Yesterday was my NINETEENTH birthday. My team and I celebrated big time!
Leading up to my birthday, my team kept asking me what I wanted to do and every time they asked I replied with “I want to go get a tattoo but then I have no idea what to do after that.” So then our team leader (the amazing, aggressive, and strange Olivia Wouters) suggested that the team plan it and I will just be surprised about the entire day— how could I say no to that?!?!
My day started at 7:45am when we left our house. We went to the bakery/fruit store to grab empanadas, croissants, and bananas. We ate on our way to the bus stop then waited for the bus to pick us up. The bus came and as we were on our way I kept looking at my watch thinking we would be late because the bus ride is almost 45 minutes long. We had gotten much closer (too far to turn around) to the tattoo shop and I realized I didn’t have my ID to give to the tattoo artist if he asked, but we were almost there anyway (I felt very optimistic that he wouldn’t ask for it because were not in the States…ya know) UPDATE: He never asked.
We arrive at 8:55am and that was the first time today that I heard someone say “Wow, the Lord is in our favor today! I thought we would be late.”
9am was tattoo time where I got “HOPE” written on my wrist because the Lord has been teaching me a lot about Hope. For a little background, my team decided at training camp that we would be known as “Team Hope”, then I ordered a key necklace from Keys for the Journey that was made for me that says “HOPE”, and I’ve talked to my mom about hope and really, its just something you never want to let go of.
(Thanks to the wonderful Alyssa McGrail)
Once we were finished, we started walking through the park and arrived at a botanical garden! It was so beautiful!
Upon arrival, a lady greeted us IN ENGLISH to tell us about the garden— the Lord was in our favor
—Here’s a little side story that the Lord taught me yesterday—
I will admit, I am not one for just walking through and looking at plants and flowers but I know that this was the Lord.
The World Race is not the time (for me, anyway) to look my absolute best. Consider yourself lucky if you have a t-shirt for every day of the week and don’t have to wear any of them two times without cleaning it, also it’s not the best time to wear all the makeup (actually, I don’t wear any here unless it’s a special day). Just to put it out there- I don’t feel like I am the most beautiful on the race because at home I just let my makeup cover everything that I don’t want to see. But while walking through the gardens yesterday, the Lord kept telling me that His creations are perfect and beautiful— the flowers, the weeds, the cacti, the trees and even the bugs I saw. But, as I sat and began thinking, I realized that I too, am the Lords creation which means I am beautiful. The Lord was in my favor reminding me that because I needed so badly to hear that!
We left the botanical garden to go to SuperMaxi (a grocery store), then we ended up in a nice mall with good wifi (the Lord was in our favor with good wifi let me tell you!!!) Me, SJ, and Kenzie stayed at wifi because my surprises weren’t done! The rest of our team went down a floor to SuperMaxi to grab groceries for dinner so they could surprise me yet again!
We left the mall thinking we were lost. We walked a block to Eloy Alfaro (the street we needed) and were excited that it was the correct street. The Lord was in our favor getting us to the right spot because I was partially freaking out!!
We arrived to the bus stop approximately 5 minutes later to wait for our bus then we began thinking about how full the bus was going to be at 2pm. Then suddenly we remembered that’s when people normally eat lunch here BUUUUTTT we didn’t want to get too excited because the busses are always packed like sardines!!! So SJ began praying out loud that the bus wouldn’t be full and that we could all have seats. The bus arrived a couple minutes later and get this— THERE WERE JUST ENOUGH SEATS FOR ALL 7 OF US! It might sound so silly but with a 45 minute bus ride, the Lord was TOTALLY in our favor!!!
We arrived at the house around 3 and I was sitting out in our squad leader Stephen’s hammock while the rest of my team was inside making our “multiple course” dinner as my last surprise for the day!
I finally went inside because in Ecuador every day includes every single season and I was freezing. As I was sitting on the couch, people kept asking me if I could smell what they were making and if I knew what it was but I really had no idea to even think what it was because they could have been making anything!
They began bringing food into the dinning room to start dinner and they told me I couldn’t look in that direction. Then finally they said “Allyson, dinner is ready you can come look now!!!” So I walked over and and that’s when I realized they made STEAK TACOS!!
Here’s a picture of my reaction!!
We prayed and began eating the wonderful steak tacos (MHHHMMMM THEY WERE SOOOO GOOD)! Once we finished, they brought be a brownie in a mug with ice cream inside of it! The Lord was very much so in my favor with this dinner and dessert!
The Lord isn’t only in the big things, He is very much so in the small, every day, fun things! Thanks God for a team of girls that celebrated me so well yesterday. Also a big thanks that they really do know me so well to plan such a perfect day!! Thanks God for the 19 years that I have been given so far! I hope and pray the next 19 years of my life are just as amazing as the first!
Last year on my birthday, I would have never guessed that I would have been here in Ecuador to celebrate another birthday, let alone be on the World Race!! Thank you to everyone from home who wished me a ‘happy birthday’! I feel your love all the way down to Ecuador!!
