A day that everyone had been dreading but felt like the last week was leading up to, saying goodbye to the church. We gathered our chairs in a circle and got to listen to a man at the church share his sweet testimony. He felt it was necessary to share that the joy we had in work would not leave his mind. That watching our group dance and sing like we were in a musical all while doing hard work was something he wanted to embody. Whether we were painting walls, hanging panels, cleaning the floor, painting curbs, or at a house visit of a church member- we all had a purpose. The purpose was to love on the church and the community as Christ loves us. Every little detail was intentional, we will all walk away with a lasting sense of love and admiration for a place so so far away from us. We took our final team picture at the end of the work day and had to say goodbye to the beautiful view over looking the city and to the beautiful people we got to meet along the way. They sent us off with hugs, videos, and gifts to remember our time with them. We made sure to stop in at our favorite corner store owner, Blanca, to say goodbye (and to thank her for restocking her ice cream every day). We hope that our hearts shine through all the projects we did at the church and that the love of Christ is embodied every place we touched. We hustled back to our home base, packed all of our belongings in 10 minutes, and off we went. We went on a tour that was special to our location – The Middle of the World. We learned about the history of the country and the native people, then at the end got to *attempt & succeed* at balancing an egg on a small nail. We got back in the bus and accepted the complete uncertainty of the place we would be staying the night. We arrived at a sweet cabin like area and all the girls got bunk beds in a giant room and the boys got two rooms that they naturally turned into one by bringing a couple beds in. We met incredible long term missionaries from South Africa that made us dinner and started a fire so we could enjoy everyone’s company. This team has been begging to try and Guinea pig and we were gifted with that during team time. We all took a big bite and yes it does taste like chicken… just greasier and then got to do some incredible reflection with one another. We got to encourage people one on one and also share peoples strengths blindly. There was plenty of laughter and tears that lasted easily 2 hours, Jesus was in THAT room. We played games, had deep conversations, and ultimately had a big sleepover for the last time with lifelong friends.
-Lauren
