Las Nubes (The Clouds)

June 20th

Chacauco, Ecuador

What an incredible day! Mountain climbing, 4x4 racing, rest, and a meeting with a couple I’ll never forget. With all of the first week M-Fuge campers leaving last night or early this morning, a few of us decided to use our free time in the morning climbing to the top of the peak across the river. It was my second time climbing since I’ve been here, but the first time to the very top peak. Accompanied by Pastor Angel, his daughter Angelica, and my roommate Dennis, we started the rugged climb up early in the morning. Heavy rain over night and the mist at the base of the mountain proved to make things a bit more slippery starting out. About half way up the mountain, we noticed that we were in the clouds. We couldn’t even see the camp that was just a few hundred feet below us on the other side of the river. And then came the rain. A downpour to be exact that soaked every inch of us and we made the final push for the top. On the way down, we started to feel the chill of the Andean Mountain air, enhanced with our soaked clothing. Thank goodness for hot showers.
After our morning climb and breakfast, we worked around camp cleaning the dorms in preparation for the next group arriving tomorrow morning. While cleaning, we ran into one of Steve’s two engineers on camp, Guiyermo. It was my first time to meet Guiyermo and an interesting guy he is. He spends his free time racing off-road 4x4 vehicles (think extreme Mudding on a course) with his club here in the province of Tungurahua. So after our work was done in the morning, Dennis, Guiyermo, one of the full-time Ecuadorian employees, and I set out for Mocha, a town about 45 minutes away from the camp to try out a new course they were creating for a race Sunday. When we arrived, we watched the course being built by a huge bulldozer that was moving around tons of farmland. Of course being the manly men we are, we couldn’t just stand and watch the whole time so we hopped inside our Nissan Patrol and took a few laps around the course’s many hairpin turns and jumps. The trip ended up being a great way to get to know a little about Guiyermo and a great break from the work we were doing here at the camp.
Although the first half of the day proved to be very exciting and fun, the highlight of my day came when we made a visit to a remote community tonight with Pastor Angel. Located right on the base of the Volcano Tungurahua, the small outpost village of Chacauco (no relation to Camp Chacauco) stands in large part abandoned by the eruption two year ago. It’s an hour drive from the camp to get there and what a trip it is. On the way, we passed through the thickest fog I’ve ever seen. When it got so thick that we could only see 5 feet in front of the truck while we traveled on the dirt roads on the side of the mountain, Pastor Angel remarked, “Oh don’t worry Andrew, we’re men of faith.” Men of faith we were (Angel, Dennis, and I made the trip) or half crazy. Anyways, we arrived in the quiet village of Chacauco at about 8pm. Except for a few light poles, it was pitch black dark and you could hear a very soft, constant noise from the volcano spitting ash into the atmosphere. We ended up visiting with an older couple whose names were Salbado and Olga. Their story absolutely blew me away.
They are the ONLY Christians in the small village of about 20 people. Chacauco used to be the home to about 20-30 families before the eruption two years ago, but now many families and all of the young people have moved away to safer villages. But for Salbado and Olga, this is home. I’ve seen poverty here in the mountains of Ecuador, but this was a level I’d never seen before. They relied on their crops to survive and didn’t have a means of transportation outside of the village besides walking (the next village was a 15 minute drive away). They had no church to attend, but relied on God to sustain and feed them from His word. They choose to proclaim the name of Christ and I was blown away by how much they had studied God’s word. Their testimony was unbelievable as well. They became Christians two years ago, right after the eruption when two American college students traveled by bus from the U.S. to help with disaster relief and to preach the Good News of Christ. Pastor Angel read out of Psalms and answered a few questions they had. And then we prayed, five people from about as different backgrounds as you can get, huddled together, unified by our common belief and faith in Christ praying in two languages to the Lord Almighty.
That hour visit will be forever ingrained in my mind. It hindsight, it brought to mind the scripture about preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth, not just where there’s easy access or where it’s convenient. It served as another example that God sustains his people. It was encouraging reminder of how much work there still is left to do. It was a clear reminder of the Lord’s work here in Ecuador.