Ecuador - 2011

Church Construction in Ecuador Missionaries: David and Celia Olson, and Mike and Suzette Escoe January 31 – February 7, 2011

Background

Two of us from Centerpointe Church, Nelson Rodriguez and I, Henry Weigel, had signed up for a construction missions trip to Haiti to have taken place in January 2011. This trip had been organized by Bobby Basham, the Assembly of God Potomac District Men's Ministry Director. In early January we were informed that due to political unrest, the trip had been postponed until October, 2011. But, another missions trip to Ecuador was in the making. Nelson and I both opted to take advantage of this opportunity.

Travel and People

David Olson had announced the need for missions teams to go to Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador to construct a church building for a poor community on the West Coast of Ecuador. Bill Fout, a pastor from West Virginia had honored that call and had formed a team but needed two more people. Nelson and I were an answer to his prayers, especially Nelson. Nelson speaks fluent Spanish and was needed to help with the communication enroute to and at the work site. In fact, he interpreted for Bill when he spoke at the Thursday evening service. In addition to Bill, the West Virginia team consisted of Brad, David, Gene, Kent, Lee, Mack, and Rodney. They were a delightful and hard-working group of men with whom Nelson and I had the pleasure to be associated.

The travel to Bahia was quite a journey. We embarked from Washington Dulles (IAD) via Avianca Airlines and flew to Bogotá, Colombia – a five and a half hour flight. Then a one and a half hour flight from Bogotá to Quito, Ecuador. We spent the night at a bed and breakfast place run by a Christian family. Quito is in the Andes mountains at an elevation of about 1.8 miles. It is in a valley about 30 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide. The temperature was in the mid 50's F. The next morning we flew to Manta, a town on the West Coast, from there we went on a one and a half hour ride in a van to Bahia. It was late afternoon so did not start work until the next day.

In Quito we met up with David Olson, Mike and Suzette Escoe. They had made the travel arrangements, as well as the work organization for the church construction for Pastor Giovani and his wife. They presently live above the building where their church services are being held. There is one lot between them and the new church building.

The owner of the bed and breakfast is a Gideon brother as am I. I had taken a number of Gideon Testaments (New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs) and handed out about 15 of them – some Spanish and others English. It always amazes me at the willingness of people to receive the Word of God and the joy with which many accept it.

The Project

Our mornings started with a devotional time with the whole team. Bill had asked me to give the devotional one morning focusing on God's grace to my family when our dad got separated from us as we were fleeing from our home in Hungary in late 1944 ahead of the advancing Soviet army. I also called attention to the milestones in our lives marked by trials in which when trusting God we experience His grace. We can look back on these milestones of God's grace and draw strength in order to go forward under new trials.

The foundation of the new building was in place and several columns around the perimeter had been erected. Our job was to put up the roof and pour concrete for the floor. If time permitted we would also lay bricks for the walls. The steel roof trusses were erected and welded to plates on the concrete columns, the purlins were welded to the trusses, and the corrugated sheet metal roof was fastened to the purlins. The floor needed much preparation work before the concrete could be poured. Large rocks and gravel were put in place allowing for sufficient space for concrete to cover. We mixed the concrete in a portable gasoline operated mixer and used wheelbarrows to haul it to the floor-site to be poured out. We also had time to start on laying bricks. The bricks were non-standard, some wider than others. The local foreman told us to lay the bricks on edge rather than flat. This covers more wall surface area, but is more difficult to do – especially with non-standard bricks. As I discovered before when I worked with blocks that were non-standard, mortar is like love, it covers a multitude of sins.

The Weather

This was the rainy season in Ecuador. In addition to possible rain it was hot and humid so that our strength was sapped steadily. The possible rain was a problem as that would hinder our work progress if rain poured down during the day. As a number of churches were represented on this team, we had our Church Families support us in prayer, for safety, traveling mercies and good weather. The Lord was gracious to us. I was asked by our church administrator about the rainy season. My response was that if it needs to rain, let it rain at night. We thank the Lord for the prayers of the saints and for His grace because it did rain at night – not during the day while we were working. On our last day there we worked half a day. It occurred to me that it would be something if it rained in the afternoon when we were done working. After lunch we had a short dedication service under the roof our team had erected, and while we were there the rain poured forth. It came in bucketfuls! And we were in awe of the grace of our God.

Homeward Bound – Maybe

Going home also required two days of travel. We left Bahia Saturday afternoon (Feb 5) by van for Manta to spend the night there so that we could take an early flight to Quito. This would allow us some time in Quito to do a little shopping Sunday afternoon. When we arrived at the airport Sunday morning we were told that our flight was cancelled. There was not much we could do. The airline had not called our people to inform them of this cancellation. We spent the day in the lobby of a very nice Howard Johnson Hotel, where we also had a super lunch. As they had wireless connection to the Internet some of us made use of it to call home via Skype. I was able to talk to Pastor Bob Rhoden that Sunday morning before he went into the service to preach. He had the Church Family lift us up in prayer – for which we were thankful. We did manage to get on the evening flight and arrived in Quito quite late. We again stayed at the bed and breakfast, as before. It was a short night as we had to get up at 3:00 AM to get to the airport in a timely fashion. Thanks be unto our God who watched over us and brought us home at the scheduled time.

Thanks to David Olson and Bill Fout for organizing this trip. Also thanks to Mike and Suzette Escoe for making local arrangements and helping with the work. May the readers of this report be encouraged to support our missionaries and their ministry. For the King and His Kingdom,

— Henry Weigel