Life without a camera on my cellphone.....

20 years ago I got my first cell phone. The only thing it could do was make calls. And it wasn't extremely important to have one at that time because not many other folks had one. Over the years those things have evolved to be instruments of leisure, of necessity, of business, and of entertainment. I cannot imagine running 3 pharmacies without my cellphone and all its gadgets like texting, email, calendars, kindle, etc. etc. etc. Here in Ecuador my phone is a special luxury as I could not bring many books with me and I cannot purchase books here. I was even able to download a dictionary to my Kindle so that I can read books in Spanish and only have to click on the word for definitions of the ones I don't know. I can keep in touch with everyone through facebook realtime, which is wonderful! One of the best parts of my phone in Ecuador is the camera, because it is always with me, easily uploadable, and is useful on a daily basis to take pictures of all the things I want to show others. The last few weeks have been a painful reminder of my dependence on my phone. My camera died and I have not been able to share pictures near as easily as I was able to before. Living where we do, it is at least possible for folks to bring things down when they come for short term missions trips. A HUGE thank you to Mike Gentry for bringning down a new phone for me!! By tomorrow it will be in my hands and I can spend the next couple days downloading all the apps and stuff onto it.

When family, friends and acquaintences found out we were coming back down here many said that we were so brave or that they could never come to a place like Ecuador, or that I shouldn't take my kids to a such a place. That they have no interest in trying to live in a third world country. I have tried explaining to folks that it isn't nearly as "bad" as they think it would be. The roads here are great, there is internet, cell phone service, and they use American money. I take these things for granted down here, but in acutality it has only been in the last 10 years that most of this urbanization has occured. Many of the folks tell horror stories of the road between Baños and Shell. It takes a little over an hour by bus now but used to take 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get there and some parts were only wide enough for one car (or bus), with washouts often occuring that would close the road for long periods of time. When the Ecuadorians had their own money, Americans had to be very aware of the exchange rate and had to take care to not be overcharged for things unknowingly. A husband and wife missionary team we recently met has been in Ecuador for 40 years. I can't imaging living here 40 years ago after listening to some of their stories. Someday I would like to visit a "real" third world country to experience for a short period of time a life without television, houses, cell phones, with the only luxury being a highly coveted mosquito net for sleeping. For now I praise God for where He has put us and thank him for the opportunity to share the gospel and take care of children with no place to go. It is very hard to describe to people how close we are to heaven!! Please take the opportunity while we are down here to come visit! Any of you, all of you! Single people or teams or families. We would love to show you everything our little part of the world has to offer. I think our area is so wonderful because in less than a weeks time you would have the opportunity to be able to see into the lives of as many missionaries as you care to visit with. You will be able to see first hand how God can use anyone anywhere for any amount of time for His glory!!