we’ve gone international??

Alrighty, what’s up my friends. I’m back. But this time I’m not sitting in Gainsville, GA at the AIM base or in my bed at home. This time I’m sitting in the upstairs lounge area of Hacienda El Refugio in Calacali, Ecuador. Crazy. And this time I’m also no longer here asking for donations or financial support because I am FULLY FUNDED! That’s right… after over a year of fundraising $15,800 to be on the race, with the help of friends, family, acquaintances, friends of friends, people I’ve met once, people I’ve never met before, I raised the entirety of what I needed to stay on the race and I’ve said several times that that’s mindblowing to me and I mean it is, but the Lord told me day 1 of this whole World Race process that the finances would be provided before my final deadline and I think it’s actually mindblowing that I thought I could doubt Him in that. He is faithful and He is merciful and He provides. If it’s in his will it will be done and that’s just something that we need to remember while living our crazy lives in this broken world.

Anyway, enough about that. I know y’all have probably had enough of the money part of this whole thing so let’s talk about why you’re actually here. Last week we took a flight from Atlanta to Quito to begin the international part of this crazy journey. We arrived at Mabe and Fabi’s (our hosts in Quito) on Wednesday night and got started on what would be a wild week. From the breathtaking views we were woken up to every morning, to learning how to cherish our food by not wasting a speck of anything, to appreciating the true meaning of being in a homey kitchen and washing dishes or just chatting with the people you love to worshiping at the top of your lungs with your squad because you’re so in awe of how the Lord is moving in that household to even saying our goodbyes as the squad split into two different ministries. Let’s pause there for a sec. Yes. Half of my squad is currently 40ish minutes out doing ministry in Dunamis, which my group will eventually switch over to as well. Although I was upset about this for a second. Reality and perspective hit and we realized that what this meant was that we would be able to divide and conquer to accomplish what we came to Ecuador to do, which is exactly what I think the Lord had in mind when He sent us to Ecuador. Wow. Yea, He thinks all that jazz through. He’s pretty cool. 

Our ministry here has looked like a couple of different things but my particular group of 6 has been working on restoring the roof of one of the Hacienda’s main buildings which I have to say, we are incredibly thankful we had Samaritan’s Purse as a pre-rec for this. But what’s pretty cool is that El Refugio is kind of like an Ecuadorian YoungLife camp where they lay a lot of focus on maintaining things like landscaping, views, rocks lying around, among several other things that could potentially distract campers from their experience while being there that could even potentially affect their growing relationship with the Lord. So we’re here to make sure we can do everything we possibly can to maintain a space for those who enter to feel a presence of home and comfort and warmth as they visit El Refugio.

Okay Woah, that was a lot. I’ll leave it here for now and get back to you with another blog hopefully next week. Love you guys a lot and thanks for sticking with me through all of this. See ya later 🙂

-esther