This week we (the summer hosts) have been training as a team, living in a hostal together and visiting the ministry sites where we will be working with teams. The last three days, that has meant an adventure to the oriente, or the jungle region of Ecuador. It’s been a really cool experience for me, especially because I’ve been to most of the places before.
Shandia is alwas fun, and I got to stay in the new hostal there for the first time, in adition to seeing old friends and going down thebbrand new zip line over the river. I also finally got to see the church in Puyo where my buddy Darío grew up. But the site that just blew my mind was La Casa de Fe.
In 2007 I went to CDF for the first time with the team from Christ Episcopal Church. We worked for just a couple of days playing with the kids and taking them to the park, and pulling rocks out of the water and cutting down grass at their new property. At the time, that property was just a patch of grass and a muddy swimming hole, and the director, Patti Sue Arnold, would point out to us the buildings that would some day exist. I just couldn’t imagine it.
Over the course of the last four years, I have returned to CDF in a variety of groups. I’ve seen the orphanage explode from 19 kids to over 60. I’ve seen gringos and Ecuadorians work on construction and programs there. But nothing could have prepared me to come across the dam and look up to see this bright green building poking out of the trees and realizing that this new building was fully functional after all this time.
I knew that they had moved from the old (tiny) site to the multi-use building on the new property. But knowing it in my head and seeing it with my eyes were two totally different things. As we walked around and saw the kids playing or learning with the tias and teachers, my mind was quite simply blown. I told Cameron this morning that I almost couldn’t reconcile the two images in my mind, the functioning orphanage in front of me and the unfinished, unpainted piles of cinderblocks where we camped out in a tent 19 months ago.
I know that the building is the least important thing about CDF. To see the love that the kids receive and all of the opportunities given to them because of Patti Sue is just amazing. But seeing a patch of grass turn into a home over the course of my time coming the Ecuador is just one of those visible reminders of the faithfulness of God and just how much of His work we can see when we stop and look.