In my last few blog posts I have left out a great deal of info about a very important thing; the team’s life and ministry here in Portoviejo. I briefly touched on it in my blog post titled “Portoviejo”, but it was written before we were really rooted here. I apologize for the absence of details.
Our life here has been awesome! I don’t mean that in the ditsy missionary way of “Everything is just so wonderful,” but genuinely. Our official ministry here has been working at a hospital in the mornings and helping with a children’s program (and providing purified water) at a garbage dump in the afternoons. For more details on those ministries please refer to my “Portoviejo” blog post. These two ministries have been really good, but likewise tough. Working at the hospital has not been too glamorous (I’m starting to see a pattern here), but it has certainly taught us patience and humility. It has also taught us to view that kind of work as glorifying the Lord even if it doesn’t feel that way.
The garbage dump on the other hand has been a little bit on the tough side due to the language barrier. Some of the team members can speak more Spanish than others, but there’s only so much translating you can do without an actual translator. We desire to speak so much life into the kids, and parents too, but we don’t have all of the words. We do what we can though, and it has been no less wonderful.
Probably the most meaningful thing has been the community here. Through church, small groups, and just talking to our neighbors, we have developed a pretty solid community. Despite the language barrier we have accumulated a number of friends during our stay, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they lasted well past our time on the Race. We are really close with our ministry hosts, Percy (the pastor of the church we attend) and his wife Gema, which has been such an encouragement and a blessing. We love the routine of dinner with Gema’s family, and guy’s Friday night soccer with the twenty-somethings of the church. We also love the daily routine of buying enrillados (rolls) from Ramòn, a local tienda (mini-store) owner. He sometimes puts an extra roll or two in the bag, just because. We (or at least I) love being only 20 minutes from the beach, meaning we’ve made the occasional pilgrimage over there on our off days (Note: that was for all of you folks who wondered why I kept posting beach pics on Facebook. Lol! Don’t worry, this is no vacation.). I realize as I’m writing this that the past month has been loaded with near constant ministry. It has looked like us living life with people in Portoviejo; laughing and rejoicing with them, encouraging and being encouraged by them, and of course sharing in the same (for most) everyday pursuit of Jesus. We overall have just loved our time here, and it saddens us that it’s coming to an end in a few weeks.
The squad found out travel plans this week for our next destination; India. We’ll be leaving on the 30th of this month and stopping in Canada for a layover, which will be for a couple of days. During our layover we’ll ring in the New Year and have a few leadership development sessions in Toronto. Then on the 3rd (for some the 2nd) of January we embark on the next leg of our journey. Please continue as always to keep us in your prayers, especially as we prepare to make this huge transition, and of course as we travel.
