my team and i took the wrong bus and ended up at a random town on the top of a mountain.
welllllll to be fair, it was the right bus…
it was just going up the mountain instead of down the mountain. and logically we reasoned that “what goes up must come down” right?? and sitting in a nice comfy bus sounded a lot nicer than waiting 40 minutes in the bitter cold after a day of construction work.
sooo we hopped on.
we hopped on expecting stunning views of the green ecuador country side.
we hopped on hoping to see some sign of a waterfall we had heard of.
we hopped on thinking that the bus would turn around at some point and we would be on our normal, everyday, routine schedule.
but God doesn’t do life on our schedule.
and in typical fashion, He threw my team’s plans and expectations out the window.
fog = no stunning views
curvy roads = no waterfall
clueless gringos = no turning around
long story short, turns out that the bus we got on actually wasn’t the same bus we normally take. what goes up must go down, right?? right. just sometimes it goes down an hour later than you thought it would.
so my team and i are dropped off in this random, ghost like town in the middle of nowhere fittingly called Nono with absolutely nothing to do and a whole hour to kill.
so ultimately we decide to just wander around, explore, and hopefully find a little restaurant to celebrate my teammates birthday. so we follow a sign pointing towards a cafe. we walk past abandoned homes, run down buildings, closed shops, and a cow skull, to finally find our destination: a beat up wooden shack with the place’s name written on a rusty sign hanging sideways.
no luck.
exhausted, hungry, and a bit annoyed my team continued to walk aimlessly through this town hoping beyond hope that maybe we could find something interesting.
little did we know then just how interesting things were gonna get.
in our aimless wandering we walked past a family making cheese in their front yard. their house was run down like all the others and made partially of brick. enchanted i comment on how beautiful the house is to the lady peeking out her window and before i knew it we found ourselves in a conversation with the parents of the family. with our broken spanish and my teammate’s translation skills we were able to learn more about their life and also share a bit of who we were and why we’re in ecuador! we talked with them for a while and eventually the mom of the family invites all eleven of us into their home for croissants and coffee- croissants and coffee that for them probably cost a fortune. as we all gathered around their tiny kitchen table, we were met by God’s kindness and grace. we were able to pray over the family as we fellowshipped with them and made a plan to go back this sunday to have a picnic and a little devotional bible study with them. my team took the wrong bus, ended up in a random town with no clue what to do, but as is God’s character, He gave purpose to a purposeless hour. He provided comfort in a frustrating situation, and He showed His love by the way this family cared for us and the way we were able to care for them.
doing construction for our ministry all of us were kind of bummed that we aren’t able to build connection with people as often as we would like, but i genuinely believe that because we were faithful in the small things that God have us to do, He gave us the desires of our hearts as they aligned with His will and He gave us the opportunity to meet people and show them the love of Christ. God is moving even when i fail to see it and for that i am so thankful. i constantly find myself humbled by the way God shows up in the most unexpected ways and in the most unexpected places.
please join me in prayer for this family and for the time we will be spending with them over the next two months!
much love,
shek
