Day 1,710 - Adventures in Ecuador: Day Cuatro

3/24/24

It’s a few days into my journey and I find myself having a rough time actually keeping track of what day it is. However, today it’s actually clear because it’s Sunday and that means it’s church day! Like each day thus far, I set my alarm to wake up early enough to spend some time reading the Bible. Then, I got dressed and wandered around the camp for a bit.

On this day, I ended up finding myself down by the swimming pool and spent some time sitting on a pool chair and praying for a while. For one thing, I’m totally certain why it was God’s plan for me to be in Ecuador as I’m still feeling like I’m not certain of my place on our team. After all, everyone else seems to have strong connections that they came in with except for me. No worries though as I’m sure things will be clearer at some point, right?

Once done at the pool, I wandered over to the cafeteria to join the rest of our team for breakfast before going to change clothes for church in Manta. After the bus ride, we unloaded and headed into the sanctuary where we were instructed to split into men and women for Sunday School. Now, I don’t want there to be any misconception about my ability to speak Spanish. For one thing, I have little to no ability to do so beyond small talk. Therefore, a Sunday School lesson largely conducted in Spanish was kind of a challenge for me.

Once Sunday School ended, it was time for church. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised but the sanctuary was actually really full. At one point, our entire team, which was spread out all over the room, had to stand up and be recognized. Unfortunately, those of us that don’t speak Spanish had no idea when to sit down so we had to be directed to do so via hand motions. Fortunately, we did receive a break from listening to nothing but Spanish as Matt gave a message over Romans 5:6-11 via the aid of a translator.

Once church ended, we quickly shifted gears and changed into different clothes so that we could prepare for the first day of camp which would be held at the church. Once everything was ready to go, I headed into the sanctuary where I met my group’s co-leaders for the week, Leo, a bilingual 17-year old who has the goal of studying English at the local university, and Wilton, a middle-aged man who either works for the church or just has very deep ties (I could never figure it out for sure).

Over the next hour or so, campers began arriving. At first, I entertained myself by attempting to converse with the kids and learn about them. However, my Spanish eventually ran thin and I resorted to never-ending games of Bottle Flip with the kids.

Once service began, I immediately fell in love with how high-energy it was. The band, which was partially made up of kids from Shekinah, was unbelievably talented considering that they’ve only been playing music for less than five years. After quite a few songs, it was time for groups to break off on their own for a bit. Our blue team headed upstairs to a classroom set aside for us where the kids spent time decorating a team flag. Then, we had a paper airplane folding exercise (side note: I had to ask multiple people how to fold a paper airplane as that is one very noticeable gap in my knowledge base) and a science experiment involving the mixing of what I assume was baking soda and vinegar.

After breakout times, it was back to the sanctuary for one final full-group assembly full of lots of music and dancing. Then, all there was to do was wait for parents to pick kids up for the night. Once the last kid left, it was time to head back to camp for a late dinner.

Once dinner was over, we had free time until 9 when we gathered for a full-staff meeting. During said meeting, Micah led worship again and Andy led a devotional for everyone. After that, our Northland crew split off and spent a little time talking about our experiences so far. However, everything is still new enough that I don’t feel like I have any huge things to contribute to the conversation.

Finally, it was time to head to bed for the night as I know that we have a huge day and week ahead of us starting tomorrow!

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