Old vs New

Little did I know that that trip would be one to completely change my life. God took young and shy me, placed me in foreign culture and worked through and in me. I came home a different person. Sure I'm still pretty shy, but my life purpose is changed. My heart is still there. I don't know how to explain it. The Park West team's hearts were in Guatemala and Allie's was in Ecuador.

 Mine is in Juarez. It's with Abilene who is now probably 10 years old from Centro Victoria girl's home the one I played with on the playground. With Niellie who is 9 from Pastor Pacienca's church who only spoke to me and found me the following year. With sweet baby Kayla now 6 from Centro Victoria where her mom lives. With Michelle, now 7, from a dangerous part of town who begged me to go to home with her. It's with Christoph, Marcella, Nancy, Joel, Lisbeth, Karen, Yari, Jeniffer, Bella, Barissa, Chris, Kevin, Omar, Allan and every child that I talked to.

I don't understand it. I talked to these kids for only a brief amount of time and already I knew they were my mine. There faces are imprinted on my heart and I can picture them perfectly.

You have to understand. My total time in Juarez between both trips was only 10 days. The time with the kids was even less. But sometimes I miss them so much that it physically hurts. Everything will be fine and dandy and then BAM! One of those faces pops up and the longing returns. I need to know that they are okay. Google search Juarez, Mexico. Murder Capitol of the World. Read the news. That's where these kids are. That's where my heart is.

I don't know why God chose me for the task of preaching His love to the children of the world. And as much as I'm apprehensive of the unknown future, I'm honored that He did. He's entrusting me with something pretty special. I don't know where I'm ultimately going to end up. I don't know how I'm going to get there or what I'm going to do where ever I end up...But I'm ready. I'm really ready. It's an incredible, terrifying, exciting, overwhelming, fulfilling feeling. Here I am, Lord send me. 

"If God chooses you to be a missionary, don't stoop to become a king."

I know that I'm pretty much writing to myself, but I gotta write things down somewhere so why not here? Tonight I found my prayer journal from my first ever mission trip to Juarez when I was just 13. I'm gonna copy it down here.

 The Time is Now

Jonathan Haward

President and founder of Global Infusion

     Have you ever said to yourself, "I wish I had done that"? Many people live their lives with much regret. Every so often, they turn around and look back on the days, weeks, months, and even years of their past, and see missed opportunities. Sometimes we become so consumed with our won worries and fears that we fail to take advantage of an amazing opportunity that God has placed before us.

     When I read the Gospels, I notice that Jesus always made something happen now. When the Father revealed His will about a certain situation, Jesus acted immediately. As a result, many people were healed, delivered, and ultimately saved from their sin. The ten lepers did not need Jesus' help later, they needed Him   now. The woman about to be stoned for adultery did not need Jesus to intervene later, she needed Him now. The Disciples did not need Jesus to calm the seas later, they needed Him now. The five thousand followers did not need Jesus to feed them later, they needed Him now. The world did not need Jesus to postpone His death and resurrection, we needed Him now. 

     Very few Christians make the decision to put their personal challenges in life aside temporarily to go out into all the world and share the Gospel. Most would prefer to do it later. The problem with this thinking is two-fold: one, this issues of life will never leave us until we are in eternity forever; two, the world does not need to hear about the saving power of God later, they need to hear now. 

     Think about acting on every opportunity God presents to you without question. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in each decision; heed His wisdom, and take action. While you are on the mission field, take the time to speak to the one person that you feel God leading you to. Take the time to strategically pray over the city you are in, so that the spiritual atmosphere charges. Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ who live permanently in that nation, with words that will cause their faith to soar. And when you return home, do not forget what you learned on the mission field. The same God of your mission trip will be with you at home to face and conquer your personal challenges. But much more than that, continue to be sensitive to His voice when in the middle of life at its busiest, He brings to your mind the sames, faces, and scenes that were burned into your heart from mission field. The world needs us to pray for them. The world needs us to go to them. The would needs us to return to them. The would needs Jesus. Not later, now. 

After that, my 13 year old self wrote: 

      "God, please help me to clear my life of regrets. The past cant be changed, only the future can be. Please, work through me and in so that we preach the message of Jesus, so hat the people here in Juarez might hear and believe. I understand that they need help now instead of later. Please stay with our mission team so that not our will but yours be done on this short trip. Help me to get over my shyness so that I can preform more efficiently doing your work. Also, please let some of my old Spanish come back to me so that I too may communicate with the locals and children at VBS. Thank you for this opportunity to serve and thank you for my wonderful church, friends, and family that helped to make this trip possible for me. Amen."

Ecuador Day Ten - Tuesday

     After staying up super late on Monday night we all retired back to our rooms to make sure everything was completely packed. We did a sweep of the room to make sure nothing was forgotten and either slept or rested until it was time to go.

      Really early in the morning (3ish maybe?) we had to be up. We brought all our luggage out in front of the kitchen where it was loaded on to a bus by the driver. Our final goodbyes were to Anna, who we all loved, and the guard dog Bolt. (Bolt followed us everywhere and was truly loved by most of us). The bus ride was bittersweet. Unlike when we arrived we knew the roads we were taking. We knew some of the houses we were passing. We were leaving a piece of our heart there in CalaCali.

     I remember standing in line to check our bags and then standing in an even bigger line to start through security check points. On the plane we settled in for the first flight. I remember talking to Allie and bit and laughing with her over pointless stuff, probably inbetween sleeping. That basically means it was a good flight.When we got off that flight we were back in the United States. And let me tell you, right when you step our of the plane you can feel the attitude difference. It's a whole different atmosphere. It's hard to explain. Anyway, being back on US soil meant everyone's favorite things, customs. It was the same exact customs line that I went through coming back from Guatemala.

     From that line we found out that we had a pretty far hike to our next flight which was leaving reallyreally soon. Like minutes soon. A few of us literally ran to the gate which was already empty. The lady at the desk asked who we were and so we explained that we had a group coming through customs. She was really nice, but informed us that if the group wasn't there in exactly 3 minutes they would have to close the doors and leave without us. She suggested those that we were there to get on without them, but we quickly shut that down. We do things as team even if that meant missing a flight. Luckily everyone got there right as they were about to close. We were the last ones on, but we were on. I don't really remember that flight at the moment except for a rude flight attendant throwing our stuff around.

    Off of that flight now, we were in the JFK airport (I think?) and since we were actually leaving the airport we had to go through a different customs thing. Or maybe that was before, I don't know. But we had to individually talk to some guy and say that we really were who our passports said we were. Through there we were greeted by a professor that came to drive us home in a PBU van. Then we went to get our luggage. We found our carousel and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we went over to the desk and asked if they could locate it. It turned out that customs and almost missing our flight made our bags miss the flight. They would be there for at least an hour or two. We debated between having just delivered to us or waiting and finally decided to just wait it out. The food court was near by so we all went there and got some good pizza or Mexican food because that's all that was still open that late at night. The team made the most of our extra hour together. (:

    Finally our bags arrived and we smushed back into a PBU van where we all promptly fell asleep. We attempted to talk to the professor, but we were just too exhausted. Back at the school, all the families were waiting. We had to say goodbye to one family to go with the other. The team had done so much together that we were like a band of siblings. It was definitely bittersweet.

    The next day was the first day of classes. That's right, no break for us! We were throw right into a new routine of schooling.Talk about reverse culture shock. It was kinda hard to assimilate ourselves. The day before we were in a completely different country, a completely different culture.

Since then we had 2 reunion dinners and we presented our trip to the school in a chapel. But it's not the same and everyone wasn't there. Because we were just thrown right back into life I feel like I had no time to really just reflect on the trip. Every time I see a team member I get excited because we have a unique bond, but ultimately it's all different. Once again, new people have taken a chunk of my heart.

Our group update page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/257699264289961/]

Ecuador Day Nine- Monday

    So... I just realized that it's been like almost six months since Ecuador and I never finished by blog...I should do that so that someday I look back and actually remember.

      Monday, sadly, was our last day in the beautiful CalaCali. When everyone got up we gathered in the guys room to sign the cards that we had made for the El Refugio staff. It was fun just being together, talking, and reflecting before starting our day. I'm not positive, but I think we had orejitas again for breakfast. From there we headed out to the garage building to finish up our work there. We did a bunch of touch ups on the boards and tried to get as many T-nuts in as we could. We talked of course as we worked and soon enough it was time for lunch.

       After our final lunch Paul took the group up into the woods a bit to this tree house. It was an epic treehouse at that too because there was a bridge, 3 towers, hammocks, etc. While we were there we reflected both individually and as a group about our stay in Ecuador. It was really touching to hear some of what the team said and I cried a little bit, but didn't speak up. When we were finished there Susie, a PBU missionary person, came with her husband Glenn. She works in another city of Ecuador called Cayumbe. She talked to us about what she does and where her ministry is going.We had a good time talking to them.

    When they left we were supposed to take the afternoon to wind down and pack, but that didn't really seem right to us. We didn't need a whole afternoon and night to pack. A group of us decided to go finish the boards that we didn't get done in the garage, but by the time we got back the garage was all cleaned up. It was kinda disappointing because we weren't able to completely finish our project and mere hours after we were done, the garage moved on. We didn't let it faze us though so Harry, Mary, Bren, Christian, and I went back up to the Islands game. We were determined to make it through. We chose to keep the same rules of no talking and got through successfully in 9 min 25 sec! WOOO!      

From there we walked out of the woods to the rock climbing wall that our boards would soon be apart of. Everyone climbed up pretty high and I stayed about half way down from them to take pictures. It started to drizzle so we climbed down and went to the volleyball field where someone had left out a ball. By this time it had started to rain - like inbetween a drizzle and pour- so naturally we decided to play. It was Christian and Harry against Mary, Bren, and I. It was hard to even see through the rain (thanks to my glasses) but still super fun.

        From there we went back to the chapel tucked in the woods to make dinner over the fire. There was a special treat for us there too... guinea pig! It is considered sort of a specialty mean in Ecuador. So I've had like a bunch of guinea pigs as pets so it was kinda awkward to see a roasted one, head attached, sitting there with its mouth open. But I was in Ecuador so I tried just a tiny bit. Tasted kinda like pork if you ask me. The none guinea pig eaters roasted hot dogs and everyone had marshmallows. Esteban, Santi, Wilmar, and Jhonotan came to hang out as well. We talked, debriefed, and presented our final gifts to each other each with a special meaning. Mine came from Campbell-Farrell and it was super sweet and her speech made me teary.

       Then we had to say goodbye...Everyone hugged and hugged some more. Allie started crying and then I started crying. Some of the guys told me not to cry, but I really couldn't help it. I hate leaving. I hate saying goodbye. Jhonotan gave me a glow in the dark bracelet that says Ecuador on it (I think he got it from a past team or something) as a goodbye present and for being friends so I of course cried more. I wear it all the time as a reminder of Ecuador. Plus it glows. After we finished crying and everyone left and was mostly packed we went over to La Casa Grande and hung out for a long while.

Ecuador Day Eight -- Sunday

"Some people are so poor that the only thing they have is money."

"God's love is meteoric, His loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, His verdict oceanic. Yet in His largeness, nothing gets lost; not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks." -Psalm 36:5-6

Today was a super long day filled with awesome fellowship...

Everyone that went on the perimeter hike had to leave at 5 o'clock sharp. I knew that there was no way my lungs could make it. So instead, I woke up at the same time as them and went to sit outside in the quiet looking at the llamas and garden. Just soaking in the beauty. (It reminds me of a quote: "In hopes of reaching the moon, men fail to see the flowers at their feet.") All the hikers got back just in time for breakfast. Bren and Mary said that it was really tough, but super worth it. They could see the snow capped glacier from the top. If I ever get the chance to come back to El Refugio I'm forcing my lungs up there to see it all.


Breakfast this morning was egg and toast (I think). Right after eating, the Manada Pequeñas had to go home so that they could get ready for church. While we were all getting ourselves ready Erica came into the girls' room with a balloon. She wanted to know if any of us knew how to make a balloon dog. It is apparently Anita's daughter's 5th birthday and they were have a mini-fiesta for her. I volunteered, loving that I could use what I leaned in Juarez here. I made a few dogs and gave my regular balloons so that everyone could decorate them. We did this until we were ready to leave for church.


All the staff and us walked in to the middle of CalaCalí to the Santos brothers' church. It was a regular looking building, (with really pretty purple flowers) and it was about the size of one the churches I went to in Mexico. We sang about 5 or 6 Spanish praise songs. For some reason I always feel the Spirit more in Spanish even if I don't understand word for word. People clap, raise their hands, dance, fist pump, etc it's completely genuine and amazing. We sang a song called Tomaló which means "Take it all." We scream, "Te doy todo lo que soy...Toma, tomaló!" which means "I give you everything I am. Take it, take it all." After we sang a couple more songs, a couple from the church sang two beautiful songs with awesome harmony. The pastor then gave the sermon entirely in Spanish. The only reason I could follow a little bit was because we read a lot from the Bible. In this church everyone looks up the verse. When you find it, you stand up so the pastor knows when everyone's ready.


After church I quick changed and our team and the Manada Pequeñas headed over to the square where there is another "Midad del Mundo/ Center of the World" monument. We took pictures there and learned that this is the original one, but they moved it to where we went because of tourists. The realreal center is somewhere in the mountains though. From there we loaded onto a nice bus so that we could head into Quito. I sat behind Cristian and Wilmar and next to Kat. We got a lunch on the go of ham and cheese, an orange, a Sunny D like drink, and yummy coconut cookies. Esteban, who studied to be a tour guide, went up to the front of the bus and told us about everything we were passing, about CalaCali, about Quito, and about Ecuador as a whole. Israel translated for him. We also learned a bunch of fun legends. We learned about how CalaCalí got its name, a whole bunch of history, and some stories about how mountains got their names. One was about a jealous guy mountain wanting a girl mountain. Mary asked how you can tell if a mountain is a girl or boy. Apparently, if a mtn. has a crescent shape at the top it is a girl. Our response- "Uhh...Well, sure. That makes sense."


Eventually we arrived at the Basilica. The Basilica is the oldest Gothic style church standing. It was legit beautiful. Courtesy of Esteban, we learned some of the history of the church, the carvings, etc. One interesting fact is that the Basilica has been under construction for hundreds of years. They say that the because of this, the year that all construction is finished the world will end. Anyways...we finally got our tickets and headed in and up the seemingly never ending stairs. There was a beautiful huge stained glass window, an organ from Paris, and an over hang thing. The overhang looked out over the cathedral which was amazing. The ceiling is super high and domed. When we were done in that 'room' we broke into groups to explore the rest of the place. I went up some stairs and went out onto a porch that looked over Quito. You could see houses and mountains for miles in all directions. Then Anna, Lydia, and I walked across this bridge type thing and up a ladder to one of the towers. Up there was super high again looking over Quito. We found Bren and Christian already checking everything out and more of the group soon joined us. A few people chose to go up a level higher but I was too afraid of the steep ladder. I got to go inside one of the clock towers, up some spiral steps, up a few ladders to the bell tower as well. On the way down Christian, Brenmarie, Anna, Lydia, and I all raced down to the first level (we only had like 5 minutes to our meetup time). So many steps. Haha, but the Basilica is a beautiful place with some amazing viewing places.


From the Basilica the group walked a few (quite a few actually) blocks to the Plaza de Central where there is the President's house. It was super crowded there and we could spot a few tourist groups as well. Esteban taught us some more legends about that area while a few local Ecuadorians stopped to listen. Harry then decided to make up his own legend about a nearby building. He made up a story about some brothers having a seaturtle farm inside the building. Lydia translated it for everyone. It was super funny especially because the local Ecuadorians that weren't with our group were listening intently as well. When the learning moments were over we went to the other side of the square where a band was playing some traditional music. Someone, I'm not sure who, decided that they should dance so most of the PBUers started doing the Electric Slide. Esteban, Wilmar, and Lydia joined in as well while I just videoed the whole thing. It didn't take long before everyone in the square had gathered around us to watch the white people dance. It was great and a few people actually asked us who were and what we were doing in Ecuador.




Then we walked up this one street called 'Calle de las Siete Cruces" or "Street of the Seven Crosses." The name is pretty self explanatory...Down this super long street is 7 giant crosses placed outside various awesome looking churches. Eventually we got to another more empty square which had the original stones in the ground. While there waiting for our bus a few young boys came along wanted to shine our shoes. Since it was only 50 cents a few people actually let them. Back on the bus everyone was pretty exhausted. Some people slept while a few of us continued to learn from Esteban. Him, Santi, Wilmar, and Cristian even sang us some Ecuadorian song for entertainment. We passed a few volcanoes with Kat and my favorite being Pululahua. (Just 'cause we couldn't remember or pronounce it.) When we got back into the center of CalaCalí the Manada Pequeñas had to get off to go home...This would be the last time we saw them. :( We didn't even get to get off to hug them so it was just a quick wave and adios and they were off. Super sad.


Back at El Refugio once again we had dinner of grilled chicken with ahi, pineapple, potato fries with cheese sauce, salad, kiwi, and passion fruit (which is super weird by the way). We also finally got introduced to the two cats there. I think we assumed that they were just 'there' but Israel introduced us to Sully and Pancho. Pancho was super shy, but Sully let us pet him. Tonight was Allie and Kat's turn for devotionals so first they sang some songs that Allie had written. Sadly, it started to rain so we had to move into the dining porch area, but it turned out good. Then we had communion together. There's like almost nothing that this team hasn't done together. <3 After that the team and Anna played this game called Telephone Pictionary. I won't go into details, but it was hilarious.


^I'm pretty sure we headed to bed after that, but I'm not positive.

Ecuador Day Seven -- Saturday

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love." - 2 Timothy 1:7

And if our God is for us, then what could ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what can stand against?

This morning we decided to get up early to see the sunrise. It came up right where we saw the moon rise last night. Since it came up quite slow over the mountains we took down and packed up our tents and stuff. The sky was beautiful. After it rose to a point we headed down the steep path back to base at El Refugio. It only took us about a half hour to get down and we talked and sang the whole way. Breakfast was pancakes and sausage.



For work this morning Mary, Bren, and Christian had the opportunity to go down the street to help with the construction of Anita's house. In this community they have what is referred to as a "Community Work Day." It meant that on this particular Saturday a whole bunch of men from the surrounding neighborhood came to Anita's house to help out. Imagine if every community worked that way? How much would get done?
Anyways, the rest of us went down to the garage to screw in some t-nuts...the final step to the rock wall process. Problem was though, that the bolts and blocks got stuck. Holger actually had to cur it our with an electric saw thing. When we finally got everything sorted out it had it down to an art.

For lunch Anita invited the whole team and some El Refugio people over for lunch. We all gathered into her house and sat in a square of sorts to eat the delicious food. (Have you noticed I say delicious all the time? Ecuador has my favorite food so far.) The first thing we ate was a soup with potatoes, chicken, and yummy broth. Second was pork, potatoes, and white stuff that starts with an m. Buen provecho!

After we got back from Anita's house we were going to take a break until the Manada Pequenas got there. They ended up coming much later than we thought they would so we got a huge rest time. When the last of them arrived we hopped into the back of the truck and drove back up to the cross place. It only took about an hour to finish the rest of the trees. I had the hang of it from last time so I got 7 done. At the end of our work we had 'reforested' the whole field. From there we rode back down and we're just in time for dinner. Dinner was beets (which were gross so I gave them to Jhonotan), 'steak,' and potatoes. Oh, and chocolate cake. Jhonathan tried to do some mindtwister puzzle with Anna and I, but we just couldn't figure it out. Harry played one called 'Numbers' and I couldn't figure that out either. Finally he told us, but I can't tell you guys the answers.


From dinner we went over to La Casa Grande for the Bible Studyish thing we were doing. We started off by singing "In the Quiet" in both Spanish and English. Then we moved into the Everything skit. It starts off with Jesus (played by Christian) creating the earth and then a person (Allie). He gives her breath and movement and then begin dancing. They dance together until Lust (Harry) cuts in. They dance for a bit and when he throws her to the Greed (Kacie) comes in and dangled money in front of her. After that Drunkenness (Mary) comes in and offers a bottle. When the bottle's empty Vanity (Bren) walks in, measures her, and makes her seem inadequate. Finally self-harm and death (Kat) come in and hands her a knife and then a gun. She begins to hold the gun to her head when the climax comes it says "You're all I need.." she throws the gun to the side and runs to Jesus who has been waiting for her the whole time. Only problem is though that everything in her life keeps getting in the way to push and throw her in the opposite direction. Finally Jesus sees that she has had enough and steps in to block all the things from touching her. When she falls to the floor in surrender Jesus throws His arms back and everyone else falls to the ground defeated. Jesus then helps the girl to her feet, dusts her off, and walks away with her in hand.

After the skit Bren took a quick minute to sum it all up and then we did cardboard testimonies. This is when you have one negative/before testimony on one side and then you flip it over to the transformation/after side. We did this to the song "Beautiful things" which says "You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us." After those testimonies Kat shared her short version of her whole life testimony. We then offered the floor to the Manada Pequenas to share. Jhonatan, Samuel, Santiago, and Wilmar all shared some of their amazing testimonies. After testimony time was done we decided to play Yahoola again. Harry explained the rules to the group and we got into a huge circle. We had a whole lot of fun. Bren had me in a full straddle before I finally fell while trying to reach Kat. Then later, Kat and Bren battled it out and Kat pushed Bren over. The final three were Esteban, Lydia, and another girl who were all pretty beast at this game. Esteban won. When the game finally ended (it lasted a while) Israel gathered us all around to tell us tomorrow's agenda with church and going into Quito. He told us that we had to listen, and play the part of tourist. He said it was late, that we had a long day, so we all said good night and headed to bed.

Ecuador Day Six -- Friday

For this day I am going to use the blog post that Harry wrote for the Facebook page. Anything in italics is something that I added:

I am sitting down in the Casa Grande which has a beautiful white porch and I am eating a snack called “Coronita Galapaguitos” which are just animal crackers of animals from the Galapagos Islands that are dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. I am having a hard time figuring out which animals from the Galapagos these crackers are, they all just look like blobs. Any way Friday was an incredible dia.

It started for some of us (Kacie, Brenmarie, Mary, Christian, Israel, Bolt and myself) at 6:15 for our morning hike. Usually we treck up the pathways in the mountains, but today we took a walk on the road. We usually take the road to the left, which involves passing a bunch of children looking and laughing at us, sweet old women saying Hola, a bunch of dogs barking at us, and colorful painted houses. Today, however, we walked to the right. It was more spacious and more farms than houses. We saw a lot of cows and Bolt ran along with us (Bolt is the guard dog of El Refugio along with Brissa and we love them a lot and they love us a lot, so the relationship is mutual). We made it to a church and on the right of the road was a school. We saw kids riding bikes to school in their uniforms which looked like green adidas jumpsuits……take note PBU…………. Israel told us that the teacher of that school travels about three hours each way to teach there.


We made it back for breakfast which again was incredible. The two chefs at el Refugio are amazing and their nombres (names) are Angelica and Anita. They always greet you with a smile and an HOLA! On the menu was FRENCH TOAST CASEROLE…..bet you never thought about pairing those two words together…it changed my life it was that good. Brenmarie was a champ and got thirds and ate the last serving in one bite….talk about legends being made.

So unlike all the other days where we did work, Friday was the day we had off and got to go to………………..A RAINFOREST WITH A WATERFALL!!!! So we all get our swimwear on and head to the cabs for the 30 minute drive there. The cabs in Cala Cali are like mini flatbed trucks and you can sit in the back. The weather was beautiful and Christian and I (Harry) shard the back of the cab and stood up the whole drive. It was a gamechanger, one of the biggest in my life. JackJack, the missionary’s 3 year old son chose to ride with me the whole way there. The drive was one a long twisty road on mountains and the views were crazy. So many trenches and lush plants and sunshine. Standing up and being blasted by the wind only added to it.


We arrive at the place where we hike to get to the waterfall and there is a restaurant there. We hike and start to embark into the rain forest. There were bridges we had to cross which were questionable. Like really questionable. They were breaking so someone just threw pieces of plywood over the weak parts that were breaking and even then those plywood slabs were rotting……and then one of the bridges broke while we all were on it and were all held on as we dangled over a raging river that was very shallow and then we all fell in….nah I’m just kidding. None of the bridges broke and we all made it to the water fall. The walk through the rain forest was crazy too! Palm trees and some huts and plants everywhere, with a stream running through the center.


We made it to the waterfall and we all were scratching our head because the water was WAY TOO shallow to even go swimming. I mean if sitting in a puddle is what you’re into you would have fun. Then this awesome guy appeared out of nowhere (his name was Renee) and he asked “You want to swim, yes?” we all said “CLARO” (of course) and where there was a break in this small rock way for the stream to continue on he took a slab of metal and jammed it in there and then we all smiled as we realized the water in the area we were standing began to rise and we could swim.


Some of us swam, but Brenmarie, Christian, and Mary did their own little hike to some repealing wall that ended into another waterfall. Allie, Kacie, Kat, and myself stayed and I was the first to approach the waterfall. This was most likely one of the most incredible experiences of my life. First off the water was FREEZING and only got colder the closer to the waterfall. It also created wind that blew mist into your face. I went under the water and it blasted me, but it was all so refreshing. The water level now was overflowing the rock wall Kat was now standing on dipping her feet. I stayed in the water as Allie and Kacie then took their turns in the waterfall. It was so hard to stay in one place because the force of the waterfall was so strong. The waterfall itself was probably around 120 feet high. Campbell-Farrell and Anna (who is our facilitator at El Refugio who is a boss and an awesome leader) took a small hike. Eventually Brenmarie, Christian, and Mary made their way back to the waterfall and took their turns going under the waterfall. We all went as a group and went under the water which was a rush because of how freezing it was. It got so numb it felt warm. Paul and Beth (leaders at El Refugio) were there with their two young children Jack and Karleigh. We said goodbye to the waterfall as we each found individual moments to embrace our scenery and I stood in front of that waterfall one last time as the mist blew into me.

While all this was going on Campbell-Farrell had an experience that we cannot stop laughing about. She made it back to the restaurant earlier than anyone else and wanted to order a drink. She is not very good at speaking Spanish, so she looked at the menu and saw “fritter” and wanted a drink on the menu. She went up to the lady working and said “fritter” and made a rolling motion and the lady and said she wanted the drink as well. (Even as I type this up she is giving me crap, oh man). So Campbell-Farrell makes her way to the sitting area and the lady eventually carries her order up to her, but it is not a fritter with a drink. Instead it is a whole meal with a roasted trout with the head, yuka, rice, and platanos. She had no clue what to say, so she decided to go with the flow and eat the fish, but she wanted it cooked more, so she took it to the lady and pointed to the fire and said “more, more, more” and the lady miraculously understood her.

We made it back to the restaurant (which was outdoors) to eat out lunch Paul brought which was ham and cheese sandwiches, and we all laughed so hard when hearing what had happened to Campbell-Farrell. Brenmarie was interested, so she bought the fish as well and we all got to eat the trout and it was so good. As we left the lady prepared us sugar cane and gave us enough to last the month, but we all destroyed it later that night. The guy Renee continued to work, but was so nice and stopped to talk to us and patted our backs.

Sadly we left and we couldn’t even stand up in the back of the cabs on the drive home because it was raining and tarps were on the back. All of the girls in the back of my (Kacie’s) truck fell asleep… We had chill time when we made it back for 2 hours and most of us just slept or showered. The girls all piled onto Kat in her bed and ordered me to take a picture of it by screaming my name through the walls. 2 other people that have been awesome the whole time are other volunteers at El Refugio. First is Lydia, who also has worked at a Lutheran summer camp like me and spear heads the rock wall projects. She is funny and encouraging and is really good at playing Yaoola. Then there is Mike who is from Canada and has served in the military. The staff is a gamechanger. Then before dinner we practiced our skit one last time before we perform Saturday. After that it was Kacie and Mary’s turn to do devotionals and in this time Mary shared her testimony with us, which only brought the team even closer together. Mary was a last minute edition to the team, but has such an impact on this team. She’s a baller.

Then was dinner. Okay here’s what we ate, so you all can imagine it as I tell you how amazing it was, so you can be envious: roasted chicken, rice, and some weird pea salad casserole monster thing??? I was actually not a big fan of it, but the chicken was good. The store at El Refugio is open everyday at dinner. I got everyone cokes (which taste different) to pay them back for worrying/searching for me when I was lost in the mountains. After dinner Christian, Israel, Mary, Brenmarie, Kacie, and myself got packed to go camping at the high point campsite. We did not have to hike the whole way (thank God), but it was still intense. Being in this altitude is no joke. My lungs really hated me on this hike. Christian carried my bag so I only had to carry my sleeping bag and mat. I still had to stop a lot and I felt bad that I was slowing them down. But: We made it there and we were above clouds, but underneath some, like in some weird in between. We made the tents under the instruction of Israel and Bolt and Breeza followed the whole way. The sky was amazing. Just full of millions of stars. We made a small fire and we wanted to hear a bedtime story from Christian like he tells his children. First he told one that was seemed super serious until he yelled a part and made us jump and Bren scream. Then He told one about some kid with bunnies watching his whole life and a magic ball. Then I created a sequel that was not as endearing as Christian’s. Harry called it Labor Day…there was mutant bunnies involved. Kat, Allie, and Campbell-Farrell stayed back and chatted with the Santos brothers. They even sang together in different languages. Talk about cultural emersion.


Then we all went to bed (With Bolt and Brissa guarding our tents like the awesome guard dogs they are)!!!!! Sweet dreams errbody back in the U.S. or where ever you are and thanks for everything you’ve ever done for us. Special shout out to Chik-Fila for that fundraiser we got to do and because your food is awesome and the PBU special is almost a sin it is so good. Sorry to say that we only have 3 days left, but God will continue to do incredible this through and for us
Buenos Noches!