Guinea Pig Tastes Like Chicken.

Ok, ok, I’m super tired right now, but I feel like if I don’t do this today, it’ll never happen. So, sorry for incoherency. Lots of things have happened since I’ve last posted, but I posted the Living and Learning blog to try and keep you updated, plus my statuses and pictures and stuff. 

Anyway, I guess I’ll start with the Changing of the Guards. That was a super fun time where we went to the Presidential Palace and we got to see a big Ecuadorian event (though apparently they do this every Monday…) but there were still a decent amount of people there, there was a protest going on, and we got to see the Ecuadorian President! And can’t forget the part where he waves at us!

The rest of the week I started classes (and continued with Spanish and Ecuador 250). Spanish has been really intensive and really challenging. Though I did get a 95 on my second Spanish test which I was really happy about! Though, as far as production, I still need a lot of work! Everyone in my Spanish class is really great, they’re very encouraging and hard workers so it definitely makes the class much more bearable! I started my Spiritual Formation class on Tuesday, bright and early at 8am! I feel like this class is going to be extremely challenging for me, but at the same time, extremely good for me. Lately, I have been struggling with setting aside quiet time for God. As you all know, I love being around people, I love doing activities and constantly being on the go. So, sadly, quiet time with God has not been on my priority list lately and I feel like that has really taken a toll on my spiritual growth. Actually, I know it has. This class will really help me to intentionally set aside time for God to read the Bible and pray and to really grow in my spiritual life, so I’m pretty excited.

One thing I love about being here is the community. Every Tuesday the girls have community dinner, then on Wednesdays, we have dinner and chapel together with everyone and then on Fridays we have community dinners with the guys. The guys actually cooked for all of us this past Friday and it was AMAZING. Homemade tortillas, chicken and veggies, guacamole, salsa… I know I’m forgetting more! And desert, oh my goodness, it was so great. The girls have done an amazing job at cooking too, seriously, community dinners are just great. But aside from the food, I love spending time with this group. All of them have such an awesome passion for God and for supporting each other and I think this group is so rare in the fact that we all literally get along with each other. So much fun. We also love to go to coffee shops. I have been exploring some new things! (But still very sweet things, sorry Tim, not there yet…) I love just going to coffee shops and watching the culture around me. It’s just so interesting!

The Spanish churches here are awesome as well. I love the Spanish worship, they are so passionate through their singing and dancing and just through the way they speak. But since it was so hard for me to understand the message, I decided to try out the English Speaking Church this week. I don’t know if I’ll end up going back, but I liked it ok. I made friends, though, which was great! A few of us ended up going out to lunch with two girls, and Jasmyn and I have a coffee date with another girl. They are here with other study abroad programs, but we’re all working on Spanish so it’ll be nice to have other girls to study and hang out with! Pretty excited. 

Today, we went to a place called El Refugio. It was absolutely awesome! Despite the fact that we had to get up super early in the morning, it was totally worth it. It’s a beautiful place filled with so much nature, so we started the morning with a “nice” hike up a mountain. After that, we did a few team games where we really focused on trust and communication. This followed in to our low ropes course game where we had to get everyone across just using three boards and some logs sticking up out the ground. Sadly, we didn’t accomplish this because we were on limited time and we had a few obstacles because of certain rules…  there was also another game where there was a net set  up kinda like a giant spider web and we had to get everyone through a different hole! It’s a little hard to explain, but I’m sure it’ll be posted somewhere and I’ll share it with you. We did complete it! From there we went to the high ropes course which was a completely different experience for me! I teamed up with Mckenzie, we got in our harnesses and took off! We had to walk across a tight rope, then we had to walk across another tight rope by holding on to each other’s shoulders (keep in mind, when you look down, you are SUPER far off of the ground on top of trees and stuff!) THEN we had to go through this course where there are hanging, swinging triangles and you have to get across like ten of them. This was extremely difficult. Mckenzie and I both fell, so instead of walking across all of them we kinda were sitting… and by the time we go to the end, we were EXHAUSETD. So, to get up, we had to pull ourselves back up onto this cord but our upper body strength was so spent it took a little while to get up… or… a long while… but hey, we made it!! A few tears and hugs later, I was back on the ground… but not for long! I teamed up with Drew to go on two more courses, one where you literally had to jump from board to board… which was pretty scary, especially because it was raining which made the boards slippery! But hey, we made a pretty good team if I do say so myself. I felt pretty beastly by the end. But after we were all done we were greeted back with some hot drinks, potato pancakes, steak, coleslaw, watermelon, lemonade and… dare I say it… guinea pig. It actually wasn’t that bad! I mean, as long as you don’t look at the head… that still looks like the animal… and I don’t recommend watching Drew pull the tongue out for Kim to eat ever again.

I am so excited to be a part of this team this semester. If I learned anything from today, it’s that I have the most supportive and encouraging team ever. Even though we have some natural born leaders, and some really competitive people, while others are natural followers and extremely non-competitive we all respect and admire each other’s given gifts and instead of fighting against them we work together. I appreciate that about this team so much. It’s just crazy to think that God chose each and every one of us out of the whole United States (and Canada!) and put us here together and we all work so well together. It’s a very rare thing. Our unity as a group is amazing, seeing that we’ve only been here three weeks!

It seems so long, yet it seems so short. It’s crazy to think about all the exciting opportunities coming up such as going to the jungle, moving to our homestays and starting our internships soon! Prayer is definitely appreciated!

God has just been teaching me so much about community as well as myself. I have been constantly reminded about my identity in Christ and about my worth and value of being a daughter of God. I have struggled with that in the past, thinking that I’m not good enough and sometimes feel like giving up because I’m tired of disappointing Him. But I have been so blessed to be reminded over and over again that my value does not come from the things that I do, it comes with my satisfaction in Christ. I will never understand His love, but that’s the great thing about it. His love is just so incomprehensible, it is so indescribable and that’s what makes it so wonderful.

I have already had my life impacted so much and it isn’t even close to being over! I just can’t explain how excited I am to grow closer to this team and to grow closer to my Loving Savior.

Orientation

Orientation

The waiting is over! As you all know, I left for Ecuador on Tuesday. It was a long plane ride, but I got to meet one of the girls on the layover which was great and calmed my nerves! But sadly, the entertainment system didn’t work until half the plane ride was over but I got to watch “The Lucky One” and some Phineas and Ferb to waste the time. 

Anyway, we got the airport and got through immigration very easily, met up with our leader and drove to the apartment! The apartment is in the nicer part of the city, close to the airport. I got to meet some of the girls that night before unpacking and getting to bed.

The girls here are amazing. They all have an incredible passion for the Lord as well as an incredible passion to have fun! Orientation was so much fun with them. The guys are awesome as well. There are only two guys, and nine girls. The guys are hilarious but know how to be gentleman and I can’t wait to get to know everyone more!

I’m still pretty nervous about getting around the city, but I’m getting more comfortable as we walk around. We walk a lot! The "trole" is also an important part of getting around and it’s only twenty-five cents to go as long as you want! Taxis are pretty cheap to which we use to get around at night and it mostly costs between 1 and 5 dollars! I just have to start paying attention more and keep up my motivation to learn the language. I’m super excited to see what God has in store for me this semester!

Trolleys are absolutely crazy. You literally are smashed. Like, you can’t fall because you’re completely surrounded by people. You have to smash yourself inside or you’ll be left behind. We also have to keep an eye out for pick pocketers… Mackenzie already got her camera swiped! But yes, we took the trolley to Old Quito, which was so cool. There were mimes walking around and we had delicious empanados and giant hot chocolate that we all shared.

Being here has really shown me that learning the culture isn’t as important for me, as it is for them. Learning the language and their culture show them that you care. That’s how you show them love and that’s how they become comfortable to accept it. Jesus came down and became like us to show us His love. That’s what being here is about. Learning to be like them so that I can show them love to the best of my ability.

Anyway, I’m going to be all over the place… we went on a scavenger hunt to go all around the city which was amazing! It was the perfect day to see some sights in Quito. I was on a team with Aimee and Chris and had so much fun! It was really funny because both of them are super competitive unlike me, but I loved it! We got to explore Old Quito and we went to the Plaza Grande where we grabbed some French fries and took a picture in front of the Presidential Palace which is beautiful! We also went to the Basilica which is absolutely amazing and totally worth the awful stair climb to get to the top! We were able to explore neat places that we could eat or go shopping.

I absolutely love this beautiful city, though the altitude is still getting some used to! Being 10,000 up makes it kinda hard to breathe sometimes! There’s a lot still to learn but I feel like I know how to get money out, get to the grocery store, and get around… as long as I’m with other people I’m ok! I feel like I’ll appreciate the city even more when I learn the language! Right now, I’m just lifting up my fears to God and really praying that I will not lose my motivation to learn the language and the culture so I can truly love these people to the best of my ability.

Going to the equator was AWESOME as well. We got to do all kinds of cool things like balance an egg on a nail, and try to walk on the equator line. We learned all kinds of things about the tribes that used to live there and traditions… it was a pretty cool place. We also went zip-lining which was SWEET. There were about thirteen zip-lines over the mountains with trees and it was breath-taking. Literally. For dinner, we went to the amazing place with the most wonderful view of the city at night. There was delicious food (I had hot chocolate with cheese in it!!) and there was live music which was so much fun because we got to dance! The guys even got dressed up!

Finally, today, we were able to choose a church to go to, so a bunch of us decided to go to the Spanish speaking church. That was really difficult. I couldn’t understand anything that was said, but luckily, there were slides that I could read so that I could get the gist of the message. It was about the silence of God. Why is He silent and how do you deal with it? I met nice people, but I may try the English speaking church next week. I feel like church is a time to grow spiritually and trying to understand the language takes away from that. My friend Jasmyn mentioned that there’s just something about having the Word of God spoken in your native tongue that makes it special. I think there’s truth to that. I still may try another Spanish speaking church, but I think I need to wait until I can understand it more.

Also, today was milestone moment. I went grocery shopping for myself for the first time ever. I made a grocery list and everything. It was pretty legit. I’m excited. I still can’t really cook, so I just bought like chicken nuggets and pasta and lunchmeat and stuff, but hey, baby steps!

Anyway, continue praying for me when you think of it. Living in a community like this is AWESOME right now, but I don’t think I’ve hit the “culture shock” part yet. So, just pray that I’ll handle it well when it comes. Also, we start classes tomorrow… three hour Spanish class! I really want to get rid of all my selfish desires and lay down everything before God. I have such a desire to love these people and I know I can’t do it alone. I need God. I want Him to use me. I want the  joy of the Lord to be so clear to these people.

I’m having so much fun here so far, but my purpose here is to be a follower of God. To learn all I can and try to make a difference. Whether I see any results, or if I’m just planting seeds, whether it’s for the people here in Ecuador or even the people on my team, I need to put aside any sign of selfishness and learn to love with all my being. After all, love is the greatest commandment. It’s time to put that in motion.

Freak Out.

So, as most of you know, I am getting ready to study abroad in Ecuador. September to December. In a different country. That doesn't speak my language. I've been excited up until this day... as the realization of the closeness of the change comes to mind. I am going through what they call a "freak out." I can't do this. I'm not going to learn the language. I'm not going to have friends. I'm going to get lost. I'm going to get sick. I'm going to struggle in my classes. I'm not going to do well at my internship. Something is going to go wrong. I'm going to miss my family and friends too much... The list goes on and on. But at the same time, I am so excited I don't even know what to do with myself. I'm going to experience a brand new culture and I am going to have the experience of a lifetime. How am I possibly supposed to prepare for this when I don't even know how to feel?

First off, I had to give myself a heart check. This trip is not just a trip where I will be studying and learning. I will be challenged and I will be serving. Not only will I be learning about missions, but we are actually going to be serving these people. We will be going on missions trips and helping with children... and we will be serving these people with ourselves. Everything we do will be a ministry. People will be watching us and they know who we are representing. And that's when I realized I needed a serious attitude check. I have been extremely selfish these past few weeks. (And actually, probably way longer than that...) I have been inwardly angry and confused at God for not providing for me. Like, WHAT?! I am now angry and confused at myself for having an attitude like this against God. How dare I. How dare I?! How dare I tell God that He is not providing for me, when I am blessed with wonderful family and friends, when I live in America with freedom, where I am never hungry or thirsty, where I am privileged to be going to a University that gives me a wonderful education, where I was blessed to be able to travel to Israel this summer and I now have the opportunity to spend an entire semester in Ecuador.

And I say He's not providing for me. Because I have some financial issues. Which is mostly my fault because I suck at saving money.

I am shocked at myself because I questioned what God's plan for my life is. I questioned whether I want to go into ministry. And you know, I still don't know exactly what God's plan for my life is. I'm still not sure whether He's calling me into ministry or if He has something else in mind. But I have no right to say that He's not providing for me because He didn't make me rich. That's not what following Him is about. Following God doesn't solve your problems. You don't get whatever you want just because you asked for it "in His name." You know, I had this vision of myself going to South Africa next summer for a Trans World Radio internship, but it probably won't happen because of financial reasons, BUT what it comes down to is, why did I want that internship? Did I want that internship because I wanted to be part of a ministry that served God? Or did I want that internship because I selfishly wanted to travel to a cool place and work at something awesome because I liked it for myself. When I really honestly and brutally think about it, it was probably the latter. I want to serve Him, not myself, and sometimes that means not doing everything I want, but doing what God wants. And when it's all said and done, what God wants me to do always ends up so much better and is always so much more rewarding.

God has provided so much for me in my life. And though I am nervous about spending an entire semester in Ecuador with people I don't know, I couldn't be more excited. Because I know that if I keep trusting in my Provider, He will lead me.

Who knows what will happen this semester. But I couldn't be happier to share yet another experience with you through this blog. I know God will be working in me and through me once again and He will be the one to overtake the selfish desires within me. In my life I only want to serve Him and share His love with the world. And when I do that, the desires of my life will be fulfilled.