It is hard to believe that my missions trip to Ecuador has come and gone already and that I have gladly returned to Redding, California. This trip was one of growth, not where drastic differences took place in my life, but subtle, life-changing differences that will impact me for the rest of my life. One thing that has changed in my heart is that any experience, trip or circumstance is truly what I will make of it and how I respond to whatever happenstance comes across my path.
My team of 15 people, including me, arrived in Ecuador late Friday night and stayed the night in a hostal in Quito and headed out early Saturday morning to our final destination which is a beautiful city nestled in the Andes Mountains, Loja (pronounced lo-ha). When my team and I made it to Loja we were welcomed by the warmth of South American culture and heat! During our first day we were able to do a little sightseeing around Loja, one thing we were able to do was go to this abandoned castle on a hill that overlooked all of Loja. It was so amazing and beautiful, after looking at the magnificent view my team and I discovered this huge room with the most amazing acoustics...us having a talented singer noticed the atributes of this room and started to sing. Eventually we joined in and the voices of the team harmonized in such a crazy way. After being up in this castle for about two hours we made our way down the hill that we had hiked up.
We headed to the craziest park I had seen....there were different sections to the park and each section kind of had a different country with their monuments...castles, temples etc. Since the park was crowded we had resolved to split up and go on a treasure hunt. I had felt an odd pain in my back and my team and I noticed this old lady sitting at a little "kiosk" selling little goodies. So we went up to her and asked if she had pain in her back, she did, and I pointed specifically to where I had experienced the temporary pain and she nodded again. I was able to pray for her and when I had finished a big smile came across her face....she had exclaimed that she had no more pain and felt so much better! First of many healings that happened in Ecuador!! We were off to a good start!
Sunday was a very busy day, we had three services that day with two in the morning and one at night. Every service was amazing and God's presence was so amazing! Healings galore, I got to prophecy on stage over specific people and God totally rocked many lives in the church!! I was also able to do my first prophetic painting...I haven't painted for probably 10 years and even then it was probably a pony or something. I painted a tree and it was huge for me to start to paint again and prophecy through that painting!
We had a total of 5 services in 3 days so it was slightly overwhelming, but still so amazing! I continually was able to pray for healing with women that had problems in their abdominal area which was funny to me. It was like God was giving me a "specialty" to pray for while at this church in Loja. Everyone was healed and all pain and discomfort left, making room for God's peace, joy and love to invade their lives!!!!
Monday we went to a hospital and was given complete freedom to go from room to room and pray for healing...no limits!!!! After being given a firm warning from a Catholic priest that was there (haha) and he had announced a firm warning to believers in the Catholic faith over the intercom we spread out to pray over people! It ended up being me and one interpreter and two people from Cuanca that were just there to observe and "gleam" from us on one half of a floor! Healings happened all over and God's peace was so huge there...people were having encounter after encounter with the presence of God. A man had broken his leg and couldn't move it and was in alot of pain...we prayed and he felt heat all that way up and down his leg and he could move his toes! No more pain! Many patients had incisions across their stomachs and many were in pain....all pain gone once again! We arrived in one room and i felt a weird pain on my head while praying for one patient....I asked if he had problems with his head and he said no, so we finished praying with him and went to the next patient. We asked what was wrong with him and he said he had brain problems, hahahhaa funny...God spoke so clearly I just needed to press into that word of knowledge, I then felt that he experienced dizziness and just as I was about to ask my interpreter tells me..."he gets dizzy alot". After praying all dizziness left and he felt God's unmistakable peace! Such a fun and freeing time spent in the hospital!
We had a leadership meeting with the leaders of the church, Verbo, in Loja, the Holy Spirit released so much over the leadership of worship, children's ministry, the pastors and the dancers! That night was insane and by the end we were all messed up by God's hilarious joy and love!!!!!
Thursday we headed to Gualaquiza, a small town right on the border of the Amazon jungle, it felt like I was in the middle of an episode from Planet Earth!!! It was so amazing and beautiful! After getting settled at the hotel we were staying at we did a little sightseeing there as well....or the people of Gualaquiza did. Apparently white people there is a rare siting so the stares were many. hahaha.
The church in Gualaquiza was much different than the one in Loja, definitely broke through alot of spiritual walls and strongholds in that small church. People of the church were encountering Jesus left, right and center! He is so amazing and wanted to encounter everyone there! Tears were many is all I can say and each encounter people had with Jesus was different but they all said the same thing...God is love and He love's to love all of His children! We were able to prophecy alot and speak into the people's lives alot. So many healings were happening, both physically and mentally and emotionally! No part of human life is limited to what God's love can do! The final night was such a party...we had a fire tunnel but somehow I had branched off on my own with a couple of little girls and started dancing. It was hilarious and eventually there were about 12 little kids following my every move and dancing with me! It was probably one of the most freeing experiences I had there in Gualaquiza!
There was so much more that happened on this trip but its hard to put it all into words on a blog!
Thank you to everyone who donated towards this amazing and life-changing missions trip I had to Ecuador and thank you to those who remained with me in prayer! You pouring into my life was also you pouring into the precious lives of the Ecuadorians! God bless you and I send my love!!!
