Friends Every Day

It happened often, and it happened everywhere. Maybe it happened when we met you.

Stephen would approach someone and ask, “Do you want to be our friend every day?”

It happened to the little boy and girl at the restaurant. It happened to my co-workers at the Testing Services Branch. It happened often at church. It happened at Life Challenge and school and Music Therapy. It happened in Washington and Phoenix, and in 2008, it happened in Ecuador. He would get you and us and bring us together for this urgent conversation. Maybe we were needed to confirm it, maybe to help you understand because you may have been a little confused about what he was asking. Probably we needed to be part of the commitment he wanted.

“Do you want to be our friend every day? My name is Stephen.”

If you looked puzzled, we might interject, “He just wants to be your friend.”

You would be so good and say, “Of course, Stephen, I’ll be your friend.”

Then Stephen would turn to us and exclaim, “They are going to be our friends every day!” He might grab you by the hand or arm or give you an enthusiastic hug, and then turn again to us and say, “They are going to be our friends every day!”

“Every day?”

We might not meet again for days or months or years, but we were friends forever, always, “Every day!”

In the evening, at prayer time Stephen’s turn was always the longest. He prayed for so many. “Let Pam have a good night’s sleep. Let Dad have a good night’s sleep. Let Jeffrey have a good night’s sleep. (He married my friend Kristen, but he’s still part of our family too.) And let Jeffrey’s kids have a good night sleep...and...my cousins (Some of them married, and I have more cousins.)...and...the men who worked on our house...and...my little boy friend and my little girl friend...and...my friend Bobbi...and...my friends Jeremy and Ryan...and...Susie and Marcia...”

When Stephen prayed for someone to “have a good night’s sleep,” I believe he meant something like this: “Lord, lift my friends’ cares and burdens and through Your grace give them the peace that will let them rest.”

When Stephen saw you again, he would grab you or us and bring us together and declare, “This is our friend. He is going to be our friend every day!”

“Yes, Stephen.”

“This is our friend. She is going to be our friend every day!”

“Yes, Stephen.”

“These are our friends. They are going to be our friends every day!”

“Yes, Stephen.”

That renewed covenant was enacted over and over again at Life Challenge, church, Young Life, the mall, family reunions, campmeeting, and General Assemblies.

You were such good friends.

Sunday night after prayers and kisses and hugs, Stephen was tucked in and went to sleep. In the night he met his oldest friend face to face. I can only imagine him running up to us now holding that friend by His hand.

“This is our best friend, Jesus! He’s going to be our friend every day!”

This memory of Stephen was written by his father and was read at his funeral, February 1 2010 in Tempe, Arizona.

The Blessings

[For those who do not read Spanish and those who can and were wondering what we had intended to write, here is the same posting in English.]

"God bless you," Christians have told us. God has blessed us. We have come to know special people in Ecuador.

Our teacher, Adriana, has been patient with us. She was always friendly and ready to help. She is very sharp. She has been a blessing.

Kim has been a faithful adviser. All the help she has given us has been excellent. She has been a blessing.

Lucy and Solomon have worked conscientiously every day. They have been blessings.

Dwight and Carolina and Jon and Shirley have looked for ways to help us. They have been blessings.

The Hall family has always been in action. God has used them for a blessing.

The opportunity to see the Church in Ecuador has been a blessing. God is working in his people. The Church is working in this place.

God has blessed us.

Las Bendiciones

“Dios te bendiga,” los Cristianos nos han dicho. Dios nos ha bendecido. Nosotros hemos conocido la gente especial en Ecuador.

La profesora Adriana ha estado paciente con nosotros. Ella siempre ha estado amable y lista a ayudarnos. Ella es muy lista. Ella ha sido una bendición.

Kim ha sido una consejera fiel. Toda la ayuda de ella ha estado excelente. Ella ha sido una bendición.

Lucy y Salomón han trabajado concienzudamente todos los días. Ellos han sido unos bendiciones.

Dwight y Carolina y Jon y Shirley han buscado caminos para ayudarnos. Ellos han sido unos bendiciones.

La familia Hall siempre ha estado en acción. Dios ha usado ellos para una bendición.

La oportunidad de ver la Iglesia en Ecuador ha sido una bendición. Dios está trabajando en su gente. La Iglesia está trabajando en este lugar.

Dios nos ha bendecido.

La Selva

We have been on a six-day trip to the eastern part of Ecuador. It is part of the upper reaches of the Amazon River basin. We stayed in the town of Shell near Puyo at the hostel near the Church of the Nazarene. It is being run by the pastor's wife and another young couple. It was clean and neat, but has just recently been taken over by the church. It needs some work. We did some painting and cleaned the exterior wood with Diesel fuel to protect it from termites.

On Tuesday, we took a long hike into the forest to see a waterfall and some of the group went swimming in the pool at the base of the waterfall. Stephen enjoyed sitting in the water and throwing rocks. It was a difficult hike, but we had great guides who helped Stephen navigate the steep sections in the trail. After the hike, they served us lunch of fresh fish. It was excellent. After lunch, we had a short ride down the river in dugout canoes. I was so tired that I could hardly sit on the stool to eat my hamburger that night. I lay down for a hour or so before taking my shower. That night, I slept very well.

Wednesday, we were flown over to the Huaorani Indian village for the morning. They had a short service with a few songs and a testimony from one of the tribe members who was part of the party that killed the five missionary men in 1956. He spoke in Huaorani which was then translated into Spanish and finally into English. We had prayer together and then walked over to a structure which was covered with palm leaves. There were tables on each side and and open area in the middle. Some of the Indians did a dance for about ten minutes. It was fun to watch them as they sang and danced almost like a train circling through the large shelter and out into the open.

If you don't know the story, try to find the movie "End of the Spear" or read the wikipedia articles on "Operation Auca."

We flew back to Shell in time for lunch and then went up river for the white water rafting. At the last minute, I decided that I was not comfortable to take Stephen in the raft, so he and I stayed with Lucy and one of the guides. Dave did go and had a great time. Everyone was soaked to the bone and exhausted.

This morning, the wife of a current Mission Aviation Fellowship pilot gave us a look inside the house of Nate Saint, the missionary pilot who was killed in 1956. The house was also a guest house for visiting missionaries and was used as a sort of hospital to care for sick and injured tribal members, so it is quite large. It is riddled with termites, so we did not walk around inside very far, but did see the kitchen and radio room. It is right across the street from the airport.

On our way back to Quito, at another spectacular waterfall, we took an open cable car ride across the river. This time, Dave watched. It was quite thrilling, and Stephen's hat blew off. It was good that Lucy caught it.

We arrived home a little before 5:00 and everyone was very tired. I still need to do some work on my journal for Monday. I don't want to put it off because we may be spending a lot of time in the office.

We wanted to get this posted tonight. We'll try to fill in more details soon. Look for pictures on Flickr also.

Santo Domingo

I skipped class today and went with a couple of the leaders from the office here over the western ridge of the Andes to Santo Domingo de los Colorados. They were buying land for a new church that is ready for its own permanent building. We also visited our campground there.

Santo Domingo is only 100 Km (62 miles) from Quito, but it is a 3-hour drive each way. Quito is at about 9400 ft above sea level. The pass through the mountains is at about 11,000 ft., and Santo Domingo is at about 2500 ft. It was a spectacular drive that took us from eucalyptus and agave to high forest and down to banana trees, gardenias and guava. Most of my pictures are video taken from inside the pickup, but I'll post what I can on Flickr. To get a sense of the trip, look at Google maps terrain map of the area just south and west of Quito.

The mountains are similar to those on the wet sides of the Hawaiian Islands: lush and green with sheer cliffs and tall waterfalls. The river in the canyon that the road follows is white with rapids.

A New Adventure

The 1000 Car Man is Stephen. His parents, Pamela and Dave, are with him on a new adventure for all of them in Quito, Ecuador for nine weeks. Stephen only brought about 50 of his favorite Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars with him. They packed nicely in the new red nylon bag with his initials on it. That was a retirement gift to him from Dave’s office. The customs agent at the airport here wanted a look at them when it went through the X-ray machine.

We’re new to keeping a Web log, but we want you to share in this adventure. We’ve sent some of this to some friends who we had e-mail addresses for. We hope those folks don’t mind if we share it with you too.

La Basilica

It has been too long since we wrote everyone. Perhaps we will find time to set up a weblog (blog). Until then, we will try to get out the occasional e-mail update to everyone. We are posting pictures to Flickr. If you are not registered to see all of them (many more than you wanted to see), send us a quick e-mail, and we will send you an invitation with the link.

We are adjusting to many changes. For one thing, milk comes in rectangular cartons that do not require refrigeration until they are opened. They are the same as the chicken stock cartons sold in the United States. We eat most of our meals in the comedor with the other students so we do not keep as much food on hand in the apartment. Since we have limited shelf space, we store even the unopened cartons in the refrigerator.

Friday, the 24th, we took our first exam. It was muy dificil (very difficult). We were surprised by what it covered. We will need to study differently, so we hope to make some changes before the next exam.

That evening, Pam was invited to attend a women’s Bible study with two missionaries and two other volunteers. They met at the home of the missionary who lives at the work and witness volunteer center. The study is Believing God, by Beth Moore. Pam thinks it is the same one she was not able to complete a year or more ago. It is great to know that God gives second chances.

Saturday, October 25, we went with a carload of Americans to the Mitad del Mundo. It is the monument that was built on the equator. A few years ago, they discovered with GPS that it is not really on the equator, so they built a museum in the proper place. We will be going there again with our NILI group this Sunday afternoon.

One morning, we ran out of propane in the middle of Pam’s shower. The hot water is on-demand and when the propane is gone, the water goes cold almost immediately. Fortunately, we were able to get a replacement tank the same morning.

One evening, Dave and I were studying irregular verbs for our exam. In the early evening, the NILI resident student director took us, along with the other NILI students, to the mall. As we walked around we saw a sign that said “15% DESCONTAR” (15% discount). One of the verbs on our list was contar (to count), so that was helpful. While we were waiting for the others at the van, we started working on the verbs. When we came to pedir (pronounced pay-deer), which means “ask for,” the idea came to us that we ask (or rather tell) each other to “Pay, Dear” at the restaurant. If only we could do that for all the verbs, it would help us remember.

Wednesday, October 29, we went to la Basilica de Voto Nacional with the six NILI students, Dr. Stan Hall, his assistant with the NILI program Lucy, Stephen’s aide Harrison, and Evelyn the Spanish professor. Justin, one of the students, is blind; so he and Evelyn waited in the coffee shop on about the seventh floor and Dave and Stephen waited below after walking up to the gift shop, which is the fifth or sixth floor.

[Pam continues the adventure.] The rest of us climbed up the lowest turret. To get there we had to cross above the ceiling of the sanctuary from the towers to the turret. To get across, we walked on a boardwalk about three feet wide with ropes along each side. When we reached the end, we climbed a ladder which took us out of the attic. We walked around the turret and climbed two ladders to the flat area of the turret. We had a short wall around us, but the area above was open. The view was awesome. When we came back to the gift shop, I decided to not try the higher towers. I was afraid it would be too hard on my knees, so I went down to stay with David and Stephen.

Check out the pictures. The views of Quito are unbelievable. Obviously, Pam took the pictures from the pinnacle, and Dave took the angles from the ground. We even took pictures of each other. It took Dave a couple days to get over the vertigo of just climbing to the gift shop.

On Thursday, we celebrated the Day of the Dead (actually November 2). We made a colada morada with pineapple, blueberries, guava, oranges and several spices. It is very thick and rich. We also made bread people with cheese filling and then dipped the baked bread into the juice. Rico is the only word for it.

After chapel on Friday, we headed north out of Quito for Otavalo for the weekend. We will write about that weekend next.

We are making progress. We are trying to talk with others in Spanish whenever we can. Everybody is very patient and probably somewhat amused. In class Dave had to describe a picture of a barber. We had just learned the verb cortar (to cut) and had been reviewing the names of the parts of the body. So Dave confidently recited, ‘Manuel está cortando el cuello del señor.” Unfortunately, el cuello is the neck, el cabello is the hair. We are certainly glad that we will not receive a grade.

Either the weather has improved or we are adjusting. When we woke up one morning, we were actually hot. There are almost always clouds, but one day last week began absolutely clear like an Arizona morning. That afternoon was like a partly cloudy, somewhat windy Prescott fall day. Today, we could see the top of the mountain above the cloud. What a beautiful sight.

Until next time,

Dave, Pamela & Stephen