Ok, so I have been trying to learn to upload videos from our camcorder to the internet. I finally figured out after reading the owners manual, resizing, etc. how to load one onto youtube. I also tried to put that one on this blog too but after watching it upload for an hour and a half, I gave up. My final effort will be to copy and paste it somewhere on this post. So, if any of you computer geeks could give me some advice, I would gladly accept it.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Casa De Fe
On Saturday, we had the opportunity to visit the orphanage in Shell-Casa de Fe. There are about 45 children at this orphanage. When we arrived the older children were headed to the park so we spent our time with the babies and toddlers. It was so sad to listen to the stories of how each of these children were abandoned or abused. There are many special needs children here. These three were having a great time with a few toys on the rug.
I played with these two girls for awhile and then several of the boys.
This little one is only 14 mos old and abandoned by her mom.
I don't know who was more entertained--me or them??!!
How precious are these little ones? I am so thankful that they have a place like this where they are taught about God's love as they heal from their former environments. If you would like more info, check out their website at www.lacasadefe.org
I played with these two girls for awhile and then several of the boys.
This little one is only 14 mos old and abandoned by her mom.
I don't know who was more entertained--me or them??!!
How precious are these little ones? I am so thankful that they have a place like this where they are taught about God's love as they heal from their former environments. If you would like more info, check out their website at www.lacasadefe.org
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Restaurante
Check out the word on this sign-- "Restaurante" --one of my favorite words!!!
This was a really neat restaurant. It was at the top of a big hill with a fabulous view. It had a long walkway down to the actual restaurant. Thad had a good time getting pictures of the girls.
This is Rick and Sharon. They were nice enough to let us stay with them and they were great "tour" guides while in Ecuador. Ricks plane is the one that you saw in all of the previous posts. He and Thad had a great time flying.
Sharon, Thad and Marci waiting on the food. We had rice, meat, red cabbage, some very different type of corn, and fish soup.
And..this is the view from the deck where we ate.
Friday, April 18, 2008
More Ecuador Pictures!
Everyone wants to see the airplane!
Bruce and Thad working on a new engine. Bruce worked everyday on this and had it put on the plane by the time we left.
A house in the Waorani village far into the Amazon.
Heading to the hut to watch the film.
They all wanted their picture made so they could see it in my camera afterwards.
Bruce and Thad working on a new engine. Bruce worked everyday on this and had it put on the plane by the time we left.
A house in the Waorani village far into the Amazon.
Heading to the hut to watch the film.
They all wanted their picture made so they could see it in my camera afterwards.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Our Weekend in Shell
On our very first day, we went to the park in a little town close to Shell. We handed out tracts while our friend, Rick preached in the center of the park. There were some that came closer to listen and some that just kept on their way. This is a church that was right by the park. I thought it was so pretty at night.
This is a picture of the hospital in Shell. This is where we spent our Saturday morning. Thad had a severe case of "Montezuma's Revenge." We were amazed that our grand total for an emergency room visit, lab,and meds was a whopping $18.50. Man, I wish it were that way in the states!
Well, after antibiotics there he felt much better the next day. He is unfortunately sick with it again. He was fine until Saturday. We saw a dr on Sunday and they think it is just a relapse of what he had on our trip. He has been in bed since then and still doesn't feel much better. We are praying that this will pass SOON!!!!
This is a picture of the hospital in Shell. This is where we spent our Saturday morning. Thad had a severe case of "Montezuma's Revenge." We were amazed that our grand total for an emergency room visit, lab,and meds was a whopping $18.50. Man, I wish it were that way in the states!
Well, after antibiotics there he felt much better the next day. He is unfortunately sick with it again. He was fine until Saturday. We saw a dr on Sunday and they think it is just a relapse of what he had on our trip. He has been in bed since then and still doesn't feel much better. We are praying that this will pass SOON!!!!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
A Little History Lesson
Ok, so a little background info for this post. Be patient and read this. I probably should have posted this first to set the background for my stories but here it is anyway.
Compiled by Harold Goerzen, senior editor, HCJB Global
Operation Auca—the vision to introduce the gospel to the once-savage Auca (Waodani) Indians in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest region—brought together five outstanding young missionaries, all at the peak of their careers. Auca is the Quichua word for “savage”; Waodani is the tribe’s own word for “people.” Quichuas are descendants of the Incas.
Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, all in their late 20s and early 30s, were intent on making the first peaceful contact with the then-violent tribe that was infamous for spearing outsiders and their own in an unending cycle of revenge killings.
Saint served in the Air Force during World War II. After the war he enrolled in Wheaton College to prepare for foreign mission work but dropped out to join Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF). With his wife, Marjorie, he established a base at Shell Mera (an abandoned oil exploration camp in Ecuador) in September 1948 and flew short hops to keep missionaries supplied with medicines, mail, etc.
Once his plane crashed, but a few weeks later he returned to work in a cast from his neck to his thighs. He was also a builder and inventor, devising an ingeniously simple back-up fuel system for single-engine planes.
He dropped out of school to serve in Ecuador and work with the jungle Quichuas at Arajuno, a base near Waodani territory. Half a dozen Quichuas had been killed at the base by the Indians in the previous year.
Saint and McCully discovered a Waodani settlement from the air in late September 1955. Later Saint found a settlement that was only a 15-minute flight from their station. They told Elliot and Fleming about their findings, and the four planned their evangelistic strategy which they called “Operation Auca.”
They would keep the project secret from everyone but their wives (to avoid being joined by adventurers and the press) with the chance that someone not dedicated to the mission would start shooting at the first sign of real or imagined danger, and destroy the project.
On Oct. 6, 1955, Saint and McCully made their first of 13 “gift-drops” in Waodani territory. With Saint circling his MAF plane in a tight spiral, McCully used a rope to lower an aluminum kettle as a gift to the ground. It contained 20 brightly colored buttons and rock salt.
The two men would fly over the village nearly every Thursday and used gifts as a means of making contact and establishing a friendly relationship. Soon the Waodani began responding to the gift-drops, tying return gifts onto the rope such as a headband of woven parrot feathers. Once the Indians sent up a live parrot.
After three months of air-to-ground contact during which they made far more progress than they had hoped, the missionaries decided that it was time for one-on-one contact. They feared that they could not keep their activities secret much longer, and that delay risked a hostile encounter between the Waodani and some third party.
They decided that the expedition needed a fifth man, so they brought in Youderian who was accustomed to living with the Shuar and had learned acute survival skills.
On Dec. 3, 1955, Saint found a sandbar which he named “Palm Beach” to serve as a temporary landing strip for his yellow Piper aircraft.
The first landing was made on Palm Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1956. It took five flights to ferry in their supplies and all five missionaries. For three days the missionaries waited for the Waodani to appear. Finally, on Friday, Jan. 6, the first contact was made as three members of the tribe stepped out of the jungle and onto the beach, including an Indian they nicknamed, “George.”
Film footage shows the missionaries and Waodani interacting peacefully. But tribal members became suspicious of the outsiders. “George” lied to the tribe, telling them that the five missionaries were cannibals and they were the ones who had in fact eaten Dayuma, a woman who fled the tribe years earlier when she was a girl, fearful of the constant killings.
“George” lied to deflect attention from the fact that he and one of the young women, “Delilah,” were off in the woods on their own and they weren’t supposed to be. “George” wanted “Delilah” as another wife, but the tribe had already said no.
Three years later when Dayuma returned to the tribe and told them that the five foreigners were not cannibals, the tribe realized that George had lied to them, and they killed him.
At about 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, five of the powerful Waodani warriors speared the five missionaries to death and ransacked the plane on the beach. Although the missionaries had guns and could have defended themselves, they agreed together not to use them against the Indians, even if attacked.
Receiving no radio contact from the missionaries, on Monday Johnny Keenan, Saint’s colleague at MAF, flew over Palm Beach and spotted the damaged plane and several bodies in the river. Two days later a ground party arrived at Palm Beach and found the missionaries’ dead bodies. A memorial service was held in Quito for the five martyrs the following Sunday. Saint was 32, Elliot, 28, Fleming, 27, McCully, 28, and Youderian, 31.
Although the five met a tragic death, their efforts would lead to introduction of the gospel to this once-violent tribe three years later. All five of the Waodani killers became believers, and many of the tribal members now follow Christ. The touching story would also inspire thousands to commit their lives to full-time missionary service, helping spread the gospel to unreached people groups around the world.
Several documentary films have been made throughout the years, including “Through Gates of Splendor” and “Beyond the Gates,” produced by Bearing Fruit Communications. A dramatic motion picture, “End of the Spear,” filmed by Every Tribe Entertainment, will be released in theaters Friday, Jan. 20. A book with the same title was recently authored by Steve Saint, son of pilot Nate Saint.
Sources: Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot; Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer, by Janet and Geoff Benge; obituary.com
We stayed in Shell, Ecuador. The place where all of this took place years ago. This is Nate Saint's house.
This is a replica of Nate Saint's plane. It is in the middle of the park in Shell.
AND.... the Waorani that I spoke of in the previous post, Mincaye, was one of the 5 involved in the spearing. As you saw, he is now a Christian and the leader of the Waorani. An amazing story he has to tell-how a life can be changed by the love of God.
Compiled by Harold Goerzen, senior editor, HCJB Global
Operation Auca—the vision to introduce the gospel to the once-savage Auca (Waodani) Indians in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest region—brought together five outstanding young missionaries, all at the peak of their careers. Auca is the Quichua word for “savage”; Waodani is the tribe’s own word for “people.” Quichuas are descendants of the Incas.
Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed McCully and Roger Youderian, all in their late 20s and early 30s, were intent on making the first peaceful contact with the then-violent tribe that was infamous for spearing outsiders and their own in an unending cycle of revenge killings.
Saint served in the Air Force during World War II. After the war he enrolled in Wheaton College to prepare for foreign mission work but dropped out to join Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF). With his wife, Marjorie, he established a base at Shell Mera (an abandoned oil exploration camp in Ecuador) in September 1948 and flew short hops to keep missionaries supplied with medicines, mail, etc.
Once his plane crashed, but a few weeks later he returned to work in a cast from his neck to his thighs. He was also a builder and inventor, devising an ingeniously simple back-up fuel system for single-engine planes.
He dropped out of school to serve in Ecuador and work with the jungle Quichuas at Arajuno, a base near Waodani territory. Half a dozen Quichuas had been killed at the base by the Indians in the previous year.
Saint and McCully discovered a Waodani settlement from the air in late September 1955. Later Saint found a settlement that was only a 15-minute flight from their station. They told Elliot and Fleming about their findings, and the four planned their evangelistic strategy which they called “Operation Auca.”
They would keep the project secret from everyone but their wives (to avoid being joined by adventurers and the press) with the chance that someone not dedicated to the mission would start shooting at the first sign of real or imagined danger, and destroy the project.
On Oct. 6, 1955, Saint and McCully made their first of 13 “gift-drops” in Waodani territory. With Saint circling his MAF plane in a tight spiral, McCully used a rope to lower an aluminum kettle as a gift to the ground. It contained 20 brightly colored buttons and rock salt.
The two men would fly over the village nearly every Thursday and used gifts as a means of making contact and establishing a friendly relationship. Soon the Waodani began responding to the gift-drops, tying return gifts onto the rope such as a headband of woven parrot feathers. Once the Indians sent up a live parrot.
After three months of air-to-ground contact during which they made far more progress than they had hoped, the missionaries decided that it was time for one-on-one contact. They feared that they could not keep their activities secret much longer, and that delay risked a hostile encounter between the Waodani and some third party.
They decided that the expedition needed a fifth man, so they brought in Youderian who was accustomed to living with the Shuar and had learned acute survival skills.
On Dec. 3, 1955, Saint found a sandbar which he named “Palm Beach” to serve as a temporary landing strip for his yellow Piper aircraft.
The first landing was made on Palm Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1956. It took five flights to ferry in their supplies and all five missionaries. For three days the missionaries waited for the Waodani to appear. Finally, on Friday, Jan. 6, the first contact was made as three members of the tribe stepped out of the jungle and onto the beach, including an Indian they nicknamed, “George.”
Film footage shows the missionaries and Waodani interacting peacefully. But tribal members became suspicious of the outsiders. “George” lied to the tribe, telling them that the five missionaries were cannibals and they were the ones who had in fact eaten Dayuma, a woman who fled the tribe years earlier when she was a girl, fearful of the constant killings.
“George” lied to deflect attention from the fact that he and one of the young women, “Delilah,” were off in the woods on their own and they weren’t supposed to be. “George” wanted “Delilah” as another wife, but the tribe had already said no.
Three years later when Dayuma returned to the tribe and told them that the five foreigners were not cannibals, the tribe realized that George had lied to them, and they killed him.
At about 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, five of the powerful Waodani warriors speared the five missionaries to death and ransacked the plane on the beach. Although the missionaries had guns and could have defended themselves, they agreed together not to use them against the Indians, even if attacked.
Receiving no radio contact from the missionaries, on Monday Johnny Keenan, Saint’s colleague at MAF, flew over Palm Beach and spotted the damaged plane and several bodies in the river. Two days later a ground party arrived at Palm Beach and found the missionaries’ dead bodies. A memorial service was held in Quito for the five martyrs the following Sunday. Saint was 32, Elliot, 28, Fleming, 27, McCully, 28, and Youderian, 31.
Although the five met a tragic death, their efforts would lead to introduction of the gospel to this once-violent tribe three years later. All five of the Waodani killers became believers, and many of the tribal members now follow Christ. The touching story would also inspire thousands to commit their lives to full-time missionary service, helping spread the gospel to unreached people groups around the world.
Several documentary films have been made throughout the years, including “Through Gates of Splendor” and “Beyond the Gates,” produced by Bearing Fruit Communications. A dramatic motion picture, “End of the Spear,” filmed by Every Tribe Entertainment, will be released in theaters Friday, Jan. 20. A book with the same title was recently authored by Steve Saint, son of pilot Nate Saint.
Sources: Through Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot; Nate Saint: On a Wing and a Prayer, by Janet and Geoff Benge; obituary.com
We stayed in Shell, Ecuador. The place where all of this took place years ago. This is Nate Saint's house.
This is a replica of Nate Saint's plane. It is in the middle of the park in Shell.
AND.... the Waorani that I spoke of in the previous post, Mincaye, was one of the 5 involved in the spearing. As you saw, he is now a Christian and the leader of the Waorani. An amazing story he has to tell-how a life can be changed by the love of God.
An Incredible Day
We had an incredible day last Monday. It was my turn to fly out into the jungle for the first time. We had a little package to drop off first and no time to stop so I got to push it out of the plane as we flew over the grass strip. FUN! Then we headed to Nemonpade to see if Mincaye would make the trip with us to another village farther into the jungle.
It was so great to see the people running to greet the plane. The first thing that caught my eye was a tiny baby wrapped in a sling on his mama's shoulders. He was so precious. I wanted to hold him so badly but didn't ask. This is some of the other ladies in the village adoring him as the men talked about our plans.
The guys decided to take along Mincaye and Minihua. Minihua can speak both Waorani and Spanish and even some English. He was such a great help!! We flew to the village of ????? . We got there and got the generator and tv ready so we could show the film, Peace Child.
Before the movie, Mincaye spoke to them. He started off with an evangicube then preached to them in Waorani. Everyone was very intent as they listened. We then started the movie. Afterwards, several(a dozen or more) prayed to accept Christ as their Savior. So tremendous! Indescribable really! We sang "Jesus Loves Me" to them then they sang to us. We prayed and took some more pictures of our new brothers and sisters in Christ. In my mind, I really wondered,"Did they understand? Did they get it?" My question was answered as soon as I thought it. An older woman from the tribe told us how glad she was that someone came to teach them about the Bible, to teach their children. She also said she hoped that we would come back and teach them more. That completely made it worth it all to me. That is just an expression. Of course it was worth it but her comments were just like icing on the cake. I guess what I am trying to say is that I am sure that God had that divine appointment for us and I was so glad that I didn't miss it:)
This is Thad with Mincaye and Minihua. What a blessing they are! Missionaries of the greatest kind. I hope to post a little history about Mincaye in the next post. An incredible man with an amazing story.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
We're Back!
We made it home from an extraordinary trip!!! Thank you for your prayers. We have enjoyed some time playing with the kiddos and getting things back in order here. Not too much time to post yet so I will leave you with some pictures until I have more time for some great stories....
This is the city of Quito. HUGE!!!! I took this on our way through the city to the bus station.
Our friends,Bruce and Marci on the bus to Shell.
I wanted so badly to take a little nap on the bus but the scenery was too beautiful. I was afraid I would miss something:)
If you click on this picture, you can see the lady washing her clothes on that huge rock.
It was amazing driving through the Andes Mountains.We went from mountains to lush jungle. We saw waterfalls and volcanos. Wild orchids growing along side the road. Huge piles of ash from previous volcanic activity. Ecuador is a beautiful country.
This is the city of Quito. HUGE!!!! I took this on our way through the city to the bus station.
Our friends,Bruce and Marci on the bus to Shell.
I wanted so badly to take a little nap on the bus but the scenery was too beautiful. I was afraid I would miss something:)
If you click on this picture, you can see the lady washing her clothes on that huge rock.
It was amazing driving through the Andes Mountains.We went from mountains to lush jungle. We saw waterfalls and volcanos. Wild orchids growing along side the road. Huge piles of ash from previous volcanic activity. Ecuador is a beautiful country.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A Sneak Peek at our Trip
Aaron's Scarlet Macaw--finally found!!!!
Isn't this beautiful??? I am not sure exactly what it is called yet.
A brand new baby (4 days old) from the Waorani tribe.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
We Leave Tomorrrow!
So, tomorrow is the big day. We are very excited about our trip to Ecuador. We have been running around gathering things to take that cannot be bought down there. We are staying with a school teacher so I have had a wonderful time collecting "school stuff" to take to her. The biggest chore has been packing for my kids. Four kids need a lot of clothes- not to mention the other essentials. They will be staying with their grandmas while we are away. I think they are okay with it but have been sticking close to both of us the last few days. I ABSOLUTELY HATE LEAVING MY CHILDREN! I know, everyone says "get over it" but I can't. I am their mother. It is my responsibility,job, God-given right to take care of them. I know they will be spoiled and taken care of by their grandmas but it is still my job and I don't like not being with them. We plan to be very busy while we are gone so I don't have "idle" time to miss them so much. I don't know if I will be able to post from there but we will have much to share when we get back. Pray for us as we are all still fighting off illness. Pray for extra energy and strength for these grandmas as they will have their hands full. Pray for us to know if this is the place that God has for us. Thanks so much for your prayers!
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