Hola familia, I have now been in Ecuador for 2 and a half days now and I am sooo in love with this place. For those who don’t know, my dad was born in Ecuador and moved to the states when he was two years old, so I’ve always wanted to visit and see where his side of the family is from and now here we are. Life is crazy, but the good kind. Walking around the city of Quito makes me feel whole. Maybe that sounds cheesy, but there is this quiet, yet unexplainable joy that I’ve felt since we arrived.
After a long travel day that consisted of sleeping at airports, eating a really tasty quesadilla in Florida, taking three flights and a bus, we finally arrived at our ministry hosts’ home in Quito, Ecuador. Our ministry hosts are the sweetest couple. They welcomed us with open arms and have cooked us some amazing meals the past two days. I will talk about them in a later blog after I spend more time with them because I know they have a lot to offer. For now, I wanna share what my squad and I are going to be doing while we’re here.
There are different ministries and programs our ministry hosts have connections with, so each team is serving in different ways throughout our stay. Some teams are doing construction, another one is serving with a ministry that has a feeding program amongst other programs, and another is serving at an after school program. If want to read more in depth of what the other teams are doing, check out their blogs (google “world race gap year sept 2018 blogs”).
Alright, so what am I doing?? My team and a I (team Esther) are working with a program for kids and adults ages 6-30 with disabilities called Camp Hope. We’ll be there Monday through Friday serving with anything the staff needs help with. We visited Camp Hope for the first time on Thursday to familiarize ourselves with the route on how to get there and take a mini tour throughout the rooms. Yesterday was our first full day, and the walk there was an adventure within itself since it rained for almost the whole way. Once we arrived we asked the staff what we could do to help, but since they had so many volunteers it took them some time to find us ways to help. Two girls on my team (Gracie and Abby) served in the kitchen, three (Sophie, Kori, and Cami) served in the room with the young adults with cerebral palsy, one (Lexi) served in another room with smaller kids, our squad leader (Aly) served one on one with a young girl helping her walk and strengthen her muscles, and four of us (Ella, Mack, our team leader Alyssa, and I) had a bit of a different day. We got to organize the toys and puzzles in one room, food in the pantry, and we got to clean the music room too. It was only one day and I had a blast with my teammates, but I can see how these smaller tasks like organizing and cleaning could seem tedious and not as important as spending time directly with the kids and adults there. We even spent some time squeezing gel out of maybe 50 bottles and I have a blister on my thumb to celebrate that moment. Throughout these tasks, the Lord reminded me that every job has a purpose. All the behind the scenes organizing and cleaning that we did, allowed the staff and other volunteers to spend more time physically helping out with the kids and adults there. We did get to hang out with some of the adults with cerebral palsy for the last hour of ministry and I loved it. Not going to lie, I was a bit uncomfortable at first. I’ve never worked with people with physical disabilities, so the young girl I was sitting with seemed extra fragile to me. But after a few deep breaths and Ella’s encouragement, I was able relax a bit.
I’m really excited to see how God uses my team and I at Camp Hope. These next two months here are going to stretch me and challenge me and I think I’m ready for it. I might get wrecked in the process, but I’ll be better off in the end.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read this 🙂 I’ll be posting updates weekly, so stay tuned!!
All my love,
Melissa
