Wow, I cannot believe that I just finished the first month of the race. It has been an incredible month and I have gotten the chance to spend time with some pretty amazing people in Quito. Our ministry this month was pretty awesome and it was very unexpected. We did not just have one ministry site, we had about three different sites and our team would have to break up each day to go to the different sites.
Our first ministry site that we worked with and continued to work with the whole month was Casa Elizabeth, which was in our backyard and up some pretty wicked steps/hill. Casa Elizabeth has four lovely girls ranging from the age of 14-18 and three of them had children (2 month, 8 month, and 1 ½ year old) and the other had a baby on the way. We would go to our site at 12:30 and leave around 8pm and we were helping watch the children when their moms were at school. We also helped with different cleaning and such duties, like moving old roof tiles from one side of the house to the other and down some stairs, cleaning up an area for a garden, painting tires for the garden, doing bible study with the ladies, and most of all some baby loving. When we first got there one of the ladies that help look after the girls was talking to us about the girls and how they had been through some dark places and are still going through it and how she would like for us to do a bible study with them. God definitely had placed a love for the Beauty for Ashes retreat that I did before training camp and I had spoken to Betty, who runs it, about getting the material because I just felt like I may need it for this first month. Man God knows what is up! I was so lucky to run this amazing retreat for these ladies. It was so awesome to spend time getting to know these girls and just cover them with God’s incredible love and show them that He is there no matter what and how much they are worth, just like He has recently shown me and continues to. Then we ended the retreat with washing the girls and the ladies who helped out with running Casa Elizabeth, plus little Miss Brittney (she is the 1 ½ year old). We used my vanilla bean bath and body works wash and I cannot tell you how awesome it was just to kneel before these ladies and just pour out love and blessings on them. I feel like I received so much from these ladies and wish I could have done so much more for them. Saturday we had to say goodbye and we decided to get each of the girls their favorite snack and drink and then write them each an encouraging card, just to let them know how much we loved them and then they started to thank us for helping out and watching the babies. I had to fight back the tears hugging them each goodbye. Seriously one of the hardest things I have done. These ladies will forever have a place in my heart.
Our other ministry was working with Pastor Roberto and it was completely different from what we were doing at Casa Elizabeth. We helped out at his church with painting the kitchen, halls, and staining the cabinets/doors. Also we helped out at the seminary doing all different thing, like sanding 20 benches and coating them, painting, pulling weeds, washing blinds and dishes, drilling holes and putting up stainless steel sheets in the kitchen, and welding scaffolding bracts (which was seriously super awesome and a new favorite hobby). It was awesome to do some hands on work and serve them in that way. I really enjoyed making things and just help out where I was needed.
Qutio, Ecuador was so incredible and I believe that also had a lot to do with our hosts: Mabe, Fabe, Gustavo, Andrea, Patrick, Anna, Catie, and Kylie. They literally spoiled us and just were over flowing with God’s love and wisdom. I cannot tell you how much these people just encouraged me and just made me feel at home. It seriously was so hard to say goodbye to them and I know I left a piece of my heart back at Casa Blanca. God has shown me so much in this first month and I cannot wait to see what He has ahead of me.
