Estoy en Guayaquil

Well I made it to Ecuador...and I´ll praise God even for that. My first two rides to the airport didn´t pan out so last minute Mandy (Ross´s sister) took me in right before they had to go the opposite direction to Kenai. Talk about being a selfless and me learning how to accept and ask for help. So then on the 7 hour layover in Houston I was walking through the airport to kill time and on the other side there was my friend Daniel and his parents. They were on their way back from Quito, Ecuador where Daniel had just gotten released from the hospital. He´s got a little more time in American hospitals, check out Ross´s page www.rossbaldwin.blogspot.com if you want to hear the whole incredible story! Their flight got canceled so I got to spend even more time with them. I´m sorry he couldn´t finish the trip sooner, but was extremely happy to see him and pray with him and his parents. It was nice to have them wish me a good trip too, there´s been so many people who can´t believe I´m still going (OR HERE!!)

Of course my flight got delayed too but Ross, Roberto´s cousin, and a bunch of other people who I don´t know how are related were still there to pick me up. Thankfully Ross did the translating, after 30 hours of traveling I was fried. We spent the night at Roberto´s aunt and uncle´s house (WOW is the city loud-I´m not used to that) And this morning while being fed breakfast I listened to Ross explain in awesome Spanish how rich or poor in God´s eyes we were all equal. And how God listens to our heart. He told be about the Basillica church in Quito how the rich are up front because they are closer to God and the poor and indigenous people are in back since they are farther from God. Ross may have been sad by it, I´m just appalled but that´s the judgement thing I´ll have to work on. Ross has a connection at a children´s home I may go help at...not sure but we´ll most likely be on a bus tonight. A good parallel of how we need to rely on God is revealing itself to me practically now as I´m feeling completely out of place and having to rely on other people´s hospitality that I don´t know, humility in asking them to repeat stuff, and overwhelmed by Ross´s patience with me! I´m sure in a couple days I´ll be more accustomed, but I won´t forget the feeling of not being independent and will be able to apply it to my walk with God better than ever.

And for those who knew I was trying to get land...after being turned down for loan after loan, one company finally gave me some money at an extremely good interest rate. The catch was it had to arrive before I left for Ecuador or I lost the interest rate. Well it made it in Saturday´s mail and as I was frantically trying to transfer funds the company offer me even more which is now enough to cover the lot. (Providing it doesn´t sell before I get back) I´ve determined our God is a God who loves pushing deadlines! Halleluia!!