I am extremely excited to be able to tell you about my team’s ministry month in Ecuador!!
We worked at the sister church of La Luz called La Luz Carapungo. Carapungo is the name of a district in Quito. The first day of ministry, Pastor Efrén and his wife, Monica, gathered us around to introduce ourselves. Then he asked us to share our testimonies.
We all did. I even gave mine in Spanish…well broken Spanish.
Pastor Efrén said he wanted to hear them, because he thinks it’s beautiful to hear the stories of how God made us new. I loved them both already.
Though I was doing manual labor for the fifth month in a row, it was an honor to help the Pastor and his wife. They were the most beautiful Latina family I have had the privilege of meeting. I’m convinced they are secretly superheroes or ninjas. They’re basically The Incredibles of Latin America.
Efrén is the most genuine and joyful pastor I have ever met. He is filled with the fruits of the spirit! He is very patient, joyful, gentle, kind, etc. He is also very warm and welcoming with a great sense of humor. He loves his two children, Renata and Michelle, and his wife Monica very very much. He is also the worship leader of his church, a lawyer, a real estate agent, and practices jiu jitsu or karate. I’m telling ya, ninja. I just know it.
Monica is an incredible woman of God! She is a woman of many talents as well. Definitely a superhero. She was my mom away from home, which I was very thankful for since Mother’s Day was that month. I asked her for advice about life and she gave me very wise responses. I miss her already.
We spent a lot of time with the family outside of ministry. Which was wonderful! They had us over for lunch at their house one Sunday where they taught us how to dance Merengue, Bachata, and Salsa! We went out for dinner where we ate huge and delicious empanadas, and then we bought ice cream! Renata, their younger daughter, had a gymnastics competition, and she invited us to attend that. I felt right at home! I loved being around them!
Picture of me and Pastor Efrén and his wife, Monica eating ice cream! Wonderful people!
I miss them.
Like I said, we were so happy to help at their church. We sanded all of the wood to be varnished. We did a lot of sanding and scraping in order to paint the walls. We painted one wall in the main sanctuary, and then the two children’s rooms, and both the teens and adult meeting rooms as well. We kept busy, but when we weren’t working, we were definitely playing…or eating! The people of the church loved to feed us, and then the pastor and his wife would usually talk to us a lot! Which I loved! I was so thankful to build that relationship with them! My Spanish improved a lot that month.
Pastor Efrén told us that the building we were working in used to be a discoteca, a club. But now it has been transformed into a church. It’s pretty incredible. That is basically what God does with our lives. We once were full of sin, but God changes that. He transforms us into people that He wants to use in order to enhance His kingdom.
And look how the Lord helped us to transform this church into something new, something beautiful:
Picture of one of the kids rooms in the church we painted!
Until the next adventure,
Teej
