Bummed but Blessed:
Illuman Ecuador has got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth! Our location, half way up a volcanic mountain, is absolutely gorgeous! We have a breathtaking landscape below and an amazing summit above! PS: I can not wait to hike up that volcano!!!! We actually are situated in-between 2 volcanoes, so the options are endless :).
The community and lifestyle here makes me feel like I’ve gone back in time a few hundred years!
To be honest I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be living off the grid somewhere deep in the jungle this month. We were told that our location would give us the easiest transition into WR life. But when we got here it was more primitive then I expected.
My team and I are all sleeping in one smallish cement room. We have running water, and toilets, and soon our shower will be hooked up. We truly have it easy here, according to WR standards. We’re cooking our own food, which I must say, although simple (sticking to our $4 a day budget) our meals have been quite good.
Today we also got an authentic Ecuadorian meal: beef stew with potatoes, and Chicken with reddish sauce and potatoes over rice. The chicken, rice and potatoes were delicioso, but the puppy dog got my beef. I did it slyly though so as not to offend. But I couldn’t chew the tough stuff and kept crunching on a bone.
I was bummed the second half of the day today. Please pray for my team and I, we are really feeling the spiritual war fare and the weight of depression the devil is bringing on us.
The language barrier has been getting to me! I want to be out sharing Jesus with everyone I meet, and here I can barley even ask a persona “how are you”? I didn’t feel like we were doing much of anything to help our hosts and thought they must be wondering why these gringos even came! But tonight during team time Kyle and Kelly really brightened my spirits by speaking the truth into us all. We’ve been playing with the little kids, who absolutely love us and wont give us any break but knock on our door almost constantly when we escape to our room. lol, I love the kids and enjoy playing with them, but we NEED our siesta!
These kids are mostly children who come from bad homes and do not know the love of good parents or the Love of Jesus. Even though we can not communicate verbally we can show by our actions, our smiles and our hugs, that we love them. In so doing we are planting seeds and opening doors for them and their parents to check out the church here, and question what brings us kind folks to their town. I hope and pray that questioning will lead them to the cross!
Kyle also informed us that our contacts here are absolutely over joyed to have us and love the fact that believers from across the ocean have come to help them and fellowship with them.
So yes, ministry this month may look much different then I would have originally liked. We do not have a translator. Steph knows a bit of spanish, and we have a church woman who speaks decent english. But communication is limited. I believe God will be working on all of our patience this month, and He will be helping, me in particular, develop other spiritual gifts besides evangelism (in the verbal way). Who knows what all God has in store for us all this month. I’m open to whatever, and can’t wait to walk out in faith in this land where my normal is unknown.
I have been handing out spanish tracks to those I am able to meet, and I gave a spanish good and evil Bible to my friend Aura that I met on the bus.
Please be praying that the spiritual heaviness will be lifted off of my team and that we will be wise and creative in the way we minister this month and find opportunities to serve. We are the first world race team to ever come to this small town in Ecuador. So we are paving the way for future racers.
Tomorrow we start construction work on the church (which is our main project this month) and we will also be helping out with VBS, and teaching english.
