Yesterday, two of my teammates and I explored the city of Quito, eager to discover a new coffee shop (shoutout to my two coffee addicts). We took an Uber to this plaza area that was full of touristy restaurants and coffee shops. We went about our business and got our coffee and did our wifi duties for a few hours before leaving the coffee place. Everything seemed normal until we walked out the doors. Immediately, all three of us were hit with a spiritual warfare that none of us have experienced before because it was different than the kind we experienced in Thailand. On the red l1ght d1str1ct and in some of the temples, we felt an uneasy presence, but we felt the Lord’s presence even stronger and felt Him telling us, “You are experiencing spiritual warfare, but its okay because I am here and I am protecting you. Press into this and intercede on behalf of these people.” Here, however, all of us felt like He was telling us, “You are experiencing spiritual warfare and you need to get out right now.” We all had a sense of urgency to leave the area. We continued walking along the seemingly calm and peaceful area, though, and went into a taco shop for dinner. As we were sitting waiting for our food, a girl came up to us trying to sell us cigarettes and gum. We all said no thank you, but after her persistence, we proceeded to ask her questions about herself. I have seen child laborers all throughout Ecuador, but this was the first time I talked to one myself. To my surprise, she answered me with a real answer when I asked where her parents were. She told us that her dad died and her mom is in Columbia. She is 12 years old with 14,7, and 4 year old siblings – all of which work and sell things just like her. My heart broke for her. She was very vague about where she lived, only telling us a general direction. I felt the Lord prompting us to pray for her, so we got to pray over her (in English) and tell her how happy we were to meet her. I could tell she was thrown off at our simple gesture to even have as long a conversation as we had, it still only being 5 or so minutes, and immediately after we prayed for her she asked us again if we wanted to buy something. Our server at the restaurant then came over and walked her outside, and when we tried to tell him that it was okay, he explained to us that the owner asked her to leave because its bad for business. We got our tacos shortly after and left as soon as we could because we were all experiencing intense warfare at this point, especially after the girl left. I started having chest pains and headaches, my teammate started getting very anxious, and all three of us started feeling very on edge and uneasy. I hated that there was nothing we could do for the girl, but as we sat waiting for our check, we spent a few minutes declaring the Lord’s presence over that plaza and His people.
One of my teammates that was with me, Ashlynn, wrote a blog about her experience and she mentioned the song, God of this City, by Chris Tomlin. This song was our anthem cry in Thailand because it was written for the city of Chiang Mai. It declares a song of hope and redemption. Its a story of His promise to His people as their Savior. As we sat in worship at mid-point debrief last night, this song came on. We all sat in righteous anger at the injustices for the children here. Listening to the lyrics of the song, though, I remembered the power of hope. He’s the God of this city. He’s the King of these people. He’s the Lord of this nation. And He’s not done fighting for them.
