Training amidst Coups, Confusion, and Chaos

“The government has just fallen into the hands of rebels!” was the news that greeted us when students returned to the classroom after lunch break on Thursday. The news was so unexpected and startling that I stood speechless for a full minute processing it. As we prayed for the country and its leaders, I began to think through the possible ramifications and consequences that this could have for my team members who were scheduled to leave and return to the USA in the next 48 hours. I also realized that I would need to get word to the team that was just about to travel to Ecuador to join me for the second week of training.*

The week started with relative calm as the first Reaching & Teaching short-term missionaries, Mark Bass and Mike Kessler, taught indigenous pastors on Cults and the History of Christianity. Late Thursday morning, I received by email the US Embassy’s Warden Message informing US citizens in Ecuador to take safety precautions due to a nation-wide strike that would close the highways and major airports. I was not terribly concerned as country-paralyzing strikes had occurred all too often during our years as missionaries in Ecuador. However, this time it was reported to be the national police who were protesting and putting the stranglehold on the country. I shared the news with the indigenous pastors as we ate our soup and rice for lunch. Their faces registered mild shock as they heard the news. When I obviously did not share their concern, they explained that the police involvement could only mean that a coup was about to take place, but even then I was hesitant to believe that it would go that far. The news of a developing coup broke as we were returning to the class for the afternoon teaching—the national police had attacked and kidnapped the President and were holding him hostage.

The major cities of the country fell into absolute chaos with rampant looting, sacking banks, and other crimes as the police refused to patrol the streets or respond to calls. To add to the confusion, the head of the congress was calling for a national revolution to free and restore the President. While all of this was unfolding, the President contacted the national television station—which had taken over all broadcasting—via his cell phone and declared that the nation was in a state of siege. He also declared that he would only leave the place where he was being held as a corpse or as President, refusing to negotiate. I knew we were safe and I had seen political turmoil while abroad numerous times, but my poor team members were watching all of this unfold without those same experiences. I was so thankful that they are mature, godly men who knew the Scriptures and the God who inspired them. Mike and Mark communicated with their wives what was going on and then trusted that the Lord who brought them there was in complete control.

The entire coup began that morning about 10:00 AM and was virtually over by 10:00 that night. The military had announced solidarity with the President, launched a military strike and fire-fight to free him, resulting in five dead and many wounded, the airports had reopened, and the President was back at the presidential palace addressing the nation and adoring throngs of waiting admirers. What a day!

I was able to get the Reaching & Teaching team back to Quito to fly home over the weekend and the second team from Ninth & O Baptist Church came as planned. They arrived Saturday evening, just as the last team member from the previous week departed, and we flew early Sunday to Cuenca. The drive to Tambo where they would teach included a stop to let them see a shrine that demonstrates how Roman Catholicism in Ecuador blinds people, holding them captive in superstitious idol-worship. We also made a second stop, at the site of one of the best-preserved Inca ruins in Ecuador, so they could learn about the animistic fears that rule the lives of so many Quichuas. They were also able to learn about the hundreds of years that more powerful peoples have conquered and dominated the Highland Quichuas. The mixture of Catholicism and traditional religion still saturates the Quichuas with its unique ChristiAnimism that continues to lead untold thousands to a Christ-less eternity. I knew that it would make the team members better teachers to have this glimpse into the worldviews of their students.

The second team came to teach for a week on the doctrines of the Trinity, Scriptures, Salvation, Church, Christ, and Providence, as well as paint one of the indigenous church buildings. The eight subjects that the two teams taught over two weeks were fascinating to the pastors. One of them said very appreciatively that in all the years he has been a Christian he had never heard the beautiful truths that they taught. The confusion that had reigned in their biblical ignorance and had so clouded their minds began to disperse in the light of God’s Word explained and they poured forth questions that had long concerned them. Some of the questions were similar to questions I receive from seminary students. Other questions revealed how vast the need for training really is; Was Jesus baptized before or after the resurrection? When was Jesus’ conversion? Which woman was it that converted Him? On and on these kinds of questions came, breaking our hearts, and giving us abundant reasons to thank God that He had allowed us to come and teach these brothers. Such lack of knowledge would be deplorable among any discipled Christian in the West, but these men were pastors and leaders of churches, some leading 2-4 churches each. They treated us like a biblical Google search engine, peppering the teachers with questions that were often off the topic of the moment but crucially important for these pastors and their churches to know.

One brother was totally blind, having been blinded by cheap alcohol thirty-five years ago at the age of twenty-two. He played the accordion to make a living for himself, his wife and four children. He had the sweetest spirit and was so earnest to learn about the Bible. While he did not understand it all, he had memorized large portions of the Bible, citing chapter and verse and correcting “seeing” students when they referred to verse 16, for instance, and he knew that they had actually quoted verse 17 of a particular chapter. He used a stencil and a punch for taking notes in Braille, which he used along with an old cassette recorder to make sure he did not miss anything. He had made a copy of the Gospels and all of the Pauline epistles using his Braille stencil, punching them into the pages of notebooks as his daughter read to him from a Spanish Bible. Still, he had very little knowledge about how to understand and apply the little he had, and he expressed great thanks again and again for our team coming to teach him. Imagine his joy when I told him that we had ordered him a complete Spanish Bible in Braille. It consists of 40 volumes of spiral-bound notebooks that require five feet of shelf space. It made me wince to think how I whined to carry my “heavy” Study Bible around!

The two weeks of teaching were a study in contrasts. The first week was the inaugural Reaching & Teaching short-term teaching trip. A pastor serving in Tennessee and a pastor serving in Japan made their way to Ecuador to teach pastors of Quichua churches there. The second week was a much larger team from a local church and taught six subjects each day. We witnessed a bloody coup attempt, but found peace and order in confusion and chaos. We ate cuy (guinea pig), corn and KFC, traveled in pickups, buses, and airplanes. We marveled at God’s creation and reveled in the beauty of the Andes, but wept at the depravity of fallen men serving and imitating their father to steal, and kill, and destroy. We also saw both Catholic idol worship and Andean animism at its core, but in the middle of it all, we were blessed to see Christ revealing Himself to thankful pastors. As always, God ministered to me through the team members and the national pastors much more than I was able to minister to anyone else.

I will be announcing very soon the next Reaching & Teaching short-term teaching trip and I pray that you will go with me to teach these and others some of what God has taught you. They are eager to learn and deeply thankful for your effort. I cannot promise you a perfectly peaceful or uneventful trip, but I can assure you that God will bless you with His presence as you go to minister in Christ’s name and service. Remember, peace is not the absence of crisis, but the presence of Christ. Amen.

* For more information on the attempted coup, see a first person account on Baptist Press, CNN video coverage, or Fox News' summary of the day's events. Riot photo courtesy of Associated Press.