Rule #1:
When an Ecuadorian tells you that something isn’t far or that something is
close… DON’T BELIEVE THEM!!
We’ll call
this day adventure day. Saturday is our team’s day off. Our day of rest.. the
day that we aren’t supposed to do anything at all. So Lindsey and I thought
it’s a beautiful day outside we should go to the park. Our Ecuadorian brother
Daniel told us that there was another park that he liked to go to that was more
beautiful than the one that was near the house and that it was more peaceful
because there wasn’t any traffic driving by or anything. We asked how far it
was and he said that it wasn’t that far so I suggested that we walk since it’s
so nice outside… big mistake!! We started walking and walking and we kept on
walking. Multiple times we asked Daniel if we were getting close and he said
yes. (Not so true) Then he pointed out, “you see that mountain up there? Well
that’s where we’re going.� Lindsey and I just looked at each other. Seriously?!?
That mountain was far and big. All I could do at this point was laugh. 45
MINUTES LATER! We final arrived to this mountain and Daniel says now we have to
go up. Say what?!? It’s this it. Nope not yet. After another 30 minutes of
walking up this mountain (Note: we don’t have proper footwear because it’s
close) we finally say this spot looks great to set up our hammocks. Lindsey and
I decided to set up our hammocks a little in the woods but near where they have
a bathroom and snack shack. Daniel decides that he’s going to keep walking but
before he leaves he says, “when it begins to rain I’ll meet you under the
shelter over there.� Wait a minute! WHEN it begins to rain? The sun was shining
and it was beautiful out there’s no way it’s going to rain. Lindsey and I got
out our bibles and books and started reading about 15 minutes later we notice
that it starts to get a little cold, about 10 minutes after that we hear
thunder, about 30 seconds later it starts downpouring. (ps. I might have
suggested that we leave our rain jackets at home.) The sky just completely
opened up and we packed up our stuff as quickly as possible and ran where
Daniel told us to meet him. Again all I could do was laugh. We stood there
under the shelter for about 20 minutes and still no sign of Daniel. How far do
you think he’s gone? (There’s no way to get ahold of him because we don’t have
phones so we just waited and waited.) Finally we see him running down the
mountain absolutely soaking wet. We all stood there for another 20 minutes and
this rain is not letting up, in fact it’s getting worse… it starts to HAIL!!
Now we have
a few options: run back down the mountain through the woods the way we came
(Lindsey had her computer that’s out), sit and wait it out (don’t know how long
that could be), or we could call a taxi. Well the taxi is out too because
Daniel doesn’t have phone service on top of the mountain anddddd when we asked
the man at the snack shack how to get a taxi up the mountain he so kindly
said.. you don’t. Taxis apparently don’t come up to that part of the mountain. So
we are still sitting and waiting when all of sudden Daniel says wait right here
I’ll be right back and off he went running in the road. We thought okay he’s
probably going to run to the end of the street to find a taxi. Lindsey and I
started to worry when he was gone for about 15 minutes because we could see the
end of the road but couldn’t see Daniel. Then we saw a taxi drive up with
Daniel in it. He was drenched from head to toe. We asked him where he went… Let
me tell you what an awesome brother we have! Daniel ran allllll the way down
the mountain (Yes the one that took us 30 minutes to get up) out to the main
road just to get us a taxi so that we didn’t have to walk anywhere in the rain.
(amanda, gaby, daniel, andy, and karaline)
Hebrews
13:1-2 “Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to
show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown
hospitality to angels without knowing it�
