November 8th we prepared ourselves for a day of 8 hours of travel that turned into a day of 13 hours of travel form Banos to Portoviejo. When we arrived in Portoviejo we were picked up by our ministry hosts Percy, Gema and their two year old daughter Mila. We are blessed enough to have an apartment that the six of us get to share and every meal is eaten at Percy’s house or Gema’s parents house. Coming to Portoviejo we knew we were in for a busy next two months of ministry, but we didn’t know exactly how busy we would be until we actually started ministry. With that being said, the ministry here is amazing. A play through of our week is going to the hospital Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday mornings 10-2 where we work in the office sorting medical supplies and organizing paperwork. Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2:30- 4 we purify water with a hand pump and then at 4 we venture over to the garbage dump where families live and distribute clean water, play with the kids, teach bible stories, sing songs, dance, and teach English. Tuesday nights at 7:30 we have a church plant meeting that we are supposed to go to but haven’t yet made it to. Thursdays we have a free day. Friday nights at 8 we have a prayer time at the church where we are in worship and prayer with people from the community over the church, people who are sick, and programs that the church is hosting that week. Then from 10-12 we get to watch guys from the church play soccer against each other and are lucky enough to watch the guys on our team participate in it. Saturdays we have the mornings off and then from 4-6 we help with the high school group and then from 7:30- 10 we are each a part of a small college aged group. On Sundays we get to attend church at Templo Metropolitano Alianza. This is where Percy works and is the youth pastor at. We are a part of this church everyday and the people welcomed us as a part of their congregation with open arms. All in all we wanted to impact this community in so many different ways and we are getting that chance.
Today (November 19) we did ATL (Ask The Lord) and wow did the Lord speak. We split up into groups of two and did listening prayer on where the Lord wanted us to go. Robbie and I had the privilege to be partners and we got to talk with a guy that goes to the church. We got to listen to him talk about his passion for cars and learn about his parents. No we didn’t go out and change someones life nor did we get to meet with new people, but we got to grow in community with someone who we see everyday. We were able to show him that we were interested in his life and we cared for what he had to say. We were able to show love to the people who were walking down the street by smiling at them and saying hello to them. We are always concerned with doing the great things yet the small things can make the biggest impact.
More blogs will be coming very soon! It’s very hard to keep up with ministry and keeping everyone up to date! Life in Portoviejo is amazing so if you’d like to hear ever more shoot me message or an email and I’ll try and get back to you as soon as possible! 🙂 I will try and also post photos on my blog because I know some of you aren’t connected through my Facebook. Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me along the way and following my journey, it’s only just getting started!
