Oh boy! It has been a while but better late then never… right.
Here’s a recap of my time in South America but first, My teammate Jordan Harrington has a youtube channel and it’s awesome. She’s our squad story teller and she’s killing it. Here’s a link to our debrief video https://youtu.be/q6KHpy4FmtI and here’s the link to our training camp video https://youtu.be/hGli-9wq5ag enjoy!
We wrapped up our time in South America a month or so ago and now we are in Europe! My time in South America has been life changing, I miss it already. There’s so much I need to catch you all up on, let’s get started.
My second month on the race was in Ecuador and that is by far my favorite country. In every city we went to, we created life changing friendships with incredible people and seen God work in amazing ways. One of my favorite moments on team Vamanos was in Santa Elena when we arrived to a city with no place to stay. We had done research prior to and we did a ton of listening pray, but we still came up short. We as a team decided to show up and see what God had for us. At that moment I thought this would be the craziest thing I had ever done but now thinking about it, coming on a 11 month mission trip is definitely number 1. We arrive after a 7 hour over night bus from Banos and found a corner in the bus station to place our bags. Three of us end up staying behind to watch the bags and pray while two of them went on a hunt for a place to stay. During listening prayer a teammate received 10 o’clock as the time for the girls to return and right at 10 o’clock the girls arrived back with lodging. God is so cool! They found a church that let us stay there but it was way over budget. During this time it was carnival and we knew we wouldn’t have found anything better. We couldn’t stay there long because our budget would not allow it. Nevertheless, he kept his promise and provided us with lodging.
The next morning we found a coffee shop, which was the only one open at the time and that had wifi. We started researching for other cities to go into because this one was not working out. At the shop we met multiple people curious about what brought us to Ecuador and that opened the door to great conversations about hearing Gods voice. We met one couple Bill and Val and after hearing our story with lodging, generously opened their home up to us and it would be within budget! Before saying yes we prayed and God gave us the big thumbs up! They hosted us so well and gave us full access to their kitchen and pool! Ecuadors sun is like none other; the pool was a must. They blessed us more then they would ever know.
My team and I stepped out in faith and God delighted in our obedience to follow without knowing or seeing the full picture. We met two strangers who gave us shelter and because of that we created a beautiful friendship. Thank you again Bill and Val!
After Santa Elena we were lead to Puerto Lopez. We made many friendships in Puerto Lopez. We stayed with a family that have a touring business so we were about to help them as much as possible. Their family blessed us in so much!
This is Carlos! He’s a 12 year old boy who makes pizza after school everyday! Him and his father have their own pizza business and this week his father was away so he was head chief. How cool is that! We bothered him everyday and bought pizza almost every night. He makes the best pizza in all of Ecuador, I promise.
So many great things came from our time in Puerto Lopez. If you haven’t read my blog before this about Paloma, please do. God is so good and He leads us to the most unconventional places sometimes and at every turn I’m amazed.
We found our way to Quito where we came across a few challenges with Lodging but we trusted that what God had for us there was greater then not having beds or an oven that never made it. Funny story, we stayed in a air bnb and we were told it would have a full kitchen and that there were beds and furniture. We were so excited to find a place like that at an extremely cheap price. We arrive and the place is completely empty. No beds, no oven or stove, no furniture, only a tiny table with four chairs. Luckily the beds came in a bit later so we had something to lay our heads on. We asked about the oven and the man told us it will be at the apartment in 5 hours. Cool, we can wait five hours we don’t need to eat. Everything is fine, we’re FINE!… Ten days later we still had no oven. Every time we asked about the over we were told “it will be here in 5 hours don’t worry”. This is all first world problems. None of this affected us at all but we laugh every time. Oh, we were also told we would have wifi. You can guess how that went.
In Quito we met one lady who captured our hearts and is now one of my best friends! Her name is Paulina and she ministered more to us then we did to her. I met Paulina and her sweet baby girl Abigail while eating pizza. Abigail was sitting across from me and gave me the biggest smile ever and my heart melted. I went up to say hi and to my surprise Paulina spoke great English. Before coming to South America I knew 3 Spanish words and by the time I met Pauline I added 10 more words to my list. I was ready to show off my Spanish skills and she saved me the embarrassment. We talked for a while as I played with Abigail and she asked me if I wouldn’t mind coming back the next day to hang out with her again. The rest was really history. We went back everyday to see her, Her husband Carlos, and Abigail. We learned that she was a believer and that her beautiful daughter was a miracle! Paulina had stage two adenocarcinoma cancer on her uterus 4 years ago and was unable to have children. Without going to the doctors and receiving any treatment of any kind was miraculously healed. She said, “I pray and pray and pray. My family pray. My church pray. God healed me. A miracle. He has given me many things in life. One is her.” Her faith during this time did not sway. She trusted God.
One day we had the idea to take them out to dinner to thank them for their friendship. They said yes and instead of us cooking for them they insisted on cook for us and invited us over to their house! Her husband Carlos is a chief so he cooked us an amazing meal. We sat around talking and having fun with one another. Carlos has this amazing collection of cartoon action figures and showed us every single one by name. We had not told Paulina how long we would be in Quito and that we were leaving in two days. She asked and was hit with emotions. She started crying which made us all cry. We were family at this point and she told us whenever we are in Ecuador that her home is our home and we are always welcome.
This picture is from our last day seeing them. There were more tears involved but we pulled it together.
That is it for part 1! Part 2 will be here soon enough. Then we will move on over to Europe! Stay tuned.
I love you all and I’m appreciative of your support. If you would like to donate please do!
