Imagine our surprise when the District Board suggested that we take the month of August as a mini-sabbatical. Susan and I gratefully accepted. For several days we pondered, "Where shall we go and what shall we do?" We decided on the South American country of Ecuador. Over the last decade, this country and its people have grown dear to us as we have regularly visited for missional work. We knew that we could rest, experience a change of pace, test our skills of adapting to a different culture and language, engage in some mission work, and enlarge our network of friends.
Located at 9,300 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains, the beautiful city of Quito, with a population of 2.5 million, was our home for 30 days. We rented an apartment on a major avenue (7th floor) across from a modern mall. Taxis were our mode of transportation; hand motions and our limited Spanish our means of communication.
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| 7th-Floor Apartment |
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| A View From Our 7th-Floor Apartment |
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| Our Apartment Building |
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| Our Friends, Tom & Lydia Hines and Susan in Our Apartment |
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| A Sky-line View of Quito from Our Apartment |
We would like to say, "Thank you," to our DBA and all of you who made this possible. We arrived home on Labor Day ready to roll up our sleeves and resume the district transformation process. In fact, Dr. Borden has been with us since last Thursday. We have completed the consultation at Brandon Center, North Bangor, NY and this weekend we will be in Vermont at the Furnace Brook Wesleyan Church (formerly North Chittenden). The next 75 days are packed full of opportunities to see revival come to churches. The prescriptions for Brandon Center and Furnace Brook will be posted in the next few days, so please check back.
On September 14, the District Board, Ministry leaders and DTP pastors gathered at the district center for our annual retreat. After a lovely picnic we spent two-and-a-half hours around a bonfire listening to reports of what God is doing in our churches. I wish all of you could have been present. It was awesome!
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| Ready for the DBA/Leadership Retreat - 9/14/12 |
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| DBA/Leadership Retreat Picnic - 9/14/12 |
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| DBA/Leadership Retreat Picnic - 9/14/12 |
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| DBA/Leadership Retreat Bonfire - 9/14/12 |
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