I am writing to you all from the Garden of Eden. Okay, not really, but it is astoundingly beautiful here in Baños, Ecuador. The entire squad is here for a debrief on the first month of our trip. It provides us with a time of rest, adventure, and reflection. It also provides us with the opportunity to look forward to the future and how we as a team and a squad will take what we learned and apply it to our lives on the Race, as well as into our lives back at home. First, here is a brief reflection of our first month.
Our first month as a squad was spent together (all 55 of us) in the beautiful capital city of Quito. We stayed in a team house called Casa Blanca, which was run by Inca Link – a South American mission organization that caters to groups like ours. Everyday for ministry, all of the teams split up to do their own thing. Team Charismata had the pleasure of working with La Luz. La Luz is a church in the suburbs of Quito. Our ministry was primarily teaching English, but we also did quite a bit of cleaning and advertising. The classes were so much fun though! There was a lot of laughter! One of my favorite parts was acting out different animals in an effort to teach some of the kids present the English words for each. There were also quite a few deep conversations had with the more advanced English-speakers. As a result multiple relationships were formed with the people over the course of our two week class.
At the end of the day, we’d ride the wild blue bus (they’re really fun if you put your hands up) back to Casa Blanca. The folks who lived and worked there made the experience even better. Mabe and Fabi – a faith-filled and wise couple – cooked for us everyday, and overall loved on us the entire time. They also taught us some lessons that we’ll carry with us into the future, such as always finishing the food on our plates. Gustavo worked in the office at Casa Blanca, but whenever he saw you he’d greet you with the friendliest smile and a pretty darn good hug. The entire time I felt loved and cared for. I miss everyone so much already.
Now for the future. When we leave Baños next week, we’ll be moving on to our next ministry site; Portoviejo. Portoviejo is a city on the coast that was severely impacted by the earthquake this past April. Our ministry will be with a church doing anything from kid’s ministry, to cancer patient ministry, to garbage dump ministry. We are all super excited for what is in store for us, but we could definitely use some prayer. We encountered a few conflicts this past week that has been dealt with, but it leaves the future a little unknown. Prayers are greatly appreciated!
