For me this week was both good and really hard. On Monday, I was finally getting off my sickness and I was still feeling a bit under the weather. I came into my day with the mindset that it would be a bit easier since we thought that we were going to meet the girls at Dunamis. When we got there, we found out that we wouldn’t be meeting them and the concrete mixer wasn’t working again. For me, it was hard to focus my attention on the hard work that needed to to be done. It was hard work getting the concrete mixed by hand. One thing that I have been trying to give to God over the past few months has been my anger. God has helped me with my struggle of “blowing up” at people. On Monday I was already in bad position with being tired and all, and I saw someone not working and I thought, “Why aren’t you working?” In that moment I asked God to take away my anger and keep me from saying the many things I would soon regret. I wanted to keep the friendships and relationships I had made with my team to stay un-tainted. God really strengthened me in the moment and showed me on Wednesday that each of us need some rest in the day when we are all going hard and serving. I needed some rest that same day after that happened while we were working, and it was good/nice to have some down time for a couple of minutes in my day. After ministry on Monday night, me and 11 other squad mates had the opportunity to go to a ministry that reached out to families that were living at the garbage dump. The ministry has been there for about 20 years and has made major progress. We were there to greet the workers that were working with the trash and to serve dinner to them. Before dinner, there was a message that challenged the workers if they wanted to be a part of the feast and find hope in Jesus and receive their salvation through Him. After we served the food to them and cleaned up after, the ministry leader told us that 3 of the workers wanted to accept Jesus into their hearts that night and did. Praise God! What a night! God really encouraged me to raise my hand when it was asked before the squad if anyone wanted to go to the ministry that night. All up to that point in my day I was very tired and just wanted my day to be done, but when I heard about this ministry, I was excited and wanted to go. My birthday was on Tuesday and I had mixed emotions about it. It was my first birthday away from home and I woke up tired in the morning and didn’t want to go to my ministry for the day. Yet at the same time, I was with friends and team silverback and team tribe and we were planning on eating Ginnea Pig for dinner. (I want to eat something interesting in each of the countries that I go to on this missions trip. Ginnea Pig is a local/traditional food in Ecuador.) On Tuesday I wrote up what happened and I want you guys to read about my day.
Wow, what a birthday! Today was by far one of the most unknown and crazy birthday’s I have had! We met the girls today at ministry today. It was shocking to me that these girls were only around the age of 15 years old, yet they had such joy and laughed a lot when we were trying to talk to them. We finished about 3 pillars with only 11 people working, without the concrete mixer, and the team and squad leaders didn’t go. We finished at Dunamis and arrived at the bus stop about 40 minutes before the bus came. We started walking down the road but then we stopped and decided to take the bus to the town Nono. We assumed that since the came up the road and it was the same bus that came down it would go to Nono and then turn around and come back. We were wrong. We got to Nono and the bus driver and bus charger told us to get off the bus and it wouldn’t be until and hour later that it would start going back to Quito. So, we got off the bus and started to walk down the street. It was almost like a ghost town. No one was out, it was very quiet, and adding to that it was foggy. We got to a house and there were some of the locals in the front yar. Milena, one of the girls from team tribe who knew a lot of spanish, started to talk to them and then they invited us to have coffee and bread in their home. It was such an honor to have them greet us with so much love, and feed us food inside their home. They didn’t know us at all. We/Milena started to talk with them and they soon started to show us tapestries that they had made. They were so beautiful and done really well. They also have a son name Alan and he is 19 years old. While all of us were making sure we didn’t miss the only bus that would leave there that day, they said they were keeping an eye out to see where the bus was so we wouldn’t miss it, which was so thoughful and loving. All of this was an answer to one of my prayers because I had been asking God to show me someone in my day that would stick out to me and for me to see them in my day. When writing this, it is very hard for me to say all of the emotions I was feeling and how it was just a wow moment for me. I will never be able to describe it as well as it happened, but God showed himself to me in an amazing way. Alan stuck out to me like that because I turned 19 today and it was very unlikely that we would have taken the bus down to Nono and that neither the team or squad leaders went with us. God really put things together for me and team silverback and team tribe. We are going back to the family’s house on sunday to pray, have a small Bible study with them, and enjoy food that we will take with us. We soon took the bus back to the nowmal way on going back home. Once we got to the mall, we each got the food we wanted, mine was $2.99. It was cheaper food, but there was a lot of it. We then left the mall with 40 minutes to get back to the house. It was 7:20pm at this point in time. We got on the first bus that said Carcelen on it, thinking it would take us back to Terminal de Carcelen. It didn’t. We found ourselves walking down a road that was fairly darker and that seemed a bit sketchier than most of the roads. The bus driver told us to walk straight down the road and we would at Terminal de Carcelen. We weren’t. We walked and walked, places still were unfamilier to us. Milena then asked one of the locals where the Terminal was at and he said it was like 3 miles away and it was really far. He said it would probably be best for us to take a taxi back. We then hailed 3 taxi drivers and told them where to go. Each of the taxis had a guy in it so it was good. The only thing was, we stuck the 3 most frightened girls together in the same taxi, which didn’t help. (Caleb was the guy in the taxi) My taxi and the other taxi got to the Terminal, yet the 3rd one with the girls and Caleb wasn’t back yet. We started to get nervous, and then Ben got the idea to pray over the situation. Not more than a minute later the taxi arrived and we were together again! The problem was, there is a difference to say Terminal Carcelen and Terminal de Carcelen. The girls and Caleb ended up going way out of their way and then they had to back track to the Terminal. It was around 8:15 at that time. We then made it safely across the street and then we ran back to the house. We made it back safely to the house. The leadership at home was glad to see us, and they weren’t distressed too much, which was a blessing. After taking a shower and having a meeting, I was told to go into the kitchen. A few of the girls had made me a cake with an icecream sandwich, melted Hersheys chocalate on top, stawberries, and crushed up wafer cookies. They sang to me and I was very surprised and thankful for what they did. I am really excited to share my birthday with the friends and family I have around me. I am very thankful for them and the love that they show to me.
So we ended up not getting Ginnea Pig that night, but the plan is to get it sometime in the near future.
So something interesting has happened almost every day this week. On Thursday morning, our group was accused of stealing a woman’s purse and documents. It was an interesting start to our day because we were waiting for our bus and then two police officers walked up to our group and started speaking to us. We didn’t understand that much of what they said. Milena was across the street and then she came over and started talking to them. They said that while we were on the bus, someone in our group took the woman’s belongings. After the police searched the 17 or so bags in our group, we were told that it was a misunderstanding and then they left.
Every Thursday night, we have a feedback time with our team. This is a time where we can tell each other things we saw that they did well and also things that they need to work on. The past 2 feedback sessions have gone well, and I like hearing of the things people see in me and what I can work on. It is good for me to also look on the lives of my brothers and look for the best in them too. This is an important aspect that I will take with me and challenge myself to look for in the church around me.
On Friday, it was really hard for me to work. I was very tired of the work and was ready for the weekend. My hands were pretty beat up after not wearing gloves while working for the earlier part of the week. I found some that I could use on Thursday evening which was amazing. After we finished working for the day on Friday, we all stopped at the bakery on the route to the bus stop. After everyone got what they wanted, we headed to our next bus. We got on the bus and we realized after we left that Carter wasn’t with us. We got off the bus and one group went to find him. It was at most 10 minutes that Carter was back with us. He ended up catching a taxi and was going to take it to the mall, which was where we were going to be, but when he saw the other group walking back to look for him he got out of the taxi.
This week, God has showed me it is very important to have patience in everything I do. While having patience, I can depend on God for the things I can’t put on other people.
