HEY ALL!! These past 5 days have been insane and filled with tons of emotions!! Let me begin the craziness on Saturday. The day I decided to do the craziest thing, ever!! Alongside teammates Ella, Abby, Kelsey, and Hannah we hiked Roku Pichincha! It took us 7 hours to summit and come back down this crazy beast! It was an unforgettable day, filled with so much laughter and a little bit of fear. This wasn’t your average hike, it was one that pushed us physically. At one point, we had to scale a rock on the side of a cliff. It was gnarly and so much fun! The view was incredible and the pals I got to do it with, were even better! Saturday, may have been my favorite day here in Quito! On Sunday, we went back to English Fellowship Church! Once again, it was so nice to have a breath of fresh air and speak English! We went back to this really fancy mall and I got to eat some Pizza Hut. Those of you who just winced, this ain’t your average Pizza Hut. This was the greatest pizza I have ever had in my entire life and I mean that. It was so good!! Not sure why, but it truly was! A rainy and crowded bus ride home ended an almost perfect weekend! It was a weekend full of rest in God and in nature! On Monday, I was back in Joy with my homies! It was another day full of surprises, as usual! It ‘rained’ (it was hailing!!) in the afternoon and we had to feed the students in the classroom, instead of the lunch room. It was an adjustment and some of the students didn’t like how loud the rain/hail was coming down! Calming them down was a little bit of a challenge, but thankfully the hail/rain stopped shortly. It was a good day and knowing that I only had three days left at Camp Hope made it all the better! On Tuesday, I was planning on going back into Joy. However, God had other plans! I decided I was going to ‘clean’ and hang out with my pal Lucia all day! I put the word clean in quotes, because we didn’t clean, we WORKED!! We mainly did landscape work all day and I have never been happier! I really enjoy manual labor and being able to put in headphones blast some country music and work was the best thing!! I was able to bless Camp Hope in a way that I really never thought I was going too! It truly was a great day, I even got to call my mom for like an hour. Something, I haven’t had the opportunity to do in a while! It was great getting to catch up on life and just talk! It was such a great day and I can’t stress enough how faithful God has been to me on this trip! He has shown me and given me things I didn’t even know I needed. It was almost fitting, that on my second to last day at Camp Hope I worked with Lucia, because on my second day I also worked with her.
The final day, yesterday. It was a hard day, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It was a hard day physically because I woke up feeling not so hot. I knew only God would be able to stop me from not going to ministry. When I arrived at Camp Hope, I instantly felt a lot better! Praise GOD! It was an emotional day of saying goodbye and letting go. I’m not sure I’ll ever have the right words to describe my time at Camp Hope. Seeing the souls for one final time, hit me hard. Each soul I saw yesterday, I said a prayer over them. I prayed that God would protect them in this life and that I would see them again. If not in my physically body, than in my spiritual one. It was even harder to leave some of the souls that reminded so clearly of God. May God continue to bless and take care of them. Camp Hope will forever hold a place in my heart. It felt like home and it felt like God. I am thankful for the most amazing three weeks of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
To all of you reading this, thank you. I ask for prayer for my team and for my squad! I ask for prayer as we depart for a woman’s shelter tomorrow for five days! We are going completely off the grid for the next five days and I know we all are very excited!! I ask for prayer for safe travel and that our work and ministry be pleasing to the Lord! I also ask for prayer for Camp Hope and that they continue to bless each child of God!! I also ask for continued prayer for Pan de Vida and the work they are doing there. Thank you and God Bless.
-Ben
