Ecuador Mission Trip

Back in May, I joined the very first College Plus missions team on a trip to Ecuador! There were eighteen of us (3 leaders and the rest students.) Our trip was 10 days long, and our primary focus was children’s ministry. I had met a few of the team members at a College Plus gathering last September, but for the most part, we all got to know each other on the actual trip.

One girl flew with me from the very beginning of my trip. We started at the Tulsa airport, met a few students up in Chicago, met a few more in Miami, and finally joined the other half of the team in Quito!

We hit the ground running the next morning. We served at a mega-church in a more affluent area of Quito. Saturday morning we hosted a VBS for about 150 kids. We actually ran two sessions. The night before, we had broken up into 5 teams: two craft teams, two game teams (I was on one of these teams), and a lesson team. The first day went fairly smoothly, although we were all adjusting to being at ~9,000 feet up (plus learning our curriculum.)

Large group time.

The church had catered a lunch for us after we finished (one of the best meals I had in Ecuador!) We went back to the bed-and-breakfast-type place we were staying in and rested for a few hours. Then we returned to the church to help run children’s church (the church is large enough that they have Saturday night services.) That went really well! It was pretty similar to our VBS set up, only our groups were smaller. After that, we went out for dinner at a fairly typical Ecuadorian restaurant. That evening, one of the guys leading our team led us in team devotions. We looked at the life of Abraham and discussed trusting God when we don’t understand what He’s doing. Following that, we spent some time praying as a team and prepping for the next day of ministry. We averaged about 4 hours of sleep every night of the trip. :-P

On Sunday morning, we went back to the church and repeated what we did the night before, four times. Halfway through we ate a delicious snack of empanadas and quimbolitas! After church, they served us lunch there. It was yet another amazing meal!

Afterward, we quickly went back to the house to change and then left to do a little sight-seeing. We went to the downtown area and walked through their national cathedral. It was HUGE! We walked up at least 10 flights of stairs to get to the top, I’m pretty sure. We also had to climb some very frightening, comfort-zone-stretching, ladders/stairs on the side of a tower to get to the spot where I took this picture:

Quito.

We headed down to the square, and the bus picked us up and took us to a nice mall where we had a dinner of pizza and the Ecuadorian version of Starbucks. Our team devotions that night were focused on Jacob. We did some team training and then headed to bed.

On Monday, we left early in the morning for our first day of ministry at a private Christian international school. That was a pretty difficult day because our “translators” barely spoke any more English than the kids did. We had the same VBS activity rotations. Thankfully, teaching games isn’t difficult to do even with a language barrier. The staff at the school served us lunch, and then we hung out a bit while we waited for our bus driver to come and get us. When he arrived, he took us partway up a mountain. We were headed for the top!

We rode several tram cars up to the top. It took nearly 20 minutes for us to ascend up to 13,000+ ft altitude. I felt a little nervous in the car, but the views were absolutely stunning! Once we reached the top, we walked a trail up to one of the higher peaks. Despite how thin the air was, I didn’t find it super difficult to walk. Your chest just feels a little funny, like you’re breathing very shallow breaths.

It was very cold up there! The wind chill probably took it down to the upper 30’s.

Our team! I loved getting to know these people so much.

After our cold trip up the mountain, we bought hot chocolate before riding the tram down. It’s interesting the effect that a lack of oxygen plus sugar can do to a person. ;-P Interesting things were said up there!

That evening we went to a burger/bbq place for dinner. It was a fast-food type of place, but the food was surprisingly good! And the steaks were HUGE. :-| When we got back to Casa del Padre that night, we had a video call with several other College Plus students back in the states. Then we had our team devotions while we were all gathered.

Tuesday we worked with high schoolers at the same private school. It was an unexpected change in our plans; we had come primarily to work with elementary-aged kids. But everyone adjusted really well! The high schoolers knew a lot more English, so it was easier to communicate with them. I enjoyed getting to help lead some more challenging games with my partners that day!

They fed us a light lunch at the school, and then we headed to the market to do some souvenir shopping. We had less than an hour, but I was able to quickly run through and find something nice for everyone in my family! The most unique stall in the market was one selling marijuana, coca, and “cannabis” bags. :-| I promise nobody from our team shopped there! But our leaders just about died of shock when they saw that. :-P

We stopped at a grocery store on our way home so that we could buy snacks for our 5-hour-drive up into the mountains the next day. I was amazed that my friend and I were able to buy a bag of animal crackers, Oreos, and Cokes for less than $4 (we were planning to share.) :-O

For dinner, we went to a place called Crepes and Waffles. It is one of the best restaurants I have EVER eaten at! Apparently it started in Colombia. They only hire single moms, so that they can support their children. So it’s kind of a ministry. I had strawberry juice, and then split a Greek pita and a nutella/banana/strawberry crepe with our female team leader. It was all AMAZING!

That evening we did team devotions, but other than that we were pretty laid back. We had no team prep because the next day was just a travel day. Some of us went outside to take pictures of the city lights. Then we packed up our things in preparation for leaving in the morning.

On Wednesday morning, we dragged all our luggage outside early in the morning to meet the bus driver. But unfortunately, he had a flat tire and was 45 minutes late. :-( Nobody really minded too much. It gave us a chance to wake up more fully. ;-P

For the first full 2.5 hours of the bus ride, five of us had a really in-depth conversation about relationships. It was really encouraging and definitely made the drive go by much quicker!

After about 5 hours, we arrived in Cajabamba! We unpacked our things, and split up into hotel rooms. Then we walked over to a restaurant where we had a simple but good lunch of chicken, rice, and soup. After we finished eating, we drove about an hour further up the mountain to see the church where we would be doing VBS the next day. We hadn’t expected it to be so far away. Plus, we had to hike the last mile up the mountain because the road was too narrow and steep for the bus. The road was covered in black, volcanic dirt and several of us had worn open shoes. Needless to say, we got quite dirty!

Most of the village was away at a livestock auction, but a man was there to show us the church. The few people we did see were wearing the traditional clothing (felt hats, ponchos, wraparound skirts, long dress pants, shawls, etc.) It was tiring to hike all the way up to 11,000+ feet!

For dinner, we went back to the same restaurant as lunch, because it was one of two in the whole town (and both restaurants were owned by the same person and served the same things. :-P) We were served the exact same meal, but this time I was able to have beef instead of chicken.

I was pretty tired that evening, and really enjoyed unwinding with our time in the Word as a team. I stayed up late talking with one of my best friends in her room. Mostly because she had peppermint oil and my stomach wasn’t feeling good. But also because I love talking with her. ;-)

Wednesday morning I woke up fairly early and did my devotions with some of the others. We ate our breakfast and then walked over to a lake. We thought the walk would only take 20 minutes. But at 10,000 feet up, it took us twice as long. :-P But the lake was really pretty and we had fun renting bikes to ride on the trails and playing on the very large playground.

Going back, some of us decided to run/jog (it was all downhill.) It actually felt pretty good . . . until the next morning! The lack of oxygen makes the muscles very sore later on. On our way back, we stopped to buy things to make lunch on the bus. Once everyone made it back to the hotel, we loaded up and headed up the mountain for our afternoon VBS program.

Lunch on the bus was quite the adventure. We hadn’t planned it out real well. One of the team leaders started splitting rolls with a knife while another leader used his knife to cut pieces of cheese off the block for sandwiches. I was assigned the cans of tuna. Luckily they had pull tab tops. But I had to stick my hand out the window to drain all the water out of the cans and then use my fingers to put it on the sandwiches. Needless to say, we made a huge mess! Thankfully we had lots of baby wipes on hand to clean up everything.

Up on the mountain with the entire team plus our translators and bus driver!

(Photo Credit: Rob Bennet)

We only had about 40 kids come, but it was nicer to get to work with smaller groups for a change. They are so excited to have us here! Some of them speak a tribal language, so that was interesting to listen to.

It started raining towards the end of our time up there that day, so we had a really fun, impromptu dance party. One person would lead and then “pass” it on to someone else. It was really fun! It made walking down the mountain in the rain not so bad. :-)

That evening we ate dinner at the hotel which was a nice break from the restaurant. We had team devotions and took turns doing the DISC personality assessment test. Then we split into our different groups (we only had D’s, I’s, and S’s there.) We answered certain questions as a group. It ended up being loud and a little bit stressful, but we all learned a lot about each other!

Thursday started out fairly normal. We left a little early to do some more shopping at a market in Riobamba. This time I bought a poncho and a beret. I was pretty happy with that! :-)

We walked over to a food market. Originally we were just going to get juice, but decided to get lunch there also. It was so delicious! We had a plate with lettuce, fried orange potatoes, an over-easy egg, and a slice of avocado on top. I had coconut juice with mine. Perfect lunch in my opinion!

I was pretty tired by the time we got up the mountain and felt like I needed a good cry. One of the leaders grabbed my arm and literally dragged me and another girl up the mountain because we were so exhausted. When we got to the top, I lost it. Several team members prayed over me and just sat with me, got me water, tissues, etc. I was so grateful for their support!

By the time I pulled it together, everyone had already gone to their stations. My two teammates took over the games and let me sit with some of the little kids and just observe.

It was very noisy during our last group session in the sanctuary. Lots of the parents had come and brought their younger children. When we had finished cleaning everything up, the pastor thanked us for everything we had done for the children and the church. As a thank you, they had prepared lunch for us as well as more of the amazing manzanilla tea! Some of the team went and played Ecuadorian volleyball before we headed back down the mountain.

At the hotel, we ate dinner and slowly congregated for our devotions. Afterwards, I evidently fell asleep on somebody’s bed while everyone was out playing cards in the lobby (we met for devotions every night in the guys large room.) The two team leaders woke me up because they all needed to go to bed. I said I was too tired to get up and they literally started to carry me upstairs before I stopped them. :-P Everyone else was downstairs learning how to salsa and bachata and I wanted to go down there since I was awake again. Apparently my dancing proved that there’s Hispanic blood in me. ;-)

On Friday morning, we had to pack up to leave. :-( Despite all the noise we made during our stay there, the staff was sad to see us go! I think we might have been the first Americans to stay there, and they thought that was really cool!

We had a bit of an accident with the bus at a gas station on the drive home. We accidentally scraped a panel on a concrete support and pulled it partially off. The guys were able to get it back on for the time being and continued driving.

About another hour later, we had to stop because one of the tires had gone flat. Our poor driver was having a rough day! But we enjoyed getting to stop and buy ice cream and also watch the Ecuadorian way of changing a tire.

When we finally made it back to Quito, we had to say goodbye to our translators. ;-( We were so sad! They had truly become a part of our team.

When we arrived at Mitad del Mundo (the monument that marks the equator) a rather rough security guard informed us that the president was coming to speak and no one was allowed inside the park. We were bummed since that was the only chance we had to see it. But then we decided to walk and find the real equator (the monument wasn’t actually built in the right spot. It’s a few degrees off.)

We found it! There was a little museum there and we took lots of pictures.

We caused a minor traffic accident on our way out. :-S It wasn’t exactly our fault . . . but let’s just say that we have never loaded a bus and gotten out of a place so fast! We went back to Crepes and Waffles for dinner because we loved that place so much! We were originally going to go downtown and look around, but our driver needed to rest before getting up early to take us to the airport. So we just went back to Casa del Padre to hang out and debrief. We talked a lot about how much we had grown to love each of our team mates. Yes, it was kind of sappy. ;-P

After that, some team members decided to try and sleep for a few hours, but the majority of us tried to stay up all night. We watched some Disney movies . . . and then some of us (myself included) succumbed to sleep for an hour or less. At 2 a.m., it was time to get up and load the bus. We were all pretty groggy!

Getting out of Quito proved to be fairly easy, and our flight was good. The Miami airport was a nightmare though. I have never had such a terrible experience going through customs! All the officers were very rude that day for some reason. I’ve flown before and know that it’s not always like that, but I felt bad for the team members who were going through customs for the first time!

It was hard to say goodbye to so many team members at that point. ;-( It was like saying goodbye to family! Some of us were flying on to Chicago together, so it was nice not to part ways with everyone all at once. Those of us that flew to Chicago had dinner together at UNO’s pizza. Then it was time to say goodbye yet again. :-( One of the girls and I flew back to Tulsa together and were finally reunited with our families. We were so exhausted after staying up for so long!

I was really challenged physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually on this trip. My sense of adventure increased for sure! The Lord really took me to the end of myself and taught me to rely on Him. Plus, I have a ton of new best friends that I love dearly!