Put that room back the way I had it!

Hi all, I trust everyone is having a good day today.  It is Sunday afternoon.  This morning's service was preceded by a little bit of a shake up last night.  For once I decided to get to bed early.  So, by ten o'clock I am snuggled up in my flannel sheets with my new "soft" pillow when suddenly there arose such a clatter......

 

Oh wait a minute...that's the wrong story.

 

 

Anyway,... I am comfortably snuggled in my bed then rudely awakened by what feels like a shove.  Why in the world is my husband trying to push me off the bed.  But, guess again, he's not in here.  He's in the office finishing up tommorrow's sermon.

 

What's that,..trying to push me off again!!!!  It's a good thing I'm already laying down.

 

I yell out,..Do you feel that?  He say's  "yep, I sure do" as he watches his desk do a little tap dance.

 

That's the strongest tremor I've felt yet.  The people in the condos feel them the most I think.  I sure hope this building is constructed right!  My thoughts at the moment were..Hum,...maybe we should look for a house to rent......

 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

On a different note... this morning's service we had all English speaking or those who understood English people in the building.  My husband was able to preach in English without any translation. 

It was a nice break for us, and singing songs in English was a break for me.

 

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

I never got around to finishing the story about the trip to Suscal.
Or maybe I never even started it. 

Here it is...

 

My husband mentioned that he'd like to visit Suscal since some of the young men in the church call it their hometown. Jose offered to go there with us and take us to his home so we can talk to his family, pray for his mom and meet the Pastor he knows in that city.  It's an hour and a half trip.  So I make up some breakfast burritos and off we go.

We got there early on a Saturday morning,

and met the Pastor and his wife.

 

These are our new friends, Ignacio and Abelina.

He ministers in Quechua and Spanish since most of the people here speak Quichua. 

 

 

 

 

* * * * * * *

It's a little bit of a climb to get to the young man's house up on the mountain side and I'm somewhat winded by the time we reach it.  Just a few moments before I saw a woman climb it with about 50 lbs of potatoes on her back.  I don't know how they do it, but I do see what the years of carrying a heavy load can do to a body.  Many of the older people walk with their bodies permanently bent forward.
There is no place to leave the truck so we have to park it some ways down the road and hope it's ok.

* * *

 

Now, understand something.  We have been in the country for a year now, and we had so far avoided eating Cuy.  Cuy is Guinea Pig.  When pastor Celaya was here for revival we kept telling him that we were all going to try it together, but it never happened.  Lucky for pastor Celeya, he he....

We had heard different things about it...It's the most delicious delicacy you will ever taste, or some say...yuck,..it's greasy, expensive and not good...

 

When we get to the house we meet a whole lot of family and they hustle to the kitchen to prepare the meal.  After about an hour, they set us down and serve us the almuerso.  First course is the soup...

 

 

I thought those chicken feet were reaching out to grab me to drown me in the soup!!!

This soup consisted of chicken feet, yucca, onions and cilantro...
I think.

I've had something like this before so this wasn't a big surprise.

 

Now for 'el segundo plato'.....

 

 

It happened!  I'm eating a Guinea Pig!

I get a few giggles from some of the ladies as I pick at the little guy. I think they caught on to the scared look in my eyes that I tried so hard to conceal, but to no avail. 
My husband has to help me finish, it's alot of food.

 

Tastes like chicken.

 

 

When lunch is done,

some new people straggle in and we gather together for a message of the gospel and a call for salvation.  Then we lay hands on Jose's mother who has suffered some type of a stroke.

We have some Spanish gospels of John and some CD's of the new testament in Quechua that we give out to everyone afterwards.

 

 

 

We don't know where this journey is leading us, but we are just moving forward as the opportunity is given.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Love the Rain! and Seascape

It's been raining steadily for the past two days, so now we are entering into the rainy season.  The night before last we had a big lighting storm and lost electric power in our section of the city for about and hour and half. We had a wonderful view of the lights in the sky and watched as the city seemed to magically disappear into the night.

It's a beautiful sight to behold a raging river and from our window I can just see the Yanuncay threatening to overflow its banks.
 

Oh, how I love the rain...

Some days when the river is high, fishermen will be seen casting their nets into the water.



It seems that over the last forty years or so, I kept saying "Someday I'm going to get serious about my art." But, that someday never came.  It took leaving the country for me to finally make use of the time to try and let that art come out of me.  This is a first attempt in pastels.  Imagine that.  A piece of chalk.
It practically creates itself.
I know I have a long way to go, but it's a start.

 

 

 

 I get some instruction at a little school close to my house a few hours a week. 

I think now is a good time my let my family know,...
I miss you, and I love you!!!!

And to our friends,..the same.

If ever you're feeling down,..
Remember there is someone thinking of you and praying for you in some far away place.

* * *

 

Afternoon Drive

Once upon day while exploring, we came upon this:

Someone was aspiring to build a castle!  I wonder if it will ever be finished.


I call this picture "Women in the Fields" because it's a picture of....

women in the fields! 

The kids go right along and the babies are tied to their backs with a blanket, always close to mama.

While exploring the neighborhoods surrounding our city, we came upon a little community called Barcelona.  It was so picture perfect with some more 'Faces of Ecuador' to add to my collection.

 

 

This man and his wife so graciously posed for a picture.  We would stayed and visited for a while but it was Sunday afternoon and we had to get back for services. 

 

'FACES of ECUADOR'

 

 

And here is the Misses.  We found her a little further down the road.

 

 

 

Remember that I was telling you that I was amazed at how well the babies balance themselves on their mama's back when she is tying the blanket around them.  Well, Maria gave us a little demonstration after one of the services.  My excuse for the shaky video is that some of us just kept thinking we had to leap to the rescue to catch a falling baby.  Of course we didn't but that's why my camera is all over the place.