Water. It is pretty hard to run a camp without it. In fact you can’t run a camp without it. We know, we tried! Not intentionally of course. We simply found out one afternoon that there was no water. The cistern had run dry! Now this is a big cistern. I’m not sure how much it holds but it must be in the neighborhood of 6000 gallons. So we got a little worried as there were approximately 30 people here at the end of training week and we were expecting around 150 to arrive for camp the following day! It would be no fun if there was no water.

Of course there were a number of different theories going around as to why the water was off. Our neighbor, Maximo claimed to have heard on the radio that there would be a cut from 8 until 6 that day to repair the line. His drinking buddy was sure that it was because the neighboring town of Posorja had not paid its bill and they had cut the water supply to them for a day to teach them a lesson. The bottled water guys were confident that it was because the water at the plant was coming out of the plant yellow and that they had cut the supply to the entire area until the problem was solved. We decided that the first theory was most likely and decided to wait it until 6 and see if it came back as predicted because we did have enough water to get us through the night in our back up water tower.

Monday morning arrived and checking the cistern I found out that there was still no water. Now it was time to spring into action. I drove into town and found out that the answer to our original question was “none of the above.” There had been no water cut, no problems with Posorja and the water and the plant had not been coming out yellow or any other color of the rainbow so the problem was obviously with our line. I requisitioned a work crew to come out and fix the problem and they were there shortly after 9. Wow, that was fast! I had also ordered a water truck to come out but by the time they got there the workers had cleaned out what appeared to be a blockage in the line and we were back in business. So I gave the water truck driver something for his trouble and cancelled the delivery. Big mistake! The campers arrived later that morning and I assumed that all was well until about 5 at night when the cry went up again. No water! It turns out that the flow of water into the cistern had slowed to something between a trickle and a stream but that any way you looked at it the water was going out faster than it was coming in.

I managed to get another tanker truck delivery and really needed more but because it was too late in the day and the tanker truck had no lights it couldn’t be out at night which, although frustrating did seem to be reasonable. As it stands today, Friday we still have nothing more than something between a trickle and a steady stream, the city workers have not come again as asked and we have averaged two tanker trucks of water delivered each day. For those of you who like to do the math, that is 4000 gallons a day for a total cost of $40 a day which works out at about $1 every hundred gallons. It doesn’t sound like much but that is what is standing in the way of us having a pretty miserable bunch of campers this week.

In other news, we have a great team of Canadians from Halifax, Nova Scotia working alongside the Ecuadorian leaders this week and they are in their element because today is Canada Day! Well, Canada Day at camp that is. The Canadians have been running games, teaching the kids to play ice hockey without ice, and helping them to decorate around a gazillion pillow cases that the kids get to take home with them. Their final act for the day will be to make a Canadian style snack before bedtime. I am anxious to find out what it will be but they are keeping a pretty tight lid on it for the moment.

Verse for the day:

Revelation 7:15-17
“Therefore, “they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Ecuador can be a hot country and so this verse takes on special meaning, especially when you are without water. But we have a marvelous future ahead of us when we will no longer have any water worries – or any worries for that matter!

The Water Truck Dumps its Load

Alborada and Sauces Hold Their First Camp

The first of this season’s children’s camps ended yesterday and both the kids and the adults left with mixed feelings. As usual some were ready to go home after a strenuous few days of activity and others wished that camp could go on for another week. For the leaders from the churches of Alborada and Sauces in Guayaquil this was the first year that they had run camp by themselves so the week had been a big experiment. They did it without Canadian help (unless you want to count us) and were pleased that they managed to pull it off. Their numbers were quite small by last week’s standards, with only 41 kids and a little over 20 adults but it was a good start for them. It is our prayer that next year will see a bigger group after these kids go home with positive reports.

We spent most of the week in a support role, running errands, paying the bills, doing maintenance, running the tuck shop and helping out in the kitchen. I did have to get in some local help with a minor plumbing problem but other than that thing s were fairly quiet. This week we were invited to help a little with the singing, judging events and Kelly also helped out with the crafts.

Some of the counselors went home quite tired as they had spent half the night patrolling the grounds after claiming that they had heard some whispered conversation behind our security wall at around 1:30am. One of the counselors believed that he saw a couple of individuals at the beach side of the camp but no-one else was able to confirm this. Nothing came of it and the dogs didn’t seem to react at all, so it probably wasn’t anything serious but nevertheless it reminded everyone that our security wall is not that secure as there are many stretches where it is only waist high.

We now get a few days to catch our breath before the next wave of Canadians arrive from Halifax, Nova Scotia and connect up with a group of Ecuadorian camp counselors. The last half of the week will be a training week and somehow I let myself get talked into leading a session about serving. I don’t know whether to share in Spanish with an English translator, English with a Spanish translator or just give it a go in “Spanglish.” Wait, wasn’t that a movie that got bad reviews?

After the 3 days of training we will see a large group of kids arrive from Bastion Popular in Guayaquil for our second week of children’s camp. We are also hoping to have around 20 children from our neighborhood attend. I have already begun to talk to some of our neighbors and it doesn’t look like it will be a problem to rustle up that many. Pray that there will be a positive response from this group too.



I Corinthians 3:10-15
“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what has built survives he will receive his reward. If it is burned up he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved but only as one escaping through the flames.”

I burned some garbage after the campers left and this passage came to mind as I have been reading through Corinthians the last few days. It doesn’t matter whether we are in full time ministry as we are or are in secular employment, what we do is going to be tested with fire. This doesn’t mean just what we do directly for the Lord but refers to how we live our lives as believers. The Christian life is a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 52 weeks a year life not a Sunday morning exercise in pew warming. Are we living our lives preparing for the big test?

Singing the Spanish version of "Lord I Lift Your Name on High

The group poses for a photo before they go home