Reflections

We have been in Ecuador for a month now. To be honest, returning to Cuenca is a little bit like returning home. It has been a place of immense healing, rest, and stretching. We went back to the United States only because the Lord made it abundantly clear that it was our next step. I think if we could have, we would have spent many more years here.

Coming back on mission has been different though. It has been beautiful to be able to speak the language more and to reconnect with friends but it also has become a place of faith that I didn't anticipate. Often on missions trips you go somewhere new, meet some people, are often changed then return to life as normal surrounded by people you have always known. But coming to do missions work in a place that is basically home kind of just feels like every day life. You know these people. Every day you could run into them again. It is likely you will return and they will still be here. You are able to build relationships and connections that can continue for a lifetime. This mission is high stakes.

As we prepared for this trip, we had received zero support three weeks before our flight. All we could do was pray and trust. We shared our mission with our church and our community one last time and within those three weeks we were fully funded plus some money I didn't know we needed at the time.

That was only the first miracle.

As our time here has reached a month, I am constantly in awe of the work the Lord is doing here. On day 4 of being here we were invited to the house of some old friends. It turned out they had started the first Salvation Army in Cuenca. They invited me to speak at a women's discipleship group and to come support women's mental health during their medical brigade.

A week later I went to a grief event put on by my friend who works for Hope Family Care. This organization is so near and dear to my heart. They have walked with me through my own grief and loss and it was beautiful to see how many other lives they have been able to support. While at the event, I was able to connect with a leader in a local church who shares a vision for connection and restoration like we do. We also got to attend their church and begin the process of building relationships there.

That same church is part of a network of churches here in Ecuador. Their partner church in Quito works with a home for vulnerable women and children that I will get the opportunity to visit and support later on this month.

This week I have two medical brigades, and a meeting to help support a local ministry called Liberi America.

We came on this trip with one meeting set and a prayer for the Lord to direct our path. I have been blown away time and again by the opportunities, the lessons, and the relationships that have come from our time here. I am reminded again and again that He is faithful, he restores and He is doing a good work.