Hey ya’ll! I hope everyone is doing well! Right now I can sense everyone on the edge of their seats to get updates on my missions trip and how it was. To start off, I just want to say that I did not blog a whole lot (or in other words: hardly at all) while out on the field because I wanted to keep my focus in the limited moments I had in Ecuador and Peru, to get the most out of my experience in those countries. Those past 11 weeks I had mentioned in my other blog, “Trusting in the Unknown”, flew by so quickly and now I am back in the U.S. It feels as if I had entered “Narnia”, a fantasy world created by C.S. Lewis, and stepped back into my life here without a second going by. I have written this blog as a letter to my team mates, Pan de Vida, our hosts in Ecuador and Peru, and to the other ministries in Peru:
Hey team! It has been truly a joy and honor to have had these wild experiences in those 3 months we had in Ecuador and Peru! We literally did EVETYTHING together (lol)! We learned each others strengths and weaknesses and helped each other grow in them. Ya’ll have helped me grow so much and I am grateful for those incredible moments and that I got to experience them with all of you! When I switched from my nine month program to this semester trip, I was nervous because I was switching from a group I really liked to a group I did not know. Within the first couple of days that we were at training camp, I had a feeling that we were going to be super close by the end of this whole trip. It turned out I was right! It is interesting how strangers from different states came together and became like one big family within that time frame. I felt so much love and joy from being with everyone! There was this one time when my shoe straps were completely chewed off by this one dog, so the next week we were in Baños, one of my friends went out and bought me a new pair of shoes and surprised me!! I wore those shoes everywhere, even to hike Machu Picchu and the Rainbow Mountains! The hardest part about this whole experience was probably saying goodbye at the end, but I hope that we can continue to stay in touch and I am praying and thinking about y’all constantly! Love you guys!
Thank you Pan de Vida for opening up your program to me and my team! I already miss the late Wednesday nights when we would cook together and share stories, the early morning worship sessions, getting paint everywhere and laughing about who had the most on them later, putting away the tents after a nice rain shower and trying to dodge the falling puddles lying on top of the canvas, having competitions on who could put together the most “to go” meals, chopping onions until you had no tears left to cry, and for letting us help serve such a wonderful team!
Thank you to our hosts that opened up their homes to us, for giving us a roof over our heads and the meals that were provided. You were there in the ups and the downs and the in-betweens and I could not have asked for more! I have so many memories from these homes that I will be able to tell for a lifetime. I have learned so much from ya’ll that will help me out in the big and the small things in life. You have helped keep my needle pointing North towards a God who cares deeply about each and everyone of us and wants us to draw closer to Him.
To the many other ministries we had in Peru: I just want to say how thankful I am for people like you and the selfless work that is being done for the advancement of the gospel! These past three months have been some of the best, most incredible, hard moments of my life! The language barrier was tough to get through at first, but humor, hand signals, and charades seemed to break those walls down. Over time, I began to learn the language and catch on to simple sentences like, “Hola! Como estas? Cuàl es tu nombre?” Even though I spoke “poquito” (little) Spanish, I remember feeling so much joy finally being able to communicate and understand what people were trying to say to me! Even when people were not talking to me at the moment, sometimes I would try to listen to a conversation and pick up some words that were being said in it because I was eager to learn more. That desire to learn more later lead me to being able to hold a small conversation in Spanish with a blind and deaf man. I would take his hand and write on it by tracing out words with my finger. This was one of my favorite moments I got to experience in Peru and one that changed my perspective forever on how we can show love to others!
This whole experience has been so incredible and I cannot thank everyone enough for supporting me and giving me such a life changing opportunity such as this one!!
