As Far As Sunday's Go

     There was a time when the hardest day of the week for us was Sunday.  After six years of living in Ecuador, Sunday's have become one of our favorite days.  A few things have contributed to our change of heart.  The first is, we now have high speed internet so all through the day we Skype with each of our kids and also with our Dads.  Another thing which has helped our Sunday disposition is we have found a church family that we love to worship with and are challenged by God's word.  Ultimately though it is the community we feel with those who come and go through our lives here at El Refugio.  Yes we have those who are constant, the people who are on staff permanently but we are also blessed by a variety of people who are a part of our lives for just a short time.  

This is the view FROM our porch this Sunday morning.  We had a group of teachers here who had camped last night and were enjoying a team building game.  Howie commented that he loved it when we have groups here because with every single group the sounds of them laughing and sometimes screaming drifts up to our porch which lets us know their time is well spent and a blessing. 

We then attended church in the nearby town of San Antonio.  The name of the church translated means "God is Faithful".  We go to the twelve o'clock service where we enjoy a great time of worship, which has a bit of a Cuban feel.   Some of our favorite Sunday's are when the Pastor leads worship while playing the bass.  

This is the view OF our porch later in the afternoon.  Howie is meeting with Darwin who is here from Uruguay, with the Alturas program.  Howie is Darwin's mentor for the time he is here at El Refugio.  Darwin has a baritone voice and I can hear the murmur of them talking.  Every once in a while I catch a bit of what they are saying, what God is doing and teaching each of them to the various mountains to climb and to what difficulty.  

So that gives you a glimpse into our lives on a given Sunday.  The sun has set, the Christmas lights have been turned on our front porch to commemorate Howie's cousin's son Chase, who is fighting T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

And about this time of the night, Howie and I always look at each other and say, "Where on earth did the day, much less the weekend go?"

And then the new week starts...