Day 4 (2016)

I don't think I've ever had such an eventful Tuesday.
Starting today, we had an amazing breakfast at 8:00 (woo! sleeping in!!). We then made our way to Buen Pastor as I gave my morning devotion quoting John 13:15. Arriving at the church, second home by now, we had our opening morning devotion lead by Mother Abi and Caroline. We sang, prayed, and said good morning to all our friends before getting on the bus, leaving Holly and Abi behind to watch over Juan Carlos' family and help out.
As we traveled up the mountain, the Ecuadorian youth from the church all joined us and made the trip quite entertaining. Our first stop was at a compound that looked similar to a small farm in a rural village. The lady that Group 1 stayed to help was a blind woman living on her own in the compound, with others to help, of course. Though, with her condition, her apartment had become a lot for her to keep track of. So, Neil, Marian, Jen, and 2 Ecuadorians helped clear out her entire apartment except for the bed frame and a bookcase and repainted all the walls. They left her with some food, clothes, and cleaned things up before heading out.
Group 2 traveled to an apartment where they met an older woman who had problems breathing. She lived in a 2 room apartment with her son who had ligament issues and needed crutches to walk. Maggie, Caroline, and a few of the Ecuadorians helped clean her apartment and make her feel more comfortable.
Group 3 went to an open building with many rooms to help a woman clean up her surroundings. She was not very old, but had leg issues and had half of one missing and a crippled hand on one side. She lived there with her landlord, who helped us clean and made us ice pops from local fruit juices, and her son/grandson (not sure which he was). Her house was open and had many rooms, but most either didn't have doors, or had locked doors. Jacob, Collins, Sarah, a group of Ecuadorians, and I cleared out her kitchen, re-dressed her entire bedroom, washed clothes, and cleaned the roof-top space. There were so many stray dogs hanging around, one with a litter of 6 puppies, and a family of chickens and a rooster. The whole time we were there, the woman could only crawl around on the ground, until we put her in a wheel chair where she brushed her hair. The fact that that was what she wanted to brush her hair and look her best, even though we were basically the cleaning crew, and wanted to give us her best, showed a lot for me and the members of our team.
Group 3, consisting of Tracie, Julia (said with Spanish accent), and Fraleigh, traveled around helping people, looking into their medical issues, and doing as much as they can to help without prescriptions. The group came back after VBS and Fraleigh had the biggest smile on her face I had seen all week.
As we all arrived back to the church for VBS, we ate lunch and group 4 departed again for outreach work. The theme of VBS for today was the sower and the seed, so the games were all based around that like 4 corners, bean bag toss, and such. During that time I  got to know one of the church leaders, Cesar, and he told me his story. It was just so personal about how he found god in his life and somewhat funny because his english isn't perfect.
After VBS, and when group 4 joined us, we began the Youth Service where Abi gave a talk about the important things in life and made us write down things on rocks we love or hate and want to give back to god and made an alter with them in the front of the church.
In the second part of the service, Jeffery, the guitar player/singer, gave us his life story, where I cried a little. We then all got into prayer circles in the church and the adults prayed around the youth. Julia, Fraleigh, Maggie, Holly and I all cried and prayed for Juan Carlos and made him cry, too.
When the service came to a beautiful, musical end,  we ate dinner at the 'longest table in the world' inside the church, where I, again, ate people's food they didn't want and in return they would drink my soda's.
Afterwards, we all took pictures, and I personally thanked Jefferson for his time and story. I see him every day with a smile on his face, and that alone is an example of God's wonderful mystery in this world.
On the ride home from the church, I wrote a draft of this blog post.
I experienced love and harsh reality all in one today, and if I could do anything differently today, I wouldn't. Seeing the smiles of the youth and the people we helped is such a stunning moment.
Peace,
Melissa Sims