Daily Concern

It took a while but everyone finally fell asleep. The accommodations were not much different than any other church camp. Unfortunately, they were expanding the highway nearby so the truck traffic kept us awake, as did some dogs barking incessantly. Woke up with a huge headache, entering the 2nd full day with no caffeine, this is going to make for a long trip.

After breakfast we got right to work, Colton and I worked on water sealant while the girls painted Allen and Rocio’s home. After lunch we rested in the hammocks they have placed throughout the camp, very relaxing but surreal to know we’re so far from home. After a long day of working on the camp we cleaned up, had a nice and played cards with Al, Rocio, and our family. Rocio entertained us with stories of finding snakes and other critters in her home and even her bed during their time in Ecuador. She found a tarantula in her shoe this very morning. None of these stories did much to ease the kid’s concerns about going to sleep back in our cabin that evening.

We got a good night’s rest in our hotel. We were on the 3rd floor of this small hotel, so Mercedes and I decided to take the stairs to the lobby. Melissa and Colton took the elevator. Five or ten minutes passed by and we hadn’t seen Melissa and Colton, turns out they were stuck in the elevator! The elevator is on the outside of the building so the pedestrians could see them helplessly stuck. The owner of the hotel took an ink pen and jammed it into a slot and the elevator finally opened up.

Allen Williams (our host) and his wife Rocio arrived to pick us up. We took a quick one hour tour of Guayaquil. We first visited a small park right in the middle of the city where hundreds of iguanas lived. They all loved to lay in the trees, you see them here, here and here. Next, we stopped by to see some turtles from the Galapagos. The city was crowded, lots of traffic, and high unemployment. We soon headed south to the Quizas Hoy camp which was about 50 miles away (I'm not sure the kids enjoyed riding 50 miles on a wooden plank in the back of a truck). We passed by miles and miles of plantations. Scattered along the road were small homes (huts), fruit stands, and livestock tied up next to the road for grazing. The fruit was amazing, we could by tons of fresh fruit for just a dollar or two.
We finally made it to Quizas Hoy, our home for the next 4 days. The camp is 40 acres, cut into the edge of the jungle, right off the highway to Cuenca. The camp was very beautiful, you can see many of pics of it here. Our dorm room was sparse, no hot water, no air conditioning. Thankfully, during our stay it wasn’t unreasonably warm.

We got to work right away, helping to put water sealant on one of the new dorms they were building (8+ years in the making). The food was simple but good, I think we had plantains with every meal, prepared a different way each time. By the end of the day we were all tired but very thankful for the experience.I think all of us, especially the kids, will learn a great deal about how other parts of the world live and our role in helping others.

On Monday, March 16th, my family and I traveled to Guayaquil, Ecuador via Miami, FL. Thankfully the flights were uneventful. We landed in Guayaquil at 9:30pm and it took another hour to get through customs. Waiting for us outside the airport was Allen Williams, a gentleman I had only previously met over the Internet. He was easy to spot, he was a foot taller than anyone else around him. Allen runs the Perhaps Today Church Camp, where we were to serve the next few days.

Allen had told me he was picking us up in his truck and that our kids (ages 17 and 13) would need to ride in the back. While I was prepared for that I was completely unprepared for the condition of his truck. It was only a slightly newer model than the truck in Sanford & Son. So here we are in a foreign country, with a strange man, who wants me to load up my family in the back of this truck at nearly 11pm to drive us to a local hotel. I thought “Why not?”

Allen drove us to a nearby hotel, along the way we passed through some pretty sketchy neighborhoods, eventually arriving at our hotel whose doors were already locked. Thankfully, someone was there to let us in and lead us to our 3rd floor room. It was no bigger than a college dorm room with four small beds and a small bath. It didn’t matter, we had made it to Ecuador safe and sound, the room was clean, we were tired and all soon fast asleep. I thanked God for our safety and asked for wisdom as we prepared for our adventure the next day.

In the fall of 2008 my wife Melissa and I were making plans for our 2009 family vacation. Our son is a senior at Faith Christian School so we wanted to make it a memorable trip since this would likely be his last year at home. We quickly decided upon Hawaii, specifically Maui. Melissa and I went there for our tenth anniversary and I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful place.

However, as I thought and prayed about it I felt that just going to yet another tourist location, no matter how beautiful, would not have the lasting impression that I was seeking. I’ve stated this before, but the words of Donald Miller haunt me – many of us live in Christian glass houses. We live with Christians, we work with Christians, we worship with Christians, many of our neighbors are Christian, and we even eat at Chik-fil-a. We become too comfortable in our way of life and our routine, we rarely interact with those outside our Christian holy huddles. I wanted to shake things up.

Well as luck, or God’s providence, would have it, I work for Fellowship Technologies and we’re blessed to count Centro Cristiano de Guayaquil in Ecuador among the churches using Fellowship One. Several members of our staff had traveled down there to train the church and they came back telling amazing stories of need there. As I prayed and pondered about where God was leading us I just kept coming back to Ecuador.

So with a leap of faith I booked four round trip tickets to Ecuador for March 16th – 24th. Our 17 yr old son and 13 yr old daughter were not thrilled to hear Ecuador had replaced Maui as our destination. So now we had transportation to/from Ecuador but no plan for what to do during the 8 day trip. We had no where to stay and no specific itinerary. This is exactly opposite of my God-given nature. Our prior trips, including the one to Disney World, were entirely pre-planned, with an hour-by-hour plan for each day.

We decided not to burden our client church and instead emailed a list of various mission organizations we found on the Internet. We connected with several and prayerfully decided upon the Quizas Hoy (Perhaps Today) Church Camp. The plan began to take shape, we were to work with Allen and Rocio Willams at their camp for the first four days and then tour the country for the remaining four. That was as detailed as our itinerary would become before we departed for Ecuador. We knew God had a plan for us there, we just weren’t sure what it was at the time…

Undoubtedly you’ve heard the acronym KISS which is short for “Keep it Short and Simple”, or in recent years, “Keep it Simple, Stupid”. We’re currently in an era where simplicity is embraced like never before, from Apple’s products to Twitter. However, while the concept is timeless, we need a constant reminder otherwise society trends back to complexity.

In our jobs we use tools for email, calendars, contacts, tasks, notes, and project management. We then realize we’re overwhelmed and study things like Getting Things Done and Inbox Zero seeking greatly simplicity.

As Christians we attend churches, both small and large, that offer countless events, programs, and classes. We sign up for small groups, bible studies, and retreats. And then we complain we’re not being fed spiritually. Jesus saw this behavior first hand with the Pharisees and Sadducees. They followed complex rules, hierarchies, and rituals that they believed must be followed in order to follow God and his commandments. While the law was established by the Lord the Pharisees and Sadducees went awry by placing the rituals above their relationship with God and others.

In Mark 12:28 – 33, one of the teachers of the law asks Jesus which of the commandments is the most important. Jesus replied “The most important one is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

It’s pretty convicting that in this age of simplicity that Jesus embraced the concept of simplicity as well. He gave us just two primary goals… measurable ones. Despite the simple and straightforward nature of the goals, I fail to achieve them regularly.

I feel that this is one of things that led us to take our trip to Ecuador. To get away from the Internet, email, blackberry, and over-the-top worship services. To see how the rest of the world lives – without things we take for granted like clean running water and electricity. Although our time in Ecuador was never without these amenities it was a wakeup call to see so many in need. I’ll blog about our experience there in the coming days.

Suffice it to say, keep it simple. You don’t need another in depth Bible study to understand what God’s message in Mark 12:28 – 33.

God bless,

Curtis S