I can’t remember when I’ve experienced weather quite *this* hot! I mean, I do remember as a child growing up in Toronto with its hot sticky summers and sleeping with a fan blowing on me all night, but this… this is way more intense. When I was a kid I could still run, skip and do cartwheels under a clear blue sky in July. Here, I just walk around 2 blocks on service and I’m looking for the nearest tree to escape the sun if just for 2 seconds as we pass under it! And they are saying this is just the beginning of the hot months which last until the end of September! Of course if I’m so sweltering I think I’m about to perish, I just have to come up with a call we can make on the ‘front’ street. There, it’s the relentless rushing stiff breeze that gets a little much after a while, but what a relief when you first step around the corner and that cooling wind on your dripping face! Still, so far, I’m happier being too hot than chilly in the Andes of Ecuador 🙂

Yes, service is hot, but I’m not just referring to the thermostat. It’s “hot” with interest in the bible! Today, the group started at 9:30 and by 11:30 our little threesome of Brother Reuben, Richard and myself had started 3 bible studies. On Saturday Buddy’s wife Maria and I placed all the magazines we had (I lost track, but it was a lot!). People are so hungry for truth here and no wonder with the immoral climate that surrounds them and families disintegrating. I was thinking ‘sigh…all I have left in my bag are the Awakes on step-families’, but turns out, they were just right for the territory!

Well, only 5 more sleeps until we move again…this time only next door though, so no biggie 🙂
It’s supposed to be 15″ more in width, so, we’re ‘widening out’ 😉

Here are a couple of pics from service today. (Click to enlarge them)

Rich and Reuben

Brothers Larry Hagerty & Buddy Magania

Taking shelter during a sudden downpour

Danger lurks in the most unexpected places sometimes!

If you’re familiar with the writer James Thurber, you will likely get the title. He wrote a story called ‘The Night the Bed Fell’.
Yesterday as Richie was just settling into the hammock while I was gone to buy sandals, down it came, Richie & all, crashing to the cement floor! Just the night before, as I was relaxing in this same hammock, I thought to myself, as I looked up at the rope chaffing on the corner of the cement wall in the wind, “hmmm I wonder how long it will be before that rubs right through and breaks?” Well, now I know the answer! Fortunately he only has some minor pain in the lower spine area from it. It could have been much worse!