The second week was a definite change of pace. We soon found out that, to be honest, there wasn’t anything for us to do. Our daily manual labor changed to our task being to sweep the floor once a day, or move the tile packages from one side of the room to the other. Life was feeling extremely monotonous and we were bored. Needless to say, this brought about a negative attitude among the team, and we felt extremely discouraged about our work here in Ecuador. We were reading blogs about how our squad mates were all building such great relationships in the cities that they were in, and great relationships with their contacts. While reading those blogs, we were in a city where we couldn’t communicate with anybody, and where we see our contacts once every other day if we’re lucky.
Once we all hit breaking point (seriously, the whole team was at the point where there wasn’t one of us who was enjoying our days), we came together and talked as a team. We were all pretty frustrated and we all knew that something needed to change. We were literally on our knees in prayer seeking some guidance from the Lord about what our ministry should be, and how He wants to move through us here in Ecuador. We came seeking guidance, and we definitely had some answers. We realized how selfish we had all been, and how we needed to open ourselves up to be used. So what if our ministry isn’t planned for us, the Lord is giving us freedom to decide what our ministry will look like. So what if we can’t communicate through language, there are a ton of other ways we can communicate with the people and show them love.
Since we’ve brought a change in our mindset, I think that our entire team’s experience has changed tenfold. We have built relationships with some of the people in Iluman, we have prayed over the city multiple times, we have gone out to the surrounding city at least twice a week, and have started to build relationships with people who were in desperate need there.
What an amazing sight to wake up to!
