Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

Weekly Wrap Up from Calacali, Ecuador

May 11, 2007

A few years ago, a friend of mine and I were taking our two daughters to the airport to attend summer camp. My friend’s daughter was a little nervous about flying alone for the first time. Cathy, my friend said to her daughter, “OK let’s name the things you are worried about.” At the time I was struck by how practical this was and have actually used it in my own life in the subsequent years. All this to say, when we were preparing to come to Ecuador and in the last three months, if I were to name my concerns, they would be as follows, to be stopped by the police, jail in Ecuador and to hit a pedestrian. Now I know the final one seems odd, but when you live here you see first hand how there are people everywhere. They run across the street, run into the street to sell things and jump off and onto buses and taxis all the time.

Unfortunately, my worst fear became a reality for one of our team members yesterday. Juan Carlos Cevallos, our assistant program director at El Refugio was driving into Quito for a staff meeting with two of our interns. Nathan, who is from our home church and is here until September was in the front seat, David who is one of our Ecuadorian interns was in the back. Juan Carlos was in the right lane on a 3 lane road when a person got off a bus from the middle lane. Nathan said it happened so fast that there was nothing Juan Carlos could do but hit the guy. The man suffered a badly broken leg and had surgery yesterday with a 4 – 6 month recovery process. Wisely, Juan Carlos had Nathan get back in the car and not speak to the police when they came. Because David is Ecuadorian, they were able to use him as a witness.

Ecuadorian law mandates that Juan Carlos be taken to jail and remain there until the man is released from the hospital which will probably be Monday. Once the doctor releases the man, the papers will be sent to the judge and Juan Carlos can then be released. His car has also been impounded until the end of next week. I tell you all this just so you will know a little of the craziness of the system here in Ecuador.

Juan Carlos is married to Courtney and they have two small daughters Marli and Lilli. To show God’s amazing provision for this situation, Courtney’s parents and brother arrived the night before so she is not alone. To demonstrate the character of this couple, when I called Courtney to see how she was doing she spent the time instructing me. She said, “Mary, if you get into an accident don’t ever let the police come because Ecuadorian law mandates they take both parties to jail until they clear it all up which could be up to three days. During our staff meeting Juan Carlos sent a text message and said not to worry he would be “preaching in the morning.” This is the kind of people God has called us to work with, truly an amazing young couple.

Please join us as we pray for Juan Carlos and his family, pray for the man he hit to recover quickly so they both can be released and go home to their families.

Also, could you pray for Nathan and David, initially they were both shook up but now seem to be doing well. They are both quiet guys so we just need to know how to help them process the whole situation.

As always we know we could only serve here in Ecuador because of your faithful support and prayers.

As God is our Refuge, Mary for the Scholl Family