Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you…
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
-Psalms 143:8-10
I woke this morning to the sounds of roosters crowing, dogs barking, and chicken feet scurrying over the tin roof of my host family's house in Portoviejo, Ecuador. My first thought…. what the heck am I doing here?! It currently sounds like someone is going to hammer through the wall any second and the chickens seem to be having a fight, or perhaps they are dancing, above me. My team and I reached Portoviejo last night (Sunday) at 11pm. After an 8 hr bus ride, our mission contact, Percy, split us up and sent us to various host families. Unfortunately we do not speak any spanish, and Percy does not speak any English. He had found a friend who spoke a little English to translate, but the process was still quite confusing. I was originally put in the same house as my teammate Ginny, but then someone returned for me to take me to another house. I was a little trepidatious when they seperated us, but my host family, Alexis and his wife Jaihra, are very kind and speak a couple words of English. So far, we've been ok at communicating and I've been praying that God would not let this language difference be a barrier.
We actually did have a team member that spoke Spanish originally. Nick, who is not fluent, but knows a fair amount and can certainly get by, was originally assigned to our team. On Friday night, however, Hunter, announced to the squad that after some serious consideration and prayer, he felt God was calling him to return to Hondouras to be with his new fiance. Everyone, of course, understood, but was heartbroken to lose him, espcially his team. As a result of this change, our squad leaders prayed hard about the balance of all our teams and seperately all felt that God was instructing them to move Nick from our team to Hunter's to fill the void left by his absence. Us Lamplighters were very sad to see him go, not only because of the practical issues of language, but because he is a great guy who brought so much to our team and our spirits.
In addition to this change, we actually gained a new member. Evan was asked if he would leave his team and join ours. He graciously agreed, which I know must have been a hard decision. We were all upset to loose one team member, I can't imagine how he felt to loose all of them. Still, we are all the same squad and we're a family. God has a reason and a plan for all this and we know that these changes will make us all grow stronger. I can already see how not having someone who speaks Spanish in our group is stretching me. With Nick, I could be complacent and helpless, just turn to him and ask him to translate. Now, I have to work to communicate. I have to make an effort. And I have to fully depend on God, because I know that I am insufficient to the task.
So what the heck am I doing here?
I'm learning to "let go," to stop trying to control my environment, and to lean on God in all things.
Today: We're going to meet with Percy and find out what kind of work we will be doing here in Portoviejo.
Breakfast: Egg (in omlete form), fried plantanes, banana, and milk (not sure what kind, but thick). p.s. at our hostel in quito…. don't know what they did to them, but those were the best scrambled eggs I've EVER had!!
Money: Interestingly, Ecuador uses U.S. money. But everything is WAY cheap. 5 of us had lunch the other day (1/8 chicken, rice, french fries, radish and cucumber salad, and a soft drink) for $10.50 total!!! Craziness.
Scenery: Ok, so this is interesting. As we were riding on the bus, we noticed a lot of half finished buildings. Apparently, when people want to build here, they just start building and when they run out of money, they stop until they get more. So a building could be sitting half finished for years. It's like a weird construction graveyard.
