6:00 this morning found us loaded and ready for the eight-hour drive back to Barquisimeto. Fernanda's father said that he thought he could make it in six or seven hours because the traffic would be less as all the tourist were still coming to Mérida.
However, I soon discovered what he meant by the traffic being less – there was virtually no one on the road which means he was able to travel faster without getting behind slow traffic or big trucks on those narrow, winding, mountain roads.
And travel fast he did. We took most of the curves on two wheels. Her dad is a great driver. He never drove reckless, just fast. After about two hours of careening around curves, I got dizzy headed and had to ask him to pull off the side of the road to let me throw up. When we stopped, he told me to spread my legs apart and bend over from the waist, keep my head looking straight ahead with my eyes open, and slowly raise up and down. Wow! It worked. After about three to four minutes we were able to go again and I was all right the rest of the trip. Glory!
When we arrived at the Bible School, the Missions Office was buzzing with excitement as all the missionaries who are home on furlough arrived. The bus came after about 30 minutes and together with two or three cars, we were all able to head up to the mountain for a retreat.
When we arrived at the hotel, (Click on the word hotel) our rooms were not ready so the manager asked all of us to walk up to the town plaza and wait for him to call us. After about an hour, we all checked into our rooms and to my surprise, we had hot water. Glory! It was going to be a good week after all because the weather is around 50 degrees up in the mountains.
There are six missionary couples with their children plus two single lady missionaries. So it is a good crowd.
The Missions Department did the opening address tonight in the form of an illustrated sermon. We were all asked to go out into the parking lot. When we were all assembled (remember it is 50 degrees), the person in charge had a 3 foot by 5 foot photo of the beach with the word Summer written across the top. He began to speak to us about feeling the warmth of the sun, hearing the sounds of the sea gulls, sweating, and becoming real thirsty. Suddenly he said, Hey, who is thirsty? Several of the teenaged Missionary Kids raised their hands and the guy went over to a little six-pack cooler and brought six of them a drink. Then he said, Who else is thirsty? Several more people raised their hands thinking it was some kind of trick because the little cooler. He then said, Life is not always as it appears, opened the back of a SUV and started passing out sodas to everyone. He then preached about life on the mission field in the Summer, when everything is going great. The time when people are being saved, churches are being planted, and life is exciting.
He then asked us to go to the next station. When we arrived upstairs on an outdoor verandah, there was another poster with Autumn written on it. There were some crackers and cheese for snack foods and the speaker began to compare life on the mission field to the Autumn. Life is still good, the people are maturing in the Lord, a lot of the leaves are changing colors as people take on different ministries and responsibilities. She then asked us to go to the next station - Winter.
At the Winter station, a table was loaded with all kinds of fruit – Apricots, strawberries, grapes, etc., and the speaker began to talk about winter on the mission field, when nothing seems to be happening, life becomes more of a walk of faith, but a missionary must continue working through the winter.
The last station was Spring. A table was loaded with cut flowers for everyone. The ladies really enjoyed making a beautiful bouquet for their hotel room. Of course Spring is always exciting with new growth, new ideas, fresh vision, etc.
Each station took about fifteen minutes each. It was very effective and very creative.
We were then all instructed to go to our rooms for the night because breakfast would be at 7:30 a.m. It is now way after 10:00 p.m. and has been a long hard day for everyone. Good Night.
