Sunday we took the children fishing along 2 other families here at MTI, the Browns and the Blanks. No one really caught anything, but Sebastiao got the closest. His fish stayed on right up to the banks before he wiggled off the hook. Bella just had a good time "flying" around the shore line.

Saturday we drove up to Pikes Peak with our new wonderful friend Lena. It was a wonderful drive, but little were we prepared for the arctic temperatures at the top. It was 34 degrees and with the windchill had to been at least in the 20s. To make matters worse, Joe was wearing shorts and 30 seconds out of the car, Sebastiao started playing in the snow. After only about 10 minutes out of the car, we were ready to head back down. At least the pictures turned out well. Oh, and we had our dog, Baron with us. The crazy thing is that he is probably the only one who would have enjoyed the weather and we left him in the car so he wouldn't get muddy.

Wow, what a week this has been. Today we were supposed to find people from our small groups and share what we appreciated about them AND one "growth area." I wasn't real excited about this concept, nor do I believe that after 3 weeks with a person I am entitled to make this call. One by one, people from my group found me out.....yeah, sounds like fun huh? Actually it wasn't as bad as predicted, but then again, no one else followed the rules either. We all just told great things about each other and then shared areas of prayer. I know it isn't what was assigned, but in the end, I think it accomplished the same thing, or at least that is what I am choosing to believe.

Ok so this past week I saw this video and just fell in love. I think the greatest thing about the video (other than the amazing way it was put together) is that it makes you just uncomfortable enough to say, "what am I doing? How am I allowing God to use me?" Please leave comments and let me know what you think.

I know I have only been posting our fun outings while here at MTI, but most of the class time has been so intense and thought provoking that unless you are interested, I didn't want to wear you down with missionary training. Of the 2 1/2 weeks we have been here, I have had second thoughts about our calling at least 2-3 times a week. Not so much, is God calling me, but can He really do something good through ME! I fear doing more harm than good in light of cultural changes. The only thing worse than not going is going and turning them off to Christ by my actions.
I have learned so much, not just about the culture I am going to, but about myself: Who I am, What my values are, What my tendencies are when I am up against a wall and how that will impact my ministry in Ecuador.
Some of the things I have liked learning and other have been just down right ugly things that have been hard to swallow. But at the end of the day, God knew exactly who I was and what I was coming into this and chose me anyway. I know that who I am and what I am is not what He will be using, but who I am in Him and through Him is exactly what He will use for His good.

Here at MTI there is a train track about 150 yards from the building. The kids (along with Joe and I ) have had a wonderful time putting coins on the track and waiting for the train to smash them. Here are some of the pictures.













During the day and late night the trains run about every 15-30 minutes. However, when we went out to on this adventure, there was not a train for over 2 hours.... so the children had plenty of time for adventure. They found old railroad parts and claimed them as their loot. They founded a large dirt pile as their kingdom and stockpiled their treasures there.

Flight changes

Well, we have had to change our flight by one day. Customs for animals in Quito won't be open on the weekend for us to get Baron (our dog) cleared, so we had to change our flight to Sunday, June 28th. The airline can't guarantee that he can get on our flight until the day of the flight. We know it might seem like a small thing to some of you, but please pray that the big guy will make it on our flight and all will go well getting through customs.