An Ecuadorian Mission Experience

Our last day in Ecuador was a whirlwind! We had a lot to get in before we boarded our flight home at 11:30pm.

We started the day with another fabulous breakfast by Chef Rob, and then we packed the bus. We went over to the market to do some shopping. The market is way cool and a ton of fun. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures because the possibility of cameras being stolen is too high. The market in Quito has everything you can imagine for souvenirs: scarfs, blankets, shirts, jewelry, musical instruments, bags, purses, and much, much more. It is fun to haggle and negotiate, and I think we got some great deals. My favorite purchase was a hammock for 2!

We left the market, grabbed some lunch, and then we visit the Equator (locally known as Mitad del Mundo). It is pretty cool to stand at the middle of the earth. One of the cool things we noticed the night before is that a crescent moon isn't on its side in Ecuador, but appears as a "smile" of sorts. Pretty cool! There are a few different monuments for the Equator. We visited a different one than last year, and it was way cool with a huge monument that makes for great pictures. There were also some other shops and stuff around to check out. We took a really neat group picture as well.

Our final place to visit on our trip was El Refugio, which is a retreat center owned and run by Youth World. It is like Gravatt and Kanuga put together. It is fairly rustic, with some really great features. It is believed to be the only place (and if not the only, then probably the first) in South America to have a high and low ropes course. The high ropes is awesome, and we got to experience the zip line! It is suspended between two mountain sides above a valley. It moves pretty quick, but your ride still lasts nearly 20 seconds. It was awesome. After that we had an hour of quiet time, and they opened up their treehouse to us. It is a really fantastic piece of construction, and offers great views of the landscape. Perfect place for quiet times.

We closed the evening with dinner and the final debrief. Dinner was fireside, and we were treated to cuy (yep, guinea pig), hot dogs, chips, and watermelon. We also had lemonade made from lemons grown onsite and mora (a local fruit juice that is a type of blackberry...soooo good). Taylor entertained us with some great commentary that preceded eating the cuy. All in all, it was a great dinner with lots of laughs and good times...we played music, spit watermelon seeds, and joked around a ton.

Final debrief was pretty moving with lots of thanksgivings and prayers. We talked a lot about this experience bearing fruit, and how that will be different for each of us. We don't want this experience to be a glorified vacation, but to be life changing and formative (and we'll talk more about this in my post-mission blog post which will come next week sometime).

After prayers and goodbyes, we drove to the airport. It felt very surreal to be leaving. When you begin a mission experience like this, the end seems so very far away, and then, all of a sudden, your time on the ground comes to a close. It really sneaks up on you. It was a tough flight home, for many reasons...the seats aren't made for sleeping (we flew a redeye home), they decided to serve breakfast at 1am (go figure!), we really weren't ready to leave, but we were ready to leave, we were still processing the day and the experience, we were just beginning to feel at home, and yet we were ready to be home with loved ones. But that's how it is. Come back next week and hear favorite stories, anecdotes, and learn about bearing fruit.

blessings,
dorian