The retreat was to start at 11:00 AM, however many folks were delayed in travel because of an accident on the highway leading to Santo Domingo. The meetings were held at the Balneario Ficus Water Park, which is owned and operated by one of the families of the church in Santo Domingo, pastored by Roberto Rios. This was a really nice place for our meetings. The meeting

	Balneario Ficus Water Park, location of leaders' retreat. Sto Domingo, Ecuador

room was an open-air facility and proved to be a great place for the retreat because of the weather conditions. The weather was overcast the entire time with some rainfall. Because of this, the air was cool and there were not many visitors to the park during our meeting.

The meeting finally got underway around 12:30PM with some great worship. Everyone tied up in the traffic mess was safe and came in just fine. During the retreat Pat wanted to have a different pastor or leader from Ecuador open a session with prayer or close with prayer. As the host pastor, Roberto Rios opened the meetings with prayer and welcomed everyone to Santo Domingo. Fernando Ubilla was the Master of Ceremonies (and Comedy I might add!) throughout the weekend. 

Worship at Leaders' Retreat

They asked me to practice a couple worship songs

 Thursday June 24, 2010

This trip’s team consists of Pat McGuffin, Dr. Frank Breyere, Becky and myself. We left Orlando airport on schedule for the first leg of our trip to Miami on time. We landed in Miami and had a three-and-a-half layover before leaving for Guayaquil. Our flight left on time at 7:15PM. Having a long layover in Miami is much better than having to run from on concourse to the other as they usually leave you just enough time to board the connecting flight. This time we came in through gate E10 and were leaving through gate E8.

	Pastor Chuck Blystone

I had to catch up some work and make some business calls, so it worked out very well. The flight to Guayaquil was very easy. Upon arriving at 10:30PM, Ecuadorian time-an hour ahead of us, we stood in line to customs for one hour. There were about 600 people going through, and as we progressed through the line, the crowd just kept growing larger by the minute!

We got through customs without any issues (I think because Ray Watson was not on the trip!) and were greeted by many H.O.T. team members. We were greeted by Fernando and Gardenia Ubilla; Dr Freddy and Edith Beltran; Dr Byron and Leonore Lopez; Marcel and Byron Alfredo Lopez; Miguel and Judy Saez; Jackie Ormaza and Francisco Yoong. After hugging everyone they took us to the embassy, where Maggie had prepared a meal for us! We had a great time catching up and everyone wanted to meet Becky for the first time. Our friend Jackie introduced her to everyone.

I think we finally got to bed at around 2:30AM.

Friday June 25^th –Santo Domingo - Joshua Church

After having breakfast, we had to repack for our trip to Santo Domingo, a 5-hour ride north of Guayaquil. Everyone travelling with us met at Fernando’s and Gardenia’s home. Fernando asked us to have lunch as Gardenia prepared a meal for us while we waited for the rest of the team to arrive. This time was great as it allowed us more opportunities to catch up and get to know each other. All the women wanted to get to know Becky especially.

We arrived in Santo Domingo around 7PM and checked into our hotel. We had about 20 minutes to get to Joshua Church, where Pat was to preach. After introducing the team, he spoke on answering the great commission and laying hands on the sick, casting out devils and saving the lost. He gave an altar call for anyone needing ministry. We saw many touched by the Lord. I had an interesting experience in the ministry time. We only had enough translators for three of us, so I asked the Lord what to do. Fernandito (Fernando’s son) came over to me and asked if he could help. So he and I trained each other and started praying for people. We had a great experience and saw many people get touched by the Lord. I asked him later how he felt about it and he said that he wanted to be as good a translator as his sister. He is off to a great start and is beginning earlier!

Saturday June 26^th The H.O.T. Leaders Retreat – Santo Domingo Balneario Ficus

After breakfast, we visited a children’s feeding program, sponsored by Heart of Titus and ministered by Pastor Roberto Rios. They call the area ‘The Island’

and have developed a school for the children to teach them scholastic lessons as well as teach them about Jesus. While we were there, we saw that they were working on building a water tower to catch all of the rainwater, for consumption purposes. In addition, Dr. Frank shared his testimony about being raised in an orphanage and still being able to become a medical doctor after having lived through a difficult childhood. He encouraged them to trust God, ask Jesus into their hearts and believe that, through Jesus, anything is possible! As we were leaving, they brought a small child to us to pray for. This little girl’s brother carries her around the school every day they are there.

Editor's note:  We will continue we the next part of Chuck's journal later this week.

 In Luke 1:26-38 the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and announces to her that she has found favor with God and that she will become pregnant with the Son of God. Mary does not understand how this could be as she was virgin and asks the angel to explain how this could happen. Gabriel tells her that The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you and that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. He also said that with God, nothing is impossible! Her response was,  "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word."

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

We, at salvation, are all impregnated with the Word of God - Jesus - by The Holy Spirit. As the baby Jesus began to take over Mary's body and told her when to lay down; when to sit down; when and what to eat; how to walk (when you are pregnant with the Word, you begin to walk funny - at least those who are not pregnant think so!), He was preparing her for her future - to give birth to the Word of God!