The First Day of School
            .....where the mountains make you high : )
         

 On the walk outside our front door.

 How cool! To bounce on a suspension bridge

 on the way to school.

 

          The first day at Nate Saint Memorial School started with chapel including praise songs and prayer for the students followed by a fun skit: a game show put on by the teachers to review the rules. Then we chuckled as the students sang the Shell Song, a song from decades ago capturing a few themes of life here. I think you will chuckle, too. Here are the lyrics:

         
          Well… The grass is always greener

          when you’re south of the equator

          And livin’ in the mountains makes you high!

          But life in Shell is different

          and the town will leave its imprint

          And the roaches and the rain will make you cry (boo hoo)

          Yes… the roaches and the rain will make you sigh (sigh)

The school day here is much like in the states although lunch is 90 minutes so the kids come home as do the working parents for a sit-down lunch together.

Day One at school went well. Angelyn and Luke came home bubbling about how fun it was and Dane was happy to find his class was five boys and one girl. Last year there was one boy and five girls! : )

About 3:30pm the compound exploded with the twenty-two children who call this home. The swing set was crawling with kids. The neighbor kids showed ours the clubhouse built by the last family on top of our outdoor storage room. Dane and his crew set off on bikes to explore the town.

Fort over our bodega (storage room)

Angelyn, Josiah and Isabella

Meanwhile Jay and I were unpacking, doing laundry, hauling drinkable water from the hospital spigot and trying to get the laptop oriented to the internet access here.

We are tired but enjoying our first days here. Thanks for keeping up with our adventure.

Blessings,

Lynnelle for the Allisons

We Made It!     w/PICTURES!             

The bus ride was a grand adventure for the eight children who became fast friends. The parents enjoyed visiting and I had shutter bug fever for the scenery and culture.







Ecuador's capital: Quito. Pop. 3,000,000





8 kids and not a single seatbelt on the bus - what could be more fun!

Snow capped dormant volcano.



Note speedometer... one reason it takes five hours to get to Shell... slow mountain climbs.



In the land of volcanoes... a special heat resistant bridge that allows
lava to flow underneath.



Jungle creaps over the low mountains as we near Shell.



Excited kids waiting for the first glimpse of Shell.
Can you read the sign?



We're here! Unloading on our driveway.



 We arrived late afternoon at our new home. Neighbors poured out to meet us all. Angelyn met her first girl friend, Isabella, and they disappeared to get better acquainted. Then her brothers and their buddies went to play and tour the forts at the edge of the jungle.

We were warmly welcomed with flowers and fresh produce in the house. Our closest neighbors invited us to supper and we began the arduous task of unpacking those 12 suitcases and putting together our new home. Finding bedding and school supplies for the next day were the top priority. 

School starts tomorrow, Thursday. Jay's first day of work is Friday. Thank you for praying us all here safely. We are excited to be here and look forward to the year ahead.

Sincerely,

Lynnelle

We're Here! Quito Arrival                                

We landed Monday night about 11:20 pm after watching the gold glow of Quito grow closer and closer out the plane window. It was a big but blessed day.

I'm sure you were praying with us as we hopped from one continent to another. Here's how God paved the way:

Check-in: The man who checked our 12 suitcases in at United Airlines was so flexible... Not fussing if a bag was over a few ounces and letting me add to bags that were underweight.

Security - boy did we give them a workout! They dug into 5 bags but the worker there was very kind and we came early so no problems there either.

Flights went well. Children did well.

Arrival - we anticipated an hour plus going through immigration and customs. We were in the back of the plane and even had to stay a little longer due to a light-headed passenger but when we walked into the terminal, a greeter had started a new line through immigration and waved us into this much shorter line. Wow.

Baggage claim = all 12 made it intact. (Thank you to everyone who shared luggage with us!) We needed 3 luggage carts!

Customs: the airline was out of the custom forms they ususally hand out on the plane and immigration didn't give us one either. We wondered how this would work out but all the other passengers were in the same boat. The lines through customs snaked past double the area usually alloted for them. Then, suddenly, they sped up. An official waved us all by without asking for the customs form. Our bags rolled right through the xray machines and we were out of the airport in less than an hour. Incredible.

Jay has never had an international-travel day go so smoothly. We thank the Lord. We thank you for releasing his power through prayer.


Tuesday

Arriving from the airport... we snagged about 4 hours of sleep before we were up to grab breakfast and go get in line to complete our visa process. Although it took 3 hours, that also went smoothly.

We returned to a friend's home to catch up on sleep, then had lunch and I, Lynnelle, went shopping at MegaMaxi (what a name!) to stock up our home and get items not available in Shell. That was quite a shopping trip! Followed by another nap.

I had pictures ready to share with you but the PC and the camera are not communicating tonight. I will try to add them tomorrow.

So we are doing well. The kids wanted to head to Shell today to go play with and meet their friends. We load up 9am Wednesday morning for the 5-hour drive. We are sharing a mini-bus with the Barton family. They also have four kids, so do a little addition:

12 Allison bags
16 Barton bags
12 grocery bags
6 Allisons
6 Bartons
= = = = = = =
Quite an adventure!

We'll let you know how it goes. We probably won't have internet access in Shell for a day or two but then we'll be back with an update and hopefully some pictures. Until then, God bless each of you. Thank you for blessing us by supporting this ministry.

Buenos noches,
Lynnelle for the Allisons

Departure Date 2 Days Away                                        

Hello Everyone.

          Boy have I been making progress on packing. Thanks for your prayers. Friends have come to help, done errands and fed us. Thank you. Thank you.



Can you find 11 suitcases?  : )


Small World. Big God.

          We watch for Ecuador connections each week. Today a friend of Jay’s said he’d caught a story on the radio about Patti, a mom who moved to  Shell, Ecuador, to teach at the school our children will attend. She brought her four children after the death of their father. It’s a heart-warming story of God’s leading and provision during great tragedy. Listen at http://words.net/2012/08/10/experiencing-gods-grace-in-the-midst-of-deep-grief-pattis-story/

          Then Jay went to the courthouse to get fingerprinted (for his medical license application) and the jailer said her cousin is a missionary in Shell. We look forward to meeting her.

Praising the Provider

          Wanted to let you know that about 90% of the expenses for this trip have been covered by donations and pledges. We praise God for his faithfulness in providing for this ministry through so many of you. We thank all of you who are participating in this ministry by giving or praying.

If you aren’t familiar with how mission trips are paid for, here are a few details:  We are self-funded meaning we do not draw a salary. We are working volunteers through HCJB Global. Our living and work expenses are supported by donations to us through HCJB Global. That ministry has been on the ground in Ecuador since 1939. Visit their website (hcjbglobal.org) to learn more or watch videos about the ministries there. To learn more about our ministry read our blog post called Daily Life.

Glad to be taking this journey with your support! 

Blessings,

Lynnelle

Daily Life in Ecuador                                                                            

          Here’s what we know so far about our schedule in Ecuador. We look forward to updating this after we’ve been in Shell a while.

Jay – Daily devotions and prayer with the doctors and medical residents. Then see patients in the hospital.

   - Clinic: see patients and monitor residents as they see patients.

   - Every third day – cover the emergency room and do procedures in the operating room.

              

Residents helping an ER patient

Lynnelle – Spanish classes on weekdays

   - Manage the house, communicate with you and teach Jayson preschool

   -Help at the school where Dane, Luke and Angelyn attend

   -Help with ministries in the community, including the orphanage



Our neighborhood with typical cloudy skies.



Mailing Letters and Packages                                                             

We welcome mail in Ecuador!

Our address is:

Jay Allison (Letters can be addressed it to any member of our family)

Hospital Vozandes del Oriente

Shell, Pastaza

Ecuador, South America

If you would like to send a package, please see the important notes below:

Large envelopes or packages under 4 pounds need a green customs label which is available at the post office or their online site: USPS.com. Clearly mark them, "no commercial value."  If customs thinks the package can be sold for profit, they charge more.

 Please do not address packages to the children. If this happens, we must take them and their passport with us to customs to claim the package. We suggest addressing the package to Jay and then writing a note in the front lower, left-hand corner such as “Something for Angelyn!” and we will let the appropriate child open the package.

Careful when addressing packages or mailers– if you send more than one it's better to send one to Jay and one to Lynnelle.  Here’s why: If the same person receives more than one box on the same day, then the weight of all the boxes are combined which means hefty customs. 

Time frame – letters 10-14 days, packages often 2 weeks but sometimes 4 weeks, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern.

CAUTION: For a large padded envelope customs usually charges a dollar or two. But larger items or boxes would be a concern. Here’s an example: Friends received a heavy box of donated clothing and paid much more than it was worth to release it from customs. We'd be happy to answer any questions on e-mail about ideas on how to share larger items with ministries here.

Get Involved in Ecuador: GIVE, GO, PRAY                                          

If you would like to join in our ministry consider:

PRAYING – Check our posts for prayer request updates.

GO – leave us a comment if you are interested in joining a trip with a ministry work team. Anyone can help at the orphanage by playing with the children and by working on the new school building under construction. Medical professionals can join in a hospital campaign… just let us know!

GIVE – We are self-funded meaning we do not draw a salary. We are working volunteers through HCJB Global. Our living and work expenses are supported by donations to us through HCJB Global. They have been on the ground in Ecuador since 1939. Visit their website (hcjbglobal.org) to learn more or watch videos about the ministries there. To learn more about our ministry read our blog post called Daily Life .

By the way our support level is about 85%. Wow! Awesome, God! Thanks, everyone!

Financial gift options (tax deductable): 

Our account #128266

Phone: Call HCJB Global  719-590-9800

On line - www.hcjbglobal.org   Click Give at the top of the page, next select Give to Missionaries. Then choose Short-term Missionaries. You’ll find us on the list. At this time, the only on-line giving option for us is one-time gifts.

For monthly gifts, mail a note indicating this to the address below.

Postal Mail -   Please make checks out to HCJB Global. On the memo line write Act. # 128266. Our name can go on a separate note.

Address:  HCJB Global, PO Box 39800,Colorado Springs, CO 80949-9800

Thank you and many blessings in return,

The Allisons

~Thank You O'Neill Community~

Dear O’Neill Community –

                Thank you to everyone who is contributing to our ministry year in Ecuador. Your gifts of prayer, donations, and help with the many details of preparing to leave are all greatly appreciated.

                The open house on Monday was a wonderful send off. Thank you for the touching out pouring of well wishes, cards and prayers. Thank you to Avera St. Anthony’s for hosting the event. Sherry, Jon and James, the food was wonderful.

                Thank you to the Davis family for staying in our home and caring for our animals.

                To the O’Neill Assembly of God Church-- your prayers over us brought us to tears. May God return the blessing.

                Thank you to Faith Community Church, our amazing church family, for being a great foundation for our ministry and our family.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jay and Lynnelle Allison

Dane, Luke, Angelyn and Jayson

Life Notes from Ecuador – Living National Geographic

Here's a note I wrote when we visited Ecuador in April 2012:

Right now two monkeys are screaming outside my window. One has sandy fur and goes by the name of Sabastaio and the other has tussled blonde fur and goes by the name Luke Garrett Allison. They are competing to see who can be first to push the other off the sidewalk into the swampy carpet grass.

True jungle monkeys are rarely seen here. Long-time doctor, John Doerfer, tells us you must go quite a way into the jungle to see them or you can travel to the next town and visit the monkey farm. Can you imagine raising monkeys? I’m told many people keep them as pets here.

Yet, there is wild life at our door step.

Small red or blue birds out the kitchen window. Pampas grass taller than our house. An Achilles Blue Morpho butterfly on the back porch. It’s worth looking up on Google. Beautiful.

Leaf-cutter ants marched right across our path today. Locals tell us sometimes they are so busy their trail is a ribbon of wavering green.



Leaf chunks dropped by leaf cutter ants.

 

Miriam Gebb has journeyed by foot and plane deep into the forest for years as a nurse who provides health education to the tribes there. She shared her bug collection with us. Rhino beetles the size of your fist. A peanut bug as long as my finger. As you can imagine it looks like a peanut. Better google that, too.

Pineapple, strawberries and watermelons are grown here but it’s the new fruits we have enjoyed trying. Like granadia. It’s the size of an orange but the shell is hard. The inside looks like a cluster of large frog eggs.

Passion fruit grow here too. Did you know the name does not come from how good it tastes? Instead the blossom is the shape of a crown of thorns so it is a reference to Christ's death. The Ecuadorian name is maracuya. Blend with sugar and water and it makes a yummy drink.

God’s creation is amazing in Nebraska and in Shell. Experiencing it first-hand is an extraordinary blessing.

God’s people are amazing, too. Today the boys and I toured an orphanage with 57 children. Because of the efforts of it’s founder, an American woman, and the orphanage staff, the children recently moved from deplorable conditions into a colourful, clean new building.

A school is being built and as funds become available five houses will be built so the children can be grouped with foster parents to experience their first family/home environment. The work team we met at the airport was pouring cement for that school today. About 20 work teams from the States come throughout the year to help. Perhaps a team could come from O'Neill??? 

By the way, an orphan with cerebral palsy choked and aspirated some food at breakfast this morning. She quit breathing and was resuscitated at the hospital. She will be on a ventilator for a few days. Jay and the residents will be taking care of her.

Hello Everyone – Thank you for blessings us so. A couple more prayer notes and donations toward this ministry year arrived today and we are so humbled. I wish you could tangibly feel our hearts.

Here’s the latest:

Visas – Jay called the Ecuadorian Consulate in Minneapolis this morning. It has been 10 days since they said our paperwork would be reviewed and while we have sent emails asking, there has been no response. When he called and told the receptionist his name, he was connected directly to the consul. She thanked him for everything we are doing for her country and told him the visas had been approved. Terrific News! Praise! She also said she thought the visas had already been sent back to us. So we checked the FedEx tracking number for our return envelope and it hasn’t been activated. We’ve emailed the consulate enquiring if it was sent another way. Please pray our visas are in a safe place and will get to us in good time.

River valley near Shell, Ecuador

Prayer- thanks for holding us up for each issue we’ve faced. To talk directly to the Ecuadorian consul today was such a great, positive surprise. This is just another place we see the hand of God. Each prayer you send up is wrapped up in the movement of that Holy Hand. Thank you. Together we are holding the hand of God and participating in His plan through prayer. That’s HIStory.

View from our future backyard: mountains and an active volcano.

  

Packing – Sheets, towels, some cooking items, my favorite pan. All the boys’ clothes are sorted and ready. Angelyn’s are next. So many decisions. What. How much. How heavy? What to take to give our house the feel of home. Prayers for discernment and wisdom are welcome.  

Saying Goodbyes – The time has come. Friends are coming for dinner. The kids are having sleepovers. The Allison side of the family is gathering this Saturday. Angelyn has almost checked off all the names on the girlfriend list she posted on the fridge. The hospital is having an open house on Monday.

This brings mixed emotions. The finality of leaving. The treasure of friends.

Leaving. Beginning. What’s ahead. Are we really ready? Uncertainty creeps in. We’ve been so deep in preparing that it seemed the end would not come. But it has. Lord, help us process and proceed.

HE said:

I will strengthen you.

I will help you.

I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.               Isaiah 41:10  

Held in his hand, watching his victory unfold,

The Allisons: Jay and Lynnelle, Dane, Luke, Angelyn and Jayson

Life Notes from Ecuador -  Shell Snapshot

To give you a picture of Shell, Ecuador, here's a note I wrote when we were there in April 2012. 
Years ago the road to the jungle ended at Shell, Ecuador. Today it is still surrounded by canopy trees and vegetation that requires a machete to get through, but the road goes on for another hour and 3,500 people now call Shell home. The town square glows at night (sunset is 6pm year round) as children play on swings and slides, cart vendors sell kabobs and couples enjoy the newest, coolest distraction in Shell -- ice cream -- from the Ecuadorian version of Dairy Queen called Nice Cream.

Daily essentials are purchased from open store fronts: bread at the pastaria, groceries at Karen's, meat up the hill and across the stream at the only meat store in town that uses refrigeration. Brick streets thump under car tires but most people walk to do their daily errands. The houses range from a two-story modern stucco structure next door to a tilted two-room box with corrugated metal roofing.

Termites finished hollowing out the original HCJB wood hospital building in 2008 and it was torn down. The new one reminds Jay and I of our hometown hospital. Simple, reminiscent of the 1950's with a similar amount of equipment but with a very dedicated national and international staff. More than 100 patients cram the small waiting room on Monday mornings. Vitals are taken in the same room in full view. No HIPPA laws here.

Four family practice doctors could keep the flow of patients balanced but right now two doctors trade call every other night. One of them, Dr. Matt, grabbed the opportunity for some much needed RNR and flew to the states with his family a couple days before we arrived. Both family practice doctors are fighting burn out. 

Today the surgeons will operate on a man who arrived from the jungle two days after a snake bit his leg. The dead, black tissue will be removed and his long road to recovery will begin. Please pray for him. Another prayer request: new borns are typically small here but a nine-pound baby was delivered with shoulder dystocia. Please pray for that family. 

On the back side of the hospital compound, the missionary children arrive home from school about 3:45 and spill onto the lawn. Soon the boys bike down the gravel road, ditch their bikes and head into the jungle. Time for finding tall termite-mounds, searching for frogs and watching tree-cutter ants. As Dane and Luke’s new friend said, “I used to live in Texas. That was boring.”

 Yesterday it rained three inches. A week ago they had five inches in an hour. 220 inches of rain a year – Amazing! That’s even more than most jungle areas because Shell is at the edge of the mountains so the clouds gather here and dump their loads almost every day. The humidity is high but the temperatures are usually in the 70s so it’s quite comfortable.

We wish you could all experience this unique community of faith, service and fellowship with us. Thank you for backing us up with your prayers.

Sincerely,

Lynnelle for the Allisons