Hermanos

June 25th

Artezon, Ecuador

With our seventh day in Artezon, blessings were abundant from God. I had often wondered if anyone really noticed what we were doing in the small community the past few days. After all, the road going through the village and by the school isn’t the most traveled road. If you Google Artezon, Ecuador, you’re not probably going to find much. But today, God put to rest some of those doubting thoughts.

On our way up to the village (which part of it is featured in the video below of me driving up one of the more treacherous parts), we saw the entire village out on the side of the road digging a ditch. The city of Artezon had just received new water pipes from the government, but it’s up to the village to dig the ditch and install them. So on our trek to the schoolhouse, we waved and said, “Buenos dias” to about two hundred people. If one didn’t know what we were doing in their town, they soon knew because eleven gringos don’t just visit Ecuadorian villages for nothing. On my way back down the mountain to pick up the kids from Gamboa, a man stopped me in the road and wanted to talk. After conversing about five minutes, I learned that he was a Christian too and lived in Artezon. His kind words about our work took me a little off guard because this village was almost all Catholic. In fact, several years ago, Brother Steve, the full-time missionary here, had a near death experience here with a crowd of drunk village leaders who carried him to his truck and told him to never come back or they’d kill him. However, God works in His own way and in His own time and this year, the village leaders of Artezon and Gamboa asked Steve to hold Bible Schools and worksites in their communities. What a reversal in attitude in just a year or two.

Following the conversation, I drove off and returned with the kids. Vacation Bible School ran extremely smoothly today as the kids really enjoyed playing with the parachute that we brought. Our group continued to paint around the school and on its walls until we were ready to go back down to the camp for supper time. It was then that I saw this man again. With a red sweatshirt and baseball cap, he introduced himself as Milton Rodriguez. He wanted to see what we had painted and went out of his way to walk up the side of a mountain just to meet us. His story was incredible. He’s one of about twenty Christians in Artezon (there are about three hundred families in the community) and attends church in Pelileo. He said life is tough, but God blesses him and brought about the beautiful day we enjoyed today. He became a Christian about seven years ago, but commented that finding other believers has been a little tough. More than anything though, you couldn’t miss the life in this man. You could tell that he was different, set apart from the other villagers. The joy in his expressions and speech was undeniable.

People are realizing what God is doing in Artezon and Gamboa. If this man saw it, I’m sure that the others saw what we were doing just as well.

When we got back to camp, our group translator and one of my friends, Ricardo, asked me if I’d drive to his house so that we could show Doug and Janice Limbaugh their house and orchard. Doug and Janice have really been an asset to the camp during the past three weeks, helping to prepare the dorms and cabins and take care of a lot details. They leave with the M-Fuge students tomorrow night. I had time to spare and wanted to see Ricardo’s family again, so I didn’t mind driving them at all. After a lot longer tour of the many plants, fruits, and trees he has on his several acres, he took us inside to have some fresh coffee that his mother in-law had just ground up that day from the beans of his trees. As I sipped that amazing coffee, he said something that I think will always stick with me. “Thanks for coming, we don’t have very much, but we’re glad you’re here. I’m a simple man, I don’t need very much. God always gives me what I need anyways.” What a humble, honest, cut-to-the-truth testimony of this man.

Life isn’t easy here in Ecuador, but the people seem to be happier. Humility is ever-present here and people learn to rely on God to provide for their needs. I’ve noticed that many Christians refer to each other down here as ‘hermano’ (brother). Fitting, since we’re all brothers in Christ, helping and assisting each other in God’s work.