Ecualombia

I’m going to try to explain a place to you that you’ve probably never been to before. You may have visited places similar or heard of such places, but I don’t think it’s somewhere you’ve visited… yet. Let me take you there.

I’ll tell you this, the language spoken here is Spanish, but even in your extensive yet limited knowledge of the language, you still may not understand what people are saying. There will definitely come times during presentations that you wish you knew more. You may be suddenly called upon to do parts in dramas that you haven’t done for a year or more and expected to know the language. Welcome my friends, to Ecualombia, a place I’ve been many times and am now visiting again.

It’s important to remember some things when visiting this somewhat exotic location. It’s hard to even think where to start, because there are so many things that are different. Let’s start here, with your daily schedule. Each morning at about 5:20am your alarm goes off, a little unexpected and horrifying at first when you try to realize you only set it six hours ago. Your day starts early because your schools start early, your days go late because the programs at night run late. You force your body to sit-up. You know this will be the hour before breakfast when you and God have the only quiet time you may have during the day. Welcome to your days in Ecualombia, a place where the dogs only bark near your window the one day you get to sleep in.

Your food may be a little different than what you’re accustomed to. It may have been an animal you were recently watching in a field nearby. It may have been some part of an animal that we would normally throw out. Your food will most likely include rice and beans, staple foods that are usually served at every meal, even at breakfast. It’s possible that last nights dinner has already gone through you or come back to haunt you. Try to avoid anything that’s been washed in unfiltered water or hasn’t been sanitized. It’s a rather difficult question to ask in another language. Welcome my amigos to Ecualombia and meals that you better not make faces at, your being watched.

You will probably sit at a table, ride in a van, share a room, or any number of other activities with people you may have never met before until a few days ago or you’ve been traveling with for the past two months. You will most likely talk about what you dreamed about last night either out of lack of other relevant stories or fear of sharing something else more secret. You may actually learn to really admire some, you may learn to try to avoid others. No matter the case, you will learn things about each other and share things that you may have never shared before. You may learn things about yourself even, things that you thought were bad in others are actually things you may need to work out in your own life. Welcome friends and teammates to Ecualombia, a pressure cooker that will push all your buttons all on the same day.

You will be in front of hundreds of students, all excited, anxious and sometimes terrified of the visitors in their school that day. You will do your best to share a message that will touch their hearts and will be appropriate for their place. You will do things you thought you’d never do, act like you would never act normally. You will participate in dramas and songs that may seem lame at first but you notice the children respond well and seem to be getting the point when you tell them your story. You will most likely see many of them cry, laugh and smile all in the same moments. Kids may try to touch your arm to see if your color will come off. They may react rudely or even seem uncaring, but remember, they only act what they’ve been taught and their actions are only reactions to what’s been done to them. So here in Ecualombia we don’t get upset when the kids try and get more than one book for their seven cousins.

Even now as I sit here typing this, I am in the upstairs area of a small church awaiting a six o’ clock celebration. The band that is practicing downstairs must believe that bigger is better and God is deaf, their sound is definitely carrying into the neighborhood areas that surround us. The church ceiling fans bring a slight relief to your sunburned neck that sat exposed to the solar/ gamma rays during your seven school presentations today. The pastor of the small church uses the same said upstairs area to house himself as well as his wife and child. I think I’m sitting in the entry way to the house. Welcome to Ecualombia, where churches are not what they look like on the outside, more than what they seem on the inside and you don’t have to be in the same city to hear the worship team.

Basically your day will consist of lots of schools and lots of kids and lots of books. There will be times when your body screams to stop and rest, other times it will not respond to what your mind tells it to do. Sometimes there will be laughter, tears, joy, sorrow and pain all mixed with an overwhelming amazement about the fact that God allows you to be a part of spreading His message of Hope around the world. “Why me?” is a question you may find yourself consistently asking. “How is it God, that you chose me to be a part of what you’re doing?” Welcome to Ecualombia, a place where wonder of God’s work and our opportunity to be a part can only be described as beautiful.

So here I am in Ecuador for a few days with a team from Boston. On August 1st I leave and meet a team in Colombia. That’s where the name comes from. It’s a place that I kind of invented but I’m sure many of you have heard of similar places or visited places like this before.

Sorry if this email is too much, it’s my life and it’s all I know how to write about.

Thanks for reading.