Day 59 - Dia especial de asamblea

View of Hall from the parking lot.

Very small section of auditorium. It fits about 1,000.

We had to be up by 5am to leave by 6 but I figured I’d rely on the chancho and not set the alarm. At 4:55 Ryan knocked on our door to let us know there was no water and they were going to the Vivancos to shower (by the way, they don’t have hot water). Fortunately, we took our showers the night before. One thing we’ve learned: shower (brush teeth, wash dishes, clothes, etc.) when there’s water, even if you don’t want to, because the water turns off a lot and there’s no rhyme nor reason to when it goes back on. But we were thankful for the wake-up call as I thought my “chancho alarm” had failed me. But no, at 5:05 it went off – I would definitely not have slept through that! The water came back on at 5:15 so we took another shower to wake up (see, that’s what I mean). We were on the road by 6:20. Ryan had to be there by 8-he had platform duty (but fortunately they had it cleaned up before the program started, hehehehe-for those of you who know I hate that word). It was an overcast and drizzly trip but the sun peaked out just before we got to Loja and we arrived with 5 minutes to spare.
The place they rent is really nice with good sound. Unfortunately, no one warned me how cold it was in there (until the afternoon and all the body heat warmed it up). Even Erik was cold. There were 939 in attendance w/tons of “extranjeros” (foreigners). I may have spoken more English than Spanish – oops!

Brandy and her husband Heath are from Alaska and planning
on moving to Vilcabamba this year (she's due in July)

The program was good: “Efectúese la voluntad de Dios”-Mt. 6:10. The friends in Rochester Spanish will have it April 22nd and I think most of English had it in the fall. Lots of nice interviews and experiences. One sister who says she used to be a hippie is having a lot of success preaching to all the expats (hippies) that have settled in a town called Vilcabamba (look it up on the internet and you’ll see why). She said, in imitation of Paul, to the hippies I have become a hippie that I might gain hippies. It was awesome.

The Trents live in Loja (we met them before when he gavea talk at our hall and then Erik at theirs).
He's originally from Italy and she is from South Dakota.

Samuel Romero (he goes to our hall)

They also interviewed an older couple who’ve been serving all over Ecuador for the past 20 years and 8 years before that in Belize (6 years in the circuit work there). They raised their 5 kids while living in Central and South America (they are in an article 10/15/99-Albert Hilbig). 4 Years ago, their second oldest son died, he was 37, and they shared how hard that was but how supportive the friends were. The husband did the baptism talk and was in charge of attendance and put Erik to work as soon as we got there. The visiting speaker was Hermano Mieles, from Bethel here in Guyaquil, Ecuador. He was a very good speaker.

There were 10 that got baptized including the sister from our hall, Rosa (thank goodness they finished the questions). This is Rosa with her son Josue ("Pepito"). Unfortunately, the rest of
her family couldn't make it. Her older son was in a bad car accident the night before and was in the hospital. Her husband works in New Jersey and is also studying and doing well.

This is the baptism pool outside. I don't think it was heated
but at least there were no bugs!

Veronica & Zully

We met a brother from Oregon who has been there for close to 15 years I think, married to an Ecuadorian sister for the past 10 and they’ve lived in quite a few places around the country. He gave an excellent talk for young people and the importance of making the truth your own. They work as English teachers and told us about an online teaching job that sounds like it might have potential. Ryan had an elders meeting after so we stayed and got to talk to a lot of the friends.

Pretty flowers on the building outside

View from the hall

Oh yeah…one side note: we felt right at home at the assembly here. Paper towels. As we have probably shared with some of you over the years, paper towels are always in short supply at Spanish assemblies. Signs in the bathrooms and announcements from the platform to please limit yourself to 1 piece of paper towel (please don’t over wet your hands). Well, Ecuador went one step further-they had brothers and sisters posted outside the bathroom handing out said valuable commodity-one paper towel. "Um, may I have, um 2 paper towels please? NO PAPER TOWEL FOR YOU!!! Some of you Spanish friends probably don't get our fascination with the 1 paper towel thing...but you have to remember, we came from a land flowing with paper towels and liquid soap. But seriously, we wouldn't change a thing.

We stopped at Supermaxi (of course-we’re in Loja) to grab a few things and got home around 8. Tired, hungry but spiritually satisfied.