Paulina & Abigail – We met them at Kono Pizza, the first place we found in a shopping centre that had wifi, which lead to somewhat of a routine to come here. After meeting Paulina and her 9 month old daughter, Abigail, 2 days in a row, it became our desire to be intentional about seeing her everyday. It turned out that she worked in the same shopping centre, which was the reasoning behind why we kept meeting her there. We started to get to know her and learnt that her daughter was a genuine miracle and answer to prayer! Paulina had had stage two adenocarcinoma cancer on her uterus 4 years ago and so was unable to have children, without having had any treatment – and totally stunning the doctors – her cancer left and she was able to have Abigail. She sais, “I pray and pray and pray. My family pray. My church pray. God healed me. A miracle. He has given me many things in life. One is her.”
It turned out that her husband, Carlos, works at the same shopping centre with her. After 5 days of meeting up with her during her work breaks we asked her to join us for dinner one night. She was thrilled by this, but instead invited us to her home. Without any hesitation, the following night we were on our way to their house. I was blown away by just how welcoming they were to us! Paulina spoke English relatively well and with my team mates bits of Spanish we had some great conversations and good laughs!
Paulina asked us when we were leaving Quito, to which we responded in 2 days.
I had not realised just how much of an impact we had had on her until this moment. She started crying saying, “you can’t be leaving so soon. You are very good friends. I am very sad.” This made me almost tear up as well. She continued to say, “next time you are in Ecuador, my home is you’re home, you are always welcome!”
Wow!
We only met this sweet lady just 5 days before and already felt so at home within her home. She even offered for us to stay the night there after we had arrived.
After having met Abigail, her daughter, twice she had gotten quite sick and so had gone to stay with her grandmother in Rio Bomba which is 3 hours away To go to the doctor. This resulted in her not being at dinner when we went to Paulina’s house. This was sad because she was the most adorable little girl, but it was also for the best in terms of our focus being kept on Paulina and Carlos. Paulina also mentioned that, “it’s so nice having you friends around during this time.” We were so glad we got to be with Paulina while her daughter was away.
Gods timing.
Carlos cooked us a delicious dinner. Carlos didn’t really speak English but somethings are just universally understood. He had a collection of all the Fast & Furious cars, as well as action figures of all the characters of Shrek, Spongebob, Ice Age, Madagascar, Cars etc. I loved seeing the joy that all of this brought to him as he showed us each one. Paulina calls him her ‘Oso’ which means teddy bear, and I couldn’t think of a better way to describe him. You could just see it within his eyes just how much he loved and adored Paulina after 18 years of marriage.
Towards the end of the night we found out it was in fact their wedding anniversary that night! And we were so honoured that they had chosen to spend it with having us in their home.
Saying goodbye to them was really hard and sad. I so wish we had been able to stay there a few extra days to hang out with their family some more. This relationship and experience really made me realise the importance of being so intentional with every person we meet and to really pour into them as much as possible, because I regret not having spent more time with her.
This also made me aware of just how much every child of Gods means so much to Him, by sending a team of us 5 girls to that particular place within this huge city at this time of year just to love on this one family and to do life with them for a few days, knowing the impact this made on her especially.
Lastly God showed me the importance of being okay with being in a city for just one person, because that one person is enough for God. And there wasn’t this awesome moment where she gave her life to Christ, because she was already a Christian. We didn’t plant a seed or water a seed, but rather watered a plant that has already began to grow but that needed to be poured into and strengthened that she might flourish even more and bare more fruit to then have an impact on others around her. She is so worth it. And is just so precious in His sight.
