Jungle Adventure

Dearest Blog Readers,

I hope this blog finds you all in good health and great spirits. Right now I'm writing to you from the dinning room table watching my grandma kill two chickens in the backyard and listening to the neighbors attempt karaoke. Life is good.

If you remember way back in one of my earlier blogs I wrote about how Shell is the city where Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, and others based their mission organization. If you are familiar with the movie End of the Spear or the Documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor this will be a little redundant, if you are not familiar, WATCH THEM! Now for a little history. Nate Saint and his crew came to Shell to minister to the Huaorani indigenous people. However, because the Huaorani live deep in the Amazon Rainforest it was difficult to come into contact with them. After many flights Mr. Saint spotted a Huaorani tribe next to small landing area carved out by a river. The place is known as Palm Beach and Saint and his men landed their in 1956. Sadly the missionaries were met with hostility and all speared to death by the tribe. Nevertheless, the story does not end there. The wives and other family members of the martyred men continued to reach out to the Huaorani, eventually converting many of them to Christianity. Saints mission still lives on in the form of an organization called MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) that is based out of Shell. The organization services hundreds of indigenous communities, providing them with different medical needs and clean water.

This past Wednesday Chad, the head pilot of MAF, invited me and a couple others to fly out to a Huaorani community in the jungle. The experience was nothing short of incredible. The people were so hospitable and welcomed us as brothers and sisters in Christ. When we got there we where introduced to the leaders of the community and they shared their testimonies with us. Amazingly one of the leaders of the tribe was part of the killing party that murdered Nate Saint and the other missionary men. After the introductions the leaders prayed for us and then took us to the main common area where they performed a dance and song.

It was amazing to see a people whose way of life has been touched so little my modern culture. The daily lives of the Huaorani people are spent hunting with spear and blow darts and harvesting crops. I am at a loss for words for describing what I saw, so I will just go with what I felt. At first I felt a little awkward walking into the community with my fancy clothes and shwanky camera. However, that was all pushed to the side the moment I met the people. Their hospitality and love was inspiring. Every person greeted me with a smile and hug and was eager to hear my story. We were from completely different worlds but through our shared love of Christ there was a bond. I like to think the experience was a little snapshot of the Kingdom of God. A heaven where all kinds of people from all races and cultures will come together as one in Christ Jesus. When we were leaving the man who was part of the killing party put his hand had my shoulder and told me that God is good and that he is looking forward to the day that we would meet again in heaven. How cool is that!

Grace and Peace
Kyle

 The ride!

 My seat as co-pilot

 Pilot Chad and I sizing up the landing

 Trees lot of Trees

 spotted a river in the midst of all the TREES

 One of the leaders of the tribe that was a member of the original killing party of Nate Saint

 Chief!

 Welcoming dance

 Blow dart action

 My turn

 Time to catch dinner

 A- form

 what crack-a-lackin baby girl

 One of the tribes warriors and I poising for a pic

Home sweet home Shell, Ecuador.

Nature and Nurture

Howdy Ya'll

To all my friends at Hope College I hope you are all having a splendid winter break. Keep up the good work you savvy, sharp-witted students.

On the flip side, life outside the world of academia has been stellar. This weeks segment of life in Ecuador is filled with both nature and nurture. Lets start with the nature. The weather down here is starting to make a turn for the best as we begin to exit the rainy season. It came at the perfect time because I needed a little boost for the 5:30 AM alarm this week. As you know from my last post, we had a team from Great Lake Eye Care down here this week and we went out on brigades to different communities to do free eye screenings. This of course meant that Carpe diem was in affect. However, 5:30 is a whole lot better when the orange sun lights up the mountains and the clear sky allows you to see the friendly neighborhood volcano puff smoke. Hooray earth! A second nature point was this past Friday when we traveled to Rio Verde and did a hike to a waterfall called Pailon del Diablo (The Devil's Cauldron). It is one of the biggest water falls it Ecuador and Boy-O-Boy was it powerful. Final nature point was our gondola ride across the valley that gave some spectacular views. Enjoy the pictures!

On the nurture side of things, this week was dedicated to an eye medical brigade. The eye clinic was extremely effective as this week we were able to see more than 750 patients from 5 different cities! My primary job was to work as a translator for distance vision tests. The Ecuadorians were such grateful patients. It was really fun to be consistently greeted with the phrase Doctorcito Dios le bendiga (Little doctor God bless you). My favorite part of the week was seeing the reaction of the patients. A majority of the people we saw just needed pair of glasses, but we did get a good number of dense cataracts and other more serious eye aliments. These patients were often blind or very close to it. Dr. Pletcher was the final eye exam station. He would assess the patients and forward them to surgery if he thought the problem was curable. When I had time I would go over and listened because I loved hearing him tell people that their vision would be restored.  Reactions to that beautiful phrase were nothing short of incredible. A mother's tears of joy for her blind child, a old man's smile of hope, and a woman's praises to God were precious moments that I will never forget.

Luke 11:33-36
"No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead he puts it on its stand, so that those who come in may SEE the light. Your EYE is the lamp of your body. When your EYES are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted, as when the light of a lamp shines on you."

Grace and Peace
Kyle

 Pailon Del Diablo (whole lotta of water)

 Beautiful morning sunrise

 panoramic view of the city of Shell. Volcano Sungay on the left, the alter on the right

 Closer view of the alter, volcano that blew its top a view years back.

 Close up on volcano Sungay!

 It decided to puff

 Nora and I with volcano Sungay in the background

 Pailon del diablo

 Our ride across the valley

 view from the middle of the valley

 long way down the waterfall

 close up on bridal falls

 The Brigade!

 My old lady friend

 Nora and the girl after she painted their nails

 Dinner?

Slow down!

Howdy ya'll. Man has there been a lot going on. This past weekend was a blast. Friday night my friend Nora had me and my new homies [Lizi, Glo_Mama, Anna, and Sarah] over for a splendid dinner. Then on Saturday I woke up and headed up to Banos to drop off some stuff. Long story short, my buddy Jeff knows a guy doing research down here and I brought some of his stuff down so he didn't have to ship it. Well it turns out that when I met up with the science guy in Banos, whose name is also Jeff, he was with his wife and two girls from the research program. Before I knew it we came buddies and spent the day in Banos enjoying the hot springs at the top of the mountain. Okay quick note of clarification. My buddy Jeff from Hope will now be referred as Hope-Jeff and research Jeff will be known as science-Jeff. Okay so Hope-Jeff met up with us at the hot springs, and then BA-DA-BING BA-DA-BOOM I find myself in the back of a Geo Tracker packed with six people all headed to the city of Rio Bamba. Now Rio Bamba is up in the mountains and is where science-Jeff lives and does his research. He is a geographer who is getting his Ph D. mapping glacier melt on the volcano Chimbarazo. Awesome dude, and of course since he was doing research on a volcano what do you think we did on Sunday. You betcha, we hiked all over that volcano. Here is the short scoop. The elevation of the volcano is 20,564 feet. This is high. So high that no mountain north of it in the western hemisphere. This also means that the entire mountain is above the tree line and there is glaciers/snow on the top. Also... because the earth swells at the Ecuador the peak of Chimbarazo is the furthest point from the center of the earth and is the closest place on earth to the sun. Early Sunday morning I was suited up in snow gear and dropped off at 16,500 feet on the side of the mountain. This is exactly 3,300 feet higher than I had ever been before. The air was thin and crisp and it was incredible. The day started up in the clouds but as we descended the sun decided to come out. The experience was incredible, the pictures don't do it justice.

As for the week, it has been great. I am working on an eye brigade and this basically means that I have traveled to a different city every day and worked as a translator in eye clinics. Totally amazing and I have some great stories that I am saving for my next blog. Peace out and God Bless. I leave you with some cool pics.

 The team at 16,500 feet (cold but ready to rock)

 Up in the clouds, only rocks up this high

 The hike to the glaciers

 hello blue sky

 glacier insulated under the dirt

 lots of glacier under the dirt

 doing science in a mountain stream

 clouds rolling out

 the north face

 cool view

 the valley not a tree in sight

 The top of the mountain decided to come out

 panoramic view

 snowy peak

 the grassland at the bottom

CHIMBORAZO!

The Beauty of Story

Many moons ago when I was just a wee little man I had two favorite movies, the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. You know those movies that mom puts in to make you happy or just to shut you up for a little bit. Well those two movies put me in a trance. I was the kid who would sit in front of the television and an earthquake could not distract me. It was almost as if just for a brief couple of hours I would enter into a different world and be part of an incredible story. Yes, Disney stories are indeed incredible. There I sat, my body nestled in some cozy sheets on the couch, but my mind running through the open savannah with Simba or fighting off Gaston on the castle tower. Those were the days.

 I have been captured by the element of story. As human beings, I think there is something very special about a good story that grabs us and draws us in. I have to laugh because it seems that when I get together with certain groups of people we are always sharing the same stories over and over again. You’d think that they would get old, but we’d all laugh and cry like it was the first time we heard it. Rich or poor, old or young, we all have stories. They travel with us where ever we go, they are a part of us, they connect us with one another.  I was thinking about my favorite movies and books and the reasons why I liked them so much. What I found is that I desire and value the characters for what they stand for, but more importantly what they do in reaction to their values.

 The people in Ecuador don’t have much, but they do have great stories. Having time to sit and listen has made things personal and sometimes hard to deal with. Just this past December a thirteen year old girl gave birth to a baby boy. She was raped, but of course no charges have been pressed. Because of her young age no one thought that she or the baby would live. My friend Nora stayed and prayed at her side the entire time she was hospitalized. Miraculously both of them lived. Nora told me that the girl is a fighter. Just last week she checked up on her and told me that she smiles a lot and found that she is still going to school!

 I can go on and on with the stories. Every time I walk into the orphanage, I know that most of the girls are there because they have been raped. When I walk in and look into their eyes they smile, and when I speak bad Spanish they laugh.

Ecuador has broken my heart and made life personal. The thirteen year old mother and the girls at the orphanage are my heroes. Their reactions to the hardships of life are incredible. They have truly found that their stories are a part of the much bigger and better story of Christ. I can't help but think of the Hillsong song called Hosanna. My prayer is simply their last verse that says

 Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity.

God is doing great things in all the earth. I am so blessed to be in a community that is infected with the Holy Spirit in an effort to bring the Kingdom of God to earth. Being down here has put me face to face with some of the horrors of the world, but God’s healing power is awesome.  There is so much love here.

Peace and Grace

 Mom and Joshua

Baby Yarinah