Well I’m about 1,200 miles away....

Well I’m  about 1,200 miles away from where I wrote my last post and already it’s been one incredible journey. Yes indeed, I am living a dream, a dream we have all worked hard for and laid down our lives to share in, but here we are, all eight of us traveling together, living in our van and tent and touching the lives of many all over the world. We each have one backpack, mattress and sleeping bag (plus cooking and camping gear, performance props and costumes, musical equipment, and pamphlets, booklets, cds and New Testaments we give out) all packed and ordered between our van and trailer. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle getting everything to fit and still have breathing space. 

A place we camped outside of Cali.

It is true that “it’s not about the destination, but the journey” and you definitely better enjoy the journey when you can only go about 30 miles an hour and you have a few thousand miles to go. The roads through Colombia are really bad. One lane, two direction, steep passes over the Andes mountains. We saw a semi truck flip over, we watched the truck that was directly in front of us go over a bump that cracked the side rails that was holding a huge load, poor people stand right in the middle of the road begging as you go around a blind curve, and so many pot holes and speed bumps that you just hold on for dear life (try drinking a cup of coffee). 

This is the truck that the load cracked on. 

The signs that are along the road do little to help or assure your safety, signs like, “Caution, earthquake zone- know evacuation route” as you are on a one lane road and the only road at that. Or, “frequent flooding” as you head into a tunnel. Or these four signs in a row, 1.)  A picture of a truck going down a steep incline, 2.)  Rocks falling on a truck, 3.) Two cars smashing into each other and 4.) A picture of a row of bumps.  So this would mean, you are about to go down an extremely steep incline designed by Doctor Seuss and as you do rocks will be falling from the cliffs onto your car and because cars coming from the other direction will try to pass and not have space, they will smash into you as you go over speed bumps the size of a curb that pop up out of no where unmarked. Seriously, all joking aside, it is very dangerous and I thank God Almighty for His protection and grace upon us and pray His angels always fly with us. Many times we face these roads in pouring rain and heavy fog where there is almost zero visibility.

Throwing a packet out the window.

There are so many little shacks and people living right on the side of the road. They can build and live here without ever paying for the land or tax, so there are countless families along the way. We could never stop to talk to them all, so I made up little packets with reading materiel, a music cd, (some how they actually have tapped into electricity out here), and some little candy and toys, that we throw out the windows as he drive by. It is pretty fun seeing how excited they are to get something and also competing with my brothers and sisters at who has better aim. My dad is winning, he can toss a bag right into some ones door at 30 miles an hour.

Zero visibility 

Woo hoo! More bumps ahead!

The Lord has provided some nice places for us to stay and put up our tent. In Armenia we stayed at the same place we had stayed years ago and it was cool coming back and mixing new and old memories. We woke up in the tent to the sound of so many different jungle birds it was really neat.

This one place just outside Cali on a ladies property was just beautiful. We were able to use a shower and set up for just 5 dollars, it was only cold water but it was so hot outside a cold shower never felt so good. There was a cool cave nearby my brothers and I hiked down to explore, inside it was like a carved out room with paintings on the wall and a lot of bats. It was dark and a little creepy but a cool adventure. We all lay in the tent staring up at a bright moon, thousands of stars and fire flies with a soft warm breeze; yeah this is my dream. 

Inside the cave.

Sleep, in general is overrated and good sleep is very hard to come by. After traveling to over 35 countries around   the world, from Africa, through Mexico, Central America to Europe and South America, after having unbelievable encounters both bad and good, dangerous and exhilarating, out of the millions of things I have seen and learned, there is one thing I have learned for certain; There are A LOT of dogs in the world!!! Stray dogs, wild dogs, pet dogs, big dogs and little dogs everywhere and I think, I’m not sure, but I think they all have a conspiracy to keep the traveler awake. I’m wondering if I can put sleeping pills inside hotdogs, hmm…. Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I’ve always wished I could own one and we even have a big stuffed animal of a dog on the front of our van (makes everyone laugh and wins favor) but non stop yapping and barking in the wee hours of the night does not make one happy. Once there was a rooster, making the most bizarre sound ever, which triggered this little dog, which started a big dog who never shut up, while meanwhile a goat and a cow were having a loud conversation, and since it was about 2 in the morning it was kind of an orchestra from hell. 

There are alot of dogs in the world!

Another time we had rented a place for a week when at 5 in the morning we awoke to the most horrible bark you have ever heard, I mean it sounded like a dog mixed with a tiger and possessed by a demon, echoing inside a cement hall. It was a huge German shepherd and guess what? Its name was Echo, true story and belonged to an old lady who had no idea how to shut it up. The good news was it only barked when a plane flew over head, the bad news was we were only two miles from the international airport. So like I said, sleep is overrated, and when you are so exhausted it hurts, you either laugh or cry and my family and do a lot of laughing.  

Road through the Andes,

Pasto Colombia is one of my favorite cities in the world. It’s high in the mountain, very cold and just beautiful. We stopped at a place we had spent some time in years back and got breakfast. For only one dollar you got eggs, toast with jelly, cheese and coffee, very nice way to start the morning. In general the food here is tasteless and pretty bad but every now and then you find something good. We had a great chicken pasta soup for .75 cents on the border, we had a good meal of grilled lamb and this meat from a little animal that’s kind of like a huge guinea pig. My mom, sisters and I are pretty good cooks so we usually find a way to mix up something and make stuff that keeps the boys happy, they love Mexican food and that’s my specialty. 

Crossing the border into Ecuador was pretty easy, just took a while. It was really sad to leave Colombia after so long.  So many memories and faces flashed in my mind as we drove the last kilometers to the Ecuadorian border. From the orphans I said good bye to and held in my arms, to the prisoners that I fought so hard to reach, to the homeless I had grown close to down town. I cried as we crossed the Colombian line and fought back tears as the guard stamped my passport and said, “Colombia will miss you and await your return with open arms” (he had actual heard of us!).  But as hard as the ending of one journey may be, the good thing is, another journey begins. 
We had to leave; there are so many countries, cities and villages that are out there and in need of hope, laughter and love. And no matter how hard it is to say goodbye sometimes, Jesus said those who follow Him would be like the wind, not knowing where they come from or where they go, He said, “Go into all the world….” And it is my great privilege to obey that command and I am excited to see what lies ahead. 

No matter how hard it is, how exhausting, dangerous and how much work it takes to live the unknown, the price does not compare to the reward of laying down your life and letting God use you to love others. Life is so short my friends, what is indeed our purpose here on earth?

We crossed the equator and were officially at the middle of the world at latitude, 0’0’00’. 

Ecuador is completely different than Colombia. The countryside is beautiful, huge mountains from 14,000 to 20,000 feet snow covered, the roads are great, but the towns and cities are deserted. It is really eerie, like you don’t see people out and about. As we got near the city of Quito, we see billboards that say don’t help the poor because you just encourage poverty. It would take along time to explain it and I don’t completely understand it all myself, but the government has tried so hard to make Ecuador like America (they use the dollar for currency, invest billions into the roads ecs.) and to promote tourism that they suppress their own culture and hide the poor. The government is like a mix of socialism and communism, they have promised the poor many things that they have not delivered on. The poor have bought in with hopes of a better life and are now left with nothing. The government buys out their houses to “clean up” the city and gives them a small price which they take because they are desperate, then quickly spend and are left with nothing. It is hard to explain but you see huge cities along the way, and no people and the people you see are hollow, hurt and cold. Never have I seen signs saying not to help the poor, and ordering the poor not to beg. The poor that approached me down town Quito were afraid and tried to hide the fact they were in great need. 

Try to notice how steep this road is.

Spending the night just inside Ecuador. 

Coming into Quito

The city of Quito is a nightmare as far as driving goes, extremely narrow, steep one way roads. We made a wrong turn and found ourselves staring at the steepest road you have ever seen. No way we could make it up it, so we had to all get out and help dad back the van and trailer out down the road and back all the traffic out, very stressful. We found no where to set up the tent and it took us hours to find a motel that ended up being over an hour outside the city but was affordable and nice. Our rooms were on a roof top and overlooked the city and the beautiful famous mountain, Cotopaxie (not sure about the spelling?). 

We went down town to minister and perform at 9:00 in the morning and did not find a place and get started till almost 1:00! Reason being the city is so hard to navigate, steep, everything is one way and there is no where to park. If you miss a turn, you’re in for a good forty minutes to get back there and go around the block in the bumper to bumper traffic. Then once we find a good plaza to perform we have to be allowed to stay there and not kicked out by the Alcaldia. Thanks be to the Living God who always leads us and helps us! We were able to drive right on to a busy plaza in the city center and set up. Sometimes if you acted really

Super steep street

confident, nobody asks questions and assumes you are supposed to be doing whatever it is you are doing, even if what you are doing is anything but normal. There was a live radio broadcast going on so we had to wait for them to finish, but they asked for us to speak on the radio and so my dad (through translation by my brother) shared our whole message on live radio while we set up! You are only supposed to be allowed to stay in a spot for two hours I guess, but since we only were staying a short time in Quito, we were able to talk our way into four hours. 

Down town Quito

We had to deal with angry people that wanted us to leave so they could have the spot for the sake of the huge crowd watching that wanted us to stay so they could hear us. The people were more guarded and harder, it took more time and work to get through to them but we did and it was so worth it. We touched a lot of people, and when we were done we each had a large crowd we were speaking with and it was only due to a heavy rain storm that we ever left. So many people that are just fed up with the constant battles over religion, catholic vs evangelical, Jehovah witness and Mormons, this church vs that church and so many other weird religions and cults with politics mixed in, that many were greatly refreshed and found hope in the message of the Gospel, simple faith in the Living Jesus as salvation. When people hear that they do not have to pay their pastor or church in order to earn their salvation, it is like they are seeing something for the first time. So many have never even thought that they can study the Scriptures on their own without the need for another to explain and are excited to think they can learn. When I was speaking with the crowd before I danced my Irish dance, I called attention to a man in a wheel chair and told him that I knew how hard it was being in a wheel chair. I encouraged him and asked the crowd to remember those that are handicapped and in wheelchairs. After our presentation he came up and gave me a huge hug. He explained he had been in the wheel chair 14 years after being hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. His name is Gonzales. 

Where we camped just inside Ecuador.

After Quito you come down out of the mountains and it goes from really cold, to really hot and muggy. We were in the middle of nowhere and it was getting dark and we had no options to stop. Then out of nowhere, by the mercy of God, there was one motel, with one room big enough for us all to cram into and find a spot. Surely God always provides. It was really hot because the electricity kept going out but we were so tired we all slept solid (except when a truck would go by with a Jake brake on and rattle the walls, then we sat bolt upright). 

Some of the stuff you see on the highways.

Reaching the people along the way.

About 100 miles out from the Peruvian border the road got real bad, all dirt and gravel with tuns of pot holes and we had to crawl over it. Today we drove through a town that was bustling with people out and abut because today is a holiday (Valentines day for them). Daddy says, “why don’t we perform here for a while”, so we pull over to a parking lot and set up. It was right by the street, and not ideal but within minutes a huge crowd had gathered. I put on the frog costume and got the kids dancing and played a game with them and we took it from there. A national tv crew was in the area and when they heard we were there filmed our whole presentation, interviewed us to broadcast on the nightly news. The reporter said it personally touched to hear us talk about God’s forgiveness. Another young man in the crowd told me he had been abandoned by his parents after birth and had had no one growing up. He found hope I hearing us share that God wants to be a Father to him. It was cool to be in a little fishing town like this and bring them laughter and hope. One guy asked for the mic just to thank us and tell us that they feel so lost in this little town and forgotten and it meant a lot we would come there. Our shirts were literally soaked with sweat when we were done from dancing full out in the sun. They bought us water and crowded around the van saying goodbye as we drove away.

So now we are in another little town, about 30 miles from the Peruvian border which, God willing we will cross tomorrow. I just got back from running through the town with my brothers, my head is pounding from the heat  and I am going to jump in a nice cold shower. From what I've heard the States is having a really hard winter so I imagine many of you will envy this heat. Sometimes when I run through busy places I carry a flag I painted so the people get a message as I run.  Voting day is next week and everybody is campaigning so right now it is so loud with honking, shouting and fireworks that I think it’s going to be a really loud night and I’m going to try to find me some ear plugs. I'm sorry if there are mistakes in this and it's kind of all over the place, I don't have a lot of time. I put new pictures on the "Photo"page you can check out. The roads are supposed to be really bad through Peru and gas is expensive. It will probably take us at least four days to get to Lima and that's probably the next time I'll get a chance to get on here. So until then bye everyone and God bless you.

The women work very hard here. I took this picture just across the Ecuadorian border.