Our First Visits to the Churches in Bastion Bloque 6 and Alborada

After a week of anticipation we finally got to go visit our old friends at church services in Bastion Popular and Alborada. First up was Bastion. The church there has a service beginning at 8:30am so that meant an early start for us. We were up at 6am and left home just before 7am. So for all those back in Canada who have difficulty getting up for 10:30 or 11:00 maybe you should come to Ecuador and try this service! What a great time to get started in the morning!
By the time we arrived in Bastion it was still nice and cool and the church was full. The building is 4 times the size that it was when we were first here to see it planted in 1995/96. It has two floors, one which is what I guess we Canadians would want to call the “Main Auditorium” and the upper floor is for Sunday school. There must have been about 50 in attendance and afterwards Rolando told me that they have decided to move the service back to the school gymnasium next week as the number of those in attendance has been growing after a time when the numbers had been down somewhat.

As we drove up to the church we were delighted to hear the music and singing from out in the street and as we entered it was exciting for us to see an entire worship team composed of three guitarists, four singers, a drummer and a keyboard player. The band also had a decent sound system and the congregation was using Powerpoint for the song lyrics. Having served on the worship team in Quinte Bible Chapel for a number of years it was a joy for us to see and it was a big change from the days 11 years ago when Tim Horne and/or I were the praise team! The music was lively, relevant and brought us to the throne of God. Part way through the service there was an opportunity for individuals to take part by sharing from God’s word or praying. Immediately following this we remembered the Lord together in the bread and the wine and from there moved directly into the sermon. The service was well-structured and had a good sense of flow to it while being nudged along by a chairman at the appropriate junctures. I was interested to hear the quality of the sermon and was well-pleased with Franklin’s take on John 8; The Woman Caught In Adultery. Franklin had obviously done his homework and was well prepared, presenting a carefully thought out and gracious take on the story while reminding us that we were no different from the Pharisees in that we too can be hypocritical when we need to be gracious and merciful to those of our family, friends and neighbours who are caught in blatant sin.

Afterwards we had a warm welcome as Rolando presented us to the congregation. We received many handshakes and “besos”(kisses) while our Spanish was put to the test as we tried to keep up with the questions and comments. It was a struggle but I think that we more or less held our own although it is obvious to us that our Spanish is certainly rusty. I think that this week calls for more study time!

After we had said our goodbyes we headed off to Alborada to meet our old friends there. We squeezed a few extra bodies into our Chevy Vitara and with the 1.6 litre engine performing over and above the call of duty all 7 adults headed up the Via Perimtral with Dale, his guitar and Jose crammed in the cargo area until we got to Bastion Bloque 10. There we dropped of Jose, Willian, Dale and Dale’s guitar who were all heading to the later service there.

With a lighter load the Vitara roared on until we came to the Alborada turn where we left the Via Perimetral and headed south to our old stompin’ ground. This was the second time this week that we had taken this road as we had also headed down into Alborada on Thursday after meeting with the Bastion elders. We felt a little more confident about where we were going this time as on Thursday we had been completely disoriented. Alborada and its approach road have experienced enormous changes since we were last here. As we drove in on Thursday we did not recognize anything at all until we reached Albocentro, the old downtown that we knew from before and even then we had reached it more by accident than by good navigational skills. We never did find the church!

This time we only felt a little more comfortable as, although we had Nikki and Rolando with us to help keep us straight, things could change at the drop of a hat. For example Rolando jumped out just before the new bridge beside the church and to tell you the truth I never really did find out why he was with us or where he was going. He had simply found out that we were headed for Alborada and asked for a ride. It was around then that I found out that Nikki had never actually been to Alborada although she claimed to have a pretty good idea of where it was. Finally she spotted it and one missed turn and around 10 minutes later we were back outside the church which we had passed but could not reach because we were on an overpass! We found a parking spot easily and moments later we were heading into the building that Kelly and I had known so well but that we knew had changed so much. At least we hoped we were because as Nikki confessed, “I’m still not sure that this is the right building but I think that’s David’s car outside.” Not knowing whether we were heading into a Pentecostal, Baptist or Brethren service we walked somewhat cautiously into the building. It is at times like this when you are afraid of making a fool of yourself that it is a good thing to be a male and kindly offer to let the women go first!

We need not have worried because we immediately recognized Alba, who has not changed at all, and then David and his father Jorge on the platform, who both gave us friendly waves.
As we took our seats and looked around us once again, we were astonished to see how much this church had also grown since we fellowshipped there before. This building is also about four times the size of what we had known previously and also was well equipped with all the modern technology. At a quick count there must have been over 100 in attendance and although we arrived a little late and missed most of the music we were aware that they also were very enthusiastic in their worship.

It wasn’t long before we were given a warm welcome and invited to come up front to be introduced to the congregation. As I looked down on the sea faces it was encouraging to see number of familiar faces amongst all the new ones. We were asked to share a bit about what we were going to be doing and what we had been doing. As I had only prepared for the former and not for the latter I played it safe as I did not want to embarrass myself by butchering the language in front of such a large group of people.

David preached for almost an hour and it was fantastic to see a young man who I had mentored while here before now carrying himself in such a confident and capable manner. When the service was over we were thronged with people wanting to talk to us. Amongst them were Gaby, Leyla, Jose, Raul, (Super) Mario, Walter, Estefani, Andres, Zarita; all of whom were young people who we knew from our kids club or youth group from the nineties. They are all now in their early to mid-twenties and in some cases, married. It is great to see them still attending Alborada and in most cases actively involved. In the case of Estefani we discovered that she was a girl who had come from time to time to the kids club that we had held in our house but had no idea that she had become a Christian and was attending the church there. Later we were also invited to visit David and Kathy later this week and made tentative plans for Friday. David has been very involved with camp in the past and we are looking forward to talking with him about its future.

After saying our goodbyes and promising to come back from time to time we made our way back to Dale and Janet’s place where we had a quick lunch before taking them back out to Playas. They had received an invitation to attend a First Communion for one of the local families and decided that it would be appropriate for them to make an appearance and get to know some more of the local families. They caught the last bus back to Guayaquil at 8pm leaving us to enjoy the aftermath which has been one huge party. First communion is a huge deal here in this primarily Catholic country and for us it has been a chance to experience one continuous neighbourhood party since they left. The drinking, music and dancing began next door around 4pm yesterday and they are still going strong today at noon as I write this. The music is of course played at maximum volume and I could not sleep last night until about 2am. Kelly of course, slept well as usual, although she did complain of being somewhat restless and waking a few times.

Verse for the day: Psalm 140:12
“I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.”
We are trying to be more conscious of the needs of the poor. In Canada we are so used to people having access to all sorts of government and church programs to help those in need. Here there is very little of that sort of thing and it is always so difficult to know exactly what to do. However, we have given out a few coins first to a boy who was begging at the toll booth on the way into Guayaquil, and then we gave a small loaf of bread to a little girl and presumably her brother who were begging as we bought ourselves a treat at the bread shop. She immediately gave it to the little boy who wasted no time at all in attacking it. Finally I gave all the loose change that I had in my pocket to a crippled beggar who approached us outside the market. It probably wasn’t much more than 50cents but he was counting it carefully as we walked away. We know that this is but a tiny, tiny drop in a huge ocean and as skeptical Canadians we are always afraid of being conned. However, we think that maybe it is better to err on the side of kindness than that of hardness. After all, if the Lord is on the side of the poor, maybe we should be too.