Lost and Found

These three stories aren't on par with the ones in Luke 15 (although one involves Luke Skywalker and another Luke Richardson), but we had a few neat "lost and found" incidents this week.

* Shea brought his Luke Skywalker action figure to church on Sunday and left it in a desk of the Sunday School room. When he realized this Sunday afternoon, it was mildly devastating (is that an oxymoron?). We weren't sure we'd ever see the young Jedi again. On Tuesday though, we stopped at the church on the way back from the playground to check if it had turned up or if it was still in the desk. The secretary was busy, so the pastor helped us out and opened up the room for us. No luck. Then he went back to his office and got on the phone. When he got off the phone, he asked us to wait a few minutes. Shea's frined was with us and helped with the translation and let us know that someone may be bringing it over. A short while later, a boy rides up on his bike and delivers the toy to us. Shea yelled out a very heartfelt "GRACIAS!!" as the boy rode away.

* Shortly after arriving home from the playground and the church, I realized that we were missing Luke's "sippy cup" that we had brought along. This was very mildly devastating to me. I was almost certain we'd never see the small plastic cylinder again. But later that afternoon, Kristen- a fellow MAFfer- drove up with Luke's sippy cup. She explained what had happened. Kristen and I chatted briefly at the playground as she was walking by. When she came back past the playground after we left, a young boy ran up to her with the cup and told her we had left it there.

I love those two examples of the benefits of generous, honest people and a small town! This last story is more an example of the frustration and laughter that comes with having a toddler in the house.

* Tuesday evening, Jodie couldn't find a notebook that contained a lot of her school plans. I'm not sure where this ranks on the "mildly devastating" scale. Probably somewhere between the first two. Jodie and I looked and looked but couldn't find it. On Wednesday morning, Jodie thought she may want to check in the garbage can. And lo, beneath the two folded up pizza boxes, there lay the green notebook. Delivered there courtesy of Luke Transport.

A couple other interesting stories/events of our week.

- Jodie and I are about to fall alseep Wednesday night when we hear a "thump", "creak" and "pitter patter". Jodie followed the pitter patter down the hall and finds Luke in the kitchen with the refrigerator open & looking for a drink.

- The president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, visited Shell today. He flew into Shell, visited the hospital here in town, and then went to Puyo. This was President Correa's first visit since being elected earlier this year. We were able to see the motorcade as it drove through Shell