I have heard and given orientations over and over about short-term missions being so much more than rich, white, North Americans going out to the rest of the world and “taking Jesus” with them. And yet hosting a team, it can still be easy to forget that this type of ministry is just as much to the team members as it is to the population of Ecuador.
It was a really sweet reminder, then, to have one of our team members say during the week that she wanted to be baptized in the river in Shandia, to have three more youth decide that morning that they were ready as well, and to have one of our adult leaders obey Jesus’ command to be baptized as we walked down to the river.
It was also amazing to me to be a small part of that. It’s easy to see how God uses other people in your own faith journey, but I got to have a conversation with one of our guys, who thanked me for what I’d said to him as he walked toward to water to outwardly express his commitment to God. I always used to get annoyed at those people who just wouldn’t take credit for anything and say “that’s not me, it’s all God.” And I laughed at myself in my head as those words came out of my mouth, because I was so surprised that in the span of about five minutes my friend’s attitude and words went from “I’m not there yet,” to “There’s no time like the present.” Yay, God.
