Lago Agrio

Before I share a few thoughts that were shared at the Special Meetings in Lago Agrio, I'll try to set the scene for the Saturday meetings.  In our attempt to get to the building, we were thwarted a number of times by road blocks that had been set up to cater to the festival of the taxi drivers that happened to be taking place right across the road from our Special Meeting location.  We finally did arrive.  That was only the beginning, however.  The noise was horrific.  When would they be done?  Not until after we were, as it turned out.  There was bone-vibrating music, soccer games with full-volume announcing, constant announcements over some loud-speaker.  It if made noise, it was happening!  Not an ideal setting perhaps, but it was what we had, so we pressed forward and had lovely meetings in spite of the distractions.

Speaking of distractions, that was my thought for the meeting.  I was the first speaker in the first meeting, so somehow, it seemed ironically appropriate.  I had been thinking about distractions for about a month, ever since our meeting rounds started, but it had never come to me for a meeting until that very day.  I guess the Lord knew what was going on!