This month in Ecuador, we got to work with an amazing organization called Pan de Vida (Bread of Life). This ministry started off in 2001 as a feeding program, but throughout the years has developed into so much more. Their programs now, include feeding programs on Sunday and Wednesday, with church services; beneficiary programs, where there are around 32 families that they help financially, emotionally, and physically in any way they can, through school supplies, medical supplies, etc.; a women micro-business program where they teach women some kind of profession, like sewing, for about 7-9 months in hopes that these women are able to help support their family and maybe even start their own business; a HIT Squad program, where they go and build, paint, or remodel houses for people that don’t have the means to do it themselves, and many more.
This month, we got to serve this ministry and help them in any way we could. Through this ministry, we got to experience so many different aspects of what ministry looks like. We got to help serve by cooking for the women in the entrepreneurship program almost every morning, helping organize different cabinets and closets, mixing lots of cement, doing yard work, even by teaching Sunday school classes in Spanish, and lots more.
Teaching a class is something I never saw myself doing. Public speaking freaks me out and I was pretty scared when I found out that a girl named Natalie, on my team, and I (because we we’re the only ones that sort of knew Spanish) would have to teach about the bible for an hour on Wednesdays and for 45 minutes on Sundays. But it actually ended up being a lot of fun. Even though, the kids were wild sometimes, I started building relationships with some of them and getting to know them a little more. Their favorite part was learning the bible verse for the day. Before class, I would write down the bible verse on the white board; during class, we would repeat the bible verse, erasing different words, and repeating the verse, until all the words were gone, and they could repeat the whole bible verse. Then we would do an activity having to do with the bible story, and at the end, if they could memorize the whole verse and recite it to me, they would get a piece of candy. One of the days, a boy even stayed behind for a little bit because he was struggling to memorize the verse for that day. I helped him memorize it after class and afterwards, he was so happy that he memorized it and accomplished it.
The relationships we built at Pan de Vida are ones I will never forget. We met our Ecuadorian Father, Oscar (the founder of the organization), and a new friend in Jenela, one of the people that works at the foundation, and an older brother in Kenny, the person that was kind of like in charge of us for the month. One of our goals for the month was to make each of them smile at least once a day, and I think we did that successfully. They weren’t just people that we did ministry for, but they became our family for the month; people that we could rely on and talk to when things were hard, and people we could cheer with when we good things happened.
Being able to bless the organization Pan de Vida by organizing their closets and cabinets, and doing yard work was hard work but very rewarding. We got to see the smiles light up when we did some grand revealings of closets and it was just so good to be able to give back to an organization that pours out so much of their time and money and energy onto people that need it.
