Wednesday morning ten Quito Quest interns, two Maestros, three site hosts, five El Refugio interns, four office interns (for lack of a better common denominator), Christy, Laura and the four Jensens left Quito as thirty of the whitest white people who have probably ever been on Fernando’s bus. This evening we showed back up as thirty of the reddrest.
Most of us have browned over a little bit at this point, but Teddy and Lane will probably be their parejas’ examples of why we wear sunscreen in the Republic of the Equator. But other than a few too many UV rays, the five day excursion was just what the doctor ordered.
I find it interesting how much we describe the places and things we do here by what they are not. Partnership orientation gives us just about thirty minutes straight of what we do not want short-term missions to be so as to better explain what we do want. We explain Casa G by what it is not to remove any preconceived notions or misconceptions about what it takes to be there and their goals.
Our time at the beach was not a vacation, though even we described it as such sometimes. Our primary focus was on worship. In fact the only organized anything other than lunch was worship. Matt J. led us in song and prepped us for various individual, partnered, or small-group worship activities each morning. One of the three QQ guitar players (Lane, Teddy, or I) led songs and prayer after dinner and Matt J. gave us a part-sermon-series-part-Bible-study through Luke chapters 12 to 15 (basically where we are in our devotions this week).
We saw God’s Creation. We sang and praised Him together. We prayed individually, for each other, with each other, in groups and as a group.
Something that just boggles my mind the more and more I focus on God is how his plans just come together around me. Jerry and I both found ourselves praying for the same person at home. Five of the six guys in our small prayer group had very similar issues we were working through in preparing for teams again in a couple days, even whether it was on a personal level or with parejas or as far as teams in general. And then my prayer partner this morning was Bryan, and he just seemed to ask exactly the questions to make me honestly say what was on my mind, two particular issues I’ve been working through and praying about this week in particular.
Especially after really wondering before I came here about how much I truly listen to the Lord, I got a lot of the one thing I ask for consistently: to be smacked in the face by God.
I’m ready for our next team to get here (I know all about my team and where we’re going because we are collectively a really nosy, sneaky, gossipy group of interns despite not even getting team packets until tomorrow night). I’m ready to get back to work. But I’m coming back rested in body, mind and spirit. I’m coming back with new friends and maybe a minuscule amount more basketball skill. And I’m coming back ready to continue listening to God and letting him be our true team leader.
