Shirley Goodness: The drive to Macas!

Friday was the long bus ride to Macas...with the promise of awesome mountain scenery! We left at 7, after having packed all of our bags on the bus in record time!! The ride was long, but we did have a stop at Cafe de la Vaca for breakfast. Again there was bread, cheese, and butter to start us out. And some good juice of which I did not recognize the name of the fruit.

Scenes along the drive before we hit the mountains

Horses around the back of the restaurant

Breakfast! Before they brought the eggs

On the drive in the mountains, we drove by cliffs and saw waterfalls and tall, beautiful mountains! We also saw people zip-lining across the ravines and even bungee jumping off of bridges! At this, Nathan informed me that he really wanted to do that! Not if I have any say!!

Towns along the way

The dam at the river

The man in the edge of the picture was about to bungee jump

A soccer field

During our drive, we also started learning two songs in Spanish that we were supposed to sing at church that night, during the Good Friday service. This was hard, but despite some tense moments around how to say what and what count we needed to use when singing, we managed to learn them somewhat! At least there were several decent voices that could also sing in Spanish and carry those of us who can't sing well in English, much less in Spanish!

The Nate Saint or Jim Elliot (or both) house. No time to stop!

Michelle and Colby Beaver being silly!

If I ever break my mixer container, I know where to buy one!

We arrived at the hotel with about 15 minutes to check in and change for church! After figuring out who was rooming with whom, and some room changes, I was given a room by myself! That was nice! But we didn't have much time to relax as we needed to get to the Good Friday service at the Macas church. One great news that we received was that the songs we were to sing were for Sunday and not Friday night! We met many people, even though I could only tell them Hola! It was emotional meeting with people who told us that they have been praying for our arrival. The service was full of songs and preaching/talking about Good Friday between the songs. It helped that they put the words to the songs on the screen. And I knew three of them by the music! At the end of the service, many people went forward to receive Christ.

After the service, the gym (which doubles as the sanctuary) was turned back into a gym for a Macas youth vs. Charleston youth basketball game. We won, but it was a very aggressive, competitive game!