After a long 202 days, I got to go to the airport to pick my dad up, little did I know I got another happy surprise that evening, that man brought me chick flights a. What a good life right haha. Anyways, it was PVT week, basically meaning we had the opportunity to invite our parents to come onto the field for a week. My dad decided to come, which I was super excited about. PVT is a week for parents to come and see their children after 7 months on the race, they got to do missions beside us and just hang out with their kids. The first day was Easter, how exciting to spend one holiday with at least someone from my family. To be honest, I was nervous, what if dad hated my new style or piercings or even tattoos (sorry ma..). but when I saw him he did not care, he was just happy to see his daughter. Walking into the week I felt the need to prove something, prove to him that this was a good choice, prove that I was good at missions so that he would be proud of me for deciding to do it the rest of my life. In reality though, I never needed to prove anything, my dad sat me down one of the first nights and looked me in the eyes and told me he was proud of the woman I have become. That was all I needed to hear to realize I was ridiculous for thinking I needed to prove to my dad. He said that he was proud, he was happy I was following Jesus, and that no matter what I choose to do in life, he will be proud. So for the rest of the week it was so chill, we hung out and got to serve. So heres a little glimpse into our week. First day we had a wonderful Easter service led by us racers. We read about the resurrection of Jesus, worshipped, and even did communion. After the service some of the moms put on an Easter egg hunt for us!! How amazing right, I figured id just have to miss a year of egg hunting, but that was not the case. Mostly candy was found but there was a prize with $10 in it. For some broke missionaries, dang that was like finding a pot of gold. Sadly I was not the one to find it but I did get a quarter. Which is a whole bus ride!! Yes, I’m excited for at least one bus fare to be paid for haha. For the afternoon I lead up the training for going out to evangelizing that day. I was nervous that some of the parents would be freaked out by the thought of walking streets preaching but, that is not just what it is. In my group we went and bought flowers and handed them to woman telling them that Jesus loves them so much. I was nervous dad would not understand but the first person we talked to came up to my dad, and he stepped in and started praying over the man in Spanish, like what?! Where did that come from.. we also got stuck in a storm so went into a little coffee shop and chatted with the family for a bit. All in all it was a wonderful day full of divine appointments. My dad got to see and do the thing I love most about missions. He took over and let the lord speak through him, he might be my dad but I was so proud to just stand back and watch. On Monday we went to basically a nursing home to go weed the garden, it was fun seeing the parents on their knees weeding, it was a real insight of what the race sometimes looks like. After we finished that we went In and sang and salsad with the old woman. My dad actually got pulled in and started dancing. It was quite hilarious of an experience to watch. That afternoon I took him to a market to hop around, it was a load of fun, he taught me how to barter years ago so showing him and putting it into practice was so fun. At one point dad and I were just playing off each other, a woman wanted $28 for something and to prove a point and just have some fun we wanted it for $27 instead. After about 20 minutes of back forth back forth we decided to walk away, but she called us back and made the deal. We high fived it out and walked away. What a good day. That evening we had all racers and parent worship, little did we know, wed be up much later than the worship lasted. All the men decided they wanted to play a racer against dads basketball game, on their like first night, guess that forgot altitude is thousands more high than the states. It was probably one of there funniest evenings on the race yet. The men ended up getting so competitive and the game lasted two hours. Go men, they ended up beating us racers, I honestly don’t know how that ended up happening but whatever. We woke up sore to a good breakfast and then we started our day, we went to old Quito to hang out before ministry. This time it was my ministry Pan de Vida, we put on a VBS and hung out and taught the kids, seeing my dad become such a dad was fun to watch, he made a little friend who he stuck with the rest of the VBS, happens a lot on the race hehe. That night we had more worship and a message, no basketball though, men were pulling the old guy tired card. The fourth day came and went, we went to a park and gardened and played kickball with the kids, let me just say, I still have that kick from the old days of kickball lol. After that me and a fellow racer and her mom went up a gondola to the top of a mountain, we hiked a bit and took Many pictures. Side note, my dad recently got an iPhone, so watching him do the parent thing when it comes to taking pictures was sooo funny, he had the time of his life. We ended up getting stuck in a storm so went down the mountain to head home for a warm shower and bed. The last day of ministry was camp hope, it is a school for very disabled children. The men were helping construction while I headed to a classroom. It was a very sweet time just sitting with the children, I headed out and helped with construction for a bit at the end which was fun also. After that we went to explore an old church and see a statue on top of a mountain. We ended up hungry so wanted to eat, I knew of a good restaurant. But if you know me, I’m terrible with directions. To keep the story short, ended up walking miles of hills in the cold rain to find this place, ended up finding it and having some good good food. Sadly the week went by too quickly, it was time to send our parents off. We said our goodbyes and walked them all to the bus. It was such a wonderful week to serve alongside my best friend and biggest supporter. We had a good week of laughter and amazing conversations. The lord really showed up and hopefully one day I have another opportunity to experience missions with my dad again.
Love from Ecuador, Mara
