I’ve been in so many houses over the last three weeks. I’ve lost count. And everyone I met was wonderful.
The last three weeks could not have been more different from the first month I spent on the Race, and there has been a lot for me to get used to. First of all, instead of forty people living and doing ministry together, it has just been my team of six. That was a transition in and of itself, but the work we have been doing has also been a pretty drastic shift. In Medellin at City of Refuge, we were involved in so many facets of their ministry that every day felt like something completely different and new. We helped with VBS, worked with the homeless, did park evangelism, ministered in a displacement camp, preached in a public school, and so much more. In that busyness, surprisingly, I had quite a bit of free time to get my thoughts together and write about my experiences, and a lot of experiences to write about. Here, our ministry is focused on home visits, and our days have been LONG. Any free time that I’ve had has been spent on mindless activities to try and relax, and I haven’t spent nearly as much time writing or processing as I probably should have. So, this is my attempt to catch up.
Since we have been in Guayaquil, we have worked with seven different interconnected churches. That means, even though we are living in one place, we are moving around a lot. Every two or three days we are meeting a different pastor, his family, and members of his congregation. By the end of our time with each one, right when we are getting to know them, the setting changes and the process starts all over again. The grounding that I felt last month at City of Refuge through getting to know the staff and volunteers has been non-existent this month, and as a result, it has been hard for me to really connect with the ministry we are working with. None of this is bad – this is all just to say that transitions are not always as smooth as I’d like them to be.
The work itself has been incredible. We spend every morning and afternoon following one of the pastors around to the homes of people in his congregation, or of people that are in some way connected to someone in the church. Each visit could range from ten minutes to two hours, and the reasons for the visits have been so diverse that I don’t have time to explain them all here. However, there have been highlights, and there has been a huge learning curve. And, even though I get to the end of each day feeling drained, it’s drained in a good way. I’m exhausted, but I’m exhausted because I’m pouring so much of myself into the work we are doing. I’m also exhausted because it’s so hot and humid here that I sweat through my entire shirt before the day is half over, but that’s not as important.
If I had to summarize my experience with this type of ministry over the last three weeks, it would be with one word: Hospitality. I’ve been to different parts of Latin America on several occasions, but I have never encountered people like those I have met in Ecuador. They know how to make you feel at home no matter what their situation, no matter how unexpected your visit, and no matter how inconvenient it is for them to do so. This is taken to such an extreme that we have to be careful asking for a Coke refill over lunch, because if there is no more in the house, they will literally leave to go to the store, buy another bottle, and come back to refill your glass. I was at a restaurant on the beach the other day and asked my waiter for a Pepsi. Apparently, they only had Coke, but he said yes anyway, and immediately ran off into the city. I didn’t see him for fifteen minutes, and when he finally returned, he had my drink in his hand. I don’t know how far he had to go, but it was the most incredible service I have ever experienced.
Hospitality did not only consist of food and drinks, although there was plenty of that in many of the homes we visited. The attitude and importance of being welcoming to guests was evident in every single visit, with every single pastor we worked with. The people we visited were often very poor, and their situations were obviously not ideal. They were distant from the church, or had never been a part of it, were in bad health, dealing with relationship struggles, or any number of other problems. But in spite of all of that, we were still welcomed into every home with obvious joy and gratitude. I know it’s cliché to say things like this on mission trips, but it truly did make me appreciate what I have been blessed with, and re-evaluate the attitude I often have when I encounter what I encounter minor inconveniences.
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Through doing this type of ministry, everyone on this team has grown exponentially, both individually and as a collective. No one had done anything like this before, so the learning curve was steep towards the beginning. However, no one backed down from the challenge. Quite the opposite, actually. We learned to lean into the struggle, and to look for ways to learn and grow with each new home we walked into.
Week one was the hardest, and it was when we most appreciated having one of our squad leaders, Brittany, with us to show us an example of how it should look. She did a majority of the talking during the initial visits, while most of the rest of us, myself included, sat and listened, still unsure of what our role was and what we needed to say. She repeatedly encouraged us to have Scripture ready before each visit, and during awkward silences when we didn’t know what to say, to be in prayer asking the Lord what He would like to speak into each situation. This was all unfamiliar territory for me, and, at least in the beginning, I struggled with feeling like I had anything to say that would matter to the people we visited.
Brittany continued to encourage me through this, and as I watched her and many of my teammates step out in faith, I was emboldened to do the same. I want to highlight a few of the visits, just to give you an idea of what they looked like and how we grew from them.
One of the first homes I remember going to was prefaced by the pastor we were with telling us that a young man had been hearing demonic voices in his head for several years, and we were there to pray over him and be an encouragement to the family. After we introduced ourselves, we started simply by trying to get to know them and get a better feel for the situation. We learned that this had been ongoing since his childhood, but him and the whole family seemed closed off to wanting anything to change. In spite of all of our efforts, and leading the family in prayer, when we left over an hour later, we felt like we really hadn’t made any difference. They prayer they prayed had seemed inauthentic, and there seemed to be parts of the story that they hadn’t wanted to share. Instead of being discouraged, though, Brittany continued to view this as a learning experience for us, and encouraged us to lean into the struggles and grow from them.
Another home we visited later that week saw us meeting an older man whose adult son struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. This had been weighing on him for some time, and he was at a loss for how to get his son out of this path and back into the church. I have never had to deal with anything remotely similar to this, but one of my teammates had been right where the man’s son was just a couple years ago, and was able to speak so much encouragement into his life. His story of redemption after fighting addiction for so many years was exactly what that man needed to hear, and it left him with hope that his son would come out of it as well. The story moved him to tears, and we were able to pray over him and his family at the end.
Later that same day, we went to the home to speak with a woman and all of her children. The woman hadn’t been attending church for awhile and felt that she was becoming distant in her relationship with God. We spent some time getting to know her and her family, and getting a better feel for the whole situation. Through talking with her, it became clear that our encouragement was falling on deaf ears, but one of my teammates took it one step further and decided to stop sugarcoating what needed to be spoken into her life. He told her that she was doubting God – that she didn’t trust Him to care for her and her family’s needs. And until she faced that doubt, she would continue to feel distant. We followed that up by sharing that she needed to face that not only to improve her relationship with God, but to lead her children to their own relationships with Him as well. That truth moved her to tears, and we realized then that sometimes only the hard statements will have the impact that we want to see.
Last week, we visited a couple who had recently fled their home country of Venezuela and had hitchhiked all the way to Ecuador. Due to the circumstances surrounding their departure, they had left their nine-year-old daughter behind with a relative, and had spent the last couple months trying to get money together to bring her back to them. They were also on the verge of being evicted from the home they were currently in, and had only a week to get more money together to find a new place to rent. Their situation was heartbreaking, and we could offer very little but encouragement and prayer. We were also able to pool some money together to help with their struggle, but it still wasn’t the full amount they needed. That was one of the hardest visits for me, and it left me feeling pretty helpless. All I could do was trust that God would work through that brief encounter.
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Those were some of the most impactful visits for me, but many of the stories we encountered sounded very similar to one another. The person we visited had been a part of the church at one point, but for whatever reason had walked away. They often said their schedules were too busy, and that they had other obligations that got in the way of attendance. This was where I was able to speak up the most, and share my testimony of several years of apathy towards my relationship with God. Though I had never actually left the church, I was attending out of obligation for much of my life. Some of my teammates had similar stories, and between those testimonies and our prayer and scriptural encouragement, we were able to speak life into the lives of so many people who had started to walk away.
I saw so much hospitality, here, and I learned over and over again that my story matters, and that the words I have to say can have such a positive effect on people, even when I don’t feel like I have anything to offer. I saw the Holy Spirit move through the words of my team so powerfully this month, especially as we learned to work together during these visits. We learned to lean into our individual spiritual giftings, and to let them play off of each other as we shared at prayed in each home. I am so excited to see where this growth takes us as we move on next week.
