The Pioneer Meeting

In February we had our Circuit Overseer Visit and Pioneer Meeting.  The Circuit Overseer also had a substitute CO and they happen to have been serving here from Oregon, Mark and Tess Lange.  We had the privilege of having them stay with us and really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing about their experiences of serving in Ecuador.  I have to admit it was also nice to get a ride to all of the meetings, in fact we got so used to it we were late to every meeting for the next two weeks!!!
In our congregation we have about 16 pioneers and a couple of regular auxiliary pioneers, and about 50 publishers total! During the pioneer meeting it started to rain so hard that we could not hear Mark talking! We all had to move our chairs as close as possible to the stage so we could hear him.

Mark & Tess are in the back standing.

Most of our pioneers are single and have been in the truth about 2-3 years.

We have such an awesome group pioneering, we all really have a good time together and to see the sacrifices our younger brothers and sisters make to be out in the ministry full time is really amazing! Many of them have given up higher education and work as fishermen making next to nothing for a daily wage and yet all of them have such a huge smile on their face every day!

Sunsets in Puerto Cayo

I have to show everyone just how beautiful it can be when the sun is setting down here.

The Zone Visit

The Puerto Cayo Congregation was invited to the zone visit in Guayaquil, which was held in an open air soccer stadium, and about 40,000 people were in attendance.  We left our house at 4:45am to catch a bus in the town center at 5am.  The whole congregation hired a bus to take us to Guayaquil which is about 3hours away.  It was so hot and humid at the stadium because it had rained the day before, yet you have to give credit to how good the kids were during the program.  Ok I have to admit that the adults need some credit for this one too, because even with an umbrella you were still dripping in sweat from the heat and humidity!
All in all it was pretty encouraging to spend time with our brothers and sisters enjoying their friendship and knowing that for many paying the few dollars for each person in their family to take a bus to Guayaquil was a huge expense for them.  Yet they viewed this spiritual privilege as something they did not want to miss.

The stadium.

A sea of umbrellas!

Alion and Kevin.

Worn out from the long day!

Preaching in Galan

Preaching in Galan, can be a little bit of an adventure and at the same time can be quite a task on any normal day.  That is if it's a normal day of sun and dry weather....  If this is the case you are walking for about 5 or 6 miles on trails and dusty dirt roads only to find a few homes,a school, some pigs and maybe a few people.  Although a lot of walking is required there are a few very interested people including the school teacher, who will usually take time out of her day to stop and talk with us.
On one particular morning the group decided to go to Galan for preaching, everyone expected it to be a little bit muddy, because of all of the rain that we had been having.  But I don't think anyone really expected it to be quite as wet as the pictures below show!

On the trail to Galan.

 

 

Mark helping Zoe across the river, there were about  12 river crossings that morning.

Brian and Zeph

Notice where the water is on Zeph, he's wearing the hat!

Zeph and Zoe fell all the way in!