'El Pan' January 2014 and Revival

Right at the beginning of the New Year holiday, one of the young ladies from the church, Gabriela,  wanted to show us her home town and asked us to make the trip with her.  I wasn't sure I'd be able to travel because I’d been feeling so poorly but God granted me a really good day.  I had plenty of energy and even climbed up to the summit overlooking the town.

The name of the town is "El Pan" which is literally translated as "The Bread".  I think it would better be interpreted as Bread Basket because it was named when it was a center of commerce for the area.  As it was explained to me, the lands became a victim of politics. It was divided and distributed out to different owners and no longer produces as it did before.

First thing on the agenda was to visit her favorite restaurant where she is good friends with the owners.

 Specialties of the house.

Here we are, Gabriela and little Benjamin and me striking a pose.  He is a happy baby.  We were there for his birth.

After lunch it’s to Grandmother’s house we go!  Her home reminds us of our own grandmother’s homes back in New Mexico.

 

 The oven in the back yard is reminiscent of the ornos here in New Mexico.  Grabriela’s Grandma no longer uses it though.  She had a bad fall some months ago and it is very hard for her to get around.

At this time of year is Carnival.  In Cuenca, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s celebrated with the practice of soaking each other with water.  As we drove along the  narrow streets we are confronted with water balloons, water guns  and men with hoses looking for an open window to claim an unsuspecting victim.

As leave the town, we take some time to climb up to the summit. 

View from the summit.  Can't believe I made it to the top! And it's raining!

Further down the road a backdrop of the valleys, mountains and cattle grazing. 

Downtown in El Pan. Passing by the open restaurants you will find that tortillas are popular.  It is more like a fat pancake, not like the tortillas we would think of in New Mexico.

Cooking Tortillas

Revival meetings for the Church

In March, the church in Chinle, AZ invested in our little city and sent Dan Felix to help us with a revival service.  The church loved him.  He fit right in to the culture and speaks Spanish very well.  

Pastor Rueben from Quevedo and Pastor Anibal from Duran brought his daughter Priscilla and a disciple from his church to help us with outreach. It's a mighty long drive for them.+

Outreach team. Pastor Rueben and Pastor Anibal are first and second from the left under the tree with a young man from their church, in the back row, Priscilla and Liseth sitting in the front. Second row, sorry no name for the young man, Yurak, Marilyn, John & Mike.

Prayer for healing

Altar Calls

We had very good attendance for all the meetings.

  
Dan posing with a black swan.  It's funny, right after this picture, that swan jumped out of that pond and attacked him.  We had a good laugh watching him being chased by the swan.

He really was amazed at our mountains.  
We have to drive through them to get down to the coast.

We took a drive down to the tropics and stopped for some fried plantain with cheese

Hey, did the Blues Brothers come to town?

Argentinian Parrilla

A treat to see these twin alpaca babies along the highway. 

I guess we tired him out!  I told him we had furniture!!!

 Done for this post.
Hasta Luego!  God Bless You

An unexpected turn in the road.

Even though we were so excited to have the opportunity to live and serve in South America, I knew actually leaving my home would be difficult. 


The day that I left the United States to come live in the country of Ecuador, I gazed out the window of the airplane and could see the shore as it met the ocean. The tears flowed as the boundaries of my country faded out of sight, knowing that I wouldn't see it again or my family for at least two years.  Maybe others are much stronger, but it really hit me at that time.

Some weeks later as we were riding around in our little city of Cuenca, Ecuador, I asked my husband, "Do you think that I will miss this place as much as I do home when it is time for us to leave?

He said, Yes, I think you will.

Well, the time to leave came unexpectedly in the month of May, 2014.
                             
                               * * * * * * * *

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans that I have for you, " declares the LORD, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I've decided to share a lot of what is personal because many people ask and many people have lifted me in prayer and continue to do so.  I want them to know how all is going and if any part of this story will help someone else who may be experiencing the same or maybe recognize symptoms. It is important for me to share what I know.  I'm still here, I'm still fighting and God is teaching me so much.  It reminds me of my cousin, Elizabeth,  who also had cancer.  I have never forgotten her saying to me. "You might think I'm crazy to say this, but cancer is the best/worst thing that has happened to me because,   Now I know who God is".



Even when things appear to be hopeless.


                                            There is hope.
 

This unexpected turn in the road for us began in December of 2013. I began to lose the ability to eat.  All you dieters out there might think it mighty convenient, and it was for a little while, but got old very quickly.  I'd start a meal and after a few bites I was full.  Also, it became harder to walk around the city; especially with it's endless stairs and the roller coaster streets.  Even though we had a vehicle and used it most of the time, I tired very easily and chose to just stay home more and more. In my heart, I already knew that I was seriously ill and exactly what it was. 

In January my doctor began to order tests.  It turned out I had parasites and amoeba.  That is not uncommon in Ecuador and treatment is fairly easy, but there was no improvement, so we kept up the testing.  We bounced right along from one specialist to another, sometimes even on the same day.  On a Tuesday in March I had to have an MRI and it revealed my colon was almost completely blocked.  The following day I was in the hospital scheduled for surgery.

The night before the surgery was quite a story all by itself.  My husband had so much to do, just running results back and forth and running me around.  That night as I lay in the bed in preparation for the morning surgery, the surgeon tells us I need four pints of blood.  We knew I would need it, but weren't aware that we would have to supply it ourselves.  He was told to go to the Red Cross. In South America the most common blood type is O positive.  The rarest is A positive.  I needed A positive.  The Red Cross could not supply us with the blood.

God's Provision

Our church stepped up and helped all they could.  They were having a prayer meeting that Wednesday night and God provided all that we needed through his people.  All of them volunteered to give blood.  People got on their cell phones and started asking around.  Six brothers and sisters in the church had A+ but only four were eligible to give, just what the doctor ordered.

The result of the surgery was that a large portion of colon was removed and samples were sent to the country of Peru for the pathology report.  My recovery was very slow and in mid May we met with the oncologist to find out what the next steps would be.  He explained that it had spread to my liver and it was almost completely consumed with tumors.  We knew that it had spread, but not  having met with the oncologist, did not know how bad it really was.

At that moment we made our plans to return home.


The next post I will backtrack and publish more of Living in the Andes in the country of Ecuador for the months of December to March.  

After that,  I will continue to share more of where the road has taken us.  This is the New Journey.