Dougs Travels

Bryon and Nieves

Pastor Byron and Nieves teachng in Chuapi.

I have just finished a trip with a medical team from Oklahoma to a community in the mountains called Chuapi. It was a great trip and we were able to minister to many people with dentistry, doctoring, and medicines. They were so appreciative of our coming and we were able to share the gospel with many there. I am also living with a family in South Quito and helping them start some churches and we have started a Bible study in Chuapi. Byron, Nieves, and Raquel are the family I am living with. Byron is a pastor of a church (Santisimo Fe) and a new church start (Los Pinos). It has been a great help to my language living with them and they have been great to me. Quito is a city in Ecuador of about 2 million people and sits at about 10,000 ft in the Andes.

Dentistry and Candy to follow

Dentistry and candy

Raquel

Raquel

Riding down the river

Jonathan and I just finished a trip in Peru down the Rio Madre de Dios in the middle of the jungle. It was a three week trip and we had a great adventure. We started in Quito Ecuador with a 36 hour bus ride to Lima and then a 18 hour bus ride to Cusco. We then took a 8 hour bus ride to a community where we had to ride in the back of a wood truck just to get to another community where we could catch another wood truck to the river to start our three week trip down the river. As you can imagine I was tired of buses and trucks and ready for the peki peki's in which we would travel in. (A peki is a boat with a briggs and stratton motor) We stayed in the first village for a week and encouraged the believers there that an Extreme Team had reached a few years ago. It was a great week and we cut wood, fished, hunted, and helped to build one of their boats. (pic to follow) We stayed in two other communities and were able to share the stories and encourage the believers that we found. It was hot and muggy most of the time and we fought off many misquitoes. When we arrived in Puerto Maldonado we found a great resturant that had Tai food and enjoyed every bite as we had been eating mostly crackers, rice, and fish for over three weeks. On the way back to Ecuador I got really sick on the bus and found out after we returned that I have contacted Dengue fever from one of the mosquitoes. It took me a month to get feeling better and I can report that I have made a full recovery.

Fishing on the Rio Madre de Dios

Sharing the stories

Sharing the stories

Building a boat

Building a boat

We are doing our first Extreme Team training in Ecuador. We are doing it in Puyo which is community up in the jungle. It is a great place with lots of rain and water falls. We have some great guys in the training and its good to have some of the team together again. I am taking some classes in Quito during the week and spending my weekends in the jungle with the team. It is amazing what the Lord does in the lives of these young guys. They will be the future missionaries of this country and around the world. May He increase their faith.

Getting ready for the 26 K hike

Building a house in the jungle

Jeremy Trainging

Traveling up the river with Russ

Jonathan and I took a trip with Russ up a river in southern Ecuador to meet with some of the Shwar and see if they might be open to have some one come and live with them and share the stories of the Bible. We spent 4 days up the river and as Jonathan said it was like being in Jurassic Park on steroids. It was absolutely bueatiful and very primitive. We did some fishing and hiking and met with some wonderful people. We do have opportunity to go back and share with them and will hopefully be sending one of our team there soon.

Young Shwar

Shwar Village

Jurassic Park

Playing with large spiders (Trantuala)
I have just finished my time in Peru and am now in Ecuador. I was in Iquitos for a month helping with an Extreme team training in the jungle. It was an exciting time and a good learning experience. This time I helped with the training rather than going through the training. It can be tough!!!
I have my first team member Jonathan who is from Tennessee. He is a great kid and will be an asset to the team. He just spent a week up one of the rivers we will be working and we will be doing some exploratory trips in the future. We are now looking for a place to live in Esmeraldas which is a river town on the coast of Ecuador. I am putting some web sites at the end of this that you can check it out with. Ecuador is an amazing place with lots of diversity and I understand they do have trout streams. I will be breaking out the fly rod soon. Send flies! Keep us in your prayers.
http://www.ecuadorexplorer.com/html/esmeraldas_province.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esmeraldas,_Ecuador

Fishing the Amazon