We took a bus ride from Quito to El Carmen but it felt more like a plane ride. Winding through the mountains, above the clouds, it was easy to forget that we were, in fact, attached to the ground. With the jungle to the east, the Andes mountains in the middle, the rainforest to the west, and the equator running through it all, it feels like Ecuador is the country of perfect balance.
The rainforest certainly earns its name. We arrived at our rainforest rendezvous of Reten after 6 hours of riding busses, two of which were on rainy, rocky roads. We are right in the heart of western, coastal Ecuador where rain is frequent and sun is rare. This bodes well for me and my fair-skinned teammates, although the past two days have provided heavy doses of equatorial sun. This month’s ministry involves construction work on a school and Vacation Bible School work with children. The skills I learned working in New Jersey this fall have already paid off as we have sanded and painted a fence and are quickly moving on to more construction projects. Reten has welcomed us more than we could have ever expected.
On Tuesday we fasted with the church. I had never fasted and in fact had been opposed to fasting in the past. While I understood that fasting is biblical and that Jesus fasted, I could never get past the idea that if we are blessed with food, we should eat it. Fasting physically changes our bodies chemistry and I felt that weakening our bodies prevents us from fully carrying out work we are called to do. This particular fast affirmed my ideas in one respect but it opened my mind to ways fasting could provide great growth. During this fast we were involved in worship, seven hours of worship and testimonies. The experience was interesting but I wished that we could have had some alone time to process things and just spend time in quiet prayer. The problem with this model of fasting was that the fast prevented us from giving our full attention to the testimonies. It is difficult to argue that our attention and capacity to comfort was at it’s fullest in our state of physical deprivation. During this deprivation however, I felt a desire to dig deeper and just listen to God. These things being said, I amend my views of fasting. I feel that fasting with an inward focus can be fruitful but that fasting with external expectations is difficult.
We have no internet near our location this month, so this post is brought to you by a 2.5 hour bumpy, wet and crowed bus ride. I am uncertain how many of these trips we will end up making, but I will work to keep you updated the best I can. I also have many pictures but the internet connection we have right now isn’t conducive to uploading. I will post those as I can.
Have a great month!
-Jeff
