Family Update

Birthday season is over at the Barton house.  Our August birthday boys got their final celebrating in.  Isaac had a party with his friends back in June, so we did a family party with cherry cupcakes.  He is already looking forward to his next birthday!

Samuel celebrated with a canyoning trip with the older boys in his school.  The rapelled down five water falls.  We finished with flan-chocolate cake at home.

This year was the last first day at Nate Saint for our boys.  Everyone ended up in their Nate Saint shirts, although I don't think anyone planned ahead.  There was a lot of running around and finding clothes in brothers' closets.  Crazy morning, especially since Paul was out of town.

There's a girl at our house!  Naomi is back and we are taking care of her until she can get surgery to reverse her ileostomy.  If you would like to donate towards her surgery, see lacasadefe.org.

"Therapy" is more fun with Nathan!

Josiah is especially taken with Naomi.  

VBS: The Armor of God

This year the theme for VBS at our church in Mera was "The Soldier of God."  The curriculum paired a Bible story with each piece of the armor of God talked about in Ephesians.  For  example, the story of Esther, who God used to save the Jews from genocide, was associated with the helmet of salvation.  We were in charge of the crafts.  It was a challenge to find things that were unique, appealed to the whole age range (Pre-K to 7th grade) and were economical.  With a little help from the Internet and Oriental Trading Company, I think we pulled it off.  The first day we made helmets out of strips of paper, decorated by the kids, then attached a mouth piece.  Our boys participated in their own classes, for the most part.  Isaac went with Josiah so he had a buddy and Nathan preferred helping with the crafts.  Samuel was in the oldest class.

The second day we decorated slap bracelets with Bible verses to remind us of belt of truth (and forgot the camera.)  Turns out we could have done that for the Sword of the Spirit because the boys at least, quickly used their bracelets as swords.  The kids really enjoyed this and many were still wearing their bracelets at the end of the week.  Next up was "Shoes of the Gospel."  Rather than try to figure out how to make shoes, we decorated cross necklaces to remind us of the Gospel.

On Thursday we made "Shields of Faith" from foam sheets, stickers and markers.


















We used the shorter activity time of the last day to do scratch art.  Oriental Trading Company has a whole set of Armor of God scratch art shapes.  Some kids scraped off all the black so only the underlying color remained and others scratched designs.  This is a favorite craft and several folks remembered doing something similar four years ago.  The week concluded with a final program.   We were proud of all of our boys for going up with their classes and participating in the songs.  Samuel even got a special award for his hard work memorizing Bible verses in Spanish.  The only thing that made us sad is that we won't be here next year to participate again.

Birthdays

Nathan turned 9 this Spring.  He wanted a Wipeout party and Paul went above and beyond to make it happen.  It's not quite as easy here sometimes because there aren't Targets and Party Citys with lots of inexpensive party items.  But our huge compound yard and mild weather turned out to be a big asset.  We also called on neighboring adults and older kids to help bombard contestants with water balloons, squirters, silly string, etc.  Here are some shots of the Wipeout Course.  We are having technical difficulties uploading the video, but will keep trying.

Josiah had a Underwater Party with his friends.  It was more low-key than our Wipeout party, but it was just what he wanted and he and his friends enjoyed their pool afternoon and pizza and cake at our house afterwards.

Isaac and Samuel don't have birthdays until August, but did a bit of early celebrating.  Two of Isaac's preschool  buddies leave this summer.  Here are the boys with their teacher, Miss Sharon and Isaac at his early Cars 2 party.

Samuel had a pool day at the local wave pool with a friend who will also turn 11 in August, but will be in the States on furlough at that time.

San Lorenzo

For most of our time here in Shell, Paul has occasionally visited another clinic on the Northern coast of Ecuador to help a missionary surgeon who has a small clinic and operated one week out of every month.  This Spring, the rest of us were able to go with Paul.  The kids brought their week of school work with them.  They weren't too thrilled about Mom being their teacher, but we got it all done.  We stayed in a house next to the clinic and slept under mosquito nets - a new experience for us.

One difference we noticed in San Lorenzo was that we stood out!  A LOT!  Shell has had missionaries for so long, that no one gives us a second look.  But in San Lorenzo we had kids at the windows of the house where we stayed all day long and we won many more curious looks when we ventured out from the clinic compound.  One of the beautiful results of this was that after we finished school work, our boys played with these kids and they all made new friends, especially with the kids of a family of 6 kids, most of whom are boys.  Here they are with their new friends.

Paul had a busy week of surgery and I was able to fit in a couple of pediatric visits with the children of some of the staff.  Paul plans to go back most months for the surgery week and maybe we'll have another chance to go back as a family.

Naomi

About a month ago, a baby girl was dropped off at Casa de Fe by a woman who said she was 10 months old and left a can of formula.  Other than that, we don't know anything about her.  She weighed about 10 pounds and on exam, she has a colostomy due to a congenital condition causing a blockage in her intestinal tract.  The area around the colostomy was red and irritated and bleeding, much like a terrible diaper rash.  After a brief hospital admission, we brought her to our house since we were still trying to figure out how to best deal with the malnutrition and the colostomy.

There was a steep learning curve to learning to how to care for her colostomy, especially here without home health and specialized nurses.  But with some long distance help and lots of Internet research, we were able to get her raw skin healing and fatten her up a bit.

Now she is back at Casa de Fe and the ladies who work there are fast becoming experts in colostomy care.  Her skin is mostly healed and she over 13 pounds.  She came over to play last week and we were delighted that she is a smiley, chubby baby!  I don't know if she remembered us, but she relished being the center of attention of a crew of boys for a time.

Armadillo by morning...

Remember that country western song, "Amarillo by morning, up from San Antone...."  Well, this song echoed in my mind as I enjoyed a breakfast of armadillo several weeks ago in the jungle community of Suraca.  I was asked to accompany several employees and a pilot of Mission Aviation Fellowship to this small village where they are conducting a year long bible study.  In an effort to minister to some of the more remote areas of Ecuador's jungle regions and at the request of the village, Mission Aviation Fellowship employees and missionaries spend one weekend a month ministering to the people there.  

Arrival in Suraca

I was asked to accompany the team on their most recent visit to offer some medical assistance and help with the bible teaching.  We left on a Friday evening from Shell and flew for about 45 minutes and touched down in Suraca around 5:30pm.  After setting up our things, we visited with the community and, as darkness fell, we began with some introductions and sharing our Christian testimonies followed by the beginning of our teaching about the fundamentals of the Gospel and sanctification.  We closed the evening with prayer and, after showers, spent a restful night in our hammocks.

Jorge, one of the MAF employees, with his portion of armadillo 

The next morning, we expected to have to prepare our own breakfast.  However, we were soon greeted by the son of one of the village elders who motioned to us to join him and his family for breakfast at his house, a short stroll through the jungle.  The trees gave way to a small clearing filled by several huts with no walls and thatched roofs.  Behind them was an even greater, 2 story, wall-less house.  Living quarters were above and downstairs was a large open dirt floor bordered by a low bamboo fence.  Our host  directed  us to one corner where a table was set for the four of us and him.  Each place setting had a bowl of soup and in the middle of the table was a plate of yuca dough balls.  We took our seats and it was then that I noticed in my bowl, as well as everyone else's, a small claw protruding above the surface of the soup.   On closer inspection, it was a small animal's claw, arm or leg, and shoulder in the vegetable broth.  I was afraid to ask an my stomach was not at its best so I kept quite and looked around at my host and colleagues.  Wilson, one of the team members prayed and we were all encouraged by our host to enjoy the

armadillo soup for breakfast.  I poked around the edges of the soup for a while but soon discovered that the others, even the gringos, were enjoying it.  Well, it was time to take the plunge and I picked up the claw in my hand and went for a bite of the darker meat.  And you know, it was pretty good.

Marco, our host and patriarch of the family, told us of a time when he and his young family lived closer to civilization in a larger community.  Most indigenous people in the Amazon can hunt and grow enough food themselves.  However, the combination of years of hunting in the area and the growth of the population of that community,  it became difficult to find food in that area.  He and his family therefore moved to Suraca and have since enjoyed the  abundance of what the jungle has to offer.

Marco's son with the large bagra

While eating, Marco's sons walked up from the river carrying two "bagra", a jungle river catfish.  The smallest one would be quite a catch at about 5 pounds; the large one weighed in at about 20-30 pounds and about the length of Marco's 13 year old son.

Bible teaching session

When our meal was done we went back to the meeting house and continued our lesions on God's salvation for us through Jesus and how he changes our lives drastically from the time of salvation to the moment we die.   We emphasized how daily we are to change and become more like Christ in our actions through the help of the Holy Spirit.  

That session was complete after about 2 hours and we changed gears.  I conducted a clinic where I attended to the basic medical needs of the villagers while the others in the team installed a radio system for the community.  Late that afternoon we were again invited to Marco's house for a late lunch, early dinner where we again had soup, but this time the bagra was on the menu.  Though it wasn't deep fried like I get in Texas, it was really good.

Wilson holding bagra backbone from his soup

The next day was Sunday and we worshiped with the community and then reviewed the precepts that had been discussed earlier in the weekend said our goodbyes and left for Shell.

Me sampling "chicha", a drink made of fermented yuca

What a wonderful weekend spent with fellow believers, both missionaries and indigenous people, and to see how God is working in their lives and encourage them to know him deeper.   

Oh,  I almost forgot but I bet you haven't...armadillo tastes like...pot roast.

Fall Holidays

While we think of pumpkins and turkey in the Fall in the U.S., Ecuador celebrates Dia de los Difunctos.  Although it has similar origins to Halloween in the U.S. and Day of the Dead in Mexico, this holiday in Ecuador has evolved into more of a Memorial Day, where families remember and honor their ancestors by visiting their graves.  Traditional foods are hua-huas ("wa-was") de pan -  bread shaped like babies and colado mirada - a hot spiced fruit drink.  Thanksgiving is not an Ecuadorian holiday, but our kids have a school break on Thurs and Fri, so we traveled about 10 hours south and west to the Andean town of Cuenca.  Instead of turkey, we found ourselves at Pizza Hut for Thanksgiving dinner!  We also visited Inca ruins and learned how the mis-names  "Panama" hats are made here in Ecuador.  

Halloween

Hua-Huas de pan from a local bakery

Our version or bread babies (and other shapes) 

Incan ruins in Cuenca

weaving hats

pressing the hats