dunamis was the women’s shelter we served in for our last 2 weeks of ecuador!! there we mainly did construction but i also got to spend some time with the girls there!! we originally were only suppose to be there for 5 days but because of the riots we ended up staying a little longer (but we will get to that later). dunamis was physically and mentally the hardest part of the trip for me for sure but it was also one of the most rewarding!! we left for dunamis on the day the riots started in quito. dunamis is still in quito but it’s in the mountains about 800 feet higher just outside of the main part of the city where we had been staying before.
physically the manual labor was some of the hardest i’ve done in my whole life and that combined with 21 people sleeping in the same room on the floor caused a slight toll emotionally as well. however in the first few days of ministry i ended up getting a concussion on top of all of that!!
it was frustrating for me because i couldn’t even do little things like listen to worship music, work, or be in the kitchen without my head hurting. worship through music and reading my bible are the 2 mains ways i connect best with God so it was very frustrating that i couldn’t really do either one. however being forced to literally sit still and listen helped me to realize that i don’t listen to God very well. typically even when i go to him to listen i always have my own agenda in mind. it helped me when all of that was taken away to be able to rest in him and realize the complete dependency i needed in him. i was amazed at the amount of growth i received from just sitting still with him and spending time in prayer. it also helped me grow in the fact that i’m not very good at dealing with my emotions. a lot of the time i consider them a burden to share or even feel. but i was reminded that God created emotions and he wants to walk alongside me no matter what. he wants me to give my all to him not just the pretty parts because he already knows everything about me!! it’s okay not to be okay. i felt the closeness of God the most when i literally cried to him and he met me where i was.
then we received word that the riots had gotten worse, the indigenous people were coming from the amazon, and then they blocked all the roads to leave. if i’m being 100% honest there were times when i was scared. i wasn’t scared for our safety because i knew we were safe where we were but i was scared for the people we had met and built relationships with, for the country, and for a little while food supply was getting low. people in the city were dying and the riots were spreading throughout the whole country instead of just in quito. it was a stressful situation and we were literally 100% vulnerable. there was nothing we could do to help at all. but in this hard time we also experienced some of the sweetest moments. we got to worship on the streets overlooking the city, we got to worship on the roof of our amazing hosts (who literally treated us like their kids), and we got to spend 24 hours in consecutive prayer as a squad and people’s relatives and friends from our team and in multiple churches around the states were partnered with us!! it was amazing to see the unity of people coming together in Christ!!
in the middle of the 24 hour prayer they announced that there would be negociaciones between the indigenous people and the government and that the president was also marching the army to the city to put a final end to the riots if it didn’t stop which could’ve meant a civil war or brute force being used. but they reached an agreement!!! praise to God for that!! we found out literally 12 hours in!! but we kept praying for the families of those who had lost someone and for further healing in the city!!
i think it’s safe to say there were many times we weren’t okay. and thats okay because we knew that God was in control and we got to place our full dependency on him and go to him like never before!! we serve a God that is so so good and he knows what we need!!
thank you all for your prayers and i’m sorry this blog took so long things have been moving crazy fast!! we are now in our third week of peru!! i will post another blog soon to update on what’s been going on here too!! :))
