OMS Field Retreat 2016

We had our annual OMS Field Retreat January 13-17 on the coast near Playas, Ecuador.  This is the same place we went last year - you can read last year's blog post if you want.  Last year we flew from Quito to Guayaquil, then got a ride with other missionaries out to the retreat.  This year we drove.  It is a long drive so we made it a 2-day trip on the way, but we had to make the return trip all in one day.

Going to the retreat, we wanted to make it a 2-day trip for 2 reasons: 1) to spend the night with our OMS Teammates where they work in Pallatanga (OMS owns a camp there), and 2) to spend a little time in Guayaquil (which is on the way to the coast) to show Hannah where I grew up.




Camp Pallatanga is also where we have our annual Field Council (business meetings), usually in July.  So we'll be going back there in a few months.

The roads from Quito to Riobamba are quite nice, somewhat similar to U.S. highways.  However, after Riobamba the road is very mountainous and curvy.  Unfortunately it was quite foggy and rainy when we were driving it and not too many cars had their headlights on.  We had a very close call and nearly were hit head-on.  A large truck was passing another large truck around a curve and I didn't see him until we were quite close - I had to slam the brakes and thankfully there was enough space for him to get between us and the truck he was passing.

On Wednesday we left Pallatanga after breakfast and drove to Guayaquil.




Guayaquil is a very large city, so driving into it I was not sure if I would be able to navigate to the neighborhood where I grew up.  Fortunately, I made the correct turns and I saw a sign pointing to "Urdesa Central" and I knew right where I was.

OMS used to own this property which we called "the compound".  A few years ago OMS sold it to 3 other ministries.  My family and many other OMS missionaries have many memories at this place.  I was so happy that we were able to get inside and walk around. The people we talked to thought it was pretty cool that I had lived there and that I was back to look at it.

Here are a few pictures:

Hannah standing outside the compound - I lived in the 3rd floor apartment 4th grade - 7th grade, and then 10th and 11th grade

Another view of the front - I lived in the yellow house pre K - 2nd grade

Me standing at the front entrance

Front entrance from the inside

These used to be 3 houses - the one furthest to the right (not really in the photo) is the same yellow house in the picture above. These are now offices for the Alliance church denomination.  For some reason I didn't take a good picture of the outside of our house.

Inside my old bedroom in the yellow house- now it is an office

Inside the yellow house - this is the hallway and my room was the second door down on the left.  The hallway didn't used to be this long but the wall separating our house from the other house was removed. We (my brother and sisters) used to turn the lights off and close all the doors to make it pitch black.  Then we would climb the walls by putting one foot on one side and the other foot on the other side and "step" up the wall.  And we would play tag or hide and seek somehow in this little space.  It was a lot of fun.

Inside the yellow house - this used to be the family room and dining room

On the swings I used to get going really high and jump off and land on the pavement.  When I was 4 or 5, I fell off those monkey bars and broke my left arm.  There used to be a teeter-totter in the middle.

This was the basketball court where I played a LOT of basketball - sadly it looks like it is used only as a parking lot now

View of the apartment from the opposite side - our kitchen was where the open window is on the top right

Stairs to our 3rd floor apartment

Me at the door of our 3rd floor apartment - Compassion International now has an office here

Used to be our living room - the opening to the office was not there.  That used to be a bedroom and the entrance was in a different place

Front door from the inside and what used to be one of the bedrooms

Our dining area used to be here, the open door goes to the kitchen

At the door of what used to be my room

Kitchen

Opposite side of the kitchen, there used to be closets here

View from the 3rd floor

View from the 3rd floor

It was so great to be back at this place.  We stayed about an hour and then we were on our way to the coast.

There are a few tolls along the way from Pallatanga to the coast, and usually there are traffic police stopping vehicles as they come through. These are random stops and the police ask for the vehicle registration, driver's license, etc.  We got stopped once and it was not a big deal.  I showed him our paperwork and he looked at my international driver's license.  I told him we had been working on getting our Ecuadorian license and since we were waiting on that I had the international license.  He said I could drive on that for 6 months (it was issued in September) even though it is supposedly good for 12 months.  If he says 6 months, I better go with that.  It's possible another officer would look at it differently, but it's not worth the risk.  So, I'm thinking we will pursue our Ecuadorian driver's license and take the driving school here.

We were the first ones to arrive at the retreat.  Once the others arrived we had supper followed by games. During the mornings of the retreat we had worship, prayer, and teaching time.  The teaching was done by Randy Spacht; he is an OMS missionary who works at the headquarters in Greenwood, IN.  He and his family served several years in Colombia.  After lunch we had free time; we went to the beach each day. After supper we had more worship, prayer, and teaching time followed by snacks and games.

On Saturday afternoon we had a sand art/sculpture contest.  Hannah and I were asked to be in charge of that - so we sort of organized it and Randy Spacht and us ended up being the judges.  Almost everyone participated which was great.  There were 5 teams and they all made really great sculptures/creations.  Here are a few pictures:

A minion

A tribal person cooking a bird in a pot

A turtle

One octopus and one starfish formed around the buried bodies of 2 of the girls

A sandcastle

As we watched the groups make their creations, we knew we were in trouble as judges.  Randy had the idea of letting each team also vote for their 2 favorites, other than their own.  So the teams voted and the judges voted and the winner was...the octopus and starfish!  It was fun.

Saturday night we had a fire at the beach and communion.  There was a nice sunset too.

On Sunday after breakfast we started the journey back to Quito.  One of the missionary gals that is on a short term assignment (one year) rode with us because she had some people to see in Quito this week.  The trip took 12 hours.  I made some wrong turns which delayed us some and we had a couple extended stops for lunch and dinner.

We went back to Quito on a different route - the roads were good but not always well marked.  It was confusing at times knowing if we were going the right way or not - most times we were but sometimes we weren't.



Other than some of the frustrations and delays, the drive was really beautiful.  We were able to get a really good view of Tungurahua Volcano, near Ambato.

We thank the Lord that we made it there and back and had a really good time at the retreat with the other OMS missionaries.  If the retreat is at that place again, we will be flying because it's a 45 minute flight and not much more expensive after you factor in meals and gas costs.