Final Week

We wanted to write one more time as we come into our final week here in South America.  Amazing that time is passing so quickly - in no time we'll be on that plane back home!  We're writing this from the border of Peru and Ecuador, a town called Huaquillas.  We passed through here a couple times before on the long bus trip.  We were sad to say goodbye to so many new friends yesterday in Trujillo as we left for the bus.  Most of the other interns left the night before, as they wanted a few more adventures in Ecuador, but Katie and I were leading one final mission team so we are now making the trek on our own.  This border exchange has been eventful, including a taxi driver who seemed to lie to us twice and wandered into a situation where he (meaning we) had to pay a bribe, but we found a bus for tonight and a cheap hotel for the afternoon to sleep and shower.

Leading the team last week, from a Chinese Alliance church in Winnipeg, Canada, was really awesome for me (John).  I'd been looking forward to the opportunity to lead a team all summer, though I'd been contributing some leadership to all the teams all summer.  I felt in my element as much as ever all summer, and formed some great bonds with the team.  They were really blessed by their experiences, and certainly blessed us interns and the albergue.  We've left the albergue a lot closer to being done than it was when we arrived, especially with all the painting.  It's exciting to see all the work that was done, but we still know there is plenty left to do to reach the point when it can open to children.  As of when we left, there's still another team coming before the season of mission teams ends, then it's just up to the various missionaries and hired workers.

Before we left, we got to say our final goodbyes to people and do an exit interview with our director.  It was good to reflect over the summer.  It's certainly been challenging, but we do feel like we rose to the situation and overcame successfully.  While our time didn't look like what we had hoped, I think we found fulfillment in serving God through serving our earthly bosses.  We both feel strongly about Colossians 3:23, which speaks about serving the Lord rather than men, and we both threw ourselves fully into the tasks that were asked of us.  With constancy and dedication, we did what we were called to do and accomplished a lot.  The mission field is often a changing world, with different demands and little steady job descriptions.  Whether this is due to God's design or man's shortcomings is irrelevant, but it is an opportunity to practice obedience and submission to authority.  One of our goals this summer was to serve the long-term interests of Inca Link, and we hope that we have done that through the tasks we accomplished!