The LONG version

Some stories don´t come off as well if you only give the summary --- so here I´ll give you the long version of what probably really is a short story (if you already knew the setting and all the characters involved)!!

One of my favorite things here lately is the number of people I´ve met on the streets of Quito in the past 6 years, who greet me like a family friend now as I´m out and about doing my "chores". Those are nice little "pick-me-ups" during all the routine stuff that nobody really knows anything about, but that everybody who´s human really HAS to do!!!

Anyways, I was on my way to the park (Carolina) last Sunday with Jessica and her sister Daisy (they´re Joaquin´s kids --- he sells Pingüino icecream in front of Vozandes), when we got to the lady on the corner of Amazonas and Japón who sells candies (do you know she actually gifts me a little bag from time to time - from her heart)... I´m ashamed to say I can´t at all remember her name, but I go by "Seño" with her, which is an affectionate term that the kids use often with their teachers.

This lady has been a friend of mine for the past 2-3 years, I´d say. She´d see me walking with the boys down to the park, cajoling them and correcting them and whatnot along the way. And I´d stop and buy a bag of candies from her once in a while. Well, a good while back (I think it was last summer, but not quite sure), I gifted her a Bible that I´d bought for just such moments. And then we really got to be friends. And then a few months back her baby (sorry, don´t remember his name either) --- not more than 10 months old, I´d say --- was in the hospital and really sick. We had the chance to pray for her baby, and I found out that he was discharged quickly, and completely healthy. I had just seen him the day before, and he looked wonderful.

Anyways, one of her daughters was there (her name is Xiomera, and she´s 11) and apparently anxious to meet me. Her Mom confirmed her questions saying "yes, she´s the one; she gave us the Bible". She asked if I were Christian, then told me that she was a Christian too. Her Mom said that all of her 6 kids (even the little baby) go to church together to listen to the pastor every Sunday. Xiomera was super-excited and hugged me about 5 times in between worried looks that I´d be leaving Quito since I won´t have my apt. anymore, telling me that God hears ALL our prayers, that she was thinking if there might be somewhere for me to stay, and then just hugging me for hugging´s sake. I told her I felt a lot better about the whole thing just knowing I had a prayer-warrior like her backing me up!

I introduced Jessica and Daisy to Xiomera and her Mom, and invited Xiomera to join us another Sunday when she could (she had a previous committment so couldn´t join us right away), then Jess and Dais and me went to play on the swings and slides, monkey bars and piles of rocks. We ate lunch together, which involved them waiting patiently for about 20 minutes as I stood in line at McDonald´s -- saving a table for us and guarding my backpack. We washed our hands, said our prayers, ate and looked for a special Bible verse for each of them to sign in my Bible, then went to see the animals in the window at the pet store. We got back to their Mom just in time to avoid getting totally soaking wet from an "aguacero" (a downpour). I´ve known those girls for 6 years. Jessica was about 2, and needed frequent bathroom-breaks when I first started taking her on "outings". But she remembers every single one, and now asks me every time we meet if I do too. (And I do.)

It´s really an incredible thing, when your relationships are your evangelism, and your profession is your ministry. There´s really nothing quite like it in the whole world :)

love m