Just a short one today. We spent the afternoon in Guayaquil after working our first day at the school this morning. That is a WHOLE different story and I imagine there will be so much more to tell after tomorrow, besides which I have not had a moment of Quiet Time in 72 hours to process, so you just get our free time right now.
First off, we don’t know of another YW team that has ever been to Guayaquil, so that was pretty sweet. Secondly, Elysaul, Arturo, Rosita, and some others from the Centro Cristian de Babahoyo came with us. Thirdly, Sarah and I were honestly unsure about going to the Maricon, but I am now so thankful the Spoolstras knew about that place. Bonita y perfecto!
It’s this long boardwalk-type area along the Babahoyo river. If you face the water, you’d never know you were in the middle of the down-town of the biggest city in Ecuador. The water isn’t too dissimilar to the Pasquotank (but I may also just be used to the Pasquotank and not realize how gross it looks anymore) and it is extremely wide. We even saw a pirate ship motoring on down (it would have been cooler under full sail… and if it actually had pirates).
Sarah y Rosita got a sketch done, several of the group members shopped, and most of them got to spend some prayer time with their small group. I got to talk to Bryan and to hang out with some of the team for the first time (I’ve been insanely busy, especially with Sarah, Dario and Julie spending all their time translating, plus I was sick the entire bus ride to Babahoyo, so I haven’t been a very social creature lately).
As much as we stress the importance of quiet/prayer time (both because we’re supposed to as Hosts and because it’s way up their on Sarah’s and my personal priorities), I didn’t have any time that I truly made for God while I was there (and I fully understand the theological importance of making rather than finding time for God) and I’m therefore looking forward to having an afternoon completely off tomorrow.
The team is awesome, both as a whole and as 34 individuals, and I’ll just say they’ve nailed Partnership every moment of every day. I’m great, Sarah’s great (I think- I hardly see her during the day) and I can’t imagine on-ground time at a brand new ministry site going any better.
