last sunday night, instead of in bed & asleep, i found myself hiding in the laundry room with Esther (from gap squad) talking about alllll the things in life. that didn’t last long though because we ended up sitting with a couple other girls who had started throwing up. a few hours later i joined the sick club and spent most of monday laying on a sleeping pad outside of the bathroom or kneeling over the toilet. by mid day monday, we had 10 people, combined from semesters and gap squads who were throwing up, had diarrhea, or both. (unfortunately I fit into the last category).
eventually sometime monday afternoon, the 8 girls moved into the cabana (another small house on the property) and the 2 guys stayed in their room. and quarantine began. to be completely real and honest, there isn’t much of that monday that I remember. my friends have told me about the “half awake-half asleep” conversations I had with them and filled me in on details that I missed.
each day we were in quarantine, we got our medicine at 6am, 2pm, and 10pm. we formed a new community and I made friendships with girls on gap squad that I had not interacted with beforehand. we cried, laughed, watched movies with the guys, talked and shared our stories together.
I learned what unconditional love looks like during that week. It looks like:
-Bern rubbing my back & hugging me while I was throwing up
-both squads servant heartedly bringing mattresses out to the cabana and setting up beds for us all
-the excitement of both squads whenever we would come outside for fresh air because they could see us starting to feel better
-both squads dropping anything to fill our water bottles, grab us a snack, a book, my hairbrush or deodorant
-abby giving me her sleeping pad to use outside of the bathrooms so I wasn’t laying on the floor
-the endless encouraging notes from both squads
-the 24 hour prayer schedule that was made so that there were two people praying at all times of the night
-the squad leaders getting basically zero rest to put caring for us before them
I also learned more about spiritual warfare. spiritual warfare is relevant because:
gap squad was supposed to leave on that monday morning that we all got sick-forcing us into quarantine. we didn’t have food poisoning because we hadn’t all eaten the same food. It wasn’t covid. there isn’t an explanation as to how it could have spread through 10 people within a couple hours.
the eight of us in quarantine were talking about how neither squad has had drama, we all get along. there has fortunately been very few issues within the two groups. what better way for satan to bring us down than for 10 of us to get sick the day gap should be leaving for their new ministry spots.
the “sicky girls” ended up having a small bible study on spiritual warfare, im not going to lie its kinda scary to me. but it’s also so amazing to see how prayer, and trust in the Lord can literally get you through ANYTHING. and its good.
we got to have two sweet, special weeks with gap instead of only one. i learned how giving myself quiet time each day has greatly impacted how my mornings start, even when im sick. I learned that even though it sucks, being sick for the first time without my mom is okay. we learned that its okay to let others love us unconditionally and that no matter where we are-we have a constant community who loves us.
on thursday we are headed to the coast!! from thursday until monday we will be having our midpoint debrief! Its so wild to me that I’m already halfway done with the race. i’ve learned this week the importance of living in the moment and being grateful for my time here. I miss you all and love hearing from you!! my prayer request is that we can continue to cherish the time we have in ecuador, and can be fully present in loving each other and others that we interact with.
xoxo,
julia
