"Deep Thoughts" With Rod Jetton: FIRST TRIP TO QUISLAG

Buster and me in my new wool jacket with Sonja and the kids

Wow, visiting Quislag was like going back in time. These folks live a life at 11,000ft that is very different from anything we would understand. It was like going back to stories I have read about farm life from the 1930's.

Here are some of the photos on facebook that show these friendly people. I didn't take as many photos of their homes as I would like but it was very humbling. One thing we noticed was they loved to have their photos taken. We all took hundreds of photos and plan on getting prints so we can leave them with the villagers. I don't think they have any mirrors to see themselves and they loved seeing the image in the camera.

The inside of a home with guinea pigs running around

These folks are totally agricultural based. They raise sheep, goats, pigs, and guinea pigs as well as several crops. They eat the guinea pigs like we eat rabbit. They have no running water inside their homes but they do have electricity. They had very little furniture, basicly only a bed that 4 or 5 people slept in. What is neat about the Andes in Ecuador is that the climate is so warm. It's like being in Colorado high up in the mountains but it's summer all the time. I loved the weather, it was cool, but not cold.

Herding sheep

Each morning the children take the sheep out to the fields to graze and they have dogs that go and watch over them as well, then in the evening they bring them back to the pen. These pens are right next to the houses and I will try and get more photos of some of the homes and pens on the next visit.

I met three children that I really fell in love with. Sonja, Christian, and Celia. They and several other children took me on a tour of the village and they walked me down to the creek and back up to town. We passed several flocks of sheep coming back into the village and the kids kept telling me what the words were for different things and asking me the English word. One thing they kept doing was pointing to their knees and saying things I did not understand.

They kept trying to get me to go down a path to some houses below and I didn't want to go down that path but they kept pulling me down there. Finally, we went down that way and they led me to this one house. I went in and they showed me a lady laying on a bed with her knee wrapped in a homemade bandage. I now understood why they had been pointing at their knee and pulling me to her house.

Typical Home in Quislag-they don't have heat or air conditioning

On the last visit Bro. Shockley has prayed for, and the Lord had healed, 2 deaf and mute boys and one club footed boy. The villagers had seen this first hand and they wanted me to pray for her knee as well.  I was the only one there and could not understand what they were saying, but the boys acted out how she hurt her knee. Evidently she fell down and injured it.

I wanted to get Bro. Shockley to come down and pray for her but it was a long way to this part of the village down a very steep hill.  He couldn't come down and I offered to carry her up to him so he could pray for her but they indicated that she didn't want to do that because her knee was hurting. I have lots of faith in Bro. Shockley's prayers but was not so sure of myself. Since there were no other options I decided to trust God and ask for his help.

So I put my hand on her knee and prayed to the Lord to do a creative miracle and heal her injury. I prayed for my faith as much as hers. She could not understand a word I was saying, but clearly they thought I could help. I asked God to heal her leg so that her and the other villagers would know that God is real and that he loved them. I prayed just what I had heard Bro. Shockley pray. Mostly to use Jesus's name and ask for his help.

She did not get up and walk immediately, but I am praying and trusting God that when we return we will find her leg healed and another powerful testimony to show them God is real and that he loves them.

All this healing talk may seem odd to my readers as it was to me until I walked into a Wednesday night service in Branson where Bro. Shockley was preaching and after the service he had a lady come up and he prayed for healing of her back. After watching her hobble up to the front and then seeing her stand up straight and touch her toes my interest was peaked. He then asked if anyone else had any back issues and I had been dealing with a bad SI nerve issue that my chiropractor and physical therapist had been working on. It was still bothering me and I thought what can this hurt. So I asked God to strengthen my faith as I walked to the front.  Seven of us walked forward and when he got to me he lined my legs up and said one was longer than the other and that we are going to ask God for a creative miracle to heal my back. My chiropractor had told me the SI nerve caused my hip to rotate where one leg was shorter than the other.

As he prayed he didn't even lay his hand on my head or yell or anything as you see on TV. But I can tell you I felt something like an electrical shock shoot up my right leg, and Bro. Shockley said my legs were getting even.  I stood up and felt better but told him I wanted to go for a long run and test it before I said I was healed. He then told me to come and watch as he prayed for the next lady. She had one leg about and inch shorter than the other and I watched as he prayed for her and her legs also evened out. I made it a point to see if he was pulling on her legs and he wasn't.

As you can imagine all this totally changed my thinking on healing and increased my faith. It also made me appreciate Gods love for me. I wondered why God would use a miracle on someone who had strayed so far from the right path and had been so bad. Clearly. God is a forgiving God who loves sinners.

While I don't want to bore you with my story it helps explain how I ended up in Ecuador praying for a lady who couldn't understand me. It may sound odd and a few years ago I would have called me crazy, but I have seen Gods love for me and even experienced healing in my back and like doubting Thomas, if it had not happened to me I don't know if I would believe it either.