Hey everyone! I’ve now been in Ecuador for two weeks, and I am finally slowing down enough to pop in and give you all a little life update! We’re living at Casa Blanca, the AIM base in Quito, with Mabe, Fabi, and Allegria as our hosts! As I’m sure you can imagine, ministry during the pandemic is a bit different, but the Lord is being glorified and working through it nonetheless!
Right now, we are spending two days a week working behind the scenes with a local organization called Camp Hope, which is a safe haven for kids with disabilities. Due to the virus, the kids aren’t coming in each day, but we are helping prepare the grounds to welcome them back as soon as possible. For the other days of ministry, we have either been working with a group called Venezuelans in Ecuador, helping them paint a new medical building for refugees, or doing tasks around the base like chopping (aka stomping) wood and digging a trench! Here’s a few pictures!
Now, I titled this blog “the language spoken at the table is love,” because I have seen a love so beautiful bridge the sides between any barrier we have faced thus far, time and time again as I come to the table with so many different followers of Jesus.
Our first day at Camp Hope, my friend Cayden and I got to help Sylvia, who lives and works there full-time, pick weeds out of the sidewalk for a few hours. She doesn’t speak much English, and I haven’t used the rusty Spanish vocab words I learned in high school probably… ever, but God took both our efforts and blessed them.
That afternoon, with lots of grace for my grammar, I heard parts of her story, learned her favorite books of the Bible, and was able to encourage her, and be encouraged, to keep working together through the heat of the day. It was a beautiful depiction of the mutual love of God that so easily crosses borders and leaves both parties at the table with a sense of peace and fullness of life.
Not only has love crossed the barrier of language, but it has also surpassed the distance between our people from different backgrounds, experiences, and stories. Even looking around the dinner table each night at Fabi and Mabe’s, I see beautiful daughters of the King that each display the image of God in a different way, painting a clearer picture of Him than can be seen in any one individual.
We were intended to join together, with all our differences across the world, to form the body of Christ, and I am blessed to be seeing it up close here and now. I challenge you to reach outside of your typical group to someone maybe unlike you, and using love as your language, invite them to join you at the table. Ask questions, be intentional, and seek to know their heart, letting the love of Jesus bridge any gaps between you.
Thank you once again for the prayers and support, I hope to be blogging once a week from here on out to keep you updated on what the Lord is doing!
All my heart,
Abby
