Three meeting Sunday

On December 20, we took the bus from Portoviejo to Jipijapa, arriving around 9:15 or so to the home of C & A.  The meeting home had moved along with the residents since I had last been there, so C & A had agreed to take us to meeting that morning to help us find our way.  We had arranged that the fellowship meeting, usually held at 11:00, would begin at 10:00 so that we could have the gospel meeting at 11:00 before making our way to Manta for the two meetings there in the afternoon.  When we arrived at the home of C & A, it quickly became apparent that we wouldn't be leaving according to our original time schedule.  However, after an unanticipated breakfast and some sitting around, we climbed into their old beater truck and headed to meeting, arriving at the respectable time of 9:45 or so.  We soon learned that word had not gotten around that the first meeting would be at 10:00.  To shorten the story, we ended up having one meeting in Jipijapa - a fellowship meeting at 11:00.  Despite the fact that things didn't go as we had planned, we had a lovely meeting, after which C & A took us back to the bus terminal so that we could catch a bus to Manta.  We ate in the food court at the shopping center in Manta, thinking that perhaps after we ate, we could take a little time there to get ready for our next two meetings in the lovely air conditioning.  However, since the whole population of Manta also seemed to be at the food court that afternoon, we decided that, air conditioning notwithstanding, this would NOT be the place to get ready for two more meetings!  So, we headed straight for the home of don Misael's home where the Sunday fellowship meeting was to be at 3:30.  Of course, he was glad to have us early.  It meant that we spent a fair amount of the time we would have spent reading our Bibles, talking to don Misael, but we enjoyed our time together and had two very nice meetings in Manta as well.  It was wonderful to have the girls' help in the gospel meeting, and the five who attended that meeting enjoyed hearing their testimonies.

Here are just a few pictures that Alaina (I think) took from the bus on our trip from Jipijapa to Manta.

Vendors at the bus terminal in Jipijapa

Two restaurants side by side