World Racer Kalie Stier describes her time serving a Ecuasol, a ministry our short term mission teams also serve at.
We felt like school children – our team of six headed off to the bus station, sack lunches in hand, and nerves running through our veins like a second grader on their first day of school.
Boarding the bus went fairly smoothly, and for $0.25 we rode a total of an hour and an half on two busses into the hills of Pisulí to begin our work with Ecuasol.
Ecuasol is a non-profit organization founded by a French NGO that helps children in the slums of Quito to stay off the streets by providing a place for tutoring, activities, and a hot meal as well as financial assistance for uniforms etc. This is one of the poorest areas of Quito, and many of these kids face the reality of a broken home, and no money to continue their education.
Our directions were simple. Ride the first bus until the end of the line, then ride the second bus until the end of the line. Once there, you should see someone that looks like you (aka: white and blonde) who speaks French, and they will take you to Ecuasol and let you know what they need you to do for the month.
Well that sounds easy enough.
However, once we got to the end of the second bus route, we were high in the clouds, freezing cold, and there were no blonde people in sight.
After a few phone calls, we connected with two of the French volunteers and trekked 20 minutes up a steep hill above 9,000 feet to the Foundation.
On the way up, I talked with one of the girls half in English, half in Spanish and mostly out of breath, and figured out that they didn’t know we were coming.
She then asked what project we would be doing with the kids.
What do you mean…? I thought you were going to tell us what you needed us to do… We don’t have anything prepared….
At this point, we were discouraged. It didn’t seem like they needed us to be there or that they even wanted us.
So, we prayed, we asked more questions, and by the time we left for the day, we had committed to painting a mural in the kitchen, and teaching in the classrooms, giving each of us the opportunity to use our gifts of art, education, communication, and building relationships with children.
Over this past week, we have been able to get to know the cooks, Ruth and Tatiana. We found out that they are Catholic and they wanted fruits and vegetables painted on the wall. So, we jumped on the opportunity to sprinkle the gospel throughout the Foundation by painting the fruits of the spirit on the walls of the kitchen.
We are also discovering that although we are so excited to have tangible ways to work at Ecuasol, most of these kids just need someone to sit with them for two hours while they eat lunch, to give them hugs, to play futbol with them (even though I can’t kick a ball straight to save my life). To simply love them. The hours that we are able to totally devote to knowing their names, their favorite color, and to tell them how to say each of their names in English and in French, may be the biggest ministry all month.
I’m finishing out this week with hope for the next. Knowing that whether I’m painting an orange in the kitchen while talking with the cooks, sitting with a 6 year old girl as she eats my lunch as well as her own, or struggling to play futbol, God is present above 9,000ft and I have the opportunity and responsibility to make Him known.
Isaiah 49:6 “ I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
its a blessing serving the LORD.