Him We Proclaim

Week of March 21st [Jonathan] Ok, so it wasn't black but it did have over three bags full! On Tuesday we walked down the valley to Chilcapamba to Juana's house. We had earlier helped her wash her sheep, and now it was a perfect day to take some shears to it. We met Juana at her parents place and were fed a hot breakfast of salty oatmeal mixed with potatoes, barley flour, and a piece of beef. We ate as we sat in the building that functions as a cooking area, 'kitchen' would not be the word to describe the cement block building with open windows, no doors, and a fire on the floor. Juana's dad hurried us to finish our meal. We stepped back outside onto their cement patio where he had tied the sheep. We pushed it onto it's side and tied it's feet together. Then came the process of slowly but surely cutting the wool off of the sheep, making sure we kept it all in one large piece. We used kitchen scissors, and with two and sometimes three of us working on it we go...

Friday morning, Jonathan woke up at 5:30 with a stomach ache. It was so bad, that he had to stay in bed all day. We really don't know what it could be from, but we are guessing that it either has something to do with the Ecuadorian Pizza or water. Considering Jonathan was out for the day, I had quite the experiences. I had to take our bike--which has a permanently flat tire and the chain comes off the gear every 5 minutes-- into town to make copies of our language lesson. I'm proud to say that despite the embarrassment caused by the bike, I was able to get the copies I needed and a Sprite for Jonathan with my Spanish skills. It was quite an endeavor because I had to follow directions to another copy center because the place we went before was closed. In addition to using my Spanish there, I also met with Bertha, our Language teacher, for an hour. I had to communicate instructions to her with my mad pointing skills and Spanglish. Somehow, it worked out. I was rather happy about ...

[Jonathan] Where are you going? This standard greeting in Salasaca is rolling around in my head with about a dozen others like a song that, no matter what, you can't get out of your head. Language learning has bee really good and my comprehension and speaking abilities have jumped an enormous amount since we've been here in the past less-than-a-week. Maggie and I helped wash one of the Co-translator's sheep in a ditch so that they could shear it in several days. We each held a leg, and one man held the sheep by the ears, and there it was, laying on it's back as we scrubbed it with laundry soap (Which I reflectively thought appropriate). That was a very neat new experience. I have been working on a study to give to the youth on Sunday--we'll be going over basics of Christianity, starting with what the Gospel is all about. I feel like this is an ambigous term for so many people, when it is the core of our faith! So we will be covering Rom 1:1-6 this week, and probably...

[Maggie] At last, we are finally in Salasaca, Ecaudor. I have been waiting to do my internship for quite a while, and it officially started today. We left Latacunga Saturday afternoon to drive down to Ambato, where the missionaries we are working with live (they are the Salay family). We had dinner with them before heading over to our little place in Manzanapamba Chico area of Salasaca. Manazanapamba Chico means "the small apple valley". It is so beautiful here; as far as you can see are little fields of crops and little homes. It is great. Today we went to the Quichua church service. Shedd and Chris Waskosky, two other missionsaries, took us to church. It was suppposed to start at nine, but when we arrived at 9:05, we were the first to arrive. The service actually started about 20 minutes later. I'm glad I will never be late. More and more people arrived as the service proceeded. We sang several songs in Spanish and Quichua. Jonathan and Larry did a good job of letting m...

Salasaca is located South of Ambato on the way to the city of Banos. According to The Joshua Project there are 16,000 Salasacan Quichuas, and we know that there are only two evangelical churches. The majority of the area is syncretistic Roman Catholic. For the linguists out there, Salasacan Quichua is lexically distinct from Chimborazo Quichua (who already have a Bible in their language). For the rest of us, this means that the vocabulary of the two dialects of Quichua is different, resulting in the need of a Bible translation specific to the Salasacan Quichua people. The Bible translation project began 20+ years ago, and it is this project that Maggie will be working with. The two missionary families in the translation team are the only missionaries working with the Salasacan Quichua people and the church. Maggie and I are excited to work with these missionaries in the translation project and the church. We hope to learn a lot about a new culture, new language, and the same ...

[Maggie] Jonathan and I have now been married for 20 days, and we have been traveling since we left the Church. First it was to Florida for the wonderful honeymoon, then to Georgia to pack up the rest of my things. Then it was a trip up to northwest Georgia to explore a cave. Then 6 hours later, we were in Ohio for a few nights... just long enough to unpack from Georgia, pull or stuff out of storage, and pack again. Finally, we made it to Ecuador on Tuesday evening. We are so thankful to be here in Ecuador for me to complete my internship. I am just 6 weeks away from graduating and couldn't be more excited. We are both ecstatic about doing my internship in Salasaca. I will be able to do some linguistics work, and Jonathan will get to work with the church. It couldn't be a better match. We can't wait till Saturday when we actually get to settle down for a little while. We hope that this blog will allow you to be a part of our trip and allow God to teach you as He teaches us....