Ministry Week & Climbing the World's Tallest Mountain (if you measure from the center of the earth)

Week #: I've lost count

A couple of weeks ago we had a whole week off of classes in order to do ministry projects. We spent the first five days painting local churches. By the fourth church we were pros and sick of yellow paint.  Now we’re all resisting the urge to scrape the pealing paint that we find around campus, we can spot it from a mile away.  Several of the churches were lacking in the ladder department so we had to find lots of creative ways to reach the high spots…We tried scaling fences and exterior walls, stacking chairs, and tying paint brushes to bamboo poles.  We also did a little bit of concrete work…I started having flashbacks to some mission trips I went on to Brazil. However, here in Ecuador we had to mix everything by hand (and by that I mean 'shovel'). We had a lot of people so it went fast. Even though we were all exhausted by the end of it, it was an awesome few days.  

I think one of the coolest parts of the ministry week was when we were working in one of the indigenous churches along side some of the local people.  There is a guy in our group that is 6’2” and played football in college and one point he was standing next to one of the little (4’8”ish) indigenous ladies in her traditional clothing and it just hit me, “wow, we are all part of the same church, the same body, we’re getting a tiny glimpse of heaven. When we go on trips, we usually try to bring seminary students with us which makes trips way more fun and helps us speak in Spanish.  We spent most of the week in Otavalo and stayed in the same hostal that we’d been at before.  We spent several nights around the campfire playing games and singing songs in Spanglish.  Twice on this trip we ate hamburgers the size of my face and one was filled with French fries.  We also learned in Otavalo that if you hear an ice cream truck, don’t chase after it—you’ll be disappointed.  The ice cream trucks here don’t play music…but the trash trucks do…

For the second half of the week, we went to Riobamba.  We had the incredible privilege of attending the ordination of a couple of our professors.  It was a special time for all of us and it was particularly interesting for me since its something I’m looking forward to in the future.  Early Saturday morning we set off to climb Chimborazo which is 20, 561 feet high. Since it’s located almost on the equator, its peak is the closest point on earth to the sun.  For a couple of hours it’s possible that we were the closest people on earth to the sun.  

We started our hike at a cemetery of all the people who have died on Chimborazo…that wasn’t disconcerting at all… A few of us climbed way passed the end of the trail. We made it to the ice cap which was about as far as we could go without equipment.  About the time we made it to the ice cap rocks started falling, it started hailing and when we turned around realized we were totally engulfed in clouds. We had joked about bring sleds to use on the mountain side…we could have used them on the way down. The first part was so steep and full of the snow that we just slid down on our butts. Super fun, but so cold. Since most of us didn’t think to pack gloves when going to Ecuador we used socks.

After not having had classes for a week we were all a little worried that we’d lost a significant amount of Spanish. However, Monday morning after we got back my roommate told me that I had been talking in Spanish in my sleep the night before.  Apparently, a foreign language can’t even deter that little habit. 

Next Up...Mindo: Adventures in the Cloud Forest