The Amazing Thing About This Trip...

I'm sitting in a church I'm not supposed to be in that's located in a town that I'm not supposed to be in. Maybe I should back up a few hours.

After wandering around Puyo, Ecuador and finding nothing yesterday, we got up this morning and checked our email and ate breakfast. We had read online that there was a Baptist ministry center here, but we couldn't find any contact info. We asked people in restaurants, people in the hotel, and even cab drivers, but no one had even heard of it.

So we headed to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Tena, our next town (where we also didn't have anything lined up). As we entered the bus terminal, I decided that I wanted to go get a water for the trip. One of the weird (and frustrating) things about Central and South America is that every store or market booth has nearly EXACTLY the same thing. One market may be totally different than another, but every booth will have nearly identical items. I really don't get it. If someone would ever catch on that people like variety, they would probably be rich.

I walked down the aisle of 10 identical stores and felt like I should pass by the first two stores. I walked to the third store and got my water (25 cents) and a pack of Tic Tacs (30 cents!) and the guys came over and bought some Cokes. Elias gave one more try asking about the ministry center and it turns out that she's Baptist. We told her what we were doing and she put us in a cab (and paid for it) and sent us to her Pastor's house.

After meeting with the pastor and sharing our mission, he agreed to show us the ministry they're doing in the indigenous areas tomorrow. A church from Canada used to come there and it costs basically $200 for a week of food, lodging, and construction materials in this area to do a mission trip.

Then we asked him if there was anything we could do for their church. I guess that's where I should fill you in on another decision. A few days ago, I decided that I needed to buy some simple electrical tools here. Electrical work is something many people need down here and I have the skills, so I bought 2 full sets of tools for $11 and we came to the church and fixed 10 light fixtures as well as some other little safety things around the church.

I think today has been so indicative of our trip. When we have our radar up and our hearts open, it's been amazing some of the doors that have opened. Oh, and we asked the pastor what we should bring to the village tomorrow. He suggested that we bring some candy. Guess whose store we're going to buy a bunch of candy from?

One last thing...we took the pastor out to lunch. We all got a huge bowl of some sort of delicious pasta soup, grilled chicken, rice, homemade fries, salad, and dessert. The total bill for 5 people...$13.