Day 3 (June 11): The Equator and Classroom Prep
Day 3 in Ecuador started bright and early for a brave few. Mr. McCune has started each morning outside our rooms reading a chapter of the Gospel of Mark with whoever wants to join. About seven students got up this morning to read and discuss the story of Jesus and the paralytic (Mark 2) at 7am! Pancho declared a 7:30am soccer game before devotional and breakfast. Sadly, the predominantly Ecuadorian team beat the US team. But that’s nothing new here.
Our pre-breakfast devotional included prayer, worship, and Mr. McCune telling us about the story of Jesus and the paralytic which the sunrise group had studied. He encouraged us to think about how God might want to look beyond what we think we need or what we think needs to change or be healed in us, as with the story of the paralytic. Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven before he told him to get up and walk. He looks deeper inside our hearts and souls at our true needs, at our real sins, and at what really needs healing. We prayed that God would reveal these things to us. We also went around the circle and shared the reasons why we decided to come on this trip. Students said they felt God called them to come, that the opportunity opened up and could not be a mistake, that they wanted to serve the children here, that they knew it was an incredible opportunity to take advantage of, that they wanted to experience a different culture. We know that God would not have sent us here if he did not have something special in mind for us.
After breakfast we drove thirty minutes away to the two different Equator parks. The actual Equator is located about two hundred or so meters from where some French explorers thought it was in the early 1700’s. The actual equator was confirmed through a GPS system around 2000. The museum built around it has a tour and exhibits that tell visitors about the history of the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, some of the wildlife that live in the Amazon on the eastern edge of the country, and of course, the Equator. We found it difficult to balance on the line while walking with our eyes closed, only Anna and Jonathan became egg masters (balancing eggs on a nail), and learned about how water flows counter clockwise or clockwise in either hemisphere but flows straight down on the actual Equator. Lucy walked on her hands on the line and said it wasn’t any harder than normal! Little Hannah did a backbend over the hemispheres. Afterwards, Lucy, Dre, Annie, and Mr. McCune were swept into a traditional dance with other tourists and a native dancer!
The fake Equator is a huge monument and a little park next to a little tourist town of shops and restaurants, centered around a small white Catholic chapel. Team members played frisbee, shopped, and walked around the little park surrounding the monument.
We had lunch at a restaurant called Crepes & Waffles in the mall, where we feasted on savory and sweet crepes. After this, we returned to the seminary where we gathered in one of the chapels to prepare and plan for the teaching and activities at the school this week. The students are very prepared and excited to teach the students at Amor y Esperanza about the solar system, geometry, the human body, algebra, sports, and the Bible throughout the week, which will culminate in a science fair on the last day.
Before dinner, the students played another US versus the Ecuadorians soccer game (some of the kids from the school came over with Pancho and his family to play us). The score was 2-9, Ecuador. We’re still getting used to the altitude.
The evening message from Pancho and Pity included songs (Annie and Chase played guitar with Mr. McCune which was wonderful!), a message from Pancho and Pity, and a long, powerful time of prayer in which we all prayed for ourselves and then for each other, confessing our sins and asking God to work among us this week. Pancho had the leaders kneel and be prayed for by some of the students (a humbling, beautiful blessing to receive), and then he had the students kneel and the leaders come around them to pray for them (a humbling, beautiful blessing to give). Pity talked to us about giving our burdens and anxieties to God, who tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry because he is with us. God wants us to focus on today, on this moment, and to trust in God’s provision because he is with us. In reference to the verse about how God provides for the sparrows, she asked us, “Have you ever seen a bird starving? They just wake up and sing. They find food everywhere.” She and Pancho also shared with us their testimony of the miraculous births of their three children (for example, her middle son, Mateo, was dead in her stomach, but they prayed over him and he was born), encouraging us to be open to God’s work and to have faith that he works miracles even today, “because God is real.”
The kids send all their love to you and wish they communicate more—but alas, limited wifi.
Cheers, peace, and grace to you all,
Alice
Whitefield !
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