Wiring

June 30th

Patate, Ecuador

The bright sunshine crept over the ridges of the Andes Mountains to bring about another day. It was our first day of Bible School in downtown Patate, where we hosted around 60 kids. What a change from last week when we had nearly 100 kids on our hands and I was in charge of making sure things ran smoothly at our site. It was different today, with the entire camp staff and Brother Steve in charge of everything. In fact, it through me for a loop trying to figure out exactly where I was needed since we had so many helpers at the site. Bible School ran flawlessly though and I learned a few things from Steve and the others to make the transitions in Bible School go more fluidly.

Afterwards, we returned from Patate to work in the Coliseo (Coliseum) at the camp, finishing out several of the upper rooms on the second floor. A big part of my work today was learning how to wire a room, and wire I did. A little frustrating at first, but I soon grasped the concept of wiring those little boxes, and attaching covers to them.

At dinner tonight, we talked about a wiring of a different kind, of human wiring. Part of being in another country is learning their culture, customs, language, and jokes. Each culture has its’ own slang, metaphors, and phrases that don’t exactly translate into other cultures. For example, Brother Steve talked about the difference between pescadoes and pecados (fish and sins). One time early in his time here in Ecuador, he got those two words mixed up and ended up giving a sermon about how we have these ‘large fishes’ in our lives and how we need to get rid of our ‘fish habits.’ Countless other stories followed describing hilarious mix-ups and getting lost in the translation of the two languages.

It’s all about our wiring. A room doesn’t light up without proper wiring and our life can’t be a light without proper wiring as well. Sometimes we have to adjust our wiring to fit situations, such as being in another culture, but if we have the right hardware and know the Electrician, then adjustments are that much easier.