Suuup. How’s your heart? Mine’s been mourning. I’m wrapping up my time at El Refugio to head to my second ministry location. I’ve lived here for a month now. The days were long and taxing, but I swear I was just getting off of the bus terrified. We settled into our squeaky bunk beds, learned all the housekeeping rules, and prepared for the work week ahead of us. But today, I climbed off of the roof for the last time. We worked with 4 sweet strangers that quickly became our favorite people on the planet:
Aurelio, the kind hearted. Enrique, the comedian. Jorge, the diligent worker. Holger (pronounced “oh hair” lol,) the boss man, quick to show us our own strength.
Doing manual labor with grown Ecuadorian men, as American teenage girls has been interesting. We quickly got used to the work lingo and hearing, “Niña, Niña!” when they needed our attention. There was quite obviously what should have been a disconnect. But, I have first-handedly watched Love Himself bond people who barely understand each other, have gender and age differences, and have different cultures. Here are some ways I saw Him do it.
When you’ve been working and failing, working and failing and they walk up to you and say, “Muy bonito!” even though you know it’s terrible, and likely not even what they asked of you. When you hear them repeating English words so they can better communicate with you, and you just hope they know you’ve been doing the same. When you walk into breakfast to see butter and jelly on the tables, so you KNOW you’re having the bread you’ve all fallen in love with, and the sweet ladies in the kitchen see our faces light up. It’s hiding behind the tractor to jump out and say, “BOO!” for the men to pretend to be startled. When you have to be shown how to do a task again and again, and you know they could get it done so much faster without you there, only to be shown patience and kindness over and over. It’s in the thumbs up and the fist bump after the work day. I know what all of this means. It simply means, “Hey, I care for you. We’re different but not really! I appreciate you, and I’m lucky to have happened to meet you by some crazy chance.” It’s love and it’s Kingdom. I love them in every language, and I know what they mean.
Talk to you soon, Si. <3
