Ecuador 2006 - Part XVII

This trip was, probably, the best I’ve ever been on, while at the same time being the most difficult, physically and emotionally. I learned a lot on this trip about myself and about what the Lord is calling me to. I feel now, more than ever, the call to South America. Suddenly, I find myself thinking about South America not in terms of going for a year and seeing what the Lord says at the end, but thinking of simply going and doing and being until the Lord moves otherwise. He has captivated my heart with South America and the lives of the people there and I can do nothing but go.

I learned a lot on this trip, too, about the power of prayer. The things that I had specifically asked for prayer for were the things I received. My Spanish amazed me. I say that not in a proud way but in the way that the Lord touched my mouth and my brain to speak the language clearly and effectively. Before we left I asked Kitti to pray that I would be able to write everyday and that I would come home with a renewed energy to write. I did write everyday, and on the plane on the way home, realized again how much I love the English language and the depth and beauty of words and what you are reading now is the product of those prayers.

I started writing this, not with the intention of having a 25-page narrative of the trip, but to have something tangible to remind me and my new friends of our time in Ecuador, of this time that I hope changed all of our lives. What I have, now, is more than just twenty-five pages of words. Writing this has forced me to take the time to go back through my journal and, therefore, back through the trip, through everything I experienced and we experienced together. I walked, again, through amazing moments like the resplendence of the waterfall and very low moments of discouragement and frustration. And in retaking that journey, I found again, and maybe for the first time, all of the absolutely incredible things the Lord did to display to us His amazing hand. I hope everyone from our team finds this an accurate description of our trip. It is written from my experience and from my heart.