Every once in a while, I’m floored by the passionate poetry U2’s lead singer employs when he sings about heaven.  I was listening to “Electrical Storm” today, which may be the band’s most under-rated song.  Toward the middle, there’s this lyric:

Let’s see colours that have never been seen
Let’s go to places no one else has been

You’re in my mind all of the time
I know that’s not enough
Well if the sky can crack, there must be some way back
To love and only love

Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm
Electrical Storm
Baby don’t cry

It’s not a new song, nor is it the first time I’ve felt tears strain at the corners of my eyes while it was playing.  Maybe it’s being here.  Maybe it’s having just said farewell to good friends.  It gives hope, though, even to a cynic like me, that the biggest rock band in the world can speak openly about heaven’s lightning that struck the earth once in manger, that will one day return to split the sky into a doorway back where we belong.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Even so …

We just said good-bye to our good friends, Phillip & Melissa Summers. It kinda stings, I’m not gonna lie. I’ve been fighting back tears a little. Lord willing, they’ll leave for the U.S. early in the morning. They’re fortunately the type of people that it doesn’t take very long to know, and even less time to love.

We met the Summers when we’d been in the country 20 hours or so. The Wells’ had three couples from the school over for dinner on Saturday night, September 15th, 2007 to help welcome us to the community. I remember that Phillip had just finished climbing a mountain. (Not an uncommon occurrence for him.) The way a couple of people talked about the ferocity with which he tackled climbing left me thinking that he was probably pretty competitive, and wouldn’t likely be one with which I clicked quickly. I’m so glad I was wrong.

Melissa taught English classes at Alliance. She’d done her student teaching here some years back, and when the school had an emergency spot to fill, they called her. She agreed to come down for first semester. Melissa is easily among the 5 sweetest people I’ve ever met.

Phillip started out in Quito volunteering for Samaritan’s Purse, a gig that eventually landed him a job there. Phillip’s a bit of a bohemian, and (as I’ve mentioned here before) has never met a stranger. He may be the most generous guy I’ve known. As it turned out, the mountain-climber was something of a kindred spirit. (By the way, Spanish with a Southern accent is one of my favorite things ever now!)

God does incredible things with us when we surrender. The journeys that He takes us on are often hard, but always good. In His wisdom and kindness us-ward, He saw fit to have the respective journeys of the Sams’ and the Summers’ overlap for just over four months in Quito, Ecuador. For that I am eternally grateful.

A cabby that charged us at least $3 too much to take us to the airport, a room with a toilet that barely worked, next to a huge Catholic church that started in with the bell-flinging long before 6:00 am, and the internal rumblings of what might be another impending round of diverticulitis … all did nothing to dissuade me from my previous opinions of Cuenca, Ecuador. It’s such a beautiful, charming town; full of character and beautiful, friendly people.

Rachel and I were out the door by 5:45 am Saturday morning. Our cab-driver charged us $5, and I was still too asleep to argue. The cab drive back from the airport last night only cost $3, and really it shouldn’t have been more than $2. Oh well. Our flight left just a hair after 7:15. The airline that we flew was Tame, which is the commercial branch of the Ecuadorian Air Force. (I found that amusing.) Both flights were excellent and very comfortable. While it was pretty overcast on Saturday, I still got to see lots of stuff that made me question my previous stance that Colorado and Alaska were the most beautiful places I’d ever seen.

We got into Cuenca at about 8:00 and headed downtown for Hostal Chordeleg, one of the places we’d stayed during our Christmas trip. The guy at the front desk recognized us. Evidently there aren’t that many gringas that speak fluent Spanish with Argentinian accents, accompanied by bald guys who can barely ask where the bathroom is. Anyway, we got this cool room way up in the rafters with a great view across the tile rooftops of Cuenca.

The info that we’d received indicated that the group that my uncle was with was staying at the Hotel Cordero, so we jumped on the phone and asked the lady at the desk if there was a large group of Americans from Kansas there. She sighed deeply, then answered in the affirmative. (I’m just kidding, she told us that they were eating breakfast in the common room.) We headed over. The Cordero was just on the other side of the main square from us, maybe a 8-minute walk at a leisurely pace. We made the connection with my uncle Robert and Wayne Combs (a friend from Kansas City) at about 9:45 or so, just in time to accompany the team on a trip to the Incan ruins at Ingapirca. Rachel translated for Daniel, our guide, who wasn’t really quite as thorough as they guy who took us through during our Christmas trip. Several of the other team members had been there before as well, and with a little prompting, Daniel gave us the whole story. I’m sure he was very tired of us long before it the tour reached an end.

Once we got back to Cuenca (an hour-and-a-half drive), the team had to get ready for a VBS program. Rachel and I opted to stay at our hostel, and rest. Both of us were still feeling the effects of finals week. We were later glad we did, as the team didn’t get back into town until 10:00 p.m. We rested well through the night to the sound of gentle rain falling on the skylight just over our bed, until the bells of Santa Domingo roused us from our slumber. After the first (lengthy) round of ringing died off, I muttered out the side of my pillow “It must be seventy-eight o’clock.” Then I went back to sleep.

After checking out, and grabbing a quick breakfast (I ate my two hard-boiled eggs walking down the street. I got looks. People here don’t do anything else while they eat.), we ran down the road and met up with the group again to go to church. The site where the group has been building/doing VBS is Racar, which is about 25 minutes out of Cuenca, up into the mountains. It’s unbelievably beautiful. We got to meet George and Sherree Wuertz, an American missionary couple who are living in Ecuador now, and also met Geovanny Santos, the pastor of the church at Racar. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. Rachel and I weren’t part of the Kansas team, but everyone made a huge deal of us anyway. I really felt a special connection to Pastor Geovanny in particular.

After the service, the church had a huge lunch for everyone there, featuring a giant, roast pig! The food was amazing. I couldn’t get enough. I really wanted to just go over to the carcass and start grazing, but thought it might be awkward. Rachel and I stood around for several hours, chatting with people from the community. We met many of the church people who’ve been working alongside the team on the building project. It still amazes me that I’m developing the ability to make sounds and noises in another language that people can actually understand.

This trip was very different than our trip to Cuenca over Christmas. During the Christmas trip, we did a lot of the touristy things … saw the museums and churches. This time we spent our time with the people. It really made me realize how much we’ve fallen into the trap of spending most of our time in Quito with other Americans. It’s not intentional, it’s just what’s easy. As is often the case, what’s easy isn’t what’s most beneficial. I hope we can make changes in that pattern, and soon.

Muchísimas gracias to my aunt Donna Fae Tate, who paid for our airline tickets and lodging, and to my uncle Robert, who wouldn’t let us pay for our meals the whole time we were there. We ended up having an out-of-pocket expense of something like $18 for the entire trip. It was a great blessing to be able to see one of my favorite people in the world for the first time in many years!

Lord willing and the crick don’t rise, it looks like we’re headed back to Cuenca this weekend. My uncle from Alaska, whom I’ve not seen for a few years, is currently there with a group from the Kansas district of the Wesleyan Church on a missions project. We thought it would be great to see him, but since money is kind of tight, didn’t think it would work out. My aunt thought otherwise, and donated a sizeable chunk which will pretty much pay for the entire trip.

The first time we’ll have to check actual ticket availability is tomorrow evening. Provided that there’s seats available, we’ll head out Saturday morning, spend the night and come back mid-day on Sunday. The team will have the last half of Saturday free, so we should have several hours to spend time with him.

Thanks to my mom and my aunt for making this possible. It’s a great gift!

…for high school. The whole school has a very strange, somber, and studious air to it. It’s really quiet, too! Compared to the usual cacophony of voices in a multitude of languages and volumes… It feels like a library around here!

I hear kids walking around mumbling algebra equations and lists of science words to themselves. Some have expressions of sheer terror on their faces. Someone walked by listing words that started with the letter P (the only one I remember is platypus). In many ways it is quite comical; but, then again, I remember being in their shoes.

… so I got a hat. My often-shorn dome is about two miles closer to the sun that most of you’n’s.

I just realized that, as of three days ago, we’ve been blogging consistently here for six months! Those of you who’ve ever waited on me for design work know just exactly what a significant thing that is. Know if I could only figure out a way to make the average posts say more than this one …

We also just passed our five-month mark here. Every landmark date like that feels different. In some ways it already feels like we’ve always lived here. In other ways, it seems only yesterday that we were nervously saying our farewells and selling all our earthly possessions. One thing I know is that Ecuador has already left a permanent mark deep on my soul. Perhaps I’ll write more on that later, but I know that even if we left tomorrow and returned to a suburban life somewhere, I would never be the same. And that’s good … it’s very good.

I only missed one day of work with my flu bug. I’m at about 85% today, and getting better all the time.

My second full week of working part-time at the school, and I’ve come down with flu-like symptoms. I’m trying to forget everything I’ve read about all the exotic, tropical diseases that manifest initially as flu-like symptoms. This morning it was takin’ me several minutes to walk from one room to the next. I’m feelin’ a little bit better this afternoon, but I’m definitely stayin’ home all day.

By the way, several of you have expressed concern about Tungurahua (toon - goo - RAH - wah), the volcano who’s impending top blow has been in world news recently. We’re 80 miles away from it, and there’s a lot of mountain between. If the weather were to act very weirdly, I suppose we might get some of the ash plume, but it’s highly unlikely. All that to say that we’re not in any danger.

At 7:10 this morning, our good friends Kurt and Laura Fischer welcomed their third child into the world. William Ronald Fischer made his debut at 7#10oz., and 19″. It’s kinda bittersweet. We’re so happy for them, but really wish we could be there. We better have pix soon!

… I’m employed by Alliance Academy International full-time. I’ll be an assistant to Dave Tieszen, the guy I’ll be replacing next year, as well as doing design work and substitute teaching.

This coming Friday marks the year anniversary of the death of an Alliance student. Giovanny Lara was 15 years old. He succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning due to a malfunctioning water heater last January. Seeing the reactions of the students a year later, I can only imagine the trauma that must have rocked the school a year ago. As I sat in chapel today, seeing his pictures and hearing his stories, I found myself starting to tear up. It really brought back a lot of the stuff I waded through after Seth’s death so many years ago now. Kids with such promise, such vibrant life … cut short so much sooner than makes sense to our limited minds.

Tomorrow, the Hanlin family will arrive in Quito. Mr. Hanlin will be teaching English at the school. I’ll be accompanying a group that will head to the airport to welcome them. It’s an odd feeling to realize that we’ve been here long enough now that it’s not weird to be on the welcome wagon. Wow, do I feel for those people. Maybe they have a better idea what they’re in for than we did.