Well I’ve officially been on the World Race for two days and God has already completely wrecked my life. I’m torn right down the middle between being incredibly excited for what God’s going to do in the next 11 months and being terrified beyond words.
Since this is my first blog from country it’ll be all about Ecuador (or at least where we are now). Then in my next blogs I’ll talk about what God’s doing, Never Have I Ever and then everyone’s favorite—video blog!!! First the place! We made it safe to Quito, Ecuador where we are having almost like a mini training (called Launch) for 3 days. We’re split up between three hostels and even more I realize I packed way too much stuff because my 5 roommates and I have ZERO room. But we’re making the best of it! And I have a shower! I share with 10 girls on the same schedule and I have to choose between hot water or pressure, but it’s shower and I love it! Also I need to throw all my toilet paper in a trash can by the toilet—but at least I have a toilet! (for now…) This city seems to have 3 main businesses: bars, hostels, and food. During the day almost no one is out but once the sun goes down…I’ve started to call this place little Spanish Times Square!
We’ve also gotten our ministry assignments and oh man I know some of you are going to be super thrilled to hear stories from here! Let me pull out the good old bullet point form what information was given about my site:
- I’m not going to the village I was originally told. I am going to a village that does not have a name. Yep, that’s right, no name. It’s referred to as KM17 because it is 17 kilometers from the biggest city in the jungle.
- Oh yeah, it’s in the MIDDLE OF THE JUNGLE. Actually I believe our ministry contact’s exact words were, “the middle of nowhere”. So I’m going out on a limb and guessing no electricity/internet. See you in Peru blog!
- It’s been described as hot, humid and buggy. Awesome.
- We’ll be sleeping in a church so probably no tent this month!
- It’s an Indian village that only speaks their native language, so my limited Spanish? Unnecessary. Also he said because of Americans drilling for oil in their land they’re really distrustful of Americans so our goal is to show we’re different. In every action and word to show the love of Christ. OK! And to win the kids over first. OK!!
- Potentially we’ll be building wells. I’m super passionate about clean drinking water for people so this is actually something I’m super hoping we have the chance to do.
- We have 10 teams and he told us our site is the toughest and then didn’t explain why. His very next statement? “Start praying now.” (ummmm can I ask you to start praying now too?!?!?!)
So on Sunday my team and I will get on what should be (we’ll see) a 6 hour bus ride to KM17 (that’s literally what we tell him!) and start ministry! Strangely I’m super pumped even though obviously this is so outside of my comfort zone!
On a sad side note I lost a teammate last night. My team was super blessed to have 3 guys on it (the squad only has 15 total) and a guy on another team felt led to return home so they had to make some changes and the awesome and hilarious and strong and wilderness explorery Evan has been moved to another team. It was super tough on our team, we’ve all grown super close but we’re trusting in God and hoping for the best!
Well I have to run—breakfast is soon and I have yet to get ready—I’m trying to take every opportunity to lay in a real bed as possible—but know that I miss you all and love you and am praying for you.
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Also, sorry for the lack of pictures! The internet is not strong enough but I'll try to upload them and before I leave for the jungle I'll try to do a photo blog!
And I still need about $1000 to be fully funded so if you have the desire and ability feel free to click on the support me link on the left! Any amount can make a HUGE difference!
