Ecuador 2014

Guys, I don't even know where to begin.

For the new members or for those who didn't realize I was gone for 10 days, I took a mission trip to Ecuador (that's in South America for those of you who aren't so hot in geography...."high schoolers")

Ecuador is a very mountainous country and believe it or not, it houses the highest point in the world (Mt. Chimborazo in Riobamba). Google it if you don't believe me. No Mount Everest is the highest mountain, but not the highest 'point'.


Anyways, there were 37ish of us who went on a mission team called WHEW Missions which stands for With Him Everyone Wins.  Out of our 37, there was a combination of 9 churches. Our main focus was Evangelizing- sharing the Gospel of Christ.

And what is the Gospel or the Good News? Simply that Jesus Christ came to the world to seek and save the Lost and he did that by taking the sins of the World and dying on the cross for them...and 3 days later resurrecting from the dead to defeat death/sin once and for all. Also, that Jesus made a way to Heaven by becoming 'the Way' when there was no way.


Ecuador is 90% Catholic but Catholic or not, Jesus Christ is the only person/thing that can take away our "sin problem." Before I continue I want everyone to answer these two questions on another sheet of paper or in your head. (Preferably on a sheet of paper because I don't want your mind playing tricks on you if you act like you know the answer to these questions when in fact you don't or have doubt.

1. Where will you spend Eternity if you were to die Today?

2. If heaven, why would God let you in? How do you know you will spend Eternity there?


A day in Ecuador:

Every day in Ecuador, we pretty much did the same thing. We woke up at 6:30 am, had breakfast, and then went out to have a carnival. Carnivals consisted of 2-3 games that we set up with poles. It's like one of those things where you have the kids make a line and they take turns throwing a baseball or football into a hole. There was always a soccer game going on at the carnivals, face paining, picture taking (Polaroid...they were obsessed with this), balloon animals and swords. There was always an army of kids with the balloon swords who would all attack us Americans-we had no chance...those kids were ruthless. Also, there was always candy being passed out non-stop and yes they will trample you and not think a thing about it. Finally, throughout all of this, there were always 5-10 of us sharing the gospel with random kids. We use this thing called the Evangi-cube, which depicts the story of Jesus on each face-Heaven, Man with Sin, Jesus on the Cross, Tomb, Resurrection, Jesus bridging the way to Heaven, Free gift of Salvation, etc. We used the cube because it was a visual representation and the kids really could understand better looking at the gospel visually to some degree.

After sharing the gospel we would ask the kids if they believed this, understood this, and then we would make sure they understood salvation and the love of Christ by quizzing them for example. Then we would ask if accepting Christ, was a decision they would want to make today. Didn't pressure them...that's not our job. Our job is to present the gospel, not persuade or sell Christ. The book of Ezekiel says we are the Watchmen and it's our job to warn others of separation from Christ. If one dies and we could have warned them but didn't, their blood is on our hands! Oh, and we witnessed and shared the gospel with everyone at the carnivals...not just kids, anyone and everyone!

Later, we would go marching down the streets and evangelizing (sharing the gospel of Christ) to anyone the Spirit would lead us to. We would do this for 2-4 hours a day. We would have anywhere between 2-3 carnivals a day which lasted on average 2.5 hours. At night we would split up into 4-5 groups and go to different churches to worship and preach the Word of God! A lot of the churches had contemporary songs and traditional songs that we know here and it was awesome singing and worshiping in different languages although praising the One same God.


I got to witness in a classroom of 30+ adults over 70 years old who were mostly Catholic. So that was very neat. A few of them were moved by what God had me say. Some of the adults were emotional and obviously moved by the Spirit. 6-7 wanted to receive Christ in their heart and live by faith that He died for their sins and rose from the dead and was indeed the only way to Heaven...by his grace through their faith. Now only God knows their hearts and if they truly believe and repented of their sins but it was awesome to see God move in the lives of some Ecuadorian strangers. Can't beat that with a stick.


I know I'm getting pretty lengthy so I'll wrap it up with the Highlight of the Trip.

Prayer. I learned about the power of prayer, what true prayer and worship was this trip. God punched me in the face...hard.

Story of a Pastor in Riobamba, Ecuador:

-->So we got to worship with this pastor in Riobamba. Let me tell you his story. 4 years ago, he was broke with 2 children and a wife. He was literally living out of the dumpster. "Dad, I'm hungry" his children would say. "We have no food..." he would say back. This man could not read or write. By the grace of God, someone shares Christ with Him and he receives Christ in his heart and becomes born again. He learns how to read...Ever since he became a Christian, he wakes up at 5 am and prays all the way until 6:30 am. He has been doing this for 4 years. God calls this man to become a pastor and plant a church. He prays for 4 months and God draws him to some random land to plant on. He asks the owner how much she wants for it. The owner says, "1 million dollars." The pastor had absolutely NO money. So he prays for 2 more months and asks the owner again how much it would cost. Owner says, "If you are building a church, I will sell it to you for $300,000 dollars. The pastor signs the note without having a Single Penny. That's faith, my friends. That's faith that comes through praying, praying, and praying, He sells the lumber and gets 150k for it. He has a congregation of about 20 people and all the sudden they have built a building with no roof. The whole church meets with the pastor and prays from 5 am to 6:30 am and this is their prayer. "Lord bring a lost soul to us who does not know you. Father, please brings us an unsaved man who is a roofer to us." Two months later, a man joins the church, accepts Christ, and does the whole roofing for the church for free. Wow. Now the church needs a maintenance dude of some sort that does not have a relationship with Christ. The whole congregation begins to pray about this form 5 am to 6:30 am for 3 months. Guess what? A maintenance worker (some guy who does windows and many other tasks) joins the church, accepts Jesus in his heart, and does all the maintenance work needed and still does it today. They have used this same strategy (faith in God) to get 5+ people to join their church, accept Jesus as Lord, and their church continues to grow (the people, not the building). This church now feeds 150 children every single day.

We got the pleasure of praying with this pastor and his congregation one morning from 5 am to 6:30 am. We wake up, walk in the door, and immediately my mouth closes, my knees buckle, and next thing I know, I'm at the altar or the front of the church humbled and brought to my knees. Guys, the Lord was in that place. I literally felt like the altar was a magnet. God brought me to my knees and the spirit of the Lord overwhelmed me. The whole congregation was on their face. Our team was all shut up and brought to our knees. We prayed for 1.5 hours and it seemed like 5 minutes. Everyone was crying out and trust me, if you were there you could not resist doing it either. After the prayer, we worshipped, we sang, we danced. This congregation was dancing as hard as they could and they were UNASHAMED. I'm talking about dancing, spinning circles, clicking their heels and just doing it all in the name of Jesus. They were surrendered. Jesus was literally "Lord" of their Life. I have never been through a more Humbling moment in my entire Life. I have never felt so ashamed of what I call "worship" in my entire Life. I have never felt so close, so intimate with the Most High God in my entire Life and guess what? I attribute it all to prayer.

What was Jesus doing when he was tempted in the desert?
What was Jesus doing before he was tempted to not die on the cross for our sins?
What was Jesus doing on the cross when everyone told him if he was the Son of God to ask the Father to send angels down or to save him from the cross?
What was Jesus doing the morning following the night where he cast out 3 demons, healed 2 blind men, and caused a mute man to speak?
What was the one thing the disciples asked Jesus to teach them?
What were the disciples doing before they received the Holy Spirit?

Praying. Prayer. Pray.

Mark 1:35 While it was still early, Jesus got up, isolated himself and prayed.

Look at the Lord's Prayer. "Give us this day our Daily Bread" Sounds like a 'morning' prayer to me. Give us "this day" our Daily Bread. You don't pray that at night when the day is over. You start your day with Jesus, you live your day with Jesus, and you end your day with Jesus.



With regard to the 2 questions earlier. Be HONEST with yourself. If you thought, said to yourself, or wrote down your answer and it said one of the following 'words' or 'phrases', you need talk to someone or examine yourself:

'I'm a good person'
'There's more good in my life than bad'
'I go to church'
'I give to the needy'
'I don't gossip'
'I read the bible'
'I pray'
'I know Jesus'
'I keep the 10 commandments'


The only right answer or answers (according to the Word of God) are these:
'Jesus'
'by the blood of Jesus'
'by the cross'
'grace'

It's not about what you do. It's about what He did. If you had the wrong answer at first, then decided you knew the answer after scrolling down to the bottom of the page, be careful.

If you didn't know the Way to Heaven when you were asked, then you would have continued to live by faith in the wrong things that get you there. You can't get somewhere if you don't know how ;)

Love yall, that's the only reason I'm sharing my experience and what the Bible says.


Caveat: My words don't do justice for what happened. This is truly an experience that everyone needs to have. All glory to God, all honor and praise is his forever. I am nothing.