As you all know, I’ve been living in Ecuador for over two weeks now. A lot of you are probably wondering what I’m actually doing while I live here. Well wonder no longer, folks, for today I give to you a description of each place my team goes to do ministry. Please hold questions until the end. (But for real, leave any questions you have in the comments and I’ll try to get to them ASAP!)
Okay, so my team goes to three different places during the week: COVI Monday through Wednesday, a local seniors’ home on Thursday, and then our hosts’ new house that is under construction on Friday.
COVI is an after-school program for kids. It is run by a wonderful mother-daughter team, Tamarita and Alexandra. Tamarita has been running the program for a while now, but she’s in the process of training Alexandra to take over for her soon. They’re both very sweet, hard-working, and patient women of God. Every day they have probably 40 to 50 kids come to their little property to get an amazing lunch cooked by Tamarita and a set-aside space to be able to do their homework in. A lot of these kids may not have a good environment in which they can focus on their schoolwork at their own home, and some may not be getting a lot of food at home either. The littler kids come and enjoy a safe space for fun and games. There’s hopscotch painted on the sidewalk, there’s hula hoops and soccer balls to play with, and right around the corner is a huge park where the kids can run (with supervision, because they can get a little overzealous sometimes and start climbing the trees). All around, just a great place. There’s bible verses and cute little pictures all over the walls of every building. Guys, I really can’t explain to you just how charming and fun this little haven is. My team gets there in the morning when only the big kids (probably 12-15 years old) are there. The big kids don’t usually want to run and play games with us, and we can’t help them with their homework that much (most of it requires the ability to speak/understand spanish well) so we have other tasks to do during that time of day. These past two weeks, Tamarita and Alexandra have been pointing us to different areas of the property where we can do some weeding. They have a little garden on one side of the property that was completely covered in tall weeds with a few mint plants sprinkled in. My team and I cleared that thing in like two hours. My teammate Selina has mentioned numerous times that it’s likely the most satisfying thing to work hard to pull out a large weed, and then it just pops out with the whole mess of roots still attached. 10/10 would reccomend. There are some other areas we’ve been weeding since then, like their actual vegetable garden and the area around their cute little bamboo-looking plants. After weeding, we eat our lunch and prepare to help serve the big kids their lunch as well. We serve them lunch and then wash their dishes. Then the big kids are off to school, so they’re gone for the day. This is when the little kids start to arrive, cuties and troublemakers alike (there’s plenty of both). We play outside with them for a little bit, then it’s time for their lunch. We serve them their food, collect and wash their dishes when they’re done, and then we sweep and mop the floor of the room they eat in. Then it’s time to go back outside and play! There are already so many funny/crazy little stories I could tell you about play time with the little kids, possibly a blog for another time. Or if you want to hear one, just let me know!
It can be really humbling to be a volunteer at COVI. Tamarita and Alexandra both devote much of their lives to making sure these kids have a safe space to come and be loved on while also working towards their future. And the kids recognize the awesomeness, whether it be consciously or subconsiously, because they love and respect Tamarita and Alexandra so much. Even the troublemakers. My team is so blessed to be a part of their vision, even if it is only for a short while in the grand scheme of things. Whether it be playing Uno with Anderson (he’ll keep a poker face until he plays the last card), deflecting punches from tiny little Dario (he’s a crazy guy but we love him), or getting stung by an innocent-looking weed in the garden, there’s so many little moments and interactions that add up to one great experience at COVI so far.
The first day at the seniors’ home was a bit of a weird one, to be quite honest. We didn’t have a routine down yet, and the staff members weren’t really sure what they wanted us to be doing. We helped them by dancing and clapping to music to promote movement and activity in the sweet old men and ladies there, and after that we weeded! Two of my team’s three ministry places have us weeding right now, which I think is a funny coincidence. We’ve been there twice now, and both times we have weeded the majority of the time being there. Let me tell you this much, the Ecuadorian sun will g e t y o u. It’s intense, man. My team has started thinking about painting a mural on one of the home’s plain white walls, just to brighten and liven the place up a little.
It’s not quite what I expected when I was told that one of our ministry spots was a seniors’ home. I kind of thought I’d be playing chess with old men who are way better at it than I am, walking with some cute old ladies, maybe swapping a couple Jesus stories here and there. It’s been a bit of a learning curve to work more independently as a group, but it’s been good. Here’s to more weeks of pulling weeds, as well as hopefully a finished mural.
Okay! The third ministry place is right by Casablanca, where we live. In fact, it’s on the same property right up a little hill. Our squad’s hosts, Mabe and Fabi, are in the midst of trying to get their new house built and ready for them to move into. It’s been a very stressful and long process for them, so it’s been an honor to help try and relieve them of some stress once a week. They work really hard all day serving us, and it’s good for my soul to work (not nearly as hard as they do) on serving them every week. Fabi and Mabe are in a rush because they’re trying to get the guys on my squad out from the tents they’re sleeping in to the house where they are at the moment. So far, we’ve shoveled gravel, sanded metal beams, painted walls and beams, and swept and mopped so many times over. Construction is a messy business, that’s for sure. I really cannot wait until Mabe and Fabi’s house is all set to move into, they will be so happy.
Through all of these ministries, it’s been interesting trying to learn how to best serve the people we’re working with whilst walking with/like Jesus. At COVI, it’s so good to just love on and help the kids when you can. It’s also so good to help with whatever Tamarita and Alexandra need help with, Anything we do is one less thing on their plates, and I really like to bless people by relieving their heavy load however I can. At the seniors’ home, there’s a lot of times where I’ll realize that they don’t really need us, like at all. They’ve got their own efficient and caring system for the people staying there, and if we tried to help with that we’d be in the way. So it’s another time where I kind of feel like any way we can serve the staff with the small things that they can’t afford the time to do is a good way to spend the day. Being a missionary doesn’t always mean planning VBS’s and teaching people songs, I’ve learned, it means coming in humbly to ask what people may need from you, then giving all the credit to my main man Jesus. It is because of Him that we’re able to be here in the first place, and it’s Him who gives us the spirit of humility and willingness when asked to serve.
So yeah! There’s a bit of an overview of the things my team does during the week. I feel truly blessed with the ministries that we were sent to, and I can’t wait to see more that God teaches me through them.
Thanks all for reading, see y’all next week 🙂
THIS WEEK’S BONUS PICS:
Had a really fun time wandering a huge park in Quito and going to the botanical garden there for my teammate Ally’s birthday (she’s in the white flower dress, love her). Also my teammate Dan is probs like the cutest lil bean alive, look at her laughing next to that spiky plant.
