Well shoots. It's been a while folks. In the brief hiatus I've had, I've done such things as sleep, eat, work, take a shower. This is such a foreign life I am living. I also found the time to try to eat a clock. I stopped once I realized how time consuming it was. Never again.
Last time you folks heard from me, I only posted a Facebook status about the difficulties I was facing. I'll be real, they're still there. But God has definitely provided ways to help me overcome it. I've spent more time at the German missionary's house, a missionary family from California joined us at LGWI and I've been able to spend more time with them. I've had chances to call a few friends from home, and those opportunities were really special. Just the other night I managed to call my dear friend and brother as he finished up a week at a camp we normally both work together.
As for work (I know, I know, who actually wants to talk about work?), I recently managed to finish the hydraulic calculations for the system I'm designing. The budget is almost complete. I may not get a chance to present the completed design to the community of San Bartolo, but by golly
I got it done!
And it was such great experience being able to learn in this field. For the most part, the month of July was primarily office work. But we managed to take a few work trips to the communities of Sanancahuan, San Tomas, and Mireflores this past week, doing things such as installing disinfection systems and cleaning/maintaining some pump systems. I definitely miss being able to do field work, I'm not much for offices. But hey, I enjoyed what I did in either situation.
Now it's time for LLL, the segment where Liam discusses Liam's life lessons, or just random things I've been thinking about. Recently, I had somebody ask me to write something about how God has been blessing these communities for their faithfulness, which is how they're able to get the water systems they need. I first I was thinking, Yeah, I can definitely see that and I'm sure I can think of something to write for that. Let me tell you, I tried and I tried. But then something hit me that gave me other thoughts.
We've done work with a community that has a serious problem with drinking. While we would work, I would see men crouching down and grasping their heads because of how much they had the night before. It's seriously affecting that community. Another community that we've worked with often, as I found out, has the trouble of sexual abuse. I remember sitting in community meeting at the end of the week, they wanted to thank us for the work we had done and it was an honor. But at one point I looked off to the side and I saw this women, maybe in her early to mid twenties, with panicked eyes and tears streaming down her face. Every time someone walked past the community house door, she would gaze with fear and cower away. On Friday night, I was out with my host and a nursing intern from Germany who is staying here. We were discussing her work, and how the hospital is having her go over three different types of treatment: the standard modern medicine, alternative medicine, and then shamanistic medicine.
Now to say that everybody in the communities is guilty of this would be ridiculous, I told you of one of the victims of such things. But I cannot in good conscience say that these people have been faithful to God.
But let's take a moment to have a pop quiz. Who of us has been totally faithful to God?
Anybody? You, sir in the hat? Madam? Do we have any takers, anybody at all who can make that claim?
Thought not. The thing is, there has only been one who has been faithful to God. The rest of us, God draws us towards Him, opens up opportunities for us to learn more about Him and come closer. He gives us the chance to rise above where we were in an effort to pursue a life for Him. Is God blessing these communities for the faithfulness they have shown? Maybe He is, But what first comes to mind is that maybe God is using us to try to get their attention. What reason would they have for seeking help? Of what I've seen, they wouldn't. They would likely stick to their community with little outside interaction. But through this act of serving them with water, we are opening up the possibility to help the culture of community turn from what they're doing. Yes, the work might be long. Tedious, sure. But ultimately, it's worth it.
So there's that point.
Something else that's been on my mind is the people. I'm blown away by how many people are talking to me, hoping that I'll return. Ines, my host even went as far as saying she wants to lock me up and feed me through the windows so she can have me here for longer. Abuelita said she's going to cry when I leave. It's incredibly difficult telling everybody that I'm not sure if I'll ever be back. But I was talking a Mariano, the brother-in-law of the boss at CODEINSE. It was a nice moment, really. I was the only one in the office, I was supposed to close up soon, and he came to offer help with some of the locks because they're a little tricky. Anyway, we started talking, google translate was up on a computer in case we got stuck in communicating. He started asking me about my life, other trips I had taken, where my heart was leading me. He found out about Japan and how much I love the country, and then he asked me if I would ever return to Ecuador. With my first hesitant moment, he got this huge smile and started nodding. "You should go back to Japan," is the gist of what he said. That moment has attached itself to me for weeks. There was something so incredibly relieving to be able to not have to come up with something to respond with and yet for him to understand so completely where my heart was. Man, it was powerful.
Anyway. That's all I have for today. I have ten more days before I fly home. The prospect of that is incredibly exciting, but I'm also taking this time to simply reflect on what an amazing opportunity and experience this has been. Prayer requests, that God would give me the strength to take away the lessons he wants me to learn. On the 16th, for traveling mercies. Baddaboom. Picture time: