Ecuador is an incredible country. It is one of the most diverse places I’ve experienced in South America, both in ethnicity and natural beauty. There are mountains like Fuya Fuya which we hiked together as a team (soaked with freezing rain and mud for 6 hours), sunny beaches where not-so-innocent jellyfish lurk beneath the waves, the famous Galapagos Islands that are home to an incredible ecosystem of rare creatures, the Amazon rain forest where orchids and parrots mingle with anacondas and piranhas, and vivacious cities like the capital where we lived for the month.
Quito, Ecuador is a beautiful place. As Jack so often reminds us, “it’s not a big city, it’s a long city,” meaning it is narrow and stretches to the north and south rather than east or west making public transportation simpler but much more time-consuming. Home to over 2.6 million people, it rests at 9,350 ft elevation making it the highest capital city in the world and is only 15 miles from Earth’s equator. Even though it receives the most direct sunlight possible on the planet, temperatures range from upper 40s to mid 60s due to the elevation. The culture is rich, the people are kind, and the atmosphere is peaceful.
As a new team, we were super excited to get started at ministry in Quito. We took the first few days to get to know each other, to establish routines in working out/quiet time/team time/etc, and we took some time to get to know our neighbors. We shared our living space with another squad of around 40 Gap Year racers. Gap Year is a branch of the World Race that is focused on younger college-aged guys and girls. They range in age from 18 to 22, so most of them were fresh out of high school. Their race is 9 months and they visit 5 different countries instead of 11-in-11 like our race. They were beginning their 9th month as we were entering our 10th, so we were able to relate about things like ending the race, missing home, and processing some of the more difficult things we’ve seen.
After a few days, we were settled in and we began working with Cru Quito to evangelize and make disciples at the public universities in the city. We created lessons and taught English, we met college students and shared the Gospel with them, we prayed over the city and the campuses, we helped the Cru team put on a short film festival, and we laughed with each other til our sides hurt the entire time.
What a wild missionary life, right?
But no, I realized something revolutionary for me: this is how I want my life to be. I want to do life with a community of friends around me who love the Lord and are chasing after Him. I want to wake up every morning on mission and look at the people around me as just that — people.
In Ecuador, we were sort of practicing (if you will) for life at home, but then it hit me again — double whammy: this is how my life already is; why would I have to wait?
When I get back to the United States in just a matter of days, I don’t want to try to recreate some form of ministry that I experienced in Nepal or Rwanda or Ecuador. No, I want my ministry and my relationships to come from the overflow of my life. I live every day in service to the King of kings and He is faithful to fill me up so that I don’t have to do it on my own strength.
On the World Race I have the eyes of a missionary — always looking for an opportunity to love and to share the Gospel with the people sitting right across from me at the coffee shop or standing by me at a bus stop. I don’t have to hope to have that at home. I just simply have to keep the “missionary eyes” He’s already given me and do the same with my neighbors in the grand ole U-S-A!
Listen up people, this is not a drill!
This is the real thing.
Jesus is the real thing.
This love we know is so extraordinary yet so intricately woven throughout the mundane.
In the words of Antioch College Worship,
“This isn’t a one-time thing. I’m signing up for the rest of my life!”
