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- Driving through a plantain plantation
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- A caucho tree yields the raw material for making rubber
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- Some of the group at Armadillo Jump Falls
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- Typical coastal plains house
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- Cocao pod, the raw material of chocolate production
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- The breadfruit tastes better than it looks!
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- Maribel and Amable, our coastal plains guides
Now that I’m in Tennessee and it is really too hot (or humid) to even be outside, I have the opportunity to catch up on my blogging by sharing about the busy month of July. Our friends, the Gooches (Jeff, Belinda, and Zac), actually arrived June 29th to spend eleven days with us. Not only are they close friends, they are former fellow church members and also fellow Global Outreach missionaries to Ecuador, although they have not yet made the move to Ecuador. However, this was not our first time to work together in Ecuador; our families had participated in a short-term mission trip together in 2007.
On July 4th, as most Americans were celebrating Independence Day, we were traveling to the costal plain of Ecuador, along with the Gooches, fellow Global Outreach missionaries Alan and Fabiola Gordon, Pastor Horatio (brother of Fabiola, an Ecuadorian pastor for over 50 years) and his wife, my ministry partner Sixto Salcedo and his wife Elisa, and some of Pastor Horatio’s church members. In just a few hours we descended from the Andes Mountains surrounding Quito at about 9,500 feet to an elevation of less than 400 feet. We traveled through expansive plantations of papaya, plantains, and African palms before arriving at a remote church near the small town of Catorce (literally “fourteen”). We met that afternoon with some pastors and lay leaders from a group of nine independent churches in the area to hear them express the needs of their churches, which were overwhelmingly the need for basic biblical training at all levels.
We spent the night in a hotel in Catorce, which is said to be named after the number of the lot of land on which the town developed. Otherwise, one might think there were fourteen cars, as compared to the hundreds of motorcycles (with only one rider in the entire town wearing a helmet) that created much dust, noise, and chaos in the streets. The next day we were guided by Amable (name means “kind”, and he was) and his half-sister Maribel, as we visited some of the local churches. The church that stands out in my mind was Damasco, or Damascus, a tiny little church located next to two or three houses in a remote area. I found it interesting that according to the signs in place on the walls of the church building, the men sat on one side and the women on the other. I don’t know if the seating arrangement had anything to do with it, but we were told that the congregation consisted of a handful of women, with no men other than the pastor. It was hard to imagine that we were still in Ecuador; it didn’t look like the same country we were acustomed to, living in the mountains. Most houses in the costal plain are built on stilts, not because of flood waters, but for air circulation and to keep the insects (and other critters) out. I was amazed at the abundance of resources in the area. We were told that this was one of the most resource-rich areas of the country, but that it just costs a lot to get everything to market. On the road leading to the Damasco church, we passed acres of papaya and rubber (caucho) trees. We spent an hour or so at the church as a member who lived next door allowed us to sample papaya, sugar cane, cocao, and other fruits picked from the trees and prepared as we watched.
We also visited the beautiful Cascada Salto del Armadillo (Armadillo Jump Waterfall), where we saw a “Jesus Lizard” run across the surface of the water from its sunny perch on a rock to the river shore without sinking. Nearby we saw almond trees and sampled a nasty-looking breadfruit that tasted like a cross between pineapple and peach. It was incredible to see such huge fruits hanging on the trees. The same is true of the mate (not the Brazilian drink), a heavy gourd-like product that can be made into a bowl after drying for about a month.
After a couple of hours of traveling on dusty roads, we crossed a lake on a ferry. The road had been flooded out when a dam was built to create a reservoir. This entire area has an interesting history and unique status. The locals explained to us that they live within an area called La Manga del Cura (The Priest’s Sleeve) which is not officially within any of the provinces of Ecuador, a virtual no-man’s land. We made it home around 8 p.m. after traveling along the dangerous, mudslide-prone route from Santo Domingo to Quito.
Besides our trip to the costal plain, we also enjoyed a journey to Banos and Shell, where we saw the beauty of God’s creation in the mountains and waterfalls. We enjoyed a tour of the Nate Saint house in Shell, a place rich in the missions history of Ecuador.
We also spent several days working at the mission in Guadalupe. It was a great opportunity for the Gooches to get to know the folks there and to fellowship with them. We also enjoyed the several days we were able to spend time with our friends, the Gooches.
