Today was by far the best day of the experience so far. When it started out I expected it to be much worse. Today was preceded by a day of sickness not to mention Derek’s warning of how the exhaustion usually makes the 6th day of the trip the hardest.
However the day quickly turned around. Derek gave us the challenge to sit next to different people than usual and the team immediately took it on when we got on the bus. On the bus ride out into the jungle, we sang worship songs mostly to practice for what we would be performing at the church service later that night. The happiness and the fun totally set the tone for the rest of the day.
Our experience began with us having to get out of the bus and walk across this magnificent bridge that spanned the most beautiful river I’ve ever seen. Then we got on another bus which navigated the most windy, muddy road I’ve ever seen and included a point were we literally had to drive through a large stream.
This whole driving experience brought us to a tiny little Shar village in the middle of the Ecuadorian jungle where a church was to be built.
(Derek Side note: The shar people are an indigenous people that the pastor in Puyo has been ministering to for the last 7 years. This was the first time he let anyone beside himself go to this village. On the way out there Dario told me that this village hasn’t seen white people for over 50 years when the last biblical translators left that village. We met one of the head guys in the village who was a believer that was a young boy 50 years ago when the last missionary left their village and he waited 43 years for God’s Word to come back to him. It was a great honor for them to let our group go.)
For the first half of the day we all took part in some aspect of the construction putting up walls to the church. (sanding, painting, moving wood and nailing up boards on the wall) Despite having bodies drained of energy everyone worked very hard and diligently. Some of the ground even got to experience the true wildlife of the Ecuadorian jungle (Giant cockroaches the size of which none of us has seen).
After lunch a small group of us went off to lead a VBS for the village kids. Most of the kids were very shy (first time seeing white people) and nervous. Despite our attempts at affection such as the gifts of friendship bracelets we had made on the plane ride to Ecuador they slowly began to open up to us. We read and acted out the story of David and Goliath for them. We played games like duck-duck-grey duck and little red riding hood and san worship songs with them. All of this managed to break the language and culture barrier and by VBS we were walking back to the construction site with the kids literally clinging to us.
We had a small amount of time to play with the kids after VBS, and we managed to make small conversations with them but the true love was felt with the smiles and laughter. The hardest part of the day by far was leaving the kids.
After we trekked back through the jungle we had a “traditional Ecuadorian meal” as Derek told us which turned out to be pizza (It was fun listening to the youth guess at what they were going to have to eat and several were relieved to see pizza’s). We ate 14 pizza’s as a group and then went to youth group at the church. It was there that we performed our two songs and it was great to see the people joining in with our Spanish singing, or lack there of. (Kara Hayden also gave a great testimony of God’s healing of her dad) We played more games, heard a moving sermon from one of the local pastors, and got time to attempt to converse with the youth group members of the church.
The bus ride back to the hostel and our de-brief were both filled with laughter and emotion, which was a perfect topping to a wonderful day. And as if a sign from God during prayer on the sheltered roof of the hostel, rain began to poor down from the heavens: A sign of His wonderfulness. Though this technically didn’t happen on my journal day, the group sang Happy Birthday” at midnight and was one of the most meaningful things anyone has ever done for me. I’m so glad to be a part of this group.
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