Each week teams are alotted 5 ministry days, 1 Sabbath day, and 1 adventure day. South America has been simply beautiful and I have loved exploring various regions. Along with the Sabbath, adventure days have provided refreshment and rejuvination as we jump back into another week. One Monday, as we were walking to our ministry location, my teammate asked me how I felt God was speaking through our adventure days.
My mind skimmed back to the previous weekend. Ten of us had traveled to the city of Otavalo, which is about 2 hours by bus from Quito. There is a beautiful and large indigenous market in Otavalo, which we enjoyed spending some time purusing. Afterwards, the plan was to visit a nearby crater lake. We hailed down two taxis and after about 20 minutes driving through rural back roads, we arrived at our destination. Once the taxis left, we realizeded two things: we were at the wrong destination, and we were stranded.
One of us had noticed a sign as we drove in indicating that a waterfall was a few miles away, so we decided to start walking in that direction. Along the way, we tried asking locals for a ride, but being ten of us we were hard to accomodate. As we continued walking, we soon found ourselves RUNNING as Ecuador was in the middle of celebrating a holiday called Carnival. Locals were waiting to douse us with buckets of water, water balloons, and hoses and ten walking gringos make for an easy target. In the middle of the laughter and chaos, a red jeep pulled along side of us and the driver spoke English! He asked where we were going and invited all ten of us to hop in/on his jeep to take us to the waterfall. It turns out he was visiting from the Galapagos Islands and worked with National Geographic- and he wouldn’t take a cent from us after dropping us off!
Peguche Waterfall ended up being a totally unexpected treat. Once we finished hiking we enjoyed corn and pizza from street vendors and easily found a bus to get back to the main terminal. From there, we were quickly ushered by bus attendants to get on the right bus back to Quito, which departed within minutes after we boarded. Now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure that was the last bus back to Quito, but since we didn’t know, we had enjoyed the evening remaining timeless in the moment. Reflecting on that day, I felt as though it was a reminder of God’s provision and care. The day certainly did not go as we planned, but I think it was way more fun and exciting that way. Life can be like that too. We can find ourselves in unexpected places, but that’s the time to wait for God to show up in the most unique ways. Even in the detours, there are things God has for us, and although it may not be pleasant in the moment, He is always working it towards something good.
I enjoy adventure days because it’s a time to be in awe of God as Creator, but it’s also a time to enjoy God as the good Father that He is. Although we took an unexpected path, His hands were evident. He put people in our path to guide us along the way, He wowed us with His creation, and He gave us joy, laughter, and refreshement.
