Day 13 - Predicamos y predicamos y predicamos

Today was our first really LONG day in the ministry and by that I mean we met @ 8:30am and got home at approximately 8:30 pm - Not that we haven't done long days in Albion, but these 12 hours were done on foot. Very tiring physically but very rewarding mentally and spiritually.

This is actually where the conductor sits-
this country was not built for the Sissons (or Sillens)

In the morning we met at the house of an 81 year old sister, Cristina Cajas, and preached in the nearby town of Namirez.  She's been baptized since 1991 and has always preached in that little town so she knows everyone and everyone knows her.  (Imagine Hermana Velez but more direct with the people in the territory) But she is a very sweet and hospitable sister.  When we took her home she invited us to stay for some jugo de naranjilla (fresh squeezed juice from her fruit trees) y homemade pan dulce (sweet bread) - Delicious!

Preaching with Hermanita Cristina in Namirez

In the house of Hermana Cajas

Stopped by the neighbor, Sabina's house, for another brief study on the way home.  We had another good study with her. She mentioned she was leaving Friday to go to her family's farm (several hours away) for 3 weeks so we said we'd see her when she gets back and she said she wasn't leaving til          5 o'clock Friday so we could come back around 10am.

Got home - a delicious lunch was waiting for us again (I will never get sick of that). Then we went back out with Ryan and Veronica on some RV's and studies before meeting back with the group at 3pm in Santa Rosa.  One of Ryan's RV's, Flor, said i could come back Tues to start a study with her (We think they may be bribing us by giving us good studies/RV's????????)

Then I went with Veronica on her study with a young girl, Paquita, (13 yrs old?) who really gets the information and has a lot of good questions. - But I got "chowed" by some bug that I thought was a harmless fruit fly.  I had dime-sized bite marks on my legs with little dark dots in them where those dumb bugs attacked me. Oh well, a few bug bites never hurt anyone - i guess a few bug bites have actually killed people here.

We met up with the group and I continued with Veronica. I had 2 nice conversations. One woman, Alexandra accepted the Truth tract and said i could come back tomorrow to discuss the last question about happiness. Then I went with Veronica on another of her excellent studies, Jessica, who has a very cute 6 month old baby - that I held, of course. We finished up the night with one last study of Veronica's, a young girl, who also seemed to understand the information very well.

Erik worked with Ryan and they went off by themselves down a long road that follows a small river. At the end is a beautiful waterfall.  After dipping their heads in the water they spoke to a man who is a teacher in town.  He had just seen Ryan give a funeral service for a brother in the neigboring congregation who had been in charge of education in this province.  It opened up a good avenue for conversation.  After about 3.5 hours and covering about 5 houses we went back to one of his RV's.  She was making dinner for her husband but invited us in, asked one of her kids to turn down the stove and spoke with us for about half an hour. We discussed why God permits suffering and studied 3 paragraphs out of the Teach bk. She was very interested and looks forward to us coming back.  She was also kind enough to give us a huge papaya and a head of lettuce from her garden.  As we walked back to meet the group her husband passed by.  We spoke with him for about 10 minutes and thanked him for the fruit/veg that he didn't realize he had given us.  He will welcome our visit. We finished with a bible study with an unbaptized publisher whose wife is a sister. Ryan & Veronica dropped us off at home and went to try one more study - they get an A+ for effort today.

We were tired but very content!