Sunday: Arriving in Esmeraldas
(Dearest readers and followers of this blog, I would like to preface this post by telling you that today we drove a very uneventful seven and a half hours from Quito to Esmeraldas today…)Beep……………….Beep……………Beep…………Beep……..Beep…..Beep, Beep……Beep, Beep….... Beep, Beep…….. Beep, Bee-CLICK!The lovely sound of David’s alarm clock was the sound that was first heard in our room of four boys this morning. (Me, Daniel Fox, David, and Tim) I lay they for a while meditating on getting up and what that would feel like. I finally arose, skipped a shower and went straight to the breakfast table. Breakfast was… well…. what we always have for breakfast (egg-something and bread). After a short meeting we hit the road. Our first stop was the “equator.” (I say “equator” because it the place we went and took pictures was not actually the real equator. The real equator is actually about 40 minutes away. Smooth, ay? But we did actually cross the equator later in the day.)After a ridiculous amount of pictures we moved on to more important things such as driving… driving…. Driving…. And driving…. Driving….. driving…. and TIRE CHANGE….. Driving… Driving….. Driving….. and LUNCH….. driving…. Driving…… driving…… and SINGING….. driving…. Driving….. driving…. And BRIAN REGAN (a comedian)…. Driving… Driving…. Driving…. And GAS STATION…. Driving….. Driv-(You get the point).Finally we reached Esmeraldas. We checked into our luxurious half-size rooms and then piled back into the bus to go eat dinner. We pulled up to the school. As we walked through the gate we were shocked and amazed by the amount of people that had shown up to this so called “dinner.” It ended up being more of an evening show then a dinner! First off on the agenda was the rain… Yes, Rain and lots of it. We had to dry off all of the seats before we sat on them. (Did I mention that the dinner was outside?) However rain or shine... the evening still went on! There was singing, dancing, and speeches from the Ecuadorians to give us the, hands down, best welcome to any city, country, or event that I think I have ever had! To add to that was the food that followed! (I have been sick for the past week and have not been able to eat food of any kind, however I ate THREE PLATES of food tonight!) Needless to say, the food…. WAS AMAZING!It was so refreshing to see all the familiar faces that we left behind last year! The care that these people had for both God and us was evident in every little detail that they put into this fabulous dinner, from the flower arrangements, to the program, even to the gifts that they gave us! I am so excited and anxious to see what God is going to do through these amazing people and churches over the next week!John