made pottery and raises guinea pigs. It takes about 5 months for a guinea to be ready to eat. We got to stay in Tom and Susan Stiles old home. They lived here for about 15 years. When they arrived here, there were no Christians in this area. There are now there are 2 Churches.

Saturday, October 17: We got up early and took a taxi to Carboncillo. It is about 45 minutes north of Saraguro and is a lot colder. Carboncillo is a camp where children from all of the local Christian Church’s come up for the weekend and we have a VBS. We played games, sang songs, did crafts, played a lot of soccer and had a great time. I got to talk about Jesus being the Cornerstone and share my testimony. 

Sunday, October 18: We played more games, crafts, and Soccer, ate a really good breakfast and headed out right after lunch. We caught a bus from camp to Saraguro and from Saguaro to Loja. However, the next bus to Balsas was not until 8 hours later. We decided to take a bus to Catamayo and spend the night at our friends.

Monday, October 19: Then we got up early and caught a bus to Balsas. We spent a total of about 15 hours in bus rides over the past few days. Bus rides wear me down. We are all under the weather due to the cold, wet weather from the weekend. We went to about 90 degrees in Catamayo to about 35 degrees in Carboncillo with rain. Our feet stayed wet the whole time we were there. 

  

September Timeline

Friday, September 4: We went to the jungle to visit a few small churches. It is about a 3 hour drive. We stayed in this town Gualicisa. It is hot and humid there. The church was about 20 minutes outside of this town in the country. Everyone who live in this area were farmers or lumbermen. Lacey got to give her testimony at the church service in Spanish. Other than calling God a potato, she did great!

Saturday, September 5: Lacey and I got to walk through the local market and check out the town. We saw a hog the size of a cow at a local restaurant. It was a beautiful town. We went to do some sports ministry for one of the churches, but the rain was too strong. At night, we went to another church and I got to share my testimony in Spanish while our friend Erica led worship and mentor Danny Beasley preached. The church members made us a snack after the service.

Sunday, September 6: We headed back to Loja and stopped at a few waterfalls on the way. There were about a total of 23. We actually got to climb one of them. We also got to see a house that was caught in a mud slide. Mud slides are very common  and dangerous here. All of the roads we travel on have serious construction due to big rocks falling and mudslides. It is common for people and their houses to be taken away by these slides. It is also common for people traveling to get caught in the middle of one.

Wednesday, September 9: We traveled all day to and from Machala working on our visas. We left our apartment at 6 am and got home around 9:30 pm. These long trips are starting to take a toll on us. Sophie has played on her IPAD more in a month than she has all together in the states. Ministry is fun, but the logistics is exhausting.

Thursday, September 10: We got a day off and spent it getting back to the basics with Sophie. Due to all of the travel and unbalanced schedules, it has been tough on us. 

Friday, September 11: Our team spent some time in prayer and remembering the events on 9/11 and how God was working through that time. I also had lunch with my mentor. We had a family date night at a nice restaurant called Mama Lola’s. We had our first taste of cuy (guinea pig) and got the whole pig. They did not take anything out. The meat was actually tender and tasty. Sophie enjoyed it the most and we (not Lacey) agreed to get a pet guinea pig and eat it before we leave next year. We spent the rest of the evening at Jiperro Park. We also had a fun ride home with our taxi. He thought he was a professional race car driver.

Saturday, September 12: We spent the day in Catayamo helping some missionary friends on the house they will be renting. I got to do some construction for the first time in months. It was great. I can honestly say that I miss construction work. I was sick of it the last few months before coming here and thought that I would be comfortable with never doing it again. However, I dearly miss it and all the relationships that came from it. It was also nice to help out our friends and fellowship with them.

Wednesday and Thursday, September 16,17:  Tom Stiles and I went to Balsas to look at some things we will need for our apartment. I stayed the night there and headed to Machala early Thursday morning to finally get our visas! We also saw the news of the earthquake in Chile. Earthquakes are common here and we normally experience a tremor about once a month.

I spent the next 8 hours on a bus back to Loja. 

Tuesday, September 22: Our last day living in Loja: It has been a wonderful experience and we will miss it. We have enjoyed the church that we have been able to attend for the last two weeks. It is exciting, but frightening. Our team prayed over us today and we packed all of our things away.

Wednesday, September 23: We got on a bus at 7am and headed to Balsas. We spent the day cleaning our apartment and unpacking our things. We spent some time in the evening walking through town.

Thursday, September 24: The apartment has a lot of mold and there is still a lot of cleaning to do today. We ate breakfast at a nice little place and spent some time talking with the owner. Then we went for a walk around town and ended up on a dirt road heading up the mountain. We want to take frequent day hikes up these roads so that we can share with these people as well. We also saw a lot of opportunities where we could help the community through service projects. We would like to do at least one service project a month. In the evening, our neighbor's kids came over and we spent time learning Spanish and we helped them with their English. Sophie had a great time playing with them!

Friday, September 25: We hand washed our clothes for the first time with a bucket and plunger. It was an interesting experience. We also went out at night and talked with some people in the park. We went to the top of our building and could see the whole town from up there.

Saturday, September 26: We went to breakfast at our new friends place. The normal breakfast consist of eggs, rice, and chicken or a sweat treat from one of the Panderias. At breakfast, we get to look out the window and see the chickens playing. We then went on a long walk around the community talking with people and learning all the roads and places in the community.     

Sunday, September 27: No Church to go to and no internet to listen to a church service. Luckily, I downloaded a lot of old sermons from some of my favorite pastors. Today we listened to John Piper. We went down to the market today to buy some fruits and vegetables. Our clothes are almost dry!

Monday, September 28: I had my whole day planned and as I was walking out the door and then the repair man showed up to work on our hot water. It ended up being a great day as I got to spend some quality time with him establishing a new relationship. We still do not have hot water, but do have a new friend. Lacey and Sophie got serious about Home School. It has been inconsistent at times due to the traveling, and moving from place to place. We cooked our first big meal at this apartment: rice, garbanzo beans(chick peas), and carrots. We have to soak the beans for 24 hours and then cook them for almost 2 hours.

Tuesday, September 29: We went to Esperanza’s today for breakfast. Then we went to Machala for the day. We cannot buy some of the things that we need here in Balsas so we have to travel for 2 hours to the coast. It is nice and kind of like a vacation. We pass the banana fields on the way.

Great month and we can’t wait to see what God has planned for us this month.

August 2015

• Saturday, August 1: We said our good byes and flew out from Indiana. Our flights were all smooth. We landed in Quito, Ecuador at around 11 pm.

• August 2: We went to a church in Quito and then went out to eat in the mall. We also went to the equator where we learned about some of the differences from being in the northern and southern hemisphere. Our hosts cooked us hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner and we hung out by the fire sharing stories. We could actually see the volcano with snow on top from the top of the Guest House. It would erupt for the first time in years 2 weeks later!

• August 3: We went to the changing of the guard where every Monday the President of Ecuador comes out and they have a ceremony when the guards change shifts. We flew to Catamayo that evening. We then took an hour long bus ride up to Loja and moved into our new home for the next month. We had a blast listening to all of the sounds through out the night.

• Aguust 4: Our Loja training begins! We spent the day going through an orientation and practicing Spanish by learning a few sentences and then going out to the streets to practice them. Danny and Julie Beasley cooked dinner for us. Julie is an amazing cook! Sophie and I had a great moment playing outside after dinner around a water fountain. 

• August 5 - Starting to feel the weight and challenge of our purpose for being here. I am learning how little we can actually do without God. We also had to shut off 1/2 of our apartment because of a mold issue so we are all sleeping in one room in the basement. It also took a while trying to figure out how to work the shower and the stove. We went out to the streets today to engage some people and practice our Spanish. We also got acquainted with our new pets!

• August 6: We prayed and wrote out our expectations for our year. Although we have many goals and visions, we were careful about making expectations before we arrived here; however, there are a few things that I expect to happen this year. 
• We also went out to this event called Jueves Cultural. It is held in the town square and has live music. Great experience! Sophie met a little boy and he gave her a flower. We also got to practice our Spanish by taking a taxi. 

• August 7: We went to training in the morning and spent the afternoon in the park interacting with people. We got the rest of our bags in and got to cook a meal tonight with our rice cooker. (hotdogs and black beans)

• Saturday, August 8: We went to a teen event at one of the Churches that our mentors from OMS started (Mark and Nubie Vogan). Sophie made a couple new friends. 

• Sunday, August 9: We went to the Sunday Market. It was a great experience. The smell was amazing. We bought a lot of fresh fruit. Then we went to Mark and Nubie’s house church. Once we move out of the city, there will be no churches to go to so we will have to have our own worship time as a family. We had lunch with them afterwards and then went to visited some other places. We got to see some amazing views.

• Tuesday, August 11: I had a great prayer session and read Luke 6. Then we spent time practicing Spanish by engaging people in the market and at the parks. 

• Wednesday, August 12: We ate at a great restaurant. Then we bought a basketball and talked with the salesman. We took a taxi to Jipero park. It is a really nice park in Loja. We started to take a bus home and thought we were getting off near our apartment; however, we soon realized that we were lost. Someone gave us a ride home and we had a chance to share with them.  

• Thursday, August 13: Sophie and I hung out in the morning after our Bible time. We had a great father/daughter time. I have been able to watch the Highlands prayer service. It has been helpful. I made a list of everything that we want to pray for. We also pick a few specific people to pray for each day. 

• Friday, August 14: Our trip to the jungle was canceled due to rock slides and protests. We decided to stay with our friends in Catayamo which is about an hour away from Loja. Lacey and Sophie got to go swimming and Sophie made a new friend (Cookie).

• Saturday, August 15: We headed to Chuargapumba to visit. It was a 2 hour bus ride from Catayamo. It was a great experience as we walked through the small town praying and talking to some of the locals. 
• The ride home was interesting. There was no room on the bus to Loja, so we decided to hitch hike. All 8 of piled up in a tiny truck weaving in and out of traffic going around steep cliffs. That same day a bus that we could have rode in was in a head on collision and fell of the side of a mountain.

• Sunday, August 16: This was our first official off day and we enjoyed it hanging out as a family. We also found a cool new playground right by the river. All the playgrounds have an out door gym. We did our weekly family prayer and debrief. 

• Monday, August 17: It was a long day of learning about Catholicism in Ecuador.  

• Tuesday, August 18: Sophie and I played with the kids in the neighborhood. She is a little timid to play with others because she can't understand them. The language has been a bit of an adjustment.

• A lot of our plans are being canceled or are in limbo due to all of the things that are going on here:
• The roads are closed off to most areas due to the volcano erupting last week.
• The protests that are going on which is leading to a lot of violence are happening in areas where we were supposed to go for ministry. One of the Pastors that OMS works with was also put in jail. 
• .
• There have also been a lot of mud-slides and we can't get to certain areas. 

• Wednesday, August 19: We walked around the city looking at all of Catholic churches.  Lacey went out to eat with her mentor (Andie Williamson)

• Thursday, August 20: I did a prayer walk through out the city. Lacey and Sophie went to the zoo and then learned how to cook Ecuadorian food. 

• Friday, August 21: I went on a day hike with the others from OMS. It was a five hour hike. We started out at about 9,000 feet and reached the top at 11,000 feet. I was amazed at the change in temperature! It was freezing at the top and the wind gusts were about 40 - 50 miles per hour.

• Saturday, August 22: We went to Vilcabamba today. It is a hippy tourist town about 45 minutes from Loja. We then went to the park and I got to play basketball with some guys. I had a great time bonding with them and hope to see them again.

• Sunday, August 23: We went to Chaguarpamba to research some places to live there and talk with the community

• Monday, August 24: We are focusing on priorities this morning (check our priority blog) and want to make sure that we do not loose focus of our priorities. We want to be careful in making sure that our #1 priority is God and then our family and then ministry. 

• Tuesday, August 25: We got to go out into the community and do intentional evangelism. Lacey had a great experience sharing with a store owner. I had an opportunity to share with a guy in the park. He was strong in his Catholic beliefs and we talked for over an hour. He wants to meet and talk more.  
  
  
  
• Saturday, August 29: We got up early and took a bus to Balsas. This is the town that we will be living in. We spent a few hours walking around the town talking to people and praying. We looked at an apartment and it was in our budget so we are praying that we can get it.

• Sunday, August 30: We stayed the night in a hotel and headed to Machala in the morning to work on our visas.  Machala is on the coast so we got to go to the beach. We also got to eat at a Carl’s Junior (Hardees). It was the first burger I have had since we been down here.

• Monday, August 31:We made some progress on our visas and headed back to Loja.