April Prayer Letter

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19 v 14

Here's a diary of the past month or so...it's been busy!!

Feb/March	Travelling with my parents around Ecuador.
Mar 9th	Parents leave in the early morning, start to pack up the Quito apartment
Mar 11th - 13th	get a lift down to Shell with Bruce, director of Water Projects with my many bags. Working in the Shell water projects office, shopping in the hardware store for tools for the Mutints water project, unpacking and settling into my little house on the HCJB compound behind the hospital. Katrina, my Quito buddy, arrives in the evening to spend her last weekend in Ecuador with me. Privileged!
Mar 14th	Katrina and I end up in Banos, a town about an hour away from Shell and signed up to do “canyoning” which turns out to be abseiling down cliffs. Due to my spectacular lack of balance I get a few pretty impressive bruises.
Mar 15th	quiet day in Shell, packing and preparing to leave for my first jungle trip in the morning
Mar 16th	wave Katrina off at the bus stop, we've become such good friends during the past 6 months, it is gutting to see her go but also am thankful and amazed at God's provision and timing for our time in Ecuador. Get to MAF for around 7am and weigh our bags. I'm flying into Makuma with Alex and her 6 month old baby, Benjamin. Slight delay with MAF so I get to go back to bed for a few hours. Fly to Makuma in the afternoon, it's very exciting to be flying over the jungle. It really does look like broccoli from the air. Makuma is about 40 mins flight from Shell. On arrival we stay the night in a missionary's house.
Mar 17th	We walk an hour to Amazonas where an HCJB water project is entering its final stages. Alex chats with the president of the water committee and informs him of how much sand and stone the community will need to collect so that some more concrete works can be finished. Start reading “Through Gates of Splendour” this evening.
Mar 18th	Wake up to rain, rain and more rain, we wait 'til the rain stopped and then begin the three hour walk through the jungle to Mutints. Have to balance on slippery logs and trudge through mud. I fall in a stream up to my waist, I like to provide comic relief. Arrive in Mutints around 4.30pm and set up our mosquito net and roll mats in the community centre. The community provide us with dinner. The stars, through the breaks in the cloud, are breathtaking.
Mar 19th	Visit the spring site, about a kilometre from the community, water gushes from a rocky outcrop. The spring capture area will be quite small yet there is sufficient water for the community. After the visit, we hold a meeting in the community kitchen, a palm leaf thatched house. I describe the work we would start when I return to the community and that I will be bringing three “colleagues”, a doctor, a water engineer and a nurse! We are provided with a feast for lunch, yuca (a root vegetable, also called cassava), varieties of potato, fish, plantain...and beetle larvae. I eat two, it has a strange, sharp taste with a rubbery texture. We walk out later in the day and I finish “Through Gates of Splendour”.
Mar 20th	we spend the morning waiting for MAF, back to Shell in the early evening.
Mar 21st - 22nd	Recovering, Sunday lunch with Martha, the lady I lived with previously in Shell.
Mar 23rd	sick once again with some variety of stomach bug
Mar 24th	shopping for materials and tools for Mutints, work in the office in prep for the next visit.
Mar 25th	bus to Quito, 5 hours, to pick up my friends Alison and Sue from the airport. Whilst waiting for a taxi at 8.30pm on the street, I watch helplessly as a man was mugged about 20m from me. Quito feels especially unsafe after being in Shell. So lovely to see my friends arrive at the airport. Also lovely to be back in Quito to stay with the Harrisons again.
Mar 26th	straight into tourist mode, we catch a flight to the coast and a 3 hr bus ride to Puerto Lopez. Book a tour to Isla de la Plata or “Poor Man's Galapagos”, find a hotel and swim, briefly, in the Pacific.
Mar 27th	all day boat trip to the island to see a lot of the birds which are found on the Galapagos. Also spotted a school of dolphins and snorkelled with tropical fish.
Mar 28th	Back to Quito, lunch then bus to Shell.
Mar 29th	ahhh, peaceful Sunday.
Mar 30th	back to the jungle, we fly in the morning to Makuma and then make the journey to Mutints. We are accompanied by Sarah, a Swiss nurse who has been working in Shell for nearly a year and who will help with the project for a month. Lots of the community have come to carry materials and help with our bags. In the evening, I introduce Alison (doctor), Sue (water engineer) and Sarah to the community and explain the work we will be undertaking.
Mar 31st	We start the morning at 7am, I lead devotions in the schoolhouse, speaking briefly on our need for Jesus, water of life. We make our way to the spring site and I set the men to work on carving out a channel in the rock, the first part of the spring capture exercise. I begin a topographical survey of the 1km route between the spring and the community. Sue has to return to the community as she is struck down by some kind of bug. Alison doctors her while Sarah and I complete the survey by lunchtime. In the afternoon, we help with school. I tell the children the story of Palm Sunday and we make paper crowns saying “Jesus is King”. We play games, teach them some songs. We also do some geography! Alison talks a bit about the UK and we show them the Union Jack and a picture of the Queen!
Apr 1st	In devotions I speak on the need for clean bodies and clean hearts. Clemente, HCJB technician arrived yesterday evening to help with the work. Mutints is his own community so he is keen to get started on the work. We construct a small concrete wall as part of the spring capture. We offer that anyone who would like to see Alison, the doctor, can do so. We request that they come in daylight hours so that she can inspect them more easily, there is no electricity in the community. One lady comes with her baby who has a chest infection. At night there is a spectacular storm where the lightning lights the whole landscape up as bright as day.
Apr 2nd	This morning in devotions, I explain how we can get the water of life, how we can have clean hearts through acceptance of Christ's sacrifice. Work continues to sieve gravel for use as a filter at the spring capture. I spot a fish in the supposed “spring”, this isn't a good sign. We work on the shore of a river pausing every now and then to scramble out of the way as a tree is felled to retrieve guava fruit or whilst someone goes off to cut some palmito, the soft centre of palm stems, used in cooking (consistency of cooked egg white). I, inevitably, fall in the river. In the afternoon, the girls teach English, tell the Easter story and play games with the children. I return to the spring site to complete the capture. We mix concrete under a tarp as there's a downpour that soaks us through. We had reiterated the offer of a health check up at lunchtime. Around 6pm the first lady arrives with her baby for a check-up, followed by almost the whole community. Alison and Sarah work by candlelight, diagnosing and dispensing medicines. Sue, meanwhile, gives me a lesson in water engineering.
Apr 3rd	We give our thanks to the community for their hospitality at breakfast and start the walk out to Makuma at about 8.45am. By 3pm we are back in my house in Shell. Sarah stays in Makuma and will go back to Mutints by herself for Easter week.
Apr 4th	Recovery! Then purchase of materials and construction of a cake... (I'm an engineer!)
Apr 5th	Alison's and my birthday, we were born the same year too! We have cake for breakfast. Later in the day we visit the hot baths in Banos.
Apr 6th	In the morning, Alison and I are given a tour of the hospital. Then it's tourist mode again, we do white water rafting on the Pastaza river which is great fun. In Banos, I do a bridge jump...
Apr 7th	bus back to Quito
Apr 8th	sight seeing around the Old Town in Quito and souvenir shopping.
Apr 9th	Sue and Alison leave in the early morning. It has felt very normal to have my two good friends here, it now feels strange that they aren't here. I have some admin tasks to do, including writing this prayer letter. Tomorrow, I will go and see the Good Friday procession in the Old Town before making my way back to Shell. Back to the jungle again on Tuesday to continue with the project.

Praise and Prayer Points

• Praise God that non-Ecuadorian pilots with MAF have been permitted to fly for the next 1-2 years.

• Praise God for safety on the trips so far into the jungle. Please pray for continued safety and health, stomach bugs hit with unpleasant frequency.

• Please pray as Sarah and I take devotions on the work days in the community, please pray we will be clear in our presentation of Christ and in our example of him in how we live.

• Please pray for the practical work with the water project, that it will be successful. I have some doubts over the purity of the water source and will be doing some tests.

THANKYOU for all the birthday cards, gifts and greetings I received!!

Happy Easter!

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us Romans 5 v 8