An interesting thing happened on the way...

This past Monday, three of us (Barry, Doug - Director of Media Ministries, and Graham - Regional Director) visited our Hospital Vozandes del Oriente in Shell (a five-hour drive from Quito). On the way we found ourselves almost in the middle of a shootout between Police and some thieves.

On the by-pass around Ambato, suddenly two motorcycles with two riders each went by us on the left. Ahead of us a police truck, which had been sitting in a cut in the meridian, pulled out into the two lanes on our side of the meridian. The first motorcycle went around the front of the police while the second tried to go around the back. Fortunately for the police there wasn't enough room behind the truck and the motorcycle went down. Immediately, some police jumped out and had them covered with their pistols. Two police on motorcycles, who were chasing the thieves, went by us then continuing to pursue the remaining bike.

We had slowed down by this point, not really knowing what was going on. When we got to the overpass you see in the video one of the police on motorcycle was stopped there telling us to stop as well. I turned around to look behind me and saw the second motorcycle turn around on the offramp and come around us to go under the overpass. At this point the motorcycle police began telling us to get out of the van and take cover behind it. It was about this time that I remembered I had a video camera.

Doug and Graham had just gotten out when we heard a series of six or seven shots fired as the motorcycle with the thieves went across the overpass. You can hear one of the ricochets right at the beginning of the video.

God certainly was protecting us on that trip. If we had been about 30 seconds further on we would have been right in the middle of the shots fired.

We found out later that the thieves had stolen $21,000. While the situation was not under control, the police were well coordinated in their pursuit of the thieves and all of them were apprehended.

Family Life Conference

Marlene and I went to a Family Life Home-Builders conference a few weeks back. It was an interesting time and we had a surprise in that we met up with two couples from our Bible study group that were also attending the same conference.

The idea is to provide the Biblical principles of how to raise our children. In this regard it was very well done and provided a substantial amount of information. I know that it has helped to reinforce in us what our the principles behind what we are trying to teach our children and how to convey those in a way which builds them up.

As parents it's very easy to be saying "no" all the time. It's much more difficult to use each moment as a teaching moment, even if it is in the midst of discipline or having a great time.

It was a fairly concentrated time and so we left at the end quite tired, but it was an enjoyable conference.

Poor proofreading, or poor quality assurance

It is so easy to make mistakes in writing, which is why it was always stressed in school the necessity of proofreading. Some mistakes can be quite humorous. I received an email today indicating that this company had released a new version of their software.

Faster - We're seeing average photo upload times quadrupled

Now, when I read that line, I don't see how having upload times quadrupled means that the program is faster. For me, quadrupled means four-times, and without a modifier, means that in this case the program was uploading photos at 1/4 the speed that it used to (taking four-times as long).

Oooops!

Removing the old...

The old Field Direction building, probably the oldest building on the compound here, was demolished this past week. The estimates are that the building was constructed about 45 years ago.

Due to a number of factors (including large amounts of mold and completely new electrical wiring needed) it was decided to remove the building. For at least the past six months it was being used as a storage area for unused furniture.

The space will be used for parking until a plan can be developed to better utilize the area.

Joshua turns 4.

Joshua celebrated his fourth birthday April 19. He enjoyed a party with several of his friends. It was a fun-filled day with lots of activity, balloons, and of course, cake and ice cream. You can see the photo album by clicking here.

Now that's a hole!

Due to the rains in Quito, a huge sink-hole opened up at the Trebol. The Trebol is a major traffic interchange in south of Quito.

Incredibly, no one was hurt. Apparently a couple of policemen heard some rumbling so they blocked traffic and moved people away from the area. The hole measures about 40m across and is about 60m deep.

A river runs underneath this area through a viaduct, but it appears that with so much rain lately that part of the viaduct was weakened enough to cause this huge hole.

The civil engineers are saying it could take upto one year to complete repairs and have traffic moving normally through the area again.

Hermann Schirmacher took the photo at left which shows some of the work being done to repair the tunnel under the Trebol.

The floods...

Here are some photos of the flood areas in Ecuador. It really is incredible to see the amount of water in some areas. HCJB Global has sent several large trucks full of food and other supplies to the affected areas. These items are the result of the generosity of many organizations but the most telling was the participation of Ecuadorians in support of their affected countrymen.

A very large number of people arrived at HCJB over the weeks, walking, with taxis or their own vehicles to drop off food to send down to the flooded areas.

A very humbling scene.