Nothing better than a good book with Peaches

Sometimes missionaries have to go home and when they do they have to leave some beloved things behind. This last week I saw an ad in the Cuenca classifieds about a home-school family leaving for the states. They had books that needed a good home. I contacted them and found that they were a family that I had spoken to on facebook but had never met  in person. Rebecca, Janeen  and I headed out to Cuenca the next morning. After a four hours drive that was made shorter by good fellowship, we met up with the family. If you are a lover of books or an educator, you know how hard it is to leave your books behind. The next best thing is to find them a good, loving home. I don´t think the books could have found a better home than our MK school. What a blessing they are going to be.

Sometimes when you have to leave a country and go home your children leave behind memories, friends and pets. The memories you can keep but the friends and pets have to stay. Peaches the hamster was not going to be able to make the trip back to the states and needed some loving students to care for her and of course at the end of the school year you always need a class pet. We packed the books and other miscellaneous stuff into the car. It was packed to the roof. Peaches had to sit next to me and I fell for her. We stopped at McDonalds for some fries, a once a year thing sometimes. The fries were really bad but Peaches loved them.

She is now very happy at her new home at the Loja Study Center. The children read to her, play with her and sometimes let her sleep. Thank you Savage Family for blessing us with your books and for Peaches.

A little sweat is good for the soul

Last month Nolan, and I traveled to Macará to visit with a couple of fellow missionaries, Willy and Teresa. Macará is about 5 or 60 hours away from Loja. That all depends on the bus, taxi or donkey that you use for transportation. We chose a bus that should have taken five hours. We didn't know that if the bus driver is hungry then he can decide to  pull over and have an hour break. We arrived seven hours later but the drive was worth it.

We were able to see a part of Ecuador that we hadn't seen before and I found that I could go without a bathroom for that amount of time. I will say that the winding roads and pot holes didn't help the last two hours. Yes, the bus did have a bathroom but I didn't want to walk all the way from the front of the bus to the back and find the door locked and than have to ask the driver for the key. Yes, I could have gotten off the bus during the unscheduled break for the driver to eat, but I was scared I would go into the bathroom and find the bus had left. It was a silly idea because Nolan would not have let the bus leave without me. I just have to learn to get over the "I can make it till we get there" train of thought, especially if three hours is my limit and I am already two hours over the limit. Enough of bathroom talk.

We were able to visit with Willy and Teresa and see the ministry they have near the border of Ecuador and Peru.It was a wonderful time of fellowship and hearing about the work they are doing. Nolan preached to the small congregation there in Spanish. We traveled a little ways into Peru and visited a small village and to a house church that Willy works with.The winding trip to a house church was interesting. Every twist and turn had pigs, goats, cows, dogs, horses or donkeys  waiting for us in the middle of the road The huge pot holes kept us from going too fast so we were able to spot most of the creatures before we collided with them. The roads reminded me of a slinky and with all the animals I felt like I was in some kind of video game. About a hour and half later we arrived at the small town of Zapatillo. 

We met in a small room with a large window. The sun was beating down on us and as I was sitting there listening to several people telling about what God was doing in their lives I was sweating and noticed that if I rubbed my arm little rolls of dirt would come off.  I couldn't help it I kept rubbing and rubbing. It 's like when you have a sunburn and you can't stop peeling the skin off. I was amazed how much dirt was on me. Here I am sitting in a small town in Ecuador listening to people share about Jesus and I am rubbing dirt off of my arm that I thought was clean.

If the sun hadn't been so hot I would not have been sweating and would not have noticed how dirty I really was. Sometimes I need the Son to shine on me and make me sweat, to see my hidden sin, ask for forgiveness and get clean again.