Santo Domingo de los Colorados

I spent yesterday and today in Santo Domingo, about 2.5 hours east of Quito.

After reading Elisabeth Elliot's "These Strange Ashes," I was instantly drawn to the Colorado Indians (sorry, but im not sure if "indians" is the politically correct term. i would opt to use "indigenous" or "native american" but here every calls indigenous tribal people "indians". you may have also heard of the "Waorani Indians." im sorry if i've offended anyone reading this.) She had spent the first part of her life reaching the Colorados and lived with them in a town called San Miguel just outside of Santo Domingo (we drove thru Santo Miguel and i saw a Palm Tree where Doreen and Elisabeth's house once stood). in her book, she describes the journey of her and her buddy, Doreen, as they worked in Bible Translation among the group. it took a lot of time building relationships and finding someone to actually teach them the oral lanaguage so as to write it down. this city is full of missionary history, and it was a privilege to have visited it this week.

i just read that Colorado is another word for "red" either in their language, or some understood term in Spanish. anyways, Colorads are identified for their red hair, and i had only ever seen them in pictures. well friends, i met true blue Colorados, painted a community center with them, and ate lunch with them! here's a picture of the Colorado pastor of the church in the community. (bad picture, but someone else has better ones that i'll get later.) i learned that the red stuff on their red is from some red vegetable where they take they take it and smoosh it on their head. i think it's only men, but im not sure.

eating lunch with the Colorados was quite an experience. the house, was a hut, with dirt floor, or planks of wood. the kitchen looked like it was also the sleeping and laundry room. where we ate, was in the front of the hut, with a thatched roof, low tables and benches, and no lights, cept for the rays peeking thru the planks of wood. at that moment, it occured to me.... "THIS is life for the Colorados, and they are so happy." Primativo, the pastor, prayed in the Colorado language. it was a neat experience. the food was good - some sort of beef stew, rice and plantain.

anyways, i went with two other women from HCJB - Sheila (who is my new superhero, and legend) and Janine (the coordinator for Spotlight). the purpose of the trip was to train english speakers of a church in Santo Domingo how to start a Spotlight Listener's Club, following our model here in Quito. remember in a previous post how i said that many people have heard about the Spotlight Listener's Club in Quito?? well, we're starting to train other churches in Ecuador, and im working on the site to make resources available for people across the world to start the same program.

when we arrived in Santo Domingo, we made our way into the jungle - seriously, middle of nowhere, humid, banana trees everywhere, including COFFEE TREES AND COCOA TREES (see pics below!) we were helping to paint a community center. the Colorado pastor has a vision to reach this generation of youth and so the renovation and creation of a youth/community center is the start. later in the evening, we trained two english speakers who seemed quite excited to start the Listener's Club.

i had sooo much fun with Janine and Sheila. these women have lived such exciting, fulfulling lives...and as i mentioned, Sheila is my new superhero. apart from having worked with the Colorados herself right after Doreen and Elisabeth Elliot left, and having been a missionary in Ecuador for 25 years, Doreen went to her church in the UK and had Sheila over for dinner every week, drove Elisabeth and her husband to Santo Domingo to visit it again, was held up by guerillas in Colombia, was one of only TWO teams to respond immediately to the 2nd earthquake in Indonesia (the other being the French Red Cross), can speak the Colorado language(!), and is heading to India later this year to help with the plans of some medical facility, she is just hilarious! did i mention she's single? both her and Janine are 50 (but don't look it at all!), and are single. i told them that they make single missionary life look like a lot of fun. i've always been drawn to the company of older women, and these past two days were SUCH a great experience to hear their stories, their struggles, their vision, and their continued efforts to reach the lost. Sheila is the director for healthcare world wide, so she oversees and helps medical efforts mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Euro-Asia. because that is her focus now, she will be moving to Spain probably within a year as a more central location. as mentioned, Janine oversees the Spotlight Listener's Club and it beautiful to see how God can use even English HERE to reach people for him.

here are some pics:

ohhhh, that sucks, i just tried uploading pics and i think something is wrong with blogger. anyways... i'll get them up next week again.

know that i am seeing, learning, and thinking a lot about life. while i miss each one of you tremendously, the realization that this is exactly where i am suppose to be brings comfort.

mucho amor,
dL