Sunday

Today I went to preach at a small church outside the city of Cuenca.  I preached on 1Cor 10.  It was a blessing to fellowship with the congregation.  Here is a picture of the church in Paute along with Pastor Gonzalo, his brother, and sister-in-law.

Birthday Season

It seems to be birthday season down here.  It was my birthday, Peter's birthday and other people from the church.  We had a few combined parties this past week.  Here are some pictures of the celebrations, including some pictures of the Ecuadorian classic of having your face pushed into the cake. :-)

Bros on the Beach

It felt like we had just been to the jungle, but it worked out this last weekend to go to the beach with Peter.  It was his first time to swim in the ocean.  We had a very enjoyable time together.  Here are some pictures from the time.

Unphotographed Days

Have you ever realized how many days never get photographed?  I mean, the camera comes out for birthdays, vacations, weddings, etc. but 99% of the time, it is left on the shelf.  I realized the other day that is often what happens with my ministry here in Ecuador.  All the adventures and trips get photographed, but the real ministry is left undocumented.  The one-on-one times during the week and the small-group Bible studies is where the most important ministry takes place.  It feels so ordinary and unexciting that I rarely think of photographing it, but it is probably one of the most important parts of my ministry down here.

 

If it would have been a trip to the jungle or something, I would have probably included 25 pictures with this post, but you'll have to be content with one.  Here is a shot of the men's cell group (Bible study) last night.  They are a special group of guys with a hunger and desire to grow in the Lord. 

A youth hike

On Saturday the youth from the church went on a hike in the mountains.  We began hiking up the mountain at 1:30pm and returned at 6:00pm.  We basically hiked up, enjoyed the view, and hiked back down the same path.  The scenery was breathtaking and unfortunately, the pictures just can't capture it all. 

 

Overall, the whole outing was very encouraging.  Many of the youth brought along friends, and we had a group of about 35 youth and 5 adults.  Besides being a good time of fellowship, the purpose of the hike is also to physically challenge the youth.  We hiked for about 2 hrs straight up... at an altitude of 10k-11k feet to boot.  Needless to say, we all were huffing and puffing at the end of the 2 hrs. when we got to a grassy peak.  Here we sang some praise choruses and Pastor Santiago shared a challenging message with the youth. 

 

The youth are all in different stages of maturity spiritually, but it's encouraging to see how many of them are growing.  There is an obvious hunger for things for things of the Lord.  There are few things I find more enjoyable than this sort of activity with the youth. Sometimes I'm encouraging them to keep going and make it to the top of the mountain, and other times we're teasing each other.  Over the last year-and-a-half, I've grown close to many of them.  We sure have a lot of fun together. 

R&R in the Jungle

This past weekend Peter, German and I went with Gonzalo Morocho and his family to the jungle. Gonzalo is the pastor of a small Lutheran church in the city of Paute. He and his family had never been to the jungle before. We had such a neat time of fellowship, and enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

We went to a zoo, walked 3 hrs through the jungle, and spent a lot of time swimming in the rivers. The most difficult part of the trip was that their car broke down on the way home.



My family back in WI had their own adventure this past weekend. It's quite a contrast to the jungle, but it looks like just as fun!  Here are some of their pictures.



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Jungle Flowers

Every time I go to the jungle, I see new more varieties of flowers and plants.  Here are some of the specimens I found this time.

Jungle Fruit

One of the highlights for me of being in the jungle is the exotic fruit.  This time the zapotes and caymitos were in season.  Zapotes are a brown fruit that are just a little larger than a softball.   Inside they have about 5 large seeds and are bright orange.  They taste a little like a mango, but are not quite as juicy.  Zapotes are fairly common in the markets, but I had never harvested them before.  What fun to climb up the tree to look for ripe ones.  It was loaded!

 

The caymitos are even more exotic.  I've hardly ever seen them even here in Cuenca.  They are the size of a small orange, and yellow/green.  Inside they have one black seed with white flesh that has a mellow, very sweet flavor.  The best part of this fruit is 10 minutes after you finish eating it.  Your lips start to stick together.  It's a very strong glue that sticks to your lips and will not wash off with water.  You can either wait it out or rub it off with oil/lard.  We brought home a whole bag of caymitos and I took some to the youth Bible study today.  Hardly any of the youth had ever tasted one before.  It was so much fun to watch their expressions as they began to notice their lips stick together.  We all had a good laugh.  What amazing creativity our Lord has!