Engineering in Ecuador: The final jungle trip

Brothers and sisters in the Lord,

To start I would like to thank each of you for your faithful prayers. I certainly feel them each day. I can’t believe I’m down to only two and a half weeks left in Ecuador. We have come to the conclusion of our jungle trips, which is bittersweet for sure. I have greatly enjoyed each one and will never forget the things I’ve learned, and the people I’ve met there.

We spent our last jungle trip this past week in the community of Wayusentsa, the same community as our first jungle trip. It was nice to reconnect with some of the people there and come back to a familiar place. I would love to report that we had a perfect time, and everything went as planned, however that would be far from the truth. From the start we had upsets and problems such as bags being lost and people getting sick all in the midst of very hot weather. God was faithful though, and we were able to accomplish almost everything we had set out to do. I think it was appropriate to have such a crazy trip to end things. It serves as a reminder that nothing ever follows our plan. As it says in Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” I’ve seen the hard evidence of this fact during my time here in Ecuador.

In light of planning our ways, I’ve found that it is so incredibly important to build relationship as a foundation for preaching the gospel. Each time we would venture into the jungle, we would go with the desire and intention of directly preaching the gospel in the community. As it turned out, we rarely found a culturally fitting and opportune moment. This leads me to two conclusions. Firstly, preaching the gospel is not all about how well we can elaborate and expand upon the word of God. As Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the gospel: if necessary, use words.” By spending time with the Ecuadorian natives we brought light into their lives through the love of Christ. Conversely, my second conclusion is that there will never be a PERFECT moment. We will never find ourselves in a position where everything is perfectly laid for a conversation that is totally culturally relative and inoffensive. The fact of the matter is that the gospel is offensive. It totally goes against human nature a.k.a. sin nature, and calls people to step out of the muck that they have built their lives upon and into totally new and uncharted territory. It’s scary, but oh so worth it. I want to live a life that is deeply rooted in the culture of Christ. I want to live in a kingdom bound, God ordained, sin rejecting culture that pleases our Lord.

Up to this point in Ecuador, I have not had any moments where I’ve shared the gospel and seen someone drop to their knees in repentance (I’ve still got time though!) However, if not anything else, I’ve learned and grown so that I can better represent our Lord and someday see just that; men and women realizing their desperation and turning to the Lord. I am now back in the city of Chillanes for the rest of this week, and will be working on the beginning stages of a project here. Please pray for health as we are all feeling the toll of the travel and the chicha. Also be in prayer for this weekend, as we will be running an outreach at a startup church a few hours from Shell. Pray that the hearts of the children and youth we speak to would be open and receptive to the gospel. Thanks to each one of you for your love and support. I pray that each of you would continue your service as the Lord’s missionary wherever He has you.

In Him,

Sam