Here's another update as I move on from one thing to the next in this whirlwind summer. Last week I was blessed to travel to Ecuador with a group of nine people from the church I grew up in. I feel like the trip kind of snuck up on me, but the Lord used it in such a big way! We worked with some longtime missionary friends who live in Guayaquil. The bulk of the trip was a weekend retreat we put on for their youth group. It was so neat to notice and analyze all the similarities and differences between this weekend and the countless D-Nows I've been a part of in the States. Below is a picture of our whole group. The redhead on the front left and the black tank top towards the right were my sweet (and chatty!) roommates.
I absolutely loved being able to translate (however poorly) and understand all sides of the conversations. I'm ready for Phonetics and Syntax in the fall like never before! I think a short term relational trip was more of a challenge for most of us. It's so easy to go and paint and build without getting outside your comfort zone or without being intentional. (Not that those things are bad at all, but I know the Lord taught us so much through a different kind of ministry.) One day at the retreat a few of us went exploring in the Ecuadorian jungle. It was incredible. Bethany and I braved it in dresses and chacos.
When we got back to the city, the Tates showed us around. Who knew so many iguanas could live in a little city square?
While all these things were wonderful, there was one thing that jumped out at me more than all the rest combined. On Monday morning we visited Caty's crisis pregnancy center in the city. For those of you who don't know, my two majors are Spanish and Human Development and Family Studies. When people hear that they always get a confused face and ask, "What in the world are you going to do with that?" For some unknown reason I have been telling people for about the last nine months that I want to work with crisis pregnancy. As I went on this trip I prayed that the Lord would continue to reveal to me whether or not this might be something he is laying on my heart for the future. And that he did. I will post more about this later, because I don't want to go off on a super long and spirited tangent at the end of an already too long blog. But, I'll leave you with some food for thought: 41.5 million abortions occur each year world wide. 2500 life-giving pregnancy centers serve the United States, where 1.5 million of these occur. The rest of the world (that's right, 40 millions abortions each year) have only 600 centers that provide women with alternatives to abortion and share the Gospel. Those numbers are staggering. What a unique mission field abortion creates. Keep praying for those who faithfully share the Gospel and minister to hurting women in a wholistic fashion. My next post will be from lovely Tyler, Texas as I move to the Shores on Friday!
