In the community

One of our passions is to be involved in the lives of people at the everyday level. This past week Graham's assistant, Hermann Schirmacher and a couple of others, headed out to a little village called Pichan to lead in some Bible studies and teach basic electrical wiring skills to the people there. HCJB Global has worked in this area for a while, providing clean water systems and discipleship. If you want to see more pictures of Hermann's trip click on the link on the right of this page (the text will be in German, but the pictures are in English!).

Getting ready for Christmas

Sharon and I headed out to do some last minute Christmas shopping this AM. We noticed several things that make the Ecuadorian experience very distinct to the Canadian experience.

1. No sales - yeah, forget about even 10% off. It just doesn't happen here.

2. Buying paper - check out these photos. You can by wrapping paper in the mall, but it is more expensive. This was on the sidewalk outside a hardware store.


3. Temperature - according to the sign at the mall, it was 18 degrees C. Nice warm sunny day here right now, but dark rain clouds are forming. I see on the Weather Network that southern Ontario is about -16 right now . . .

4. Greater emphasis on the Nativity and birth of Jesus. He is at least, if not more, as prominent as Santa.

So, there are lots of bonuses of not having the white Christmas we are used to!

The gifts of God

At Christmas we often think of God's gift, especially that of Jesus whose birth we celebrate in just a little bit more than a week. But there are other gifts for which we need to be thankful.

This past Thursday through Saturday, our local radio station here in Quito (and the one on the coast in Guayaquil) celebrated "Mision Compartida" (Shared Mission). The purpose of this is to strengthen the relationship between the ministry and the listeners, to raise funds for the coming year, and to call the local church into greater participation in the Great Commission.

As we ask our listeners to donate to the radio ministry, we often get very unusual gifts. The video shows one such gift. We received about 500 donated chics, and they were consequently sold with the proceeds going to the radio ministry.

We thought you'd enjoy seeing this to help give a little bit better perspecive of some of our reality, and because it is so cute.

Happy Thanksgiving

Just dropping in to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. OK, a Happy US Thanksgiving (us Canucks celebrated in October, but I never turn down an opportunity to be thankful and eat turkey - and take a couple of vacation days!). And I know, for most Americans, Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, so we are late. But I think it is a general Canadian mindset for our Thanksgiving that it is the whole weekend, not just the Monday.

Regardless, and albeit late, Happy Thanksgiving. Now, let's break out the Christmas tunes!

Update on shooting incident

According to the Ecuadorian newspaper "El Comercio," the four men involved in the excitement on Monday (two of whom we saw arrested, two escaped) are now all in custody. Apparently they had robbed a store manager making a deposit of $21,500. So now we know the rest of the story!

Exciting trip! (too exciting)

On Monday, Graham and two colleagues (Doug, Director of Media Ministries and Barry, Director of Information Systems Ministries) headed off to Shell to visit with the team there (HCJB Global has a hospital in Shell, on the edge of the jungle). While coming to the end of a bypass around the city of Ambato, they were suddenly passed by four guys on two motorcycles. Suddenly, around the corner, the police threw up a barricade. Graham came to a stop, one of the motorcycles went around the barricade, and the other motorcycle went down sliding into the barricade. Police immediately converged on the down bike and it's two occupants, and waved Graham and the others on. Meanwhile a couple of police on motorcycles and in a pickup truck pursued the motorcycle that had not stopped. "Wow, that was exciting."

A hundred yards later they suddenly heard gunshots (see video) and were ordered by the police out of the van and to lie down on the road. It seems the police caught up with the other motorcyle on the bridge you see in the video and they were exchanging gunfire with the guys who refused to stop. Approximately 8 shots were fired in all. In the video - at the very beginning - you hear one ricochet and police sirens. This was the end of the shooting (by the time Graham and the others were ordered out of the van it was almost over). But you can clearly see a white pickup (police truck) going across the bridge while the guys are scrambling to get out of the van (and you will hear Graham putting the parking brake on - safety first!).

We never did hear what the cause of the chase was or the eventual outcome. But God clearly protected us; a few seconds sooner and we would have been on that bridge when the shooting was happening. Life is never boring . . . .

HNIC and Thanksgiving

Wow. I was reading the news on cbc.ca and discovered there is a new theme for Hockey Night in Canada (not that it actually helped the Leafs on Saturday night . . . ). I did watch with interest as the great Canadian debate ensued last spring with the loss of the old theme. I don't understand why another network would pay so much $$$ for it when it will - for at least one generation of hockey fans - be associated with the CBC HNIC. Oh well, what do I know.

I'm curious - what do you think of the new theme? I listened to it several times and, well, it's not the same, but it is kinda catchy. Do you like it? What are people at Tim's (ah, Tim's . . . hmmm I could go for one right now!) saying?

Like I said, I'm just curious and we are soooo out of the loop. And, oh yeah, HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING, EH!