Summer Comes to an End

Well, despite a difficult beginning of the year, the summer proved to be amazing. My trip to work with the Waorani as well as my time in the coastal jungle town of Zancudo made the summer overshadow the difficulties of the beginning of the year.

I joined Chet Williams and his family again this summer helping to lead a couple of short term teams into the jungles of Ecuador this summer. We partnered with a group that works with the Waorani and we put on a couple of camps for youth.

The town of Zancudo (mosquito) is on the western side of Ecuador near the border with Colombia. After riding a bus all night from Quito you arrive at a little town where you have to then get on a motorized canoe to then procede another three hours up river to the first of three communities. Zancudo, Santo Domingo and Colon are three small villages populated by the decedents of escaped African slaves. When slave ships were circling the continent, they would pull into fresh water inlets for a few days to kill the barnacles that had accumulated on the boat so that they could then be scraped off of the hull. Sometimes in this fresh water inlets the slaves would revolt and escape into the jungle.

Our team was based out of Zancudo where we held the youth camp but a group of us was asked to travel to the other two communities up river to do VBS type activities with the kids. We spent two days in each of the villages playing with the kids, singing songs, sharing some skits and sharing the gospel.

The village of Colon which is the farthest away has a very large population of children and our first day there was crazy. Santo Domingo has many children as well but all of the teachers at the school are Christian and the children are quite obviously better behaved than those in Colon. Because our first day of activities was so hectic we devised a plan to assign 10-15 kids to each one of the team that was traveling with me in order to keep them occupied and try to maintain a little more control over the activities. Once we arrived and the children had all congregated in the school yard I had them all line up by size and I divided them up. Once all of the other leaders had been assigned a group there were still about 20 teen age boys who had not been assigned. As most of the planned activities were more geared to the younger children, I grabbed a soccer ball and had the boys come with me to another area of the town where I hung out with them and played games.

When it was time for my team to break for lunch I handed the young men the soccer ball, got them split up into teams, started the soccer game and told them I would return. Upon my return from lunch I noticed that the game had ended and most of the boys were upset at either the ref or their own team. I asked them to sit down in the shade and we began to talk about why it was important to have a standard set of rules to play by as well as direction on a team. About 15 guys were remaining and I began to share my story and the gospel with them using their frustration in the soccer game as a launching point to talk about Jesus and his role in my life. Once I had done a quick overview I asked them if I could continue sharing deeper. I told them that they didn't have to stay and listen and offered them the chance to take the soccer ball and go play something else if they wanted but explained that I would like to share something very important with them. All 15 guys said that they wanted to stay. I explained that I wasn't taking down names and that I didn't get any special points for them listening and also explained that I didn't have anything to give them if they stayed to listen. I gave them every possible reason to walk away but they all said they wanted to hear what I had to say and they stayed. I walked them through an overview of the story of the Bible from the Creation to Christ.

I spent some time explaining the separation from God caused by sin, the need to atonement in the old testament and God's gift of his son Jesus. I then spoke of Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. I had some candy in my pocket so I used it to explain the fact that it's a free gift but that we have to choose to accept that gift much like they choose to accept the candy or not accept it. I also shared John 10:10 with them explaining what life in abundance is. Finally I asked them if they would like to know Jesus and pursue the life that a relationship with him entails. All 15 of them said that they would and I lead them in a prayer of committing their lives to Jesus and the acceptance of the gift of his salvation. It was amazing and so very simple, a true reminder that God is at work. When we were done I explained that this commitment meant accountability and learning and we all walked back to the school yard so that I could introduce them to Sixto who lives and works there. Sixto explained to them that he would be discipling them and would be keeping them accountable. I told them I would try to send them bibles the next chance I got.

That hour with those young men made this whole year worth while as I was again reminded of God's love for his people. I give God the glory that those young men are now in process of knowing him and hopefully carrying his message to their families.

Please join me in prayer for these young men, for Sixto and Libio who are there as missionaries to their own people and for the three towns. May God's name be honored and glorified!

The photos is of me with the young men who that day gave their life to Jesus.