I have just arrived home after a twelve day mission trip to Ecuador. The time that I spent there was life changing. We first ministered in Quito which is the capital of Ecuador. Over 2.5 million people live in the city. What I saw in that city broke my heart. The crime rate there is so bad and out of control that they brought in the military forces. Military personnel were everywhere with their big guns trying to get control. The amount of garbage that was everywhere was mind blowing then to see all the homeless dogs running around was painful. Not only that, I saw dead dogs just decaying on the street. But what broke my heart and took me on my knees to God Almighty was the amount of children just running around. Just running and roaming the streets. I kept wondering where their parents were and why they were alone. One boy came up begging to us on the street. I saw elderly women and men begging for money. They could barely walk and they had no homes. I saw the homeless being robbed by other homeless people. What I saw in Quito will be forever grafted into my mind.
Even in the midst of all this pain, crime and heartbreak, God’s presence was so strong. My mind could not get around what my eyes could and what my heart sensed from the Lord.
My home church is Kingdom Life Family Center in Orefield and my Pastor’s are Tony and Tammy Adamo. They lived in Ecuador for 5 years doing missionary work. The church plants that we have in Quito and Latacunga wanted to do a women’s conference. Now, for you and me, women’s conferences are the normal thing to do. In Ecuador, not so much! They don’t do these kind of things. Plus, to pull the churches together to work and support a women’s conference, well, that is just unheard of. However, they put their hands to the plow and started the work. They asked Pastor Tammy to come and speak at the conferences and talk to their leaders and married couples. We went as a support system for Pastor Tammy and to teach some breakout sessions.
After most of the conference times or after church services on Sundays, we had the opportunity to pray for people. This part worried me a little because I don’t speak Spanish. Nothing!!! So, I was concerned about how I was going to pray for people and how they were going to understand what I was saying. However, what God did just blew my mind.
God moved in such a mighty way that the language barrier didn’t matter. Women and men were so desperate to hear from God, to experience God or to just receive a touch from God, that their hearts were so open. Language did not matter. As we prayed for the people, I saw and experienced things that I had never seen before. People broke so openly and poured their heart out to God. Some I just held in my arms as they wept and cried. Some fell to their knees, some danced, some jumped, some shook, some fell over and the list goes on and on.
Sometimes, when I prayed for people, I just wept. I could not contain myself because my heart was breaking for them. I could literally feel their pain. Now you may think I am crazy when I say that but that is the only way I can describe it.
The one woman that stands out in my mind was in Quito. We had a women’s leaders time for any woman who was in ministry or in leadership. Pastor Tammy taught an amazing lesson on women in ministry and at the end, we had time to pray for the women. I was praying for women and I looked up and saw this elderly Indigenous woman who had to be in her 70’s or over. She was hunched over and she looked like she has had a very hard life. No doubt, life has not been good to her. She pushed her way through the women to get to the front so she could be prayed for. She reminded me so much of the woman with the issue of blood in the Bible. As she pushed her way through, she was weeping. I started to pray for her and she was yelling out to God. I have no idea what she said and I know she had no idea what I was saying. We just wept together and prayed out to God. Two hearts were united that night and we cried out together to God for whatever it may have been that she was asking for.
That was it for me. That night I learned so much about God and His presence and who He is and who I am in Him, it was like a crash course in experiencing the presence of God. I knew that that night, I would never be the same or ever look at praying for people the same ever again.
That is what it was like every time we prayed for people. They were so hungry for God because most of them had no other option but God. He was all they had! It was like they were teaching us what it was like to have nothing and only have hope in God. Time and time again, we prayed over people and time and time again, God answered them.
I went to Ecuador praying to God about four things:
1. Continue to create in me a servant’s heart
2. Break my heart for your people
3. Why do miracles occur in third world countries so much and not in the USA?
4. Continue to stretch me in my faith
I can honestly tell you that God answered every single one of those prayers!! He taught me so much about His faithfulness and just trusting in Him. He taught me that if I trust Him and reach out in faith, He will supply what I need and what I am lacking whether that be physical, mental, emotional, in ministry and spiritually. At times, I wanted my family that my heart ached for them. Yet, God filled my heart and helped me in my longing for them. At times, I was physically tired that I didn’t feel like I could give any more out, He supplied me and strengthened me. Even when I was emotionally gone because of all the tears that were shed for others, He helped me to go one step farther.
I was asked a question from a friend months ago about this trip. The question was “If your call in life is Truth for Women, then what does this trip have to do with that?” My answer at that time was “Nothing. It has everything to do with me and my growth in the Lord”. Now please hear my heart that definitly was the case but I also realize now that it was also to help me as I lead this ministry forward. After what I saw in Ecuador, my heart longs even more for women to embrace God’s word as truth and for women to experience the presence of God like I saw there. My heart longs even more for lives to be changed by the presence of God because they see Him, feel Him and experience Him like never before.
This has been my first mission trip ever in my life and I can certainly tell you, it will not be the last.
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