“Life is full of moments you don’t like, but life is beautiful. When the moments you don’t like happen, you tell yourself I like this; I love this!!”
Wise words from a 43 year old schizophrenic named Daniel.
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For a brief update: the squad of 40 individuals has split up into teams of 6-7 people. We traveled to Quito, Ecuador together, but separated after that. 48 hours of riding on buses later, my team arrived to our destination: Portoviejo, Ecuador. We have had the pleasure of teaming with a local church here in Portoviejo through an organization called “Inca Link”. The church is called Templo Metropolitano Alianza and we have been living a few houses down from one of the Pastors here inside a walled complex that houses another family, a long term German missionary, and our friend as well as guide/translator, Kei. Kei is missionary from Ohio that has been here since September of 2018 and is spending a year living with the Pastor and his family.
This month so far has been a month focused on relationships. Relationships with the ministry host, relationships with my team, my relationship with Jesus and the team’s relationships with those we spend time with on a daily basis.
Monday-Wednesday we (our team and Kei) go to a home for mostly elderly individuals in the morning, and spend the afternoon with families that live beside a garbage dump. They live there because their jobs are sifting through the garbage for items to sell.
At the elderly ministry, these individuals all have some form of mental illness and live inside of a small compound where they are given food and shelter. This is where Daniel, the man I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, lives. He is by far the youngest at 43 and without a doubt the easiest to talk to. He speaks good English, is extremely talkative and is interested in what we have to say. He is a unique person always hungry to learn. He led a “normal” life until he was 28 when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I won’t go into his story, but he has gone through some tough times, yet always maintains a phenomenal attitude from what we see.
The first few times we went we pulled weeds, played games, sang songs, colored and essentially just loved on these human beings and did our best to connect with them as people. For me, this was tough. I had the mindset of working towards tangible results, not hanging out with a group of people.
Last month it was bringing x people to the homeless shelter, having x people join the rehab program, x number of new kids showing up to VBS, etc. This month, much less so. For all of the ministry work this month, it has been: love these people and bring them joy. This has been something that God has grown me in this month.
Through the relationship that we created with Daniel by listening to him and discussing life and his interests, we were able to begin a bible study and get him a bible. Through the trust we built, an opportunity was provided to us.
Not by a plan of action on how to reach him, not via shoving the Gospel in his face, but simply by loving him and trying to understand him as a person were we able to begin to accomplish our goal that we hold as the ultimate desire of our hearts; to bring others to know and understand Christ’s love for them as well as the gift of salvation. So far, Daniel has accepted Christ. He has more questions that I can count, which we will continue to talk through, but the important part is that the first step has been made. My teammates Will and Joseph spearheaded this study with Daniel, and it has been incredibly encouraging to witness. He has brought others from the foundation in, and we have given a couple of Bibles out so that they can continue in their walks with The Lord. Will received a way to communicate to Daniel, so that he can reach out to us with his many questions.
For the afternoons, like I mentioned, we head to a community of 10 families that live beside a garbage dump. I had thought that the smell last month was bad, but the elderly home was double the stench. As we made our way to the community I thought nothing could beat what I had smelled earlier that day at the elderly compound, but I was quickly made wrong as we approached the shacks that these people live in. The aroma of uncleanliness is the first smell that is introduced, but it is quickly overcome by the overwhelming stench of feces that radiates from the dozens of ducks, cats, dogs and pigs that roam the cluttered grounds. At the end of the blog is a quick video to show you the conditions these individuals live in. It broke my heart to see how the children lived, but they are as happy as any American child, if not happier.
While we are there, we bring food and love. We play games with them, ATTEMPT to sing songs (some are just too cool for school) and have a short bible lesson. They’re more interested in making fart noises than they are playing the games, but we do a good job of holding their attention.
Regardless of their attention spans, their conditions, or the constant smell that we can’t shake- we build relationships. Every time we go we see the same children. Will makes a point to spend time with 4 year old Matthew, Ben hangs out with little Sophia, these two young girls who I refer to as “chicas” make SURE to greet me with some leg hair pulls but always make sure to give me a gift or two before I leave and a few of us guys play soccer when it’s not rainy. Kei leads a crochet class with the mothers. The point is, we are building relationships with these people.
From Daniel and the older folks to the youngsters at the community affectionately called “the dump”, we are building relationships. We are loving others as best as we can in regards to how Jesus loves us. We don’t have to always quote scripture, or preach the Gospel to evangelize; sometimes it’s simply how we behave that makes the difference. Sometimes, the best evangelism is intriguing the minds of others to why we behave the way we do. Are we as Christians perfect? Absolutely not. But we as Christians should radiate a sense of love and acceptance that is grounded in Jesus’ teachings that others can see. We should live our lives so that others come to US with questions. That’s the easiest evangelism I’ve ever heard of and it’s something we’re all capable of. That’s been the way we’ve operated this month through our relationships.
Thursday is our free day, and Friday and Saturday we do construction and manual labor for the church. It’s physically demanding, and I can see why there are siestas after lunch. The mid afternoon sun is HOT.
This past week the grandfather of the pastor’s wife passed away. We had never met him, but we’d done work for his son (her father) and out of respect we went to the funeral. It was all in Spanish (my unfinished Spanish minor only helps so much) but we went out of love. We went out of our desire to support the Pastor and his family. We went, because of our relationships with them.
Tangible goals are extremely important, and I believe that we should always be working towards them. However, let’s not forget how to live our lives, love others, and enjoy ourselves along the way. If there’s anything God’s taught me this month, is that life is ministry, and ministry is life. Relationships are the best way to truly demonstrate Jesus’ love. They’re the easiest way to open doors for conversation and I believe they’re at the cornerstone of Christianity. From the body of the church, to small groups, to your colleagues at work, relationships are all around us and that means opportunity for love is abundant; and where there is love Jesus is nearby.
For me, I learned that leaning back and enjoying the moments can sometimes open up the doors that a strict plan or schedule may not. The experiences that build relationships can be just as effective as a written plan of action. Regardless, when there are times we don’t like, we don’t feel useful or things just don’t seem to go our way, remember the wise words of Daniel- it might help us more than we think.
“Life is full of moments you don’t like, but life is beautiful. When the moments you don’t like happen, you tell yourself I like this; I love this!!”
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P.S- I experienced my first earthquake at 5 am last week and my second a half hour later. It was quite the ride.
Check out photos from ministry this month below!
(Unfortunately, my phone took mostly HEIC photos and videos which I can’t upload here. I will work on posting these over the next week and updating everyone when it’s fixed! Thanks for your patience 🙂 )
^Daniel is the guy in the salmon shirt with the thumbs up and the other men are some of the guys at the elderly home!
^Me and the “chicas” (pink and red shirts) and some others at the Garbage Ministry!
^Pastor’s daughter before the funeral. Keeping morale high!
