Pictures of a school day

Morning view from our classroom window

                        Sometimes when life becomes routine, 
                            God sends me something special. 
                          Sometimes he sends them in three's.

This past week our school has been blessed to have a young couple from New Zealand visiting in Loja. Kevin Archer was kind enough to teach our students how to play rugby the past two weeks for PE. 

     
       Our students learned what Red Herrings are in Logic Class

And had a good time working on Pacific Island drawings and soap carvings

             John Micheal posing for a Pacific Island Totem ?

Thoughts on Green Trash

While preparing dinner Terry came in and told me about something that had just happened as he put the green trash out. Green trash is food garbage that is picked up every other evening. We normally don’t have much as I usually just put it into the black trash. Tonight we had a lot because several of us had lunch together and we had a wonderful time fellowshipping and sharing. There were a lot of scraps, mostly rice. 

Terry told me he had met a sweet older lady with a small grandchild outside the door as he was going out to run an errand. He greeted her and she in turn greeted him. He watched as she and the little girl opened the green trash bin. As he was telling me this my heart hurt, as did his. “Did she take anything out?” He said, “I couldn't look.”

This could be a story of poverty, which it is. But as I was finishing up our meal, I thought of the spiritual poverty of people all around us. We say hello and greet each other without knowing the needs they have. People are searching for spiritual nourishment while we as Christians sit at a banquet in our Bible studies and churches and don’t even share the scraps.

New Boot

A First

Terry and I took off for a few days of rest and relaxation with Rebecca and her family to the city of Cuenca. I was looking forward to purchasing some cookware and other things to set up our apartment, and to enjoy the city.

 That evening I was working on the computer in bed and decided to turn off the light. My foot had fallen asleep and I thought it would wake up as I stepped onto the floor. Guess what? When your foot falls asleep it doesn't wake up when you step on it.  In fact it acts as if you have no foot at all.  The computer had sucked all the life from it.  I fell and heard some really bad crunchy noises. It was one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up " scenes.

 Terry helped me back to bed and the rest of the night neither of us got any sleep. I was in pain and knew I was heading to the ER but wanted to wait until the morning. All night between the pain, I was putting sentences together in Spanish, so that I would be able to tell the doctors what I had done. Pain and Spanish words go together really well for me.

I was able to experience ER in another country for the first time. I will have to say it was one of the best ER visits I have had.  As soon as I hobbled in they took me to x-ray. I was then taken to a little room. No reading my pulse to see if I was alive. No temperature taking, to see if I had a temp. and no 100 questions about my past medical history. I was handed the x-ray and they asked me if I was allergic to anything. I told them no. Thankfully, Becca my interpreter was with me and she was able to answer any questions that I didn’t understand. She and Terry left me to get the prescription and to pay for the visit. My interpreter comes and says “Wow that was expensive” I started to panic. I was thinking oh no, four or five hundred dollars just because a computer sucked the life out of my foot.  Becca looks at me and says, it was fifty-five dollars. 

As we are leaving they call Terry back. He has to go pay the rest of the bill. The bill for the ER, the bill that had been paid was for the x-ray. So in he goes as I am sitting in the lobby thinking oh no it really is going to cost us. The payment for ER was twenty-seven dollars. About an hour after I had arrived I was on my way back to the guest house.

For the next few days I really did relax and rest. I got my cookware and a new boot. I always wanted boots. I am thankful that it is just one boot though.