Quito

I wanted to share some of the pictures from when we were in Quito when we first arrived here.  It was two days after the earthquake when I took these shots of this city.  Apparently there was no damage in the city of Quito itself but the small town where the quake hit was a different story. 

This day was a fairly clear one and we went into the old city area of town.  We toured the cathedral there and got some great shots of the area around us.  We are indebted to Rick and Rebekah navigated the bus and walking routes.  Without them, our day would have been far less successful or enjoyable.  Below is Doug with backpack under his jacket mimicking the hunchback of Notre Dame. 

We went inside the church and climbed upstairs to the loft.  This is the view when looking out from that spot.  This church reminded me of the many churches I toured while in Europe.  It is the largest neo-Gothic basilica in the New World.  A very impressive structure indeed.

Then we began to climb the stairs inside the church and when we looked out the window we saw the gargoyles which were mounted on the side of the exterior walls>  If you look closely you'll notice the native Ecuadorian birds coming out of each of the columns.  This is what makes the basilica so unique to Ecuador. 

As we climbed even higher we saw more and more of the city.  It was such a lovely view and yet this is just a very small section of the city--it's very spread out .  As you can tell, we're fairly high up in the steeple at this point.  Once we finally descended we walked in the interior of the roof to make our way to the other steeple as shown in the picture below.  It was fairly nerve-wrecking to climb so high up using the tiniest of stairs.  We were all glad when we took our pictures and headed back down.

It's now taking 15 minutes to download a single picture so I'll end here to continue later.  Blessings and thanks for reading, kim

 

Learning to navigate a harder course

Last year our learning curve was all about moving to
   a very small town
      on the verge of the jungle
         in a Spanish-speaking
            third world nation
               living as missionaries.
Whew!  It was a challenge to say the least.  Every day was an adventure--or at least had the potential to be.  Some days produced five inches of rain, or ash from volcanoes, or snakes slithering across our floor, or four mile walks just getting from place to place throughout the day, or children crying because they'd been excluded by others, or poor sleep because the Ecuadorian method of playing music usually includes ALL of the airwaves in and around Shell.

These aforementioned things are still present--as are many, many others--but they have become just part of the experience.  They add to the interest, the adventure, the great stories that we can share.  I think that now at the beginning of our second these things don't bother us as much, and I may even go so far as to say that we've been blessed with hours of sunshine, a quiet volcano, no snakes in the house, bicycles which help with the travel, more inclusiveness by those around us, and we now have earplugs! 

Therefore, life is good.  Yet, I will tell you that our learning curve this year is centered around the departure every morning now of ALL Thompsons.  Not one of us stays home; we all leave.  This has not been the case in eleven years.  I've remained home to either care for newborns and/or homeschool children all throughout the past decade.  Staying home never meant relaxation since there was always tons to do, but staying home did mean that someone was managing the affairs of the house daily and could at least attend to home matters.  If anyone was sick, there was already someone home to care for them.  If repair service had to be done on anything in and around the house, we knew we could manage the appointment.  We were able to shop and cook and clean and do schoolwork all throughout the day so our lives were more fluid and flexible.  Now we have to relegate all of those things to the hours outside of school hours AND we have to get the things we can't done at school done at home too.  AHHHH!

So, I'm already overwhelmed and grateful for weekends! For those of you who have to live your lives like this and have done so for years, please feel free to forward via blog or email those ideas that make a difference in your lives.  Thus far I'm thinking
   crockpot
   early bedtimes for the whole house
   chore chart posted for all to see
   setting clothes out the night before
   choosing a menu for the week
   kids taking turns fixing dinner (with me alongside them)
   vitamins!

This year will be a new adventure.  I hope to keep up and keep smiling in the process.
Thanks for reading.
Blessings, kim

Back in the Jungle

It has been three months to the day since I last wrote something for the blog.  I'm a bit rusty with my writing skills so I hope this re-remembering process is not a long one for all of our sakes. 

Thanks so much for checking in with us here on the verge of the jungle.  It's nice to be back in Shell--so many really wonderful things have taken place to enable us to be here.  Things like sufficient funding, being able to arrive into the Quito airport hours after an earthquake hit the city, ease at the government office--twice!, running into three different sets of friends while in Quito, making it to Shell in record time, and three families blessing us with gifts of food or assistance within our first hours back have all blessed us immeasurably as we transition once again into the life of a foreigner and missionary. 

God has been looking out for us in many obvious ways.  The best story thus far though has been something that Doug experienced firsthand.  You see, when we left from the US Doug had to withdraw some money so that we could have cash on hand for our first month here in Ecuador.  Credit cards are not widely accepted, especially in Shell, so we really needed a good deal of money to keep us afloat for the first weeks after our return.  We needed approximately $600 in cash for our first 72 hours in the country to pay for various things (our ride from the airport to the guesthouse, our stay at the guesthouse until our visas were registered, our registration of the visas with the government,  our transportation to Shell--five hours away, and all the food that we would buy in Quito at the larger grocery store which we'd take with us to stock our shelves at home).  We brought just over double that amount in large bills so that the stack would not be too bulky as Doug carried it in his wallet. 

Well, when we arrived into Quito we quickly remembered that businesses here frown on the payment of accounts with the use of any bill larger than a $20.  Too many counterfeits make for hesitant transactions between parties.  So, Doug knew that he needed to exchange our larger bills for much smaller ones--especially before we got to Shell because in that town no one ever seems to have change for the smallest of bills, much less a 50 or 100 dollar bill.  They simply would not do business with us if we showed up at the store with such cash. 

So, Doug walked to the Reach Beyond business office last Friday morning with the hopes of converting his large bills into much smaller ones.  While walking he talked to the Lord about his hopes for favor with the office and his ability to communicate well in spite of his limited Spanish speaking skills.  While he walked, he encountered a couple of ladies that reported that the office was closing momentarily because Friday was a special day and many would be attending an event elsewhere.  That got Doug to speed up his step so that he could make it to the cashier's office in time. 

Sadly, Doug arrived a hair too late; the cashier had already closed up shop. 

God's good though and even works out the smallest of things. 

Doug next encountered a man (the Director of Reach Beyond in our region of the world) who he had just met the day before who asked if he needed any assistance.  Doug told him his predicament with the large bills.  Dan, the man in charge and our new acquaintance, said that he had just received a large stack of bills which he was eager to change into larger denominations because they would be easier to carry.   Ah, so they were each the answer to one another's trouble.  Doug needed small bills; Dan needed larger bills.  But, do you want to know the crazy part?  They had exactly the same amount of money that needed to be changed.  Both men needed to change $1300.  Isn't that interesting? 

So, we're hoping to be in for many more God stories this year. 
BTW, school starts tomorrow.  : )
Thanks for reading,
Blessings,
kim