Up to the snow line

After hiking the first day, we spent the night in tents.  The following morning we continued hiking up to the snowline.  At around 14,500 feet we made it to the snow line.  What fun to watch the kids play in the snow.  Most had never seen snow before.

Hiking up to "El Altar"

Last Thursday I left with a group of 25 youth to hike up the extinct volcano "El Altar".  Here are some pictures of the hike up.  It was over about a 5 hour hike.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 28th Birthday Justo!

Thank you for being that older brother... 

...to give counsel

...to lead the way

...to teach us about computers

...to encourage us in our spiritual walk

...to be that example of obedience for the rest of us

...to be that helping hand when things need to get done

...giving us a great example of waiting on the Lord!

For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, 

Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. 

Is. 64:4

May the Lord bless you as you continue to serve Him in Ecuador!

Adventures...

Lord willing we leave for a hike to El Altar tomorrow morning at 4:00am. We plan to travel about 8 hours in bus and then hike another 4 hrs. part way up the mountain. There we will spend the night in tents and climb up to the snowline (hopefully) the following day. We plan to return on Saturday. A total of 30 people are going on the trip. Most of us are youth, and then there are a few other adults coming along. Please pray that the Lord would use this time to touch the hearts of the youth. Most of the youth are believers, but many are very influenced by the world.

On Saturday instead of heading back to Cuenca with the rest of the group, I'm planning on heading to the jungle for a week to spend some time with some missionary friends. Please pray for safety for each of these adventures. Please pray also that the Lord would use me to share Jesus in each opportunity that arises.

Plant experiments

On Friday I did some plant related experiments with Josue.  We experimented with the three basic fertilizer ingredients.  Another experiment was to see what would happen if seeds had light coming from below instead of from above.  The third was to see what would happen if seeds were flipped every 5 minutes.  Here are a few pictures of the experiments.

Donut making

Last Thursday I went over to one of the homeschool family's house to have cooking class. I made donuts together with the whole family.

Minga

"Minga" is the Spanish word for work-be, and that is what we had with the church youth on Saturday.  The leadership of the youthgroup at Paz de Dios have two main focuses for activities with the youth.  They will either do mingas or challenging hikes.  Both have the purpose to challenge the youth physically, and then there is always a Bible study to challenge them spiritually as well. 

 

Last Saturday happened to be a minga.  We all met at the church at 8:00am and arrived back at 6:00pm.  Because of the long day planned, we didn't expect a large group, but were pleasantly surprised when almost 20 youth showed up.

 

With the youth, we drove an hour to the land of one of the members of the church.  There we worked together all day to build a barb wire fence.  On the way home, we stopped for ice-cream.  Here are some pictures from the day.