The last evening of our adventures in Saraguro, we took a little trip South of town. Darren and I went to visit Angelita, the sister-in-law of one of the church members. Angelita is a wife, mother, and grandmother. When we arrived the young grandchildren were playing and laughing all around the porch. She greeted us with a huge smile and absently waved the grandkids aside as she set out the two chairs for us to sit down. As we started to talk with her it became obvious that she just considered us as kids. "Now marriage, you shouldn't believe what everyone makes that out to be! It isn't rainbows and butterflies." She had a very cynical view of marriage as her many years had only brought her pain. He husband was a drunk and always came home in the same state. Any time we tried to break in she would begin again on another diatribe. Then her face froze, she whispered almost to herself "he is yelling". Then she said softly to us, "my husband is coming home and from his yelling I can tell that he is drunk." She jumped up and began shooing the grandkids into a back room, ordering them to hide. I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable so I asked if we should leave. She said "No, don't worry." So we just waited as the yelling got closer, conversation was pointless as we could focus on nothing else. Darren then asked me quietly if I would switch seats with him as my seat was next to the entrance and his was a little further back. I complied and then the husband arrived. He was yelling all sorts of curse words in Spanish, I knew a few as those are not on my vocabulary list! Then as he reeled into the entrance he caught sight of Darren. He yelled "He PUSHED me!" and then began to pummel Darren with drunken blows. We were a bit in shock over what was happening but Darren only calmly raised his forearm to protect himself from the blows. It was a trick that he was taught from his previous roommate from the Netherlands who had been a police officer. Angelita jumped at her husband and her two daughters came out to help. The wrestled him to the stairs where he slowly quit yelling. They then shoved him up the stairs the whole time telling him to be quiet and just go to sleep. During this part the kids came out again, very subdued. We smiled reassuringly and shared the gospel to them through the Evangecube. Darren also explained to the kids how to best protect themselves if the drunken man tried to hit them.
When Angelita came back and sat down with us she was also very subdued. She quit trying to deflect our questions as I shared with her how special are the children of God. How those who are His children are princes and princesses and that He cares for them. She listened quietly, soaking in our words. We prayed with her before we left. She prayed to give control of her life to Christ. God used such a horrible situation to open her ears and eyes to see God's love for her.
