When I woke up and went outside it was beautiful. Since we arrived late last night nothing was visible. There are banana trees and llamas! LLAMAS! The two youngest ones are called Panchita and Pedro, but I’m not sure what the other ones are called. We had a delicious breakfast of mora juice and orejitas. From there we went to an orientation meeting to learn more about International Teams, Youth World, and El Refugio (where we were staying). El Refugio is an outdoor adventure camp meant to disciple and train leaders to bring them to a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. We met missionary Paul and his family. He has a wife Beth and two kids (JackJack-3 and Carly-1). Anna is another person we met who is an intern at El Refugio for a year. After meeting some of the staff there we started to do some team building exercises as led by Anna. We played games like Me Toca (My Turn), Alaskan Baseball, and Get Out of My Town.
As we all sat down after these tiring, fun games Anna told us about what El Refugio calls the “Full Value Contract” and the four points that go with it.
- Give 110%.
Just giving 100% isn’t really enough. You can give 100% at something you are already good at. The extra 10% is stretching yourself to attempt beyond the best. It can make a huge difference.
-Challenge by Choice
If you are being challenged without ‘consent’ then you aren’t going to accept anything you could learn from it. If you choose to go outside of you comfort zone with a willing heart and attitude then you can receive valuable lessons. As you choose challenges more and more your comfort zone becomes bigger and bigger.
-Be Here Now
When doing missionary work, or even work in general, it is really important to be focused on the work at hand. If your mind is wandering and you are worrying about unrelated things you’d miss out on so much and so would the people with you.
-Choose Joy
Really, what other choice do we have? We shouldn’t whine and sulk about anything. Unlike happiness, joy is never circumstantial. Through everything in life you consciously remind yourself to choose joy.
After discussing all of these points we, as a team, needed to pick a chant or motto to remind ourselves of the contract. Finally we decided on this:
“People in the front let me hear you grunt: Grrr
People in the middle let me hear you sizzle: Tsss
People in the rear let me hear you cheer: Si se puede, si se puede, si se puede, si se puede!”
Throughout the day we used this as encouragement whenever needed.
After that Anna gave us all blindfolds and told us to put them on. She then positioned us congo style. She would tell Christian which ways to go and it was up to the people ahead of us to relay the directions. Kat fell and managed to get up without taking her blindfold off. Finally, when we were told to take them off, we were up hill nowhere near where we started. Anna said we made it look easy.
We walked a little bit further and found ourselves at a ‘challenge’ called Islands. We all had to go stump to stump to the other side without falling off or dropping one of the three boards. With no talking. We were doing okay at first, but then Christian missed a jump, Bren fell, and Harry was stranded. Mary, Kat, Allie, and I were safe but Dr.Cambell-Farrell refused to leave Harry behind. He decided, as a last stitch effort to attempt jumping. He missed and flew over in a move that would win America’s Funniest Home Videos. So yeah…we lost. How ya been? Maybe later in the week we’ll have time to try in again.
By the time we got back to base I was feeling pretty crappy. I could only stomach one cracker instead of the delicious looking soup. I’m pretty sure I was just dehydrated so Israel gave me some fruitish drink and once I laid down and finished that I was feeling better.
After lunch we dug a ditch for a pipe that had to be go 2 feet underground. Bren and I were pretty pro. When the group of youth (called the Manada Pequenas) came we got a chance to get to know them. They greet each other with a kiss on the cheek, and in their culture, they make sure everyone in the room is greeted! They loved the effort we made to communicate with them, and we all enjoyed getting to know them! Eventually it was Christian, Bren, Wilmar, and I on one side and we finished in record time and even got a “Muy bien” from Holger for our efforts. While digging the group as a whole found some random objects. We found a bag of beans, a bone, an empty can of poison, a plate, a soda bottle, and a pot lid.
From there we went up the mountain a little ways to go ziplining. Ziplining! (And in the rain no less.) Apparently Wilmar and his older brothers Santiago and Esteban run the zipline so they were the ones who gave us directions and hooked us up to the harnesses. It was Christian, Mary, Brenmarie, and I’s first time, only Harry had done it before. To get to the start we had to hike to the other side first and it was super slippery. At one point the guys had to help us down a mini slope… I got past one step and right when I went to let go on the other side I slid and would have fallen if one of the guys wasn’t helping me across. Harry wasn’t so lucky though…he slid right onto his back in a spraw that had Bren laughing hysterically. Finally when we reached the spot Christian, Mary, and Jamie went. Bren was up next and after one false start she flew down screaming the whole way. Finally when my turn came Wilmar hooked me up and Jason asked if I wanted him to count to three. It took a few seconds to work up the courage and then told him lista. When he counted to tres I took off and it was amazing. I ziplined in Ecuador and in the rain. I was shivering, soaked, but satisfied.
Dinner was with the Manada Pequenas and it was arroz con pollo. When they left we were going to have a fire in this little chapel like thing, but when Christian and I got there, there was no one else around. So I stayed by myself until everyone else got there. Then for our debriefing session we had to give a word to describe the day…
Christian’s word was fall because he fell off the island today.
Brenmarie’s word was push because she stretched herself in all aspects.
My word was unexpected because I had no idea what we’d be doing here and the trip so far had exceeded my first expectations.
Allie’s word was remembering high school Spanish because she was able to communicate with the Ecuadorians.
Mary’s word was alike because she realized how much alike we all are in the body of Christ.
Dr. Campbell-Farrell’s word was different because so far everything is different than what she is used to.
Harry’s word was amigos because he bonded with all of the team individually, as well as with the Ecuadorians.
Kat’s word was elated because even when she fell, she didn’t give up.
Paul’s word was scattered because his mind was going in so many different directions at once.
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