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“Go slower, go slower,” those were the key words for ministry yesterday. All I could hear was sound of the line welder and the mallet hitting the metal as John yelled over my shoulder. By 10:30 yesterday morning I was starting to weld together the metal bars to make scaffolding.
Women’s ministry for us this month has been interesting to say the least. Before leaving the states our ministry contacts gave us basic information as to what we would be doing for our month of ministry in Quito. My team was going to be working with women and teens who were at risk of violence and prostitution.
I stood in the shop and looked around and laughed. Five of us chicks were covered in dirt and metal shavings. There were no other women or teens around us that we were ministering to. Instead of ministering to women, we were in the process of building scaffolding for a local church to use so they can build more churches.
When I say building scaffolding, I mean from start to finish. The metal bars were cut. We flattened out the ends of the bars with the mallets. We laid the bars in the pattern that was made for us. We welded the bars together. We tested the scaffolding. We made the support cross bars. We completely flatted out the ends of the cross bars. We used the drill press to put the holes in the support bars. Melissa and I even made a trip to the local hardware store to buy bolts and washers. We may have made a pit stop to buy chocolate bread too; food is important especially if it is chocolate.
By five yesterday evening we had welded together six of the eight sections of scaffolding. We had all the bars cut and ready to use, and put together all the support cross bars. I was seriously impressed with us chicks. I was even more impressed with John who had the patience to teach us even though he kept calling me “Shenanigans.”
The past few weeks here ministry has more so looked like manual labor which I have loved. We have moved tons and tons of roofing tiles. We have painted, and painted, and painted, and painted, and painted some more. We have sanded benches, walls, and cabinets. We have stained benches and cabinets. We have drilled holes into concrete walls. We have drilled holes into metal. We have pulled weeds, and pulled more weeds.
Aside from all the manual labor we have done things related to what our ministry contact said we would be doing. We have loved on babies. We have held a Beauty for Ashes bible study for the girls at Casa Elizabeth. Tomorrow will be our last day with them and their babies. I can’t believe three weeks have flown by this fast. I am totally going to miss loving on the babies. It doesn’t make it any easier knowing that I will probably never see them again after tomorrow.
There are so many things about Quito that I will miss, and it is mostly the people. I will miss Mabe and Fave’s cooking and how well they love and serve us. I will miss Gustavo’s bear hugs everyday, and his back rubs while we do dishes. I will miss baby Tomas falling asleep in my arms. I will miss Pastor Roberto’s warm smile. I will miss doing Zumba with Paulina while the babies watched.
Sunday is our last day here in Quito. We head to Banos on Sunday morning for our debrief and to be reunited with the whole squad…and FINALLY meet our coaches. Our contacts here have loved and served us so well. I only hope that we have done the same for them. The goodbyes Sunday will be hard.
*Epic moment of the week= On Sunday, seven of us made it to the summit of a 15,492ft volcano here. That is the highest peak I have ever climbed. It was amazingly beautiful, and a struggle to breath at some points. Welding was pretty awesome too. Pictures will be posted later.
