Hola amigos and amigas! Mi Amor tu! It’s been so long since I have posted, I’ve been super busy and honestly, waiting until I had something really good! So, as you know, I am currently in Quito, Ecuador (month one down!! WHATTT?!). I’m going to start off with some things I have learned about Ecuador!
1). You know that toilet paper you use and then throw it in the toilet to flush? yeah… you don’t flush it here, you throw it in a garbage can.
2). The altitude is exhausting, yes you can walk up a SLIGHT hill and be completely out of breath..or maybe I’m just out of shape. Nah, its the altitude:)
3). THE PINNEAPPLE HERE IS ONLY $1 AND ITS SO YUMMY!
4). The people here are so amazing. They will welcome you with open arms, feed you and show you so much love even when they do not know you.
So now real talk about Jesus (gotta love that man, I’ll tell ya). Who knows Matthew 7:7? good news, if you don’t, I’m gonna tell you. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Before I came on the race, my lovely mentor (one of the best people you will ever meet) told me “The hardest part about being on the race is having to come face to face with yourself” of course Savannah was like “yeah okay, not even sure what that means, but whatever.” One of the things I have heavily been praying for is for me to let this season of my life be very intentional with Christ. I want to know Him on a deeper level, experience Him in ways I haven’t yet, be confident in who He is and who I am in Him, I want my heart to break for what breaks His, and I want to feel the amount of love He has for me. I believe that the Lord must show you things in yourself before you completely allow Him to rebuild your heart. I started praying in my quiet time for Him to reveal my heart to me, let me see myself the way I am perceived and see areas in my life where I need a little help from Him (okay, a lot of help). The first thing that the Lord reveled to me about myself, is how self centered I was, living in community brings out a lot in people and I was solely focused on me. I had an attitude of “well I/ my team has it so thats all that matters.” I was just stingy. The second thing God revealed to me, was how disrespectful I was, the way I have treated people, talked to them, judged them or thought less of them, was just pure hateful. The last thing God has revealed to me, was how much I took my faith for granted. God has always been very prominent in my life, I grew up in a Christian home, I always knew God was there to fall back on. Fall back. Not a constant. When my team and I arrived at our ministry, we dove right in with sharing about Jesus, and when we did, I learned just how many people genuinely don’t know about Jesus. My heart was broken. I just always assumed that because I knew, everyone else did too, I never took in to consideration that people don’t know. I was so sad to see that, how can people live and not know what I know about Jesus, about His love for you, His grace, His mercy, His gentleness and worthiness? I have talked with more people than I can count, that do not know the reason Jesus died on the cross. A few days after the Lord started revealing these things to me, I met a little boy at a cafe, his name was Daniel, he was 7. The first thing I noticed about Daniel was that he was selling roses to help his family, his clothes were tattered and he was dirty. The coffee shop staff came over to him and started to shoo him out of the place, he left and stood outside of the coffee shop, he looked defeated and sad. He just happened to stand right next to the window that was by my chair. As he kept standing there, I showed him my mom on FaceTime and I saw a smile. So, I got him a brownie and went to talk to him. Here is this little boy, trying to sell these flowers to help his family, not getting to be a kid, sitting in front of me, devouring this food. In that moment, I felt my heart shatter, I felt what the Lord felt. The hardest thing I had to learn that day, was how to walk away from a CHILD, who had nothing, and trust that the Lord saw him and was watching over him. Throughout the weeks, I have seen the love of the Lord displayed in more than one way possible, from my teammates, to people being so welcoming with open arms. I prayed for the Lord to reveal my heart and rebuild it, and I am receiving it everyday in a new way. Here I was in Ecuador, expecting to be some radical change for someone bringing them Jesus yet, they are being the radical change for me. ” I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” Ezekiel 36:26 Hope you all have fantastic week, full of Jesus!
