Friends! I’m alive!
Our squad arrived in Quito, Ecuador at 2:00 in the morning on Thursday. Our ministry hosts, Fabi (Fah-bee) and Mabe (Mah-bay), are kind, diligent, and give some of the best hugs. The first thing I said to Mabe when I met her was, “Mabe, I love hugs.” And she said, “Good. Most of your kind don’t like to be touched. We don’t understand that.” I now give her hugs daily.
Fabi and Mabe have nicknamed me “Flora Sita” because of my love for picking, pressing and taking pictures of flowers. Flora Sita means “little flower” in Spanish. I love nicknames, and it’s actually my favorite that they always call me this.
I love them both dearly, to say the least. They’re phenomenal people and embody this verse so well: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Luke 16:10). They are faithful stewards of what the Lord has given them. I’m learning a lot about stewardship and responsibility from their example.
All 37 girls from my squad (including the 6 rockin’ women on leadership) live in a big white house called Casa Blanca. It is white. It is a house. And it’s absolutely beautiful and filled with a lot of life and laughter. We have a bathroom with real sinks, toilets, and hot showers… except for the first night.
When we got to Casa Blanca at 2:00 in the morning, I had been traveling by plane/bus for 24 hours and was running on 2 hours of sleep. For some reason unbeknownst to me, the hot water wasn’t working the first night we got there. But, our ministry hosts hadn’t told us that there WAS hot water yet, so I just assumed that it was supposed to be cold. Cold showers on the Race aren’t a rare thing. So, a took a really cold shower at 2:00 in the morning in Quito, Ecuador. I can now confidently say that I’ve taken the coldest shower of my life. It actually gave me a brain freeze….from the outside. #thriving.
On another note, somehow I ended up with my OWN ROOM. Please read that sentence at least five times to let it sink in. I am being 100% serious and real. I just want everyone to know so that they can join me in praising Jesus for such a good gift. Actually. Stop reading this right now and thank Jesus for that. It’s so kind and gracious of him. I hung up some pictures on my wall yesterday, and it’s made this transition a little sweeter. Gotta bring home wherever I go, you know?
Let me tell you a little bit about ministry! My team of nine bold, hilarious, and loving girls (Team Esther) are working with a ministry called Camp Hope. Camp Hope is a daycare/center/home for people with special needs, their ages ranging from three years old all the way to adulthood. We’ve only gotten the chance to do one FULL day of ministry so far, and during that day, me and 3 other girls did random jobs around the property. One of our jobs was to empty expired gel bottles and pour them down the toilet. It was hard to find the Lord in something as simple and monotonous as emptying gel bottles, but it made me recognize my sucky heart posture. I think I repeated the phrase “I don’t know why I’m here” about a hundred times that day. It’s so lame that I allowed a mundane day of ministry to rob my confidence in the Father’s purpose for me being here. The Lord clearly called me to be a team leader seven months ago, affirmed that calling about a million times, and then supplied ALL of my funds before I left for Ecuador. Some days might seem meaningless and purposeless in my eyes. But the Lord clearly called me to team lead for three months – and he has also intentionally called me to every single day on the field. No matter how simple.
As ministry continues to progress, please be praying for willingness and risk. I want to see with the eyes of my Father, not my own.
After ministry ends (between 4:00 and 5:00, depending on what team you’re on), life looks a lot like cuddling on the couches in the living room, taking naps, laughing together, watercoloring, eating (really, REALLY good) meals around a table, and listening to the echo of voices and guitars and worship through the house. We’re all exhausted by the end of the day, and it’s just really sweet to enjoy simple things like that together.
MY TEAM THOUGH. GUYS. My team is amazing. For our first team time – about an hour of time at the end of the day where we get together and talk, hang out, pray, and laugh together – we all squeezed into my teeny tiny bedroom. Someone spoke while others listened; people laughed and made everyone else laugh with them (… or at them?). I’m filled with so much anticipation and excitement to get to know my girls better. Pray that we extend ourselves in order to create a space of safety, trust, honesty, and authenticity for one another.
How am I doing? I’ve been feeling a lot of emotions this week – grief, pain, joy, rest, challenge, exhaustion. Change and transition is extremely hard for me. It’s hard to adjust. I was expecting the transition from home/America into the World Race/a new country to be easy because of how much transition I’ve experienced in the past year. But, that didn’t really happen. It’s still really uncomfortable and awkward. Also, I’ve been feeling a ton of tension specifically with the transition in community. My people, my friends, and who I would refer to as my “community” aren’t physically with me and it hurts. But the community that IS physically with me is great. The Lord has placed me on Gap V for a really intentional reason, and it would be foolish of me to not invest in that. But, the Lord also placed people from Gap O into my life. I don’t have to bury one in order to have the other. I don’t have to forget everything about my Race and my best friends in order to be invested with Gap V. So, I’m sitting in this tension of getting to know new people, being introduced to an entirely new community, and starting a new season while having people from the past season of my life STILL be in my life. Friendship doesn’t cease to exist when you live thousands of miles away from each other. So, I freaking miss my best friends, but I’m also really thankful to be a part of my squad’s community. Gap O will never be Gap V, and Gap V will never be Gap O. The Lord is doing a NEW thing, and if I keep holding onto the old, I will reject the newness and fullness that he is going to bring me.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV)
This is what the Lord is doing. In me. In my friendships. In this season. Letting go of old things (no matter how sweet) is painful, but I know that he is good and trustworthy. What he’s bringing is better for me than what he’s already given.
Love you all.
– Lyss
