Not only was Calderon, Ecuador beautiful we had a fantastic
family there. We all loved each other
well. We all shed lots of tears when we
left – it was really really hard. We got
so close to them by just living life with them. We set up our tents in the
church and slept there. The pastor, his
wife, son and his wife all lived in the apartment upstairs. By the end of our time there we met the
entire family and they were all like our family. We were calling Narcisa “mommy” and she would
do anything for us. And she was so
funny! Then there was Francisco, the
pastor. We would all play (soccer) and
he would laugh like he was a 12 year old little boy. There was such joy in their home. And it was amazing to see them love the
community they served. Oh and we had no
translator, so learning Spanish was/is a priority. God has been so good in helping me with that.
Our ministry consisted of sanding and painting the home of a
member of the church. That was difficult
and so different from the way things are done in the states. First of all everything is done in
concrete. Our team got to know each
other a lot better in those moments. We
sang together and asked lots of questions.
In the afternoons we would walk around the neighborhood from house to
house just getting to know the community and telling them about Jesus. We had some great conversations there and had
lots of people show up to the bible studies in the evenings. This was amazing. The pastor and his son go to different
surrounding communities every night of the week to hold bible studies for the
people. They not only serve their own
community but get in the back of trucks to travel to others to talk about
Jesus.
The food was interesting.
Sometimes really yummy, sometimes really strange. We ate liver (yuck), had every part of a
chicken flavoring our soups (which were very hot and we had in the middle of
the day), including the feet and we had more than our fair share of rice. Let’s just say I’m so over rice and haven’t
even made it to Asia yet.
It was amazing though.
We were part of a family for those two weeks that we spent in
Calderon. An amazing family and I will
never, ever forget that sweet family.
Please pray for Francisco, Narcisa, Gabriel, Daniella, David, Solomon,
Alexandria, Karen and all of their children.
Pray for their health, their church and just for them. They served us so well as we were
serving.
