Day 39 and 40 in Ecuador

The view at the Pyramids.

Wow. What an amazing two days God provided. Let's start at the beginning! Mejia picked Dale and I up around 7:30 am on Sunday morning (an hour later than we were expecting, but we have gotten used to that). We first headed to some Pyramids in Ecuador called Cochasqui. It was fun to learn about these pyramids, some which contained 600 heads, and also good practice to try and understand our tour guide who only spoke Spanish. The view was also incredible as you can tell from the pictures.

The market in Otavalo

After our tour, we headed to an indigenous town named Otavalo. Here we looked around at a big market they had and also ate a delicious ham sandwich for lunch. Close to this town was a really cool waterfall that Mejia wanted to take us too. This waterfall was definitely the best one I have ever been too, mom I know you would have loved it. When we were there, Mejia convinced us to actually go into the waterfall, which seemed crazy because it was cold and we didn't have our swimsuits. Nevertheless, we had to go in. It was definitely very cold but we were so glad we went in. We convinced Mejia and his brother Alejo (I forgot to mention he was with us the whole day as well) to come in as well. Dale took some awesome GoPro videos of us in the waterfall. We had a blast here, definitely one of our favorite parts of this mini trip. On top of that, on the way out I found a place that was selling 7 cheese empanadas for $1 (the other option was 1 for 50 cents so obviously I bought 7).

We then made our way to a lake, Laguna de Cuicocha, that was in the crater of a volcano. This was another awesome experience, the views were incredible. We ended up taking a boat out on the lake, which was above an active volcano. You can tell from pictures how amazing this lake was.

Laguna de Cuicocha

Finally after our day of travels, we made our way to Mejia's country home. Here we ate some delicious Ceviche made by his mom. After dinner, we walked around the house a bit and played a quick game of basketball before heading to bed.

Although we had so many great adventures and travels in one day, I was somewhat disappointed in the day. I was really looking forward to this weekend as an opportunity to get to talk about our faith more with Mejia, but Sunday that didn't happen at all. As I was going to bed, I realized that I needed to trust in God's timing and that He will provide opportunities for Dale and I.

The view from Mejia's country home.

The next morning, prayers already were being answered. We got up and Dale had brought out his bible to do some reading. Mejia then asked Dale if he reads his bible every morning to which Dale replied that he tries to. This sparked some good conversation about the bible and his favorite Psalm (Psalm 23) and his favorite passage. Once we were done talking, Dale and I went to pray for the day and both talked about how we had been feeling disappointed the night before. We prayed again that we would trust in God's timing and that we would be obedient to anymore opportunities to share about Christ.

We then went outside to pick Mora so that Mejia's mom could make some Jugo de Mora (which was very delicious). Mejia then gave us a tour of his home. It was really awesome to get to experience this sweet home. It has a beautiful view of the mountains, delicious fruit, and some awesome animals (we even were able to see two chickens fight). We then ate breakfast and then went outside to pick some more fruit to eat and take back to Mabe and Fabi. Here we got to talk to Mejia about church and here his thoughts on church while also being able to share how we value church. Mejia doesn't normally go to church because he doesn't view it as necessary to have a relationship with God. I told him why I value church and eventually we invited him to go to the church we go to, so hopefully that will be able to happen in the next two weeks.

Once we were done picking, we thanked his parents for their very good hospitality, and left to go see Mejia's horse, Bambino. This horse was in the middle of a field that was owned by Mejia's dad. This field had another beautiful view of the mountains and had more delicious fruit, such as pears and oranges. After seeing his horse and feeding it some panela, we left to go see his uncle's horse, which also has a baby horse.

Mejia's dad in the middle

After our excursions with the horses, we made our way to the hot springs. These were different than the ones we had gone to last year, but they were still awesome. We had a blast hanging out with Mejia and Alejo here, even playing chicken in one of the pools. We then left to go eat some food at a mall close by. After we were done eating, we sat around for a little bit more and had some more good conversations. One great point Mejia had made was that God's timing is perfect.

Finally, we made the 2 hour trek back into Quito. During a lot of our travels, we had been listening to music and not talking much, but on our way back we ended up having one of our best conversations. Dale had asked Alejo what he believed and Alejo responded by saying that he wasn't very religious. After this, Dale and I were able to share about what we believe and even share briefly the Gospel message. Mejia knows and believes in what we were saying and even was saying how he prays every night that his brother would come to accept Christ, but that he also knows that God's timing is perfect. It was really cool to be able to have these conversations and to find out what Mejia believes in.

This whole trip was so good. God worked in so many ways, despite my weaknesses and failures. It was awesome to see and hear that Mejia believes in God and the Gospel. Mejia is very wise and Dale and I were talking about how we even learned more about God from Mejia during this trip. God's timing is perfect, so true yet something I forget often. It was also awesome that we had the opportunity to share the Gospel in front of Alejo and that hopefully this will be one of the stepping stones that leads to him accepting Christ.

Praise God for these past two days. I can't put into words how awesome this trip was and how much praise God deserves. Thank you all so much for your prayers, they are so powerful!

Dios Bendiga,
Nico