Saturday morning it was time for us to depart from Ambato and head back to Quito. We would be catching a flight back to Miami early the next morning to head home. We said goodbye to Ester and the girls and Jonhattan and Ivonne that morning. When I hugged Ivonne goodbye, I promised her that I would be praying for their son and she said she would be praying for the decisions I had to make. When we left the hacienda for the last time that morning, Ben was still not well. He pretty much had to be carried to the bus and helped to a seat.
Ava and I sat together near the back of the bus for the ride back to Quito. We talked a lot and cried some. The week in Ecuador and the time with Jenni made me appreciate the presence of an Ava in my life; and that Ava was there with me, made me thankful again that she is the one the Lord chose to use in my life.
We dropped Ben off back at the HCJB guesthouse where we had stayed the previous weekend. We left him there to sleep and went to a Chinese restaurant in Quito. Josh’s camera was stolen while we were there, taken off the back of his chair. We were all disappointed for him because all of his pictures were lost, but we prayed for the guy who stole it, that his heart would be convicted by the pictures of the beautiful faces he would see.
From there, we went to an outdoor market in Ambato. I walked around with Ava, Lana and Dan; when it began raining, we picked a booth, bought some stuff and made our way back to the bus. While we were there, though, I was able to buy a beautiful tapestry for the Tree House. Danny was so pleased with what Ava and I found for them.
That evening, we picked up Ben from the guesthouse and went to the Koenig’s home for dinner and a time of debriefing. Ben seemed to be doing really well; he was sitting up and talking, but still shivering from the fever. We started the debrief and, of course, I had my journal and wrote down what just about everyone said. The debrief was going well, until Ben got up to go to the bathroom. He was really ill and dehydrated again so Jen, Lance and Chance took him to the emergency room at the HCJB hospital. We stopped and prayed for Ben before continuing the debrief. It was not long before Jen called from the hospital and said that they had given Ben an IV and he had begun to perk up right away, but that the doctors wanted to run some tests and make sure there wasn’t a major problem. He got back to the guesthouse for the night not long after us.
We awoke early Sunday morning so that we could leave in time to get to the airport for our early morning flight. Ben had spent the night with us, but before we left it was decided that he was too ill to travel so he and Danny would stay behind for a few more days. It was beyond difficult to say goodbye to Dan and Danny. I felt like I had connected with Dan in a way I never had with a missionary on a trip before; and leaving behind our team leader was heart breaking. It almost felt like we were abandoning a part of our team, especially watching Danny say goodbye to his teenage daughters who would be returning with us. It reminded me of the first time Ava and I had been in Peru when we left Rob and Lisa Grose there to take care of Laura Lins who had been diagnosed with cancer. The reality, though, was that Ben was not healthy enough to travel. There was a lot of walking through the airports in Quito, Miami and Atlanta and it would have been too much for him.
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