Trip to Salto

After a very busy “Dia del Niño” on Sunday, Monday morning began like most of the days that we have been here. Breakfast at 8:30 am, followed by team devotions at 9:00 am. Our study through Galatians continues to be a blessing to each one of us.
At 9:30 we continued to work on the fort project that we are trying to complete before we have to return home. From the rain last Thursday, there was still some mud to dig out of the post holes before we could set the final 12 posts. Once all that work was done, we had lunch and then began to organize things for the overnight trip to Salto.

We left Paysandu around 3:30 pm for the hour-and-a-half drive to Salto. The church in Salto is being pastored by Northland graduate, Andy Thompson. We saw Andy, his wife Kolette, and their children last Sunday when they came to the camp for the baptismal service. Last Monday, however, they left for their furlough in the States. Therefore, they were not in Salto for our visit. Other Northland graduates and Uruguay missionaries, Sergio Duarte (in Fray Bentos) and Bobby Vallette (in Colonia) joined us on the trip to Salto. Jorge, from the camp, went with us also.


We arrived in Salto just in time to prepare for our game. The game was a small field game against a group that had been organized by some men in the church. Most of the players were unsaved co-workers of the church members. While the game wasn’t as “competitive” as some of our previous games (we won 8-0), the opportunity to share the gospel was the same. After the game, our opponents listened intently as Jason Lorch shared the gospel using the ball of many colors.

After the game, we showered at the public hot baths that are a tourist attraction around Salto. This area of Uruguay is known for the hot mineral spring waters. Many people from all around South America come to this area to enjoy the hot mineral baths. It is believed that the mineral waters have a healing and cleansing benefit to the body. After enjoying the mineral baths and showering, we ate supper at the home of one of the church families. It was a great meal and a wonderful time of fellowship with some of the members of the church in Salto.

Then we returned to the church for our overnight accommodations. We had brought all of our bedding and extra mattresses from the camp to sleep on at the church. Everyone claimed their floor space and got comfortable for a good night’s rest.


Tuesday at Salto

Tuesday was our “day off” before we begin our long trip home. We had nothing specific on the schedule and let the team sleep in. We left the church around 11:00 am to do some souvenir shopping. Everyone began their search for just the right items to take home as gifts and remembrances of our trip. After shopping, we had a great meal at a restaurant called, “El Rancho”. This restaurant features a smorgasbord of meat cooked over a wood fire. It was great!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at the mineral spring baths. With many of us fighting colds, we were hoping that these hot baths would “open the pores” and “sweat it out of us”. We also thought it might be a great way to heal some of the sore muscles and tired bodies from an exhausting couple of weeks. It was a very relaxing and refreshing way to end our trip.

We left Salto around 7:30 pm arriving back at camp by 9:00 pm, just in time for supper. After supper we divided into cleaning crews to clean the various areas and facilities of the camp that we had used. Our journey home begins at 8:30 tomorrow morning and we won’t have time to clean everything before we leave in the morning, so we needed to do as much of it as we could tonight. After the cleaning was done, many guys stayed up quite late packing their things. Others joined some of the missionaries for a late night/early morning game of Rook.