Hey friends!! Sorry for the late update! We’ve been a little ~off the grid~ serving in Quito! We had been staying with Fabi and Mabe at IncaLink, but on Friday the 4th we drove up the mountain to work with Dunamis! Dunamis is a ministry that works with girls who have been recused or were affected by sex trafficking.
We worked at Dunamis from the 4th to the 16th. At Dunamis, we worked from 9am to 4pm doing various things like shoveling cement, gathering rocks, moving gravel, and other tasks in construction. At Dunamis, we had the privilege of getting to occasionally hang out with the girls, spend time with Julia in the kitchen, and just generally lend our time for tasks that were previously out of the ordinary for us.
Amidst our time serving at Dunamis, there were so many questions being sent my way regarding my safety because of the riots down in Quito. We were completely safe up at Dunamis, as it was about a 30 minute drive up the mountain from the city. For those who don’t know, there were riots and road blockades and just general violence in the streets of Quito for about a week. I don’t think I would be your best news source, but if you’d like to read more about what happened, here is an article that I found for you guys to read! We spent the weekend (10th through the 13th) at Dunamis, but instead of working we spent our time doing debrief. Debrief is just an organized few days where we process the country we’ve spent time in with worship, sessions, and rest!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/10/09/world/americas/ecuador-protests.amp.html
However, our original plan was to leave from Quito and head to Banos on the 9th. However, we did not leave for Banos until the 15th. In Banos, we didn’t have a strict structure for ministry as we were supposed to be doing debrief here. However, it was heavenly to trade the plywood floor we had been sleeping on at Dunamis for a hostel bed. We spent our two days in Banos adventuring, catching up on rest, and street evangelizing!
I have personally never street evangelized before, so I was honestly so nervous. My friend Hannah and I spent the first 45 minutes praying for some guidance. Where do we go, who do we talk to? We didn’t really feel like God was telling us anything specific so we decided to go pray for a random street vendor that we saw. We spent a few minutes awkwardly looking around her store before I asked in broken Spanish if we could pray for her. She asked us after that, “To who?” And we started explaining our beliefs. From there, we had about a 45 minute conversation about our beliefs. This woman’s name was Paulina, and she was a Jehovah’s Witness. We spent most of our time talking about the holy trinity. The end of the conversation didn’t end in salvation, or even us getting to pray for her, but I believe that the Lord used that conversation to teach us both and I’m so thankful!
Between all these plan changes, sleeping on the floor for two weeks, manual labor, and the danger in Quito, you can probably imagine I was stressed. I was having a hard time finding purpose. I still don’t know what the Lord was doing, but I know that the peace I prayed for everyday, I received, and His presence was my strength. The book I am reading says, “God, right there, today, in the person in front of me, joy beyond holding, beholding this day, paradise. You delight in what is before you today in Christ. Richard Rolheiser writes that, “the opposite of depression is not happiness, it’s delight.” After all, we breathe in the Spirit that delights in our being. We don’t breathe in the Spirit that just sort of puts up with our mess. It’s about delight.” These words reminded me that life itself is about delight, regardless of what’s happening around you. You weren’t created to just tolerate your circumstances, but delight in them. Because if God handcrafted them for you, and he resides within them, then where else would you want to be?
Continuing the travel, my team and I left Banos around midnight on Friday the 17th. We took a 6 hour bus to Guayaquil where we waiting until 2pm on the 18th to catch our bus to Lima. We left Guayaquil around 2pm on the 18th and we made it to Lima around 7pm on the 20th. We are staying at the YWAM base here in Lima, Peru. We start our ministry on the 22nd and I couldn’t be more excited! I promise to keep up with these updates more frequently and keep you all informed on what I’m up to! Grateful for y’all!
