The start of Ecuador was full of joy and adventure as we were with our whole squad in a city called Banos for a debrief period for about 5 days. Departing from the rest of the squad and being back with my team of 5 women we set off on an overnight bus ride of 8 hours to the coast, as we felt called to the coast. Upon embarking on this trip we had no idea where we would be lodging once arriving at the coast – none whatsoever. Over this particular weekend there was a huge festival called Carnaval which encompasses the whole of South America, resulting in all lodging being out of our price range – no matter where we looked. Upon arriving at the bus station at 7am in the small coastal town of Santa Elena, my one team mate and I took to the streets in search of lodging for the night, while the other 3 stayed with our bags at the bus terminal and prayed. Keeping in mind I don’t know any Spanish and my friend just remembers a bit from school/university, the language barrier was probably one of my bigger concerns. We set out with no idea of what direction to really even start in, but being continuously aware of the fact that the Lord would provide. We knocked on the doors of 2 hostels but were turned away as they were out of our budget. We then came across what appeared to be a church to ask if they knew of any accommodation in the area, and it just so happened that they had rooms available at the church! All though it was slightly out of budget, this was a huge answer to prayer!
We stayed there for the night and the following morning we went to the only coffee shop that supplied WiFi in the town in search of possible new lodging. To my absolute amazement we happened to meet 2 people from South Africa! You can imagine my surprise, considering only about 1000 people live in this small town. Calvin and Leigh were so unbelievably friendly and so willing to help accommodate my team and I. Without much hesitation Calvin began calling one of his friends asking if we could stay at their home and Leigh went ahead and asked another couple sitting at the coffee shop, called Val and Bill from the USA, if they had room for us to stay at their home. While waiting to hear about the possibilities of where we could possibly stay we decided to pray and ask the Lord for direction on where to go. Before we had even finished saying Amen, Val sat down next to us and said, “So what time do you girls think you will be coming over, because I need to leave the house around 4pm?”
And that was that.
We were staying with Val and Bill for the next 2 nights. This was a huge blessing to us! Within in this time we had the honor of making them dinner and hearing how involved they are within their community and how they are trying to help in all different ways, such as the distribution of clean water, better roads and buildings as well as the cleaning of the beaches.
This was my first time arriving in a city with absolutely no assurance of having a place to rest my head that night with a budget as small as $5 per person. However I was constantly filled with a great amount of peace, resting in the assurance of the fact that I knew the Lord would provide as He always has. We didn’t know how, or what it would look like, but it was comforting to know that God had a plan and that He has always known that we would end up in this small town of Ecuador without a place to stay on this particular date and that there would be these amazing people in our paths to welcome us into their homes. This was a huge leap of faith and the Lord fully provided!
Following this amazing time we spent with Val and Bill we headed up north to the small town of Puerto Lopez. We stayed here for 10 days and met such special people who we really grew to love and were sad to say goodbye to! I will tell you all about them in my next post!
Thank you so much for the continued support and prayer! My second last financial deadline is on Wednesday the 28th February and I am $426 (R4920) away from reaching it. I would greatly appreciate any support in prayer or absolutely any amount of financial support towards this! Thank you for how much love and support I have already received! I am beyond grateful for it all!
Much love,
Kate X 
