We arrived in our little Ecuadorian village on Sunday, July 17th with much anticipation and slight apprehension. We told the bus driver to drop us off 17 kilometers before the nearest city, he responded with, “Esta bien,” and kicked us off at the 19th kilometer marker. Thankfully I was given a world phone (because I’m a leader on my team); therefore, I called our ministry contact. With broken Spanish, he understood and came to pick us up on a moped. Clearly all six of us as well as our huge packs couldn’t fit on a moped, so we had to catch another bus. Again, thankfully, the bus only costs fifty cents each person.
Donned by our backpacks, we entered the small church and had 15 of its 80 members greet us with apples and oranges. Jeff, one of my team members, is the only one who knows Spanish; therefore, he had to translate everything for the rest of the five smiling faces. Spanish people are not like Americans in the slightest. Their sole plan for the night was to get to know us (ironic because only one of us spoke Spanish).
After a late dinner of rice and chicken, we began talking about our ministry with them. They apparently only thought we were passing through; therefore, didn’t have anything planned for us. We were in minor freak-out mode, to say the least. They provided us with the concrete floor of their open-windowed church, of which we set our tents up to serve as mosquito nets.
The church we slept in at Kilometer-17, Ecuador. The village at Kilometer-17, Ecuador.
The bathroom at Kilometer-17, Ecuador. Guinea Pig being roasted, we weren't served this, thankfully.
From the moment we got off the bus, I was filled with worry. Worry about where we were going to be staying, what we were going to be doing, and how I was going to lead throughout all of that. God immediately commanded trust, and trust was all we could do.
The sound of barking dogs, honking horns, worship music, and crowing roosters kept us awake throughout the night, but that didn’t compare to our fear at being in this remote village with zero plans. We were literally at the hands of the village pastor, but no less in the hands of God.
The next morning, Monday, July 18, we traveled to the nearest city of Lago Agrio to visit a sister church of ours in the village. Myself, my teammate Lauren, and our Spanish-speaking teammate Jeff were praying the whole way there that God would perfectly put everything into His plan (as if we doubted). We were set up with a wonderful English speaking pastor at a neighbor church, and he translated everything of what we needed to this sister church.
After much conversation and concern, this new church generously provided us a room, bathroom, kitchen, and laundry accommodations (that are in far better condition than the village accommodations), as well as the service of setting up our future ministries and providing transportation to and from the places.
Deep breath in!
God, I believe, put us in this situation to make us trust Him. Yes, we still had a choice not to trust Him, but we were literally unable to do anything ourselves; therefore, all that was left was to trust and have faith that everything would work out to glorify the Lord. Now give me a rooftop or a mountain because I want to shout and sing His praises!
Our new location at Lago Agrio, Ecuador. We have At Lago Agrio, the pastor and his wife gave us their
tile floors and a kitchen to prepare food! son's room so we could sleep in a bed. So thankful!
Our socks hanging up to dry after washing them in a WASHER!
