par·a·dox  \ˈper-ə-ˌdäks, ˈpa-rə-\ noun

: something (such as a situation) that is made up of two opposite things and that seems impossible but is actually true or possible

: a statement that seems to say two opposite things but that may be true

-This trip was so short and yet so long at the same time.

-It seems like we have been here for a very long time, yet it feels like we just left home.

-Lote Tres seems a world away, but the relationships make it feel so close.

-It usually takes awhile to get to know strangers, but our hearts are overflowing with love for them after only a week.

-Our last day in Lote Tres was joyful, yet sad at the same time.

-The men, women, and children were very similar to our culture, yet so different.

Last breakfast at Pastor Jose's home

Saw the peak of Cayambe Mountain on our last day

Last time up the slope to the church

Daniela, Mary and Mandy - Our MERGE staff/interpreters

Pastor's wives

Women of Lote Tres giving gifts to our team

Melissa and her prayer partner, Cynthia

Our group singing Revelation Song and Jesus Loves the Little Children

Special songs by the women of Lote Tres

The whole group

Nillele (nigh-ellie)

Krista and Maria Lucia

Angie and her prayer partner, Maria Hortensia

Lanny and Rolando (from FACE)

Pastor Todd and Pastor Segundo

Looking down from the dome balcony of Pastor Jose's church

Trying cuy (guinea pig)

Layover in Atlanta (most of us had coffee...)

 The final church service of our time in Lote Tres was full of songs, prayers and words of thanks from many people. We sang Revelation Song, as well as Jesus Loves the Little Children. The Revelation Song required a little improvisation, since some of the notes in the music weren’t on the keyboard, since it was a smaller keyboard. Pastor Segundo had a good message from Genesis, where an angel of the Lord stopped Hagar when she was running away from Sarai, and asked “Where are you coming from?” and “Where are you going?” God’s Word tells us where we came from and where we are going.

The women of the church sang a couple songs for us, then invited the women of our team up to the stage, and sang an additional song for us.  The tears started at that point. Our team and the women of the church had tears; tears of joy, tears of sadness for missing newly-made friends, and tears of gratefulness to God for bringing us together.

After the women sang a special song to the women on our team, they presented each of us with a gift, sometimes two. There were a few special gifts for specific members of our team from the children. There was a special presentation of gifts to Krista from her prayer partner from two years ago, Maria Lucia. She even managed to finish the scarf that Krista and she had started on knitting day yesterday, and presented it to her as a gift. There was a presentation of pastoral books to Pastor Segundo by Pastor Todd, then a presentation of Sunday School supplies to the two leaders of the Sunday School program. Then there were more words of thanks and two prayers; one by Pastor Segundo and one by Pastor Todd. When the service was done, there were hugs and tears, and lots of photos! Un photo, por favor! Uno mas, por favor! They wanted more pictures with one of us, several of us, one with their families, one with their child, and more. Most of our camera batteries died during this time.

Once we were done, we went down to our meeting room at the church to eat lunch. They had prepared a special meal for us: regular potatoes, small potatoes, corn, fava beans, passion fruit juice, cheese, and cuy. We all got to try cuy (guinea pig). After the meal and clean up, it was time to say our good byes.

Since it was raining, all the men, women and children were standing under the eave of the church to stay dry. We each passed around saying goodbye to all the men, women and children that we are now bonded to for life. It was almost a good thing that there was rain, since if it was nicer out, the good-byes would have been longer and harder. There were several children who had a hard time leaving Nikki and Danielle, as they had grown very close to them all week. Back on the bus, we all exhaled, knowing that this was an encounter with the Lord Himself, through the people of Lote Tres.

The rest of Sunday was spent learning about the Santiago Partnership that includes FACE, the Delp’s and Pastor Jose and his church. They are opening a medical clinic, a foster home for at-risk children, with the intent to work with the families to reunite them. The supper was at the home for youth, and we had trout, potatoes, and tomato and onion salad. There were presentation of gifts from their side to us, and from our side to them, and so many words of thanks and blessing from one side to another.

The trip back to Pastor Jose’s home was short, and we only had 30 minutes to load up the bus for the last time, for the ride to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Pastor Jose and his family, as well as Mary, who lives in Cayambe, and would be staying there while we went to the airport.

There were more goodbyes at the airport, as we said farewell to Daniela, our other beloved interpreter, and Mandy and Ricardo, our trip coordinators. We have so much love in our heart for these MERGE staff members who became part of our family for the week, and have been blessed by their friendship. They worked so hard to make sure this mission experience was well coordinated, safe, and fun.

The plane to Atlanta departed at 12:40am, some of the team was able to sleep, we had a short layover in Atlanta before boarding the last leg of our journey to Minneapolis at 8:30am. There was lots of excitement when we returned to husbands, children, and other family members at the church parking lot about 11:30am. This trip has surely bonded us with the shared experiences, godly encounters and tears. Praise be to God for his marvelous work! God provided for our safety throughout the trip, and we were privileged to be able to witness his work in and through us, with our partnership and friendships with the people of Lote Tres, and the others we met while in Ecuador.

We hope to see you in 2018!

Our trip in numbers…

Toothbrushes lost by getting dipped the local water: 4

Grams of Nutella eaten this week: 750

Jugs of water used: 24

Times the toilet paper had to be dug out of the toilet: 8

Kilometers driven up and down the mountain to Lote Tres this week: 424

Check under bags on the way to Ecuador: 28

Check under bags on the way back: 20

Scoops of ice cream: 113 (most popular flavors: coconut, mora, maracuya)

Boxes of Ecuadorian tea purchased: 14

Pairs of boots purchased: 5

Scarves purchased: 58

Jim’s hijas (“daughters”) at the market: 6

Puzzle pieces put together: 1000

New fruits tried: 9 (papaya, mango, rhambudan, red and yellow passion fruit, dragon fruit, ovillas, sapodilla, tree tomato juice)

Yards of sand hauled: 12

Number served at the community movie: 53 adults, 50 children

Females on the team: 9

Males on the team: 5

MERGE staff: 5

Rice Krispie boxes used: 9

Bags of marshmallows used: 8

Pounds of butter used: 5

Pads given out to girls and women: 1800

ONE big God!

Quotable quotes:

“Donde esta Nikki? (Where is Nikki?)”   -   “Aqui estoy! (Here I am!)”

Countoff on the bus – “Uno, dos, tres, … ,once (11), doce (12), trece (13)… AND Lanny!

“If you don’t hear the melody, don’t sing.”

“If it stops tasting good, stop eating it.”

“Simeon, you can eat only one more fish head.”

Puzzlers up early to work on the puzzle

The Ecuadorian women were teaching us to knit!

Making cheese with Vehilio and Juan Ramone

Little children making hand tracings and signing their name in Angie's book

Bringing the benches back up to the church

Making popcorn....lots of popcorn! (Canguil in Espanol)

Enjoying the popcorn

Full house for the showing of War Room

Jim made a friend!

All the children that captured our hearts...

Today we were able to sleep in an extra hour! The puzzle that was started last night, was still on the table, and the puzzle team started working on it before breakfast. They were relegated to the puzzle section of the table for breakfast.

After breakfast, we had a devotion by Danielle. Though the devotion was only two verses, it was packed with lots of strength – Phil 4:7-8. We discussed how, if we fill up our minds with things that are right, noble, pure, excellent and praiseworthy, there would be no room in our brains for the enemy to take a foothold with anxiety, sin or unkind thoughts. Being intentional about focusing on the good things in life will help us to guard our heart and mind.

After the devotional, we climbed on the bus and headed for the mountain for the second to the last time. As soon as we arrived and said our greetings, we set up for the cheese-making and Sunday School training. The rest of the team helped to put the benches back in the church and clean them for the movie in the afternoon.

Towards the end of the Sunday School presentation, the Ecuadorian ladies sat down with the ladies of our team to teach them how to knit. Some were faster learners than others, and some had their stitches pulled out when they made a mistake. What a feeling of joy in that room! They were such good teachers, and we learned so much from them, not  only about knitting, but also about life as a woman in Ecuador.

Once lunch was ready, we had to put our knitting away. The lunch was a delicious combination of chicken, sausage, rice, vegetables and potatoes. They also served us pineapple juice. We have really enjoyed the food made by the Lote Tres women and have told them so on many different occasions. We have been fed so well this trip!

After lunch, we had to hurry to clean  up, in order to set up for the movie, pop popcorn and pour small glasses of soda. Everyone ate the popcorn and pop on the church patio, since we didn’t want to get the new cement floor in the church dirty! Some children threw their pop or popcorn away, and said they didn’t get any! We knew better!

The projector hooked up with the laptop just great, and the audio worked perfectly! The movie started a little after 3, and the people that came really seemed to enjoy it. We showed the movie War Room in Spanish with English subtitles. About halfway through the movie, we started to become concerned about the battery life on the laptop. It did end up showing us a 10% battery warning about ¾ of the way through the film, and we were ready to switch out the extension cord for a surge protector, After a minute getting it back to Spanish audio and the right scene, we were back up and running!

We had laid out the prizes on a table in the back of the church to give out. We drew names from the names collected at the door, and handed out lots of prizes – leftover compasses, calendars, hats, and bags for women. Every child 2-12 got a pen, and every adult received a prize. We said our good-byes, and headed for the bus, since it was already 5:45 and getting dark, and it wasn’t very safe to travel down the mountain in the dark.

We arrived back in Cayambe and some of the group were dropped off at Pastor Jose’s home about 6:45pm, and they prepared supper. The rest took one final field trip to the grocery store for regional treats that we can only find in Ecuador, like lime Doritos, passion fruit lollipops, and manzanilla tea, among other things.

We ate supper and the “puzzlers” continued their puzzle, once we were done. We had homemade guacamole one last time, with the lime Doritos we bought at the store.

Closing debrief with MERGE was our evening team meeting, after the dishes were done. Mandy talked about MERGE and our continued partnership, similarities and differences between cultures, frustrations.

What did we see, hear, or do that will impact our life:

-Comforts in the United States that they

-Faith is stronger here, because they have to rely on God

-Persecution not that long ago

-Not holding a grudge against community from past hurts

-Church service on Thursday night - We are the light of the world!

-7-year old drummer at Lote Tres Church

-Not have to say stuff all the time, just to be there and sit in silence

-Not knowing what they were thinking or talking about, especially about us

-There are faster ways to do things, but they have found good, sustainable ways to do things

-Continued relationships, pick up on conversations right where you left off, like you never left

-We are so joyful and refreshed from not watching news, or being constantly connected to technology (well....some of us)

Words used to describe the trip:

amazing

grateful

intense

funny

emotional

unique

awesome

blessed

reinvigorating

fun

growing

rewarding

thankful

interesting

tiring

beautiful

inspiring

eye-opening

refreshing

family

overflowing

humbling

joyful

breathtaking (sometimes literally)

change

respect

eternal

laughter

friendship

As we prepare for our last day in Lote Tres, I don’t think we could have expected or imagined the personal encounters and connections we have all made. Whether it be a connection with a single person that lasted all week, or small connections with many people throughout our time here. There have been many children that have stolen our hearts (as well as some drinks from our water bottles!), and some rich conversations with other men and women that we never would have been prepared for, no matter  how far ahead of time we had team meetings. As many of us are preparing to leave tomorrow night, we think of our families, responsibilities, and jobs back home, and might be starting to get anxious about it, especially potential reverse culture shock, which Mandy explained might happen. We were reminded in yesterday morning’s devotional not to be anxious, but to pray. I believe that this experience will color all of our lives going forward, and we will have no choice but to live differently because of it.