Well...We are not there...yet.....

That's right, we have not made it to Quito yet! Our trip started out rather uneventfully and then.....

We flew from Dallas to Houston on a teeny tiny plane. I mean teeeeeeeeny tiny. When we walked onto the plane, Paul had to shrug his shoulders forward so as not to hit anyone or drag his shoulders on the overhead compartments the length of the plane. We were on row 18...the very last row! Yes people this plane was the smallest one we have ever flown on...

We landed in Houston safely, had a 3 hour layover, had some lunch, met our other team members for this week and then it was time to board our flight to Quito. We get on the plane...a much larger one this time...and take off on time. The flight attendants begin our dinner service and everyone begins looking out the windows at a VERY beautiful sunset and all of the sudden, we look out the OTHER side of the plane and the sunset has CHANGED SIDES! What?!? Then we hear the pilot come over the intercom and this is what he says...Tanya's paraphrased version...

"Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen. Some of you may have noticed that we have turned around. We are heading back to Houston. An airplane has skidded off the runway in Quito and has damaged the runway closing the airport. The other major airport capable to land this plane is closed due to construction, so we have been instructed to return to Houston."

WHAT?!? Ok so now what do we do? We land back in Houston and meet with our team leader. She calls the missionary in Ecuador and gets more details. The plane in Quito landed safely with 350 people on it. When it landed both rear tires blew out and it drug it's back end the length of the runway and off the end. No one was injured...PRAISE THE LORD! Quito only has one major runway so no flights are going in or out of Quito. We find out that there is another flight on Sunday and we book our group on that flight but we are not going into Quito...we are going to a town about 5 1/2 hours away from the town...we'll have to drive to the camp. So now we are in a very nice hotel in Houston, courtesy of Continental Airlines and we are going to go to the Aquarium tomorrow to kill soome time. We will begin our trip to Ecuador again on Sunday.

In light of all that has happened, please keep us in your prayers. We are still very excited to go to Camp Chacauco and we want to arrive safely. Pray for God's continued protection and guidance for the remainder of our trip.