3/25/24
I feel like in any mission trip, a person inevitably meets
those days that are full of struggles. For me, today was one of those. I woke
up at 6:00 am with an agonizingly sore throat. If I had to guess, it’s probably
due to extreme temperature shifts between the sweltering heat outdoors and the
intense A/C indoors. Regardless, I couldn’t let a sore throat get me down so I
took a quick shower to get myself going and headed to breakfast.
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| Just a tree. A really pretty tree. |
Once I finished eating breakfast (which was actually quite a
struggle), I headed to the auditorium to wait for my team to arrive. Before long,
buses began to arrive carrying the campers and teams congregated together
outside the building until the day officially began. Now, our days at camp are
actually more than a little long. They are an intense nine hours of VBS-like
activities. I don’t care who you are; that’s a really long day. The day begins
and ends with large group assemblies in the auditorium but the remainder of the
day is spent rotating through the following stations: Rhythm practice
(Boomwhackers), swimming, a Bible lesson, recreation, recorder practice, music
and dance, and art.
If I’m being completely honest, nine hours of VBS makes for
a fun but exhausting day. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. I don’t
know that I’ve ever felt as loved by a group of people as I do these campers.
My blonde hair makes me a bit of a novelty so I don’t think that I have ever
had my head touched as much in one day as I did today.
Once our session ended and the last of our teams departed,
we had free time until dinner at 6 pm. Since it had been several days since I
had been able to talk to Bethany and the kids, I borrowed Micah’s phone and called
home. Even though it was a relatively short conversation, that call was exactly
what I needed to lift my spirits. I had seriously underestimated just how difficult
ten days away from home would be. After all, the last time I had been on a
mission trip was nearly ten years ago and there was no Ellie and Ethan in the
picture.
After dinner ended, it was time for our leaders’ meeting
where Leslie provided a devotional, followed by our Northland breakout. At this
point of the evening, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t exhausted. In fact, the
call of my bed was almost too much to resist. However, I decided I needed to
make the most of my evening so I wandered to the hammocks where I spent time
watching our Ecuadorian friends play soccer at the turf field.
While laying there in my hammock, I felt an unmistakable
push to go be social and make friends with some Ecuadorians. With that, I
wandered a little further down the path and struck up a conversation with five of
my new friends who were hanging out by a series of porch swings. As I stood
there talking with Rebecca, Gabi, Salma, Aldo, and Breisa, I found myself
forgetting how tired I was and instead just having a good time. By the time our
convo was finished, we had spent nearly an hour talking about our families,
favorite foods, jobs, and school. If I’m being honest, this conversation was
actually my favorite moment of our trip thus far and that’s not just because I
learned that all of my Ecuadorian friends believed that I was only 25. Don’t
worry, I told them the truth about my age to which they responded, “Imposible!”
#DaddyWrite
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