Rainy Day Turns to Sunshine

As I woke up this morning I was so sad because the dawn brought another ugly, cloudy day. It seems that it has been raining all year. So the dilemma, do I go out in service and give into my desire to stay in the PJ's and curl up in my warm bed or do I go out in this muck? It took all my energy to make myself get up and get ready and drive to the group. But, I'm happy I did for it turned out to be a great day.

First, when I arrived at the service group, I was actually the youngest member of the group. Our dear older brothers and sisters faithfully came out in service in spite of the ugly, rainy, weather. This is remarkable because unlike me, they had to walk to the group in this nasty weather. The oldest, 84 years old and me the youngest at ????? (I'm not telling though I'm getting up there.) The conductor was late so we all started talking about the weather and how much the rain was needed for the crops. That conversation turned to asking me about the planting, sowing and harvest schedules in the States. All started giggling when I told them how much I always loved having my own garden and how we learned to can or freeze our produce to get us through the winter. They were amazed at that concept because no one in Ecuador knows how to do canning because there is always plenty of fruits and vegetables all year long. Finally, the conductor arrived and we got organized for the ministry. I was assigned with Ester and she said she had some bible studies. So off we went. The first study was with a young mother and she was prepared and waiting for us. I got to conduct the study since Ester was busy keeping the child quiet which was quite a chore. As we knocked on the door of the second study, the husband opened the door. He said they were about the leave but invited us in for a quick "saludo". He called his wife and invited us to sit down. Ester explained to him that we come every week to visit his wife and we study the bible with her. The husband, named Eddie, was delighted and said that he fully supported his wife's desire to study and would we mind if he also sat in on the study. Once again, he mentioned that they were about to leave and as we were getting ready to leave he said, "but I have another question...." Okay, we listened and answered the question. We rose to leave again, and he said "one more question..." Again, we answered the question using the bible. This went on about 30 minutes more and every time we tried to leave, he came up with another question. We ended up having and brief bible study with the whole family. Mom, Dad and 2 children. As we were leaving he said that maybe next week we could arrange to stay 2 hours to really answer his questions. Why not? He invited us. I came home feeling very refreshed and happy that I decided to go out on this rainy, miserable day.