the lookout from the top of the mountain in Banos, Ecuador.
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Prayer is beautiful. I am blown away at the passion that my brothers & sisters pray with. It is with expectancy, fervor, & tongues that know what the Lord is capable of.
One morning, during one of our first weeks at Formavida, I was asked to follow Pastora upstairs, where many of the teachers and volunteers were meeting. Obviously I don’t speak Spanish, so I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I soon found myself invited into their prayer meeting. Lucy opened us up in this long & impassioned prayer, very few words of which I could understand.
I realized in this moment, that it didn’t matter. It makes no difference whether I can understand what is being said, in fact, what was most beautiful was the fact that the God I serve understands every single word. I have known God is omniscient, but I didn’t think of it from the perspective of Him having the ability to understand every single language… have you ever thought about that?!
In the old testament, when nations were scattered & numerous languages developed, our God has used this as an opportunity to magnify His glory. This leaves me in awe.
Only a God who is omnipotent & omniscient could possibly know & understand & speak & love in all languages. I am in awe when I think about God from this perspective.
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I am currently attempting to learn Spanish & hope one day to be fluent. If I ever am bilingual, this is a drop in the bucket of what & how the Lord sees, speaks, & understands when He looks upon his children. It is beautiful!
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Another thing I have come to adore about the people of South America is the words they use when they pray. Countless times I have heard my friends refer to the Lord as Señor. My initial understanding of this was that it was a term of respect they used to call on the Lord. It is so much more. Señor translates to “sir” in English, which is usually a term we reserve for men of high authority, or men who are much older than we are. Have you ever thought of attributing this kind of respect and reverence towards the highest King? I certainly haven’t, but I really love how my friends have opened my eyes to a new way of approaching God. {Dios = God ; Señor = Lord ; Santos = Holy}
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My whole squad is currently in Quito, Ecuador for all squad month! We are all living together & sharing breakfast, dinner, & evenings. We all split up during the day to serve separate ministries. My team is serving an incredible ministry called Pan de Vida. For the next two weeks we are partnering with a family who lost everything in a house fire over the summer. An additional tragedy struck this family when the father of the house also died from cancer in the following month. He left behind 4 grandchildren, 6 of his own children & his wife. Hearing the story of this family & of this ministry moved my heart & the hearts of my teammates. It is an incredible gift that we get to serve this family by ensuring they have a new, safe building to call home.
We weren’t expecting to do manual labor this month, but are loving it! We’re helping finish the mortar on the inside of the house, we will begin working on the second story, build the fence & we get to use a jackhammer to break up all the dirt & dig our way down 10 meters {30ish} feet for a sewage line!
Sometimes we don’t really know what is going on {peep our faces}.
I don’t have wifi at the place I am staying so I look forward to updating you when I can!
Love,
Maddie
P.S. – there is a gatita & perrita at our site & they are just the cutest!!!!
