Until we meet again

My dear friend Patty died on 17th September. 

In late January Patty found out that she had stomach cancer. Not the prettiest of cancers to be faced with. These past months have been so very tough for her and her family as they sought treatment and healing.

God’s plan was to bring her home to himself. 

I wasn’t able to see Patty much these past months but in one of the conversations we did have I know that she had entrusted herself to her heavenly Father and was ready to go home, even as much as she desired to stay here and keep on looking after her family. 

Patty was my first friend in Loja. 

I remember stopping on the corner of Calle Bolivar and Azuay with Evie and Alfonsina in prams, having a little chat with Toño and Patty and me and John being so excited to have some contact with someone in the middle of us feeling like fish out of water those first few weeks (months…) we were in Loja, trying to navigate a whole new world of life.

And so, slowly a friendship developed. We ended up at their church during our first term and started hanging out. With Patty, I have sat down the back of church as we ran after our little girls, Evie and Alfonsina, watching them play together. We took on youth group together, figuring out what works and doesn’t work in Loja (games that involve taking shoes off really don’t work). With Patty and Toño and their kids we have whiled away Sundays, spent christmas days together, celebrated birthdays, gone on holidays together.

With Patty I have sought advice, worked on figuring out a bit more of how life works here in Loja, where can I get my shoes fixed, where to find tights for Evie, where to buy good fruit and veggies. We laughed together, cried together. Patty was the one who called me after I said goodbye to my mum when she came to help after Mattias was born. That was a pretty quiet conversation as I couldn’t say much through my tears. We cooked together, we spoke about our kids ups and downs together, we encouraged each other in the Lord. They invited us over to their parents house and we got to celebrate family events together with an extended family.

Patty and Toño had lived out of Loja in Spain for a number of years and knew what it was like to be the foreigner, the one on the outside, the one surrounded by so much unfamiliarity.  When were were so new in Loja, when we  were the outsiders, this family welcomed in the foreigner. This family showed us sincere hospitality, incorporating us into their family. I have thanked the Lord often over these past eight and a half years for his gracious provision of a friend here in Loja, and not only a friend, an extended family. What a deep privilege it is to know this beauty of being part of God’s family, that in a town on the other side of the world from home, I can find another home, in him and his people. 

I can only imagine Patty’s deep joy as she was welcomed home by her heavenly Father, the wonder and awe as she began the rest of her life, along with the saints, praising our wonderful Saviour for all his goodness to her.

And so, not goodbye dear friend but rather until we meet again, at Jesus’ feet. 

We were born for change

There is currently a public campaign in Ecuador for people to switch to induction stove tops. For a country that cooks with gas, this is a major change, a big deal, and probably one that mystifies many.

For this to work, each house needs to be installed with 220V for the stove, this a 110V country. Each household needs to buy a new stove, whether just the stove top or oven as well. Each person needs to figure out how to cook on an induction stove top after a life time of cooking with gas.

There are many reasons that I haven't really investigated why this is all happening but I am enjoying some of the aspects of this campaign.

The other week I happened to be walking past the Plaza Central and saw this cooking demonstration going on, how to cook your base sauce for your meals on the induction stove top, the step by step explanation of the process, live in action. It was great.

There was a whole range of stove tops and oven on display along with brochures, ready for the taking, plus payment plans over many months to make it affordable. There are all sorts of packages, incentives and investment that the government is making in order to make this work.

A few blocks away I passed the electricity company and the tag line caught my eye. 'Nacimos para vivir cambios'. We were born for change, or to live out changes. How to motivate a whole society to radically change their approach to cooking? Get to the heart of the matter....we were born for change, so embrace even this!

But it's true for us also, isn't it, if we are born again in Christ, then we are born to change. Little by little, every day, Jesus is changing us into his image, into his likeness. As children of the living God we can never deny this reality in our lives, we can't say no to change, we can't ever stop working out our salvation with fear and trembling, even as God works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose. May I never assume I have reached a point of no change or of hiding behind the excuse of this is my character, end of story. No, in humility and by God's grace, may change live on in me!

Recent food adventures

I took the kids out for KFC the other day, as a holiday treat. I love the way fast food gets tweaked worldwide to increase its appeal to the local market. Here we have the super combo #1.... plenty of rice and lentils = happy life for the average lojano, including these three!

Our local major supermarket has a healthy selection of most parts of the animal, here we have tripe, tongue, crackling, and pork feet amongst other delights. Just want to add that the other week I did eat a little bit of BBQ pork heart which was quite nice (although rather heavily salted). The presence of the pork heart was mainly due to it being part of the props for John's talk for a church leadership retreat....

Ricuras de Sal y Dulce...always a winner, plus it has a fancy sign saying its part of the cultural food heritage of Ecuador. A big tortilla of fried green plantain, with beef and eggs was Tijs' meal, the girls are having crumbled cheese, white corn, little potatoes (papa chaucha - very delicious) plus a fried ripe plantain on the side. The batidos (fruit with milk) are divine!

Here we have the famous local arveja con guineo (pea and green banana) soup, topped with avocado. Who knew avocado in soup was so good? And the pink drink is horchata, the local tea made with over 20 different herbs and flowers, can be served hot, warm or cold.

Cecina con yuca....a big slab of pork on the BBQ with yuca (or taro)....a wonderful way to fill the belly (this was for Ecuadorian fathers day, will we remember to celebrate the Australian date in September?).

An afternoon snack of yoghurt and yuca bread. Tasty and appropriate in any kind of weather with the cold drink and the hot bread.

And here is part of Saturday's breakfast, mandarin juice. I can never quite get over these beauties. Do we actually get mandarins like this in Australia?