Last week we set out for Higeronous and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into until I was in the middle of it. We were told that it would be a 4 hour bus ride, 3 hour walk and a 2 hour mule ride. In the end it was a 8 hour truck ride in the pouring rain with stops at a mechanic because the truck we were in was very old and at one point during the ride the hood flew back and the wipers stopped working. Three of the team rode in the back under a tarp while I rode in the front of the truck and Carrie my team mate had to pull a rope to get the wipers to wipe the wind shield. We stopped for lunch and then again to pick up team Dunamis from Le Carmen and then carried on. It was eight o’clock at night when we arrived at the path to Higeronous, they loaded the mules up with our packs and we set off walking. Lucky for me I was assigned Luis as my guide, it was dark and he had a small light. He spoke only Spanish and I am very limited in my spanish but I understood him when he told me to hold on to his strap on his backpack and where to step. The mud was so deep and we had to walk by balancing on the ruts. When the road was bad he held my hand and pulled me along. He said to me ” Tu eres mi hermana en Christo Nancy”( you are my sister in Christ Nancy) and I felt comfortable with our silence. I thought about how this is like how it is with Jesus he asks us to hold on to his hand and he tells us where to step and he doesn’t leave us. If I chose my own path I got stuck in the mud or lost my boot. Five hours later at one in the morning we arrived at the house we would be staying at for three nights and I have never been so happy for a trip to be over. I was exhausted and covered in mud and sweat but I was proud of my accomplishment.
The next two days between the teams and the locals who had come with us we built a new bathroom, tore down an old building and built a new church. It was very physically demanding work in the blazing Ecuadorian heat and I am not going to lie and tell you I didn’t cry when I thought about the walk back to the truck. God gave me the strength to complete the tasks well and endure until the end.
A photo of our truck ride after leaving Higeronous
