On the World Race, we are given a few adventure days. The (tentative) plan is that we get one adventure day a week to experience the culture and see the country that we are in. In Colombia, we were at our ministry Monday-Saturday, and often had responsibilities at church on Sundays. In Ecuador, our ministry schedule allowed us to be able to see the country and I jumped right into that! We were also living in the same house as all of the other teams so this was a perfect time to adventure with our squad-mates. We were also able to use our nights after ministry to experience the culture. One of our first nights there, we went to the U21 World Cup game between Ecuador and Uruguay!
Our first adventure day off, I headed out with about 10 people to a town called Mindo where we were able to zipline through the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest. It was beautiful! When we were done, we headed up the road to a waterfall where they had some waterslides into the river and amazing scenery.
The next weekend was a longer weekend, and I headed to the beach with a small group of people. I fell in love with the small fishing village on the beach and their simple way of living. The best fish tacos I have ever had, fantastic company, drinking straight from a coconut, and exploring the caves of the black sand beaches made for the perfect relaxing weekend.
To top it all off, on the last night we were there a man came out of the ocean as we were on the beach at about one in the morning exclaiming (in Spanish) how fun it was to swim in the ocean. A bit confused, I ignored it until another man came a bit later explaining (in English) that if we swam out just a bit and walked a bit further, that there was glowing phytoplankton in the ocean. If you have never seen this before, watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avS_LmI_-ow
It was seriously one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I ran out into the ocean at one in the morning, in awe of everything. I couldn’t help but to just laugh and feel a sense of awe and wonder at the Lord’s creation and the fact that I was there on one of the only nights of the year that this happens at this beach.
After this, all I could think about was the next adventure day and what I was going to do. During that coming weekend, other teams had the time off, but our team still had ministry. We came up with a plan to go out into town and to go out salsa dancing and rent a place to stay for the night. I was so happy with the friendships that the Lord was putting in my life and I was excited to go deeper with them and to create memories.
However, what happened is that my focus became making memories with the people there and finding adventure. I ended up drinking more than I should have, and ending up in a spot that I didn’t want to be in. By focusing on friendships with a few people, I left others out. By pursuing memories, I ended up drinking too much in a bar in Quito.
I was in such a weird place because I knew that the Lord desired adventure, friendship, and memories- but by pursuing those, I still ended up embarrassed at what everyone had seen and in my lowest place on the Race.
We were able to finish all of our ministry tasks early and we had an extra day off, so I decided to take the day to let the Lord speak into what He had to say about everything that had happened.
He showed me that by pursuing things- even things that He desires- I am still not pursuing Him. And that when we lose focus on Him, things fall apart.
He also showed me how much I fear man, and what others think of me. How it keeps me from stepping boldly into where I feel like I am supposed to go, and what I am supposed to do. How it keeps me from praying for people and voicing my opinion and stepping up for what the Lord is showing me.
He showed me how much I have been fighting being on the Race. Before I left- I had so many things that were going right for me. But the Lord made it so clear that this is what He had for me, and I had resentment towards Him for that.
I spent the whole day praying and asking the Lord to speak (with a crepe break in the middle), and He did.
This day off, doing nothing but listening to the Lord, was my favorite adventure day. The Lord gave me the weekend before at the beach (one of the best of my life), to the weekend after of finding Him and allowing Him to speak to show me really what I’m looking for- and that’s Him.
I know that by pursuing the Lord He is going to give me adventure and friendships, but I still have to surrender that to Him, knowing that the adventures He is going to give me are so much better.
