Your obedience is known to all

Tia Geidi and I!

Yesterday I began my day with another quiet time at the Martin's. I was reading through Romans 16:19&20, "For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." The Lord has gone before me and calls me to seek what is good, pure, and true. After a nice quiet time I read a LeapFrog book with Johnathan and before I knew it I should have been walking out the door for work. I was running late for school...again, but I made it up there in time for instructions. We spent all morning doing lice treatments with the kids, I turned in my grades, and spent time hanging out with the kids. I got a ride home for lunch and Tandy made me a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich before I went over to the guest house. Then I jumped on the bus with the team for a Baños getaway! As I predicted shortly after taking off I fell asleep and before I knew it, it was around 3pm and we were there. The hotel I stayed at was right near the Holy Water waterfall and springs. It was a beautiful view. We toured the town and did some shopping before supper. I enjoyed the best burger in Ecuador complete with bacon, pulled pork, a fried egg, avocado, and caramelized onions, yum! Following supper we found a Nice Cream heladoria and walked around the town. It has been a huge blessing getting to spend time with some of my Cobber friends and getting to

Jocelyn, Eric, Morgan, and I posing
for our events...Cobber track!

know them more, they are wonderful folks. I was off to bed early, because some people were planning on hiking and I wanted to go with. I must have been nervous my alarm wouldn't go off and I would oversleep, because I woke up several times in the middle of the night to check the time. As usual I woke up at six in the morning, I guess sleeping in would not have been an issue. This morning those of us that wanted to go met up at 7am and hiked up the the Statue of the Virgin Mary. Most of the group was booking it, but I was taking my time. We took stairs up, they are kind of how I imagine the Great Wall of China and it felt like it at time too! There were about 500 stairs (somebody was counting them), then we walked over to the trail and followed it down. I descended slow in order to take in the sights, beautiful smells, and flowers! It was beautiful and all too often I miss those beautiful sights right beside me. When we got back to the hotel, I had breakfast with Patti Sue, then ran a few errands before heading home to Shell. I rode with Patti Sue and she gave me a tour along the way. She took the original road around one of the tunnels to show me what it used to be like getting to Shell, it would have been scary on a gravel road and no banister to keep cars from going over the

Standing on a banister with Baños in the background!

edge, it was a unique experience. We also madea pit stop just outside the town of Rio Negro and she showed me a huge waterfall, now I want to take a trip there to hike down it sometime! I made it back around one o'clock and headed straight over to Jason's surprise birthday party. I missed the surprise part of it, but spent the rest of the afternoon with the missionaries at the Hosteria Shell pool. Around 4:30 I helped clean up, headed over to Dwight and Tandy's, and loaded up my stuff to move. I have been hesitant about moving and not really wanting to, because I was so comfortable where I was at. The house I was living in has been my home here in Ecuador and I liked it a lot, but life is not always about being comfortable. Moving is an opportunity for me to step away form what is comfortable and let God be in control. I know the Lord is going to use this time to continue growing me in faith and trusting where He has me in every aspect of life whether it be physically, geographically, of emotionally. Once Jocelyn and I got everything in to our house we walked around town for a little bit. Before calling it a night I hung up a bunch of blankets as curtains in my bedroom and living room.