Light

Everyone who knows me knows I ADORE Christmas. I start getting excited in October, though usually the Christmas music has already come out by then. By Thanksgiving I've mapped out the decorations in the house and stocked up on candles because by far, one of my favorite aspects is all the Christmas light.

As a kid, I used to love turning off all the lights in the house other than the ones on the tree, locating every candle in the house I could get my hands on, and then just lying under the tree and watching the lights sparkle on the ceiling. As I was reflecting on this, it hit me that God must have a fascination with light, too. It was the first thing he created. “Let there be light!” When he led his people through the desert for 40 years, he used a pillar of light when it got dark. And when it came time to send Jesus into the world to save us sinners, he compared him to light. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2).

We tend to take light for granted nowadays. At least I do. We can flick a switch anytime we want, and light is at our beck and call. But have you ever been in a power outage? In my first one, I couldn't believe how helpless I felt, how stuck. There's something about light that offers stability and security. Hmm, kind of like Jesus....

But it gets even cooler. Not only was he our light, but by following him, he gives us the ability, the call in fact, to be light as well. “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). He says that whenever we share that same gift that we received from Jesus with others, we are like shining stars, sparkling in a dark universe. Cool. No seriously: how cool! I get to be just like the one tiny flame that dances before my Lord and hopefully draws others to look upon him, too.

He's definitely given me something to think about this Christmas as I watch my lights sparkle and twinkle on the ceiling. What's he teaching you?

(The CCC women after decorating the tree)

Good sports

Look what I did to my 1st Level students yesterday: for the clothes unit, we played hot potato but the loser had to pull out an article of clothing, name it, and wear it. With a female teacher providing the clothes and mostly boys in class, we laughed a lot.

Roman in sunglasses, hat, and socks (can't see); David in my dress (half covered by his jacket) and gloves; Jaime in my skirt, pants and shirt; and Becky in my vest, jacket, sweatshirt, glasses, shoes, and scarf.

The tongue

In my women's bible study, we were challenged to start watching our speech more often, filtering out the unwholesome things and replacing them with encouraging, edifying talk. So, I started by just monitoring myself one day. And I was horrified! I don't curse; I don't cuss; I don't spit; and I try really hard not to lie. But boy do I mock and complain and point out flaws and exaggerate. A lot. By noon that day, I was already convinced that I should just not talk. Ever again.

Then reading James 3 on top of it just scared me. He speaks of the tongue being this tiny instrument, like a rudder on the ship, but having the entire control over the rest of the ship because it determines the direction. I didn't like that the tongue should have so much power, especially when what was coming out of my mouth was really not God-honoring. Fortunately, my study went on in the next few days to teach us to rely on the Spirit inside who IS God-honoring. And one of the best ways of letting him speak through me, I'm re-learning, is of course through Scripture. What better way to talk, especially to God, then in his own language. It's been my new motivation to memorizing verses again, and so far, I can really tell the Spirit's helping me.


Plus, taking that power of the tongue that is described in James 3 and actually applying it to good speech is extremely powerful! I never put that together before, but speaking blessings over someone's life, praying for them, using actual speech and words to encourage has the true ability to determine direction. It sure puts a heavier call on my life to exert good power in other people's lives (and my own, for that matter), not bad.

You have God as your travel agent

That's what one of my missionary aunts said about my life. It's true.

Remember that flight down the Avenue of the Volcanoes when I didn't have my camera handy? Well, my friend did. Here are a couple of Ecuador's finest mountain peaks:

(No clue why they're black and white on here when they were colored on my computer. Oh well.)

More Pictures

I think this was the last big adventure before Christmas, so I'll stop overwhelming you with pictures soon. But this was, I think, one of the highlights of my time here so far and may well be of the entire time, at least spiritually.

The CCC takes an annual retreat every November, and this year we went to Bible Camp Mangayacu, which is just on the edge of the Andes where the great Amazon jungle starts. The drive through the Andes was gorgeous, could almost rival the Alps (don't let the Austrians hear me say that).

There were 5 sessions which a speaker from Quito, and I was surprised by how much I was able to pick up. Usually, it was easier if he had powerpoint slides with text because then I could listen AND read AND look up words in the dictionary. In between, there was some free time, but also some organized games, plus of course a bonfire one night. Those were fun times. I think my favorite was when I and my lowest student in my 1st level class teamed up and whooped everybody else in ping pong. :-)

On Saturday, we actually drove IN to the jungle a little bit to the town of Puyo where we visited a nature reserve where they grow plants and have demonstrations of what life is like in jungle aboriginal villages. The first one highlighted was the Waorani tribe, the ones that Jim Elliott and Nate Saint and my other 3 heroes of the faith died trying to reach with the gospel. We sat in a Waorani hut while the guide showed us how they use their hammocks, their cooking pots, their fishing nets, and their spears. It was hard not to get emotional, somewhat.

The walk through the bush was amazing! So many interesting plants and flowers that I can't post them all. The ride back to camp was a little less amazing. We rode in the back of these "taxis" that are two hard benches with a plastic tarp over your head, and two metal rods that dig into your back. I ended up in the taxi with all the boys which was a hoot, but meant to had to take care since I was wearing a skirt and the road was rather bumpy.

Sadly, I just never got a really good picture of the jungle stretching out in front of us because either we were in sessions, or it was raining (rain forest and all) or it was dark. Anyway, the night of this sunset was when I really just sat in awe, and it hit me that this jungle ran all the way across the entire continent to the Atlantic, and it was full of God's creativity and wonders, not to mention people he loved who haven't been reached yet. Oh the places he takes me....

Cuenca, city of spires

Cuenca is the biggest town in the southern half of the country. We flew 30 minutes (barely) from Quito to Cuenca, a trip that takes 12 hours on the bus. The flight was AMAZING!!! All the major volcanoes passed by my window - talk about having a good seat. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. Grr! For once, it was an evening free of clouds, and the sun was just setting to the west ... I'm telling you, it was God-inspiring!

The town of Cuenca itself is really colonial, and I'm not kidding when I say there were churches around every corner. Most had really ornate doors, and the most famous church had doors that dwarfed any human being. Being a weekend, we did get to hear bells and chimes more than once, particularly at 6:30 in the morning, which wasn't our favorite time of day.


This is called "broken bridge" because if you look closely, you can see it doesn't actually cross the river but kind of ends. More like a pier.

Being the weekend, we also got to visit more than one market, which was fun. Here's a typical fruit and veggie market in a small town outside of Cuenca. I love it because you can see how many of the women actually wear the traditional Ecuadorian dress and hat on any given day. I really wanted to also post the picture of the entire roasted pig we saw at this market, but sadly the picture didn't really turn out.

Below you see us eating an early breakfast while we wait for our bus to the Incan ruins. From left to right: Serene (Auzzie), Adeline (Brit), Michelle (1/2 German, 1/2 Canadian), and Anne (German).

My first lamas in Ecuador!!!
Going to Ingapirca was probably my favorite thing of the weekend. I thought they were Incan ruins, but it turns out there was both Incan and also pre-Incan (local Canari) ruins. Ingapirca wasn't a great city or anything. It was more of a holy spot, they assume, because the only things really there are a great raised platform (probably for sacrifice), some aqueducts, and a few ceremonial buildings. Oh, and these odd-shaped rocks with holes in them that we dubbed cupholders.

I think the Incans purely wanted to build big rocks in a place where there was a really cool view.

Oh, and this was my 2nd-favorite thing of the weekend. :-) It was yummy. I had "Breakfast Austrian," and gorged myself on salami while sitting under a portrait of Mozart.

It's FREEZING here!

I know none of you are going to believe me, just as when I was in Taiwan, and I fully understand that you're in the 30's (in Minnesota) while I'm in the 50's, but what you don't understand is that there's no indoor heat here. So when it's 54 outside, it's 54 inside. I'm freezing!

So, this past Sunday, we went to Papallacta, which is perched right on the side of a volcano and is known for its hot springs. At Papallacta, they funnel that hot water into pools for us tourists. Oooh, it was heavenly to soak in. Also, the drive there was gorgeous. I'll just put up my favorite pictures: Serene at the pool, two mountain shots, and one lake shot.

I'm also obviously layering up my clothes. Here are my new favorite socks that Kristin sent me in a care package (along with episodes of The Office and CANDY CORN!).

Otherwise, there's really not much new to report (obviously, if I'm writing a whole blog on the cold). But today I leave for a little vacation to Cuenca. I'll have more to report on that after I've actually been there, so stay tuned. And enjoy your electric blankets and heaters for me.