Rodolfo and I were drinking tea with Pastor Marino. Pastor Marino is definitely a man´s man. He is also a very Godly man, a good father and a faithful husband. A man of character, a true servant. I learned to have so much respect for him this week and for his heart for his town.
We were the first group of missionaries who had actually stayed with them. Other groups had visitted, but they had stayed in a hotel, or worked in the other towns. The churches here are very competitive and interested in building personal kingdoms. They are also very religious, and it almost sounds like there is a lot of feuding between the denominations.
So we were discussing all this. Pastor Marino was saying how much he enjoyed us, and I was talking about issues that altitude and weather were having with us. How any short term missions groups would probably face sickness and exhaustion here, but I hoped that more groups would be coming.
Then I saw movement. Margarita, Marino´s wife, had gone upstairs to feed the Cuy. The stairs were not in good shape, and they went up through a hole in the ceiling, to where over 100 guinea pigs are kept.
The movement I saw was Margarita, she had missed stepped and fallen through the hole, hitting the bottom of the stairs. I saw the whole thing, and we jumped up to help her. I told Marino not to let her move, I asked if she could feel her feet. She said no, and I told them to hold still, I would grab Shawna and Tana, because they have more medical training than I do. Linnea was at another lady´s house, Olga, who she was discipling.
When I got back, Margarita was on her knees crying, and we prayed with her, and the girls checked her out. It turns out she got a decent bruise on her butt, but she was ok. We gave her some ibuprofen, and we all helped in the kitchen.
