Our first week in Quito has been spent mostly on the grounds of our ministry hosts’ property, doing work projects and getting acclimated to the higher altitude. COVID has made things look a little different than my team and I were expecting, and a portion of our time so far has been spent learning to deal with the inevitable let down of our plans changing. But honestly, our plans have been changing for the past several months. My plans have been changing since I got sent home from Colombia almost a year ago. My team and I are learning to go where God is directing our paths and making the best of it.
In the week we’ve been here, we have emptied an entire home of its contents to prepare it to be torn down over the next few weeks, weeded a massive garden, chopped a ridiculous amount of wood, hoisted a mattress over a balcony, refilled-in a driveway, and took apart six bunk beds with one pair of needle nose pliers.
Though we’ll be traveling to other ministries to be extra hands for upkeep and maintenance starting tomorrow, I’ve been so blessed by spending all my time here at Casa Blanca. My team and I have had so much time to connect and I have felt so useful working all day on projects that will bless our hosts and create a better space for future missionaries.
Yesterday, our sweet hosts put together a COVID friendly adventure day where we took a bus tour of the city and stopped at a park to have a picnic and look at the little tourist booths (I definitely bought an alpaca sweater.) When we got back on the bus, our host told us how even our presence here can be a blessing to those around us. The bus company that drove us was so grateful for our business, because the pandemic has kept people from coming here and renting buses. The woman who ran the tourist booth said we were a gift from God because she hasn’t had much business in so long and even my buying an alpaca sweater had a huge impact on her finances. Even the woman collecting our 25 cents to use the bathroom said a prayer of thanks over our coins before putting them in her basket.
So even though ministry has looked different than we expected, and our contact with anyone other than our team has been very limited and six feet away, we are still making an impact here in Quito and I’m really excited about the next three months.
