Thank you to all of you who have donated to our trip and/or have been praying diligently for Sheea and I. What a time for God to work in our hearts! Every day we got up at around 6:00-6:30 and ended after 9:30 some time.
Sheea and I got up at 4am on Friday and had an uneventful flight to Miami. There we met Robert & Jennifer, Paul, and Taryn who were also going on the trip with us.
From Miami to Quito, while long, was uneventful save for one large drop while crossing a line of clouds. The Quito airport was very modern and entering the country was equally uneventful. We were met at the airport by our MAF leader, Brian
(right)
Sheea developed a headache on the plane and that morphed into altitude sickness and never went away while at altitude. Feeling sorry for her I developed my own constant headache. Also, remember how a couple posts ago I mentioned that you dehydrate quickly? Well, you do. In fact our first night I felt rather like SpongeBob from his movie, where he gets dried out and shriveled up like a prune. (I have kids, so of course I watch it, err, have seen it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it)
We got to go out to a couple cities north of Quito. We went to the market in Otovalo
(left) and to the town of Cotacachi.
During this trip I got to get to know our driver, Beto, who leads the youth in his church. He has a great sense of humor and kept us very safe on the roads. Quito itself is surprisingly modern with malls, internet cafes and lots of American restaurants (even including Tony Romas).
However, we also learned about CUY (coo-ee), an Ecuadoran delicacy, which tastes kind of like greasy chicken. What is CUY you ask? Why Guinea Pig of course!
(top-right and below)
We went to Atucucho
(right), which was a suburb started by squatters, who just started building on land that no one was using. The suburb is located at about 11,000 feet on what is at least a 45 degree incline. Pam, Brian’s wife, had started Bible classes with the children of Atucucho years ago. That has morphed into a little church in which a majority of the leadership seemed to be very young. The pastor, David, is 24 years old and engaged to a young woman who has an uncommon name for Ecuadorans, “Joy.” In any case David gave a great sermon which was on “God’s will for our lives” based on 1 Thes 5:16-18?
“Always rejoice, constantly pray, in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
We then went to visit a city named “Half the World” as it is on the equator. We visited the equatorial monument and then a museum which claims to be on the ACTUAL equator. One of the experiments they have set up to “prove” it is, is that with patience you can balance an egg on a nail.
(left)
We began our drive down to Shell. The drive is 5 and a half hours by bus. We also stopped at various places on the trip down, the most memorable of which was Bride’s Veil Fall.
(left)
Not only was the fall (right off the road) amazingly beautiful, there was a cable-cart which crossed directly over the fall and stopped with the falls directly below. Sheea
hates heights and yet she really pushed herself and rode across and back. I think the cart has permanent finger imprints on it now, but she managed a smile for the camera.
(right)
* * * * *
On that trip I had the privilege of translating our driver, Beto’s, testimony for the group. He had left home at thirteen and while waiting for a bus a man in a car asked him if he wanted a job, so he said yes, and went with him. All he had to do was carry a locked suitcase across the border and deliver it to a man. Being 13, he didn’t realize what he was doing until sometime after making his first delivery. By that time he was “in” with the drug traffickers and there was no getting “out” so for three years he traveled all over South America. They allowed him to visit his mother who was sick in a hospital but they sent minders with him. He told his brother to move everything they had to another home far away and when that was done he paid off a medic to take he and his mother away in an ambulance, thus escaping his minders. He hid out in his home for six months before daring to set foot outside his home.
Later he married a young lady and got a job as a driver for diplomats. At the time he was also an alcoholic and would frequently not recollect having driven home after a night of drinking. One day another man in a car revved his engine in a challenge to see who could start the fastest from a red light. They took off but the other car slammed on its breaks…he hit a boy who was on a bike.
He picked up the kid and rushed him to the hospital, sure he was going to jail for the rest of his life (and the jails there are horrible). While the doctors were working on the kid he sank to his knees in the waiting room and said, “Jesus, if you are real, save this boy and I will turn over my life to you.”
The doctor then came out and said, “who is responsible for having hit the boy that was brought in?” Beto said, “I am.” The doctor motioned him over and started showing him x-ray after x-ray of the boy’s bones. He said, “This is impossible, but other than a bump on the boy’s head there are no broken bones at all! He’s fine!” So right there Beto collapsed to his knees and gave his life over to Christ.
That night he went home to tell his wife his decision to follow Christ and he told her, “Honey, I’ve got some great news for you! I’ve just made the best decision of my entire life! Today I decided to follow Jesus!” She answered, “Really? That’s great because today I made the same decision!”
Beto now leads the youth at his church and works for MAF, and was our driver for the duration of our stay in Ecuador. He is a joyous man to be around, with a great sense of humor, and we shared many a laugh together.
(right)
We arrived in Shell in the evening, still with no guarantee that we could fly as there was still no word on fuel. We spent one night in a rather run down hostel but were able to move to a nicer one the next day where we stayed for the remainder of our trip.
From my journal –
“Woken up by strange jungle birds I’d never heard before…and roosters. It is cool, almost cold, and very humid.
I had two settings on the shower, scalding and arctic cold and the little gremlin that controlled the settings would randomly change them back and forth. I swear I heard it laughing at me as I tried helplessly to control the temperature with the knobs.”
We toured the MAF hangar but all four planes were gone. They had all flown out to the same strip to collect a team of folks and their gear and return them. However the weather had moved in and they were forced to stay the night in the jungle. We saw a missionary kids playing under the Nate Saint home
(right) (which we got to tour) and it made me think of not only Nate’s kids probably playing in the same place, but also myself as a kid and the possibility of our kids doing similar things.
We also got to tour the Nate Saint memorial school which is a school for missionary kids (now run by HCJB). We met Margie, the director of the school who is a very loving lady, Margie, with a real heart for the education of the children in her care. Her husband, Ron, keeps a handle on all the grounds work that has to happen on the base, both the hangar and the nearby homes for the missionaries. They have been “short term” missionaries … for the last 12 years. They just keep renewing their commitment year to year.
(left)
We also had the privilege of eating at the home of Chad and Andi Irwin, along with their two kids.
(right) It was a great time to be able to see their hearts for ministry and to ask a lot of questions about them and their daily lives, both flying and at home.
The evening of Tuesday a 500 gallon fuel truck arrived, thus allowing us to fly out to the jungle starting Wednesday (three flights total were needed by our team.) Today I also met Kevin (who is the pilot who would ultimately fly Sheea and I and the Pattersons out to Tiwaeno.) It turns out he was in my same graduating class at Moody! What a small world.
We knew we were going to fly, but not who was going to fly, so we all lined up at the cargo scale and weighed in. Guess what…bathroom scales lie! They lie I tell you! Everyone said they weighed about five pounds more than their scale at home indicated! So the previously calculated flights couldn’t be worked out leaving some disappointed people. Brian and Kevin crunched the numbers and those numbers ended up allowing Sheea and I on the first flight along with the Pattersons!
We took off from Shell
(left) and out over the lush jungle. There were so many beautiful views from up there, most of which we will put on our pictures section. However the most amazing picture that Sheea took was this one of the shadow of our plane on a cloud, surrounded entirely by a rainbow! (You can see the jungle below, and NO, this is not photoshopped)
(right)
* * * * *
We overflew Palm Beach, where the five missionaries were martyred on our way out to Tiwaeno.
(left)
The Huaorani at Tiwaeno didn’t know we were coming till they heard the plane’s engine. When they realized we were landing at their strip they came to see who had come and greet us. These two little ones also wanted to see who had arrived.
(right)
We were fortunate that there was a woman there, Menkaye, who spoke both Huaorani and Spanish, so she translated into and from Spanish and I translated into and from English. We visited their church named, “Hope in Christ”
(below left) and while we were seated inside butterflies would fly in and out of the building, there was a constant backdrop of insect noise and the occasional bird call. It was surprisingly beautiful despite the otherwise crude building.
They had an impromptu “service” at which time we exchanged names and met them and the leaders
(right) each in turn greeted us and welcomed us into their village. They sang a couple songs in Huaorani and asked us to sing for them in English. And Dui, one of the Huaorani in the party that killed the missionaries, prayed for us.
We then went to a “traditional Huaorani home” which was made of what appeared to be a type of thatched palm. They demonstrated how to shoot with a twelve foot blowgun and how to throw an almost equally long spear and then we got to try.
I hit the strange green fruit they were using as a blowgun target on the first try! (Because, you know, that’s just the kind of hunter I am :) )
(left)
We found out during our stay that we were being given names based on our characteristics as perceived by the Huaorani - amidst many giggles and hushed talking. It was as if it was a joke on us, but with no ill intent intended what so ever. We found out that my (Tony’s) name was “Wawe” (wah-weh) which means “tall” and Sheea’s was “Wiñaki” (wing-ya-kee) which is the name of a small, blue bird that lives there in the jungle.
Speaking of Sheea and birds the lady at the hostel we stayed most of our time at decided she would name her large parrot after Sheea. So, there is a parrot in Ecuador named Sheea now.
We were able to purchase some of the goods they make to sell before flying back to Shell. I have a short blowgun (12 feet wouldn’t have fit in the airplane) and a small spear as well.
We had SO many experiences and witnessed SO many things while we were on our trip that is it is hard to sum them up. We did work projects on the base grounds, had a potluck with the whole staff, visited an orpanage, got to swim under a waterfall (bad idea) and ate at a lot of different Ecuadoran restaurants.
However, the major thing we took away from this trip was how amazing it was that way out in the unreachable, the wild places of the earth, there are not only people in need, but brothers and sisters in Christ who despite their circumstances are filled with joy by the same Christ who is
our hope and can fill
us with joy regardless of our circumstances.
This picture sums up our experience in the jungle.
(below)
We got up at 3:00am the day of our return trip to the US to be at the airport at 4:00am. After hassles with Ecuadoran police, delays leaving Miami, being stuck on the tarmac after having landed in Dallas for an additional 40 minutes, an additional delay of 30 minutes waiting on luggage and then realizing I had left BOTH my cameras on the plane and it had already left the gate (But God provided an opportunity to witness to a couple while I waited for them to look for AND FIND…AND RETURN! my camera case and cameras) We made it home about 9pm that night.
We have been spending the week absorbing the experience, spending quality time with our kids and resting while at the same time being in constant prayer, reading the Bible and listening to the advice of wise counselors. We want to be sure that our decision to pursue missionary aviation or not is what God wants for us.
Regardless of the outcome, God has used the trip to change our lives for the better.
Thank you ALL for your support, and especially your prayer during this time. We would be happy to talk to you more about the trip by phone, give a presentation on it at your church, or meet with you in person to talk about it. We have lots of video and tons of pictures we are slowly sorting through, editing, etc. Some of those will be uploaded to the site when they are ready.