Code Yellow

Church Service

Buenos dias and welcome to another gorgeous day in Ecuador!!  We began the morning with a small church service held with the team members and some local volunteers that will be helping us to minister to their village.  One of them was a pastor who spoke English also so he led the service.  Included were several of his nieces who are trying to learn English, so we tried to buffer up our own Spanish in a nice trade off as we got to know each other over lunch.

Cotopaxi Volcano

Typically Sunday is a day for travelling away from the capital to another part of the country to serve.  However we will be serving local villages on this project so we had the afternoon to sort through our supplies and then hike around town.  We went looking for good views of Cotopaxi, the presently erupting volcano.  Some say it is the most dangerous in the world.  The villages directly in its path are in code yellow and if they move up to code orange they will have only 1 hour to evacuate!  One of the refugee places is actually the camp where we are staying.  It is typically a Christian camp that houses up to 800 people for various school aged groups as well as churches for retreats and things, but in the case of a refugee situation the government would come in and assist in housing villagers here.  An additional risk now is flooding of areas due to all the snow the volcano has melted in a very short amount of time.  As unique an experience as it is to watch a live volcano, the danger is also very high for those living closer, so we ask that you pray for their safety in whatever arises (no pun intended). 

Guanabana Ice Cream

Sunset view from our camp

All’s well that ends well with a gorgeous sunset and homemade guanabana ice cream!! Tomorrow we head off to the first village for medical exams and treatment.