This blog is a little longer than I would normally post but so much has happened I wanted to share as much as possible with you.
We left for our ministry village on Sunday which was a 6 and a half hour bus ride through the Andes Mountains and then into the jungle. The ride was beautiful and the bus was actually very nice (a tour bus). The only bad part was when the driver decided to turn the television on. It was SO loud and to make it worse, it was the movie “Cyborg” which seemed to be the worst movie ever made.
Anyways, we finally arrived at the church (KM 17 Emaus) we are staying in, and the local groundskeeper of the church, Ulysses, speaks very little English. That means that I was the main line of communication between my team and the church for the first several hours. I was extremely overwhelmed because we were all sitting in the church with several of the local congregation members and I was the only one that could communicate. To add to the pressure, Ulysses was under the assumption that my team was only there for about a week!! Apparently it was lost in translation that we would be there for a month, lol. He was also asking us what we were going to do while we were with him. This was hard because we were hoping he knew what was going on. Later that night, Ignacio, an English speaking pastor in the area came to the church and helped clear some things up.
Church Ulysses. Our Contact at KM 17 Emaus.
That first night in the church was very overwhelming and I was struggling big time with leaving my friends on the other teams and thoughts of home also started to creep in. We all were struggling and during our team feedback time I explained how I was frustrated with the fact that we had to go all the way out to where we were. I said how I loved Quito and being around the entire squad. We were already thousands of miles away from home and in Quito I had the opportunity to be a witness to the locals. So I kept asking the question “Why did we have to go the extra extravagant mile?” Weren’t we doing enough already? That night we prayed and kept a positive attitude as a team. We were all in it together and we knew we just had to take things day by day. It was one of the most overwhelming/intense nights of my life. We had 11 more months of living like this? But it really help me draw closer to God.
Sleeping arrangements the first two nights at KM 17 Emaus.
Ulysses (left) and Lauren with the local pastor’s kids.
The next day, Lindsay, Lauren and I went with Ulysses to meet Ignacio and Sixto, who is another pastor in Lago Agrio (aka. Nueva Loja) to figure out our schedule for the month. We arrived at the church and it was a nice, clean, secure building. We sat in Sixto’s office and it was determined that we would move to his church and help with what they needed. In addition to helping the church, we are going to visit all of the surrounding churches in the county of Sucumbios. Depending on the area and how long it takes to get to the churches, we may stay one to three nights in that churche’s village. We were told that some of these villages are deep in the jungle and are indigenous. We told Sixto and Ignacio what ministries we are best at so we will see what they will have us do in those villages. For the last ten days or so of the month we will return to Ulysess’s church where we stayed the first several nights.
After our meeting we were able to play soccer with Ulysses and some kids at a local school. All I have to say is we dominated the Ecuadorians, lol. In a good way, of course 🙂
Playing soccer at the school.
The next day we moved to our new church in Lago. We are staying in Sixto’s house with his wife Sara and four year old son Jhoan. Currently, we all have a bed and are eating very well! It is a blessing to stay here.
Jhoan
My room in Sixto’s house/church
The next day Sixto and I were on our way to the store when he asked me to preach at service that night. I was like umm, sure? It was 2pm and service started at 7pm so I was a little caught off guard and panic ensued, lol. To add to the panic, Sixto said that he wanted me to do it in Spanish! When we returned to the house/church I started to look at some scripture and decided I would talk about loving one another and fellowship. Well the time came for me to preach and right before I went up front Sixto told me that I could do it in English if I started to struggle. So I spoke for about 15-20 minutes and spoke in Spanish in the beginning and then inter-mixed both languages throughout. The crazy thing is that I had an amazing sense of peace while I was preaching. God was certainly with me and I found comfort in the following verses throughout that day: 1 Timothy 4:11-16 and Jeremiah 1:4-8.
Me preaching
The next night we went to a small church about an hour away that has only been meeting for about two months. Sixto preached and he made me sit up-front and translate the sermon into English for my teammates. Needless to say my Spanish skills are getting a major workout!
In addition to preaching and visiting churches we also painted the benches in the church.
Painting the church’s benches
Now that I have been in the Lago Agrio area for several days, I now realize why God sent my team here and I have learned to trust Him wherever He decides to send me. He is stretching me in many ways and for that I am thankful. After all, He knows what’s best 🙂
Well that’s all for now! God Bless and I miss you all!
P.S. – I have been eating Oreo’s and Peanut butter (which is VERY salty and not as good as the States) like crazy!
Peanut Butter in a pouch
