Hydroelectric Plant

On Friday I was able to go with a group of high-schoolers from the Bilingue to visit a hydroelectric plant.  It was neat experience.  The plant provides almost 50% of the electric power for the country.  If you can't see the slideshow above, you can try clicking the link here.

Nabon

It was good having Jessica visit with Patricia.  I didn't get all the pictures posted from the time.  Here are a few from our visit to Nabon.

Pastor Santiago's Birthday

Pastor Santiago celebrated his 50th birthday this year. His family planned a surprise birthday for him last Saturday. It was a touching time and a tribute to his ministry and his Lord.

More camp details...

This past Thur. we went on a retreat to the jungle.  I organized it mostly for the youth who come to the Monday cell group.  They are a mature group and growing in the Lord.   The goal was to have time to encourage them to continue growing in the Lord.  Pastor Santiago came along as well as Jessica and Patricia who have been here visiting the last 2 weeks. 

 

We left the bus terminal in Cuenca at 2:30pm on Thur. and made our way to the jungle.  A good half of the trip was along curvy, one-lane roads that wound there way up the mountains and then down to the jungle.  The travel was slow, but the scenery was breath-taking.  Partway along the way the bus had a flat, so it was after 10:00pm when we finally arrived at the camp.

 

The camp is right off the main road, but has very distinct jungle flora.  There giant trees tower overhead and a person can swing on the vines hanging from the trees.  Impatients grow by themselves under the trees and are over 2 ft. tall.  Besides large plants, there are large insects as well.  We caught a moth and a butterfly with wingspands in the range of 4 inches and a huge katydid that was about their size as well.  I am continually amazed by the beauty in the jungle.

 

Friday morning we had papaya, bananas, granola and yogurt for breakfast. Then we had a time of singing and began the teaching time.  I lead the teaching and had made booklets for each attending.  The focus of the teaching was on yielding rights and anger resolution.  My goal was to keep it as practical as possible.  We had some good conversations about music, friends, etc.

 

For lunch the director of the camp took us to a river to eat.  We threw a grill, and all the food in the back of a small truck and everyone climbed in.  The river was only about 10 min from the camp and had a nice beach.  We went swimming for a short time while they prepared the grilled chicken, potatoes, and cooked vegetables.  On the opposite side of the river the water was deep and there were cliffs.  We spent most of our time jumping off the rocks into the river.  The highest leaps were probably about 15 ft.

 

On returning to the camp, we went to the yucca patch to harvest.  We cut down about 6 plants and then pulled up the long, tubular yucca roots.  These were mature plants and some of the roots were over 2 ft. long.  Most of us had never seen how yucca is harvested so it was a good learning experience.

 

After supper we had a time of singing and a bonfire.  The camp made up some bread dough.  We wrapped the dough around sticks and roasted it over the fire.  Interestingly, the firewood was from a cinnamon tree, so every now and then you would get a whiff of cinnamon.  It was a great experience.  That night I got to sleep at around 11:30.

 

Saturday morning after a time praise, and teaching we headed off to a lodge type place.  We paid $2 to get in and then could go boating, swimming and seeing the animals.  There was no one else there, so we had the place to ourselves.  We went boating first, and after an hour or so, the boating turned more into swimming…. in the muddy water.  After that I went to look at the animals.  They mostly had animals that were native to the jungle, and I don't know most of the names in English.  When we were done seeing the animals, we went swimming for a short time in the real (clean) pool.

 

On arriving back to the camp, we ate lunch and caught a 3:30pm bus home.  Thankfully, this bus made better time and we were in Cuenca before 10:00pm.

 

Thank you so much for each who upheld this retreat in prayer.  The Lord gave safety and the youth really were open to the teaching from God's Word.  Please pray that the lessons learned would take root and they would be able to apply them to their every day lives.

Jungle retreat

This past Thur-Sat we went down with a group of youth to the jungle. We had an excellent time together. I taught on yielding rights. In the afternoons, we went swimming in the river, harvesting yucca, and boating. PTL for His protection and open hearts during the retreat.