My team and I have been in Cuenca, Ecuador for a few weeks now. This beautiful city and the people we’ve met here continue to grow closer and closer to me. We’ve been blessed to become acquainted with some incredible young missionary families here that are involved with the church here / kingdom life ministries. Two families from the states as well as a local Cuencano couple with their first 3 month old son, all equally wonderful to be around. We’ve also made relationships with church congregation members, youth that come on Friday nights, and some others from the community. I’ve began to think that although this is only month 2 of the race, it will likely rank pretty high on the list of these 11 places I’ll have the opportunity of experiencing.
The days have been busy here and our team often splits up to tackle different tasks throughout the week, but we have definitely grown together as a team this month as well. We’re blessed with a nice place to call home this month, and have also grown more like a family through things like preparing meals in the kitchen together, doing dishes, devotionals and team times, waiting for the bathroom to be free. All kinds of that good family vibe stuff! It’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog update and a lot has been going on. I’m up by 6:30 every morning and there are many nights that the day isn’t done until 9 or 10 o’clock, so I’ll take advantage of this Sunday afternoon to try and fill you in!
As I talked about in the last blog, the majority of our teams time and effort the past couple of weeks has been put into “Pastor Bob’s Curbside Café”, Bob and Lori’s new café across the street from the church, ran by our favorite refugee couple from Venezuela, Gregorio and Adri. Some of the girls on our team are in the café each day to help prepare the almuerzo (lunch special) and help make some other baked goods to be sold. As the café is still new and in the beginning stages, they’ve also helped with a lot of organizing things, writing up a menu board that’s now displayed, and other café things.. like a lifetime supply of handwashing dishes!
My teammate Ike and I spent a bunch of our days acquiring building materials and putting together, sanding and sealing pallet furniture for the dining area in the café. We also put together a spinning promotional wheel for customers to have a chance at spinning to win free items at the grand opening that was held just this past Saturday! It was fun to be able to work with our hands and power tools for a time, especially with me coming from a physical farming workplace and Ike building pole sheds for work before coming onto the race. I’d say we did a job well done and it offered a nice manly feel amongst our team of women! (I can’t knock living with them though, they’re all great)
Spin to Win! The promotional wheel that we built.
Pallet furniture on locking caster wheels by Dave and Ike’s custom designs
Upon our arrival here, Bob expressed to us that our main objective for the month was to help out in the new café and to get business rolling. We devised that a grand opening would be the best bet to help bring in the business. We set the date with Bob, Lori and Gregorio and went to work planning and preparing. We designed and printed out 1,000 little flyers to hand out to people on the street and in the town squares. This also doubled as an evangelism opportunity. One Venezuelan woman that my teammate Sydney and I talked to for a bit (as much as our little bit of Spanish allowed) showed up at Impacto Iglesia for church service this morning! Bob also got on board and had t-shirts made with his logo on them for the grand opening. The turnout for the big day ended up being a good one and the kitchen was definitely kept hopping. Hopefully business continues to prosper and this new opportunity for self-sufficiency is sustained for Gregorio, Adri and their 9 month old son Matteis. In the future, even more opportunity will hopefully arise for other refugees in Cuenca to sell baked goods from the café on the street to help provide for themselves and get back on their feet.
Ronny Reeling in the biz!
The grand opening in our Pastor Bob’s Curbside Cafe T-shirts
Other happenings from the past couple of weeks here have included English classes held at the church. There is a 3 o’clock afternoon class as well as a 7 o’clock evening class, Tuesday-Thursday, with a couple of different skill levels. I’ve been on the evening class duty and have had the chance to work with both classes. The advanced class is pretty well along and mostly just needs conversational practice with some native English speakers. The beginning class is definitely more teaching and a lot of work with tough pronunciations to learn, but can be a lot of fun at the same time! I never realized how weird English can be until I had to try and teach it!
We’re also in charge of leading the Friday night youth group for the last couple of weeks we have here. This past Friday night, after a couple of games and worship songs, I was able to share a message from John 13, where Jesus washes his disciples feet before paying the ultimate price for our salvation. I talked about the necessity of having a willingness to have ourselves washed by Jesus, unlike Peter’s initial resistance, as well as a willingness to wash the feet of our brothers and sisters in Christ and Jesus commands in the passage.
Letting Jesus wash us clean can seem like a no brainer easy thing, but all to often we continue to carry burdens with us that we aren’t meant to carry on our own. We fail to surrender things to the Lord, and thus fail to truly live out our renewed identity in Him. We let our problems and struggles influence our lives and become victim to them, rather than embrace the fact that we are beloved sons and daughters of the most high King! Jesus not only wants to wash away our sin and the burdens we carry in our lives to make us clean, He wants to replace them with good things! He wants to take away anger and replace it with peace.. take away insecurities and replace them with confidence.. Take away rejection and replace that with love! The list goes on and on. If we fail to lay these things at the feet of Jesus and leave them there, then we fail to let Jesus wash us clean and set us free.
Jesus also commands us to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ. This correlates with the first and second commandments we’re given, to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I don’t think its really possible to obey the first without also carrying out the second. In John 15:12-14 Jesus says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friend if you do what I command.” Jesus is the ultimate example of love throughout the bible, and to try to follow in His ways can definitely seem like a big lead to follow, but if there is a “yes” in our spirit, God can do so much more with us than we could ever even imagine.
We had previously filled up a few basins with water and had rags/towels beside them in the back of the church. I asked if our team could physically wash the feet of the youth group before they went home to help them remember the message that we talked about. Some were a bit skeptical at first, but they agreed. As I washed Jordan’s feet, I heard Sydney playing “Libertad en la casa de Dios” or “Freedom in the house of the Lord” on the church speakers. It was such a cool moment. I prayed that Jordan would lay down any burdens he may be holding onto and find freedom in being renewed by the Lord. Immediately afterwards, Jordan took the initiative to tell me that he wanted to wash my feet and pray for me as well. I was initially just hoping that the message would resonate with the youth group, but I felt renewed and full of joy at the end of the night after Jordan washed my feet and prayed for me as well. God is good. What a joy it is to fellowship in him with others around the world!
Ike and I washing Niko and Jordan’s feet
With thanksgiving coming up this week, I’m sure I’ll be thinking of family and friends back at home a little bit more than usual. I’d love the opportunity to meet my new little niece, Taylor Grace. However, I feel so blessed that my team and I will be able to celebrate thanksgiving with the amazing missionary families here working with Impacto Iglesia and kingdom life ministries. They have poured into our team and encourage me to let the compass of my life follow the Lord in all situations each and every day. I’m very thankful to be here in Cuenca with these people and will most certainly count it as a blessing. Thank you also for continued prayers and encouragement! God is good, all the time.
Dios te bendiga!
