Are you ready to hear a struggle many of us have had while being in Latin America?
What do you call yourself? An American?
Well guess what, we are all “Americans” here.
I knew this fact before getting to Latin America this time, but the other name we are given I decided doesn’t work either. “Gringos” – white people. Well guess what, all people from the USA are NOT white! In fact, I have never seen a paper white person in my entire life…
Okay, mini rant over, but side note: Gringos actually just means foreigners and someone decided it means white people. But, anyway, that is why this blog is titled overlapping Eagles. “Eagles” is referring to people from the USA here, since a symbol of our country is a bald eagle. United States-ians is too long of a word and doesn’t look very good written out as when I say it out loud (which I have been doing when referring to people from the states). Now that I have explained the title of this blog, here is the story behind it:
Ironically, when we are doing evangelism in the states, in the same way as we did in Ecuador, we would talk about how cool it was to be able to do ministry with people from other countries that come to us. So, here we are, in Ecuador and evangelizing on a college campus. There are many international students here as well. So on our second day evangelizing Whitney and I went out to meet some college students and go through Soularium with them.
Side note: Soularium is an activity with many pictures that asks the questions 1. Choose one to three pictures that describe your life so far. 2. Choose one to three pictures that describe what you wish your life would look like. 3. Choose one to three pictures that describe your life so far spiritually. 4. Choose one to three pictures that describe what you wish your life would look like spiritually.
We met two students who both spoke English and began going through the questions with them. Mia and Maria seemed to be close friends but as we got into the spiritual questions they both thought it was so cool since they were meeting to plan a yoga event for Valentine’s Day. They had never met before! Mia said, “It’s crazy how the universe works sometimes.” As we continued through the rest of Soularium there were many comments on energies and releasing energies into the world. Mia mentioned how much she loved the ocean and it was because she is from Louisiana and lived near the coast! That was so cool to me and crazy that God brought us both from the USA to meet in Ecuador!
Hence the Overlapping Eagles!
At the end of Soularium we asked one extra question out of curiosity, who is God to you?
The college we were at requires classes in philosophy so many of the students are well versed in many religions and have interesting opinions. We added this question in hopes to turn the conversation to God in at least a little way, since there had yet to be any mention of Him or Jesus. Maria, an Ecuadorian student, then shared with us exactly who she thought Jesus was at one point in her life: her best friend! She shared how He was with her for everything and she talked to Him daily and it was as if Jesus was her boyfriend. Mia had never heard of anything like this before, she had no idea you could even have a personal relationship with Jesus. I totally got the chills as Maria was talking, the Holy Spirit chills! From here Maria opened the door for us to share what we believed! We went through the 4 spiritual laws booklet that Cru gave us.
The four laws are: 1. God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life. 2. Man is sinful and separated from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for his life. 3. Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him alone we can know God personally and experience God’s love and plan. 4. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
After going through the booklet and having a lot of discussion along the way I was talking with Maria about how Jesus never left her, that He loves her no matter what she has done and is calling her back and waiting for her. As I was saying this I got those Holy Spirit chills again and listened into what Whitney was sharing with Mia. She was telling her a small part of her testimony about questioning God and challenged Mia to continue questioning and searching because what she can find is so much more amazing that she could even imagine!
I ended up seeing Mia again on campus on our last day. It was a simple hello and goodbye since it began to rain as soon as we started talking. That moment, like the rain, was a small bit of watering to the seed that was planted. A reminder of all of our conversation and a chance to share a small bit with the girl who Mia was with that day as well.
When picturing the World Race I never imagined ministering to someone from the USA, but things are never as we imagine them! I am so happy God lead Whitney and me to talk to Maria and Mia that day!
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.””
Mark 16:15
The whole creation includes the United States, sometimes you just have to go into the world to find them!
