Ecuador! Month 2! Holy moly. Already at the end of the first week of ministry in Ecuador. It still doesn’t feel real and still blows my mind how fast the months are flying by. In some ways it feels like just yesterday we landed in Colombia and in some ways it feels like that was a lifetime ago.
My team is working with a ministry called Pandavita and they do a wide variety of different things for the community. We were expecting to be doing the feeding ministry and working with kids.
And we’ve done construction all week. Surprise!
As our contact was telling us that we would be building a house at least for the first week, and possibly for the entire time we are in Ecuador, I felt the familiar rush of disappointment.
And then I heard the story of this family and suddenly could not wait to love them by helping build their house.
So let me tell you the story that changed my entire perspective in a matter of seconds.
Pandavita has many volunteers that serve in a variety of ways. The father of this family is a contractor and helps Pandavita build houses for families all over the city. The family is super involved in the different ministries that Pandavita has and is a huge part of the Pandavita family.
One day while the father is at work he gets a call saying that his house is on fire. By the time the fire department got to the site it was too far gone. The family lost everything.
A family of 12 (parents, 6 kids, and 4 young grandchildren) are now homeless.
The people of Pandavita begin working together to help this family in anyway they can and the plans for building them a new house are in the works. About a month after the fire the father is admitted to the hospital with severe stomach pains. Upon further investigation the doctors find that stomach cancer has overtaken his entire body. He died in the hospital mere days later.
The family was grief stricken and broken.
Our team has gotten to work on a house for these lovely humans. As we work we have the opportunity to build relationships with this family and love on them while they are grieving.
The last couple of days our team has been digging through the burned rubble of this families life. And wow has it been tough sifting through the remnants of their past life. I’ve been committing to praying for them as we dismantle pieces of their burned house to use on the new house.
We end each work day by praying with and over the family as they navigate life.
To see a family that has gone through so much pain in the last 2 months wholly lean on God for the strength and ability to survive each day is beautiful, convicting, and encouraging.
I go into these situations hoping to encourage and love only to end up receiving more encouragement and love than I ever thought possible.
My cup overflows
