Relevant Mission

 

Reflection on St. John's mission in Ecuador

By Beaumont Smith, EYC Member

Continued from front page

It was anything but routine though. This year we got away from the chilly mountains in Quito and traveled down to the coast. I remember our hosts warning us about the humidity, but I blew it off thinking that nothing can be worse than South Carolina humidity. Oh was I wrong though. I remember stepping off that bus and just being engulfed by it. I don't think I had felt anything like it before.

While we were in the coast, along with the humidity we worked a lot with kids. From ages 2 to 11. We would play games with them and then we would do VBS type stuff. They were the most precious little kids and they were so much fun to play with. I remember that each time we would pull up to the pastor's house that we were working with, the kids would just come running and would stand around the walk way and just smile and wave at us. They were so excited that we were there! And I couldn't help but think that if we were in America, this would never happen.

I saw Christ in them. They were welcoming and loving to complete strangers and all they wanted to do was to be our friend. They didn't care that we had a different skin color; that we didn't speak their language; and that they had never seen us before, they still loved us. Our time in Atacames was amazing but I can't lie and say I wasn't excited to go back to Quito. Quito wasn't foreign territory to me anymore, so it was nice to go back to a colder and more familiar place.

While we were in Quito, we worked with a church that our host from 2010 was the youth minister at. It was really nice to see someone in a foreign country that you knew, and I was glad to see him again. We worked with his youth group doing activities, doing VBS at their sister school, and then painting one of their church buildings. When we went to go do VBS at their sister school we all loaded up on our tour bus to head up there. So there was our group, the youth group that was roughly the same size, and multiple adults piled on to this too small bus. We were told not to sit next to each other so we could meet the Ecuadorian youth and get to know them. We were all hesitant at first but that bus ride was some of the most fun I have ever had, and one of my favorite experiences from Ecuador. In all my years, I had never had more than a 5 minute conversation with an Ecuadorian and thus has never made friends with one. But after that bus ride, and the following days I had made true friends with a few of them. They were once again, a group that had opened their church and their arms to us. They befriended us when they didn't have to, and they were a group of kids that loved God more than anything I had ever seen before. I feel so blessed that I was able to meet such an amazing group of people, who clearly have God's light shining through them, and I hope one day to go back and be able to see them all again.

My time in Ecuador has changed my life and has strengthened my faith. I can only hope that one day I will go back for a much longer time period than a week, and do so much for the country and the people who have done so much for me.