Up Close and Liking It

Our first full week in Riobamba, Ecuador has been so much fun. The reasons are listed below:

• Teachers pray before class
• Students meet in assemblies for prayer and value lessons each day
• Students love their teachers
• Teachers love their students
• Students say "grass shoppers" instead of grasshoppers
• One teacher puts new English vocabulary words inside the Christian fish sign
• Little students give hugs freely
• Older students greet with kisses
• Humberger for hamburger
• The Lunch Wagon serves full meals during recess
• Pencil sharpeners are boxcutters
• The tile floors are as slippery as oiled glass
• Riobamba town center has cobblestoned streets
• Everyone wants to practice their English
• We have thunderstorms, then sunshine; no t.v. but 700 songs that our son downloaded on an iPod with dock
• Clear days accent the snow-covered Andes
• Open marketplaces offer everything from cell phones to tailor-cut clothing to bakeries to underwear
• Iron gates, when opened, display garden-groomed homes
• All the dogs in the world reside here
• Food kiosks on corners fry up plantains, chicken, FF, and corn cakes
• Every car and truck has an alarm system and they are tested at all hours of the night
• Christian education makes a difference
• Parents struggle to pay the $43.00 monthly tuition
• Parents struggle to pay $23.00 for a uniform
• But, a Christian education makes a difference
• "If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but...for the eye, which ever young and ardent, sees the possible."  (Kierkegaard, 1813-1855)
• We see the possible in each child
• Paul said, "A great door for effective work has opened for me..." (I Corinthians 16:9)
• We are up close and we like it...here.  We feel privileged to be a part of the effective ministry of the Nazarene denomination in Ecuador