Day 6 and 7 in Ecuador

A cross we hiked to with an amazing view

The race continued today as we traveled to a camp about 45 minutes away called el Refugio. Here we participated in many different activities such as touching a lama blindfolded, hiking up a mountain, catching water balloons, throwing axes, and drawing the creation story using chalk. This took the whole morning up until lunch. My team consisted of Matt, Josh, and Elena.

After a delicious lunch, everyone worked together in an event that they call todo lodo, which is similar to a tough mudder. We had many different obstacles to go through, some requiring teamwork. We had to get in ice cold water at one point, but other than that it was a blast!

After we completed todo lodos!

We all washed up and had some hangout time before dinner where we played volleyball, soccer volleyball, and card games. Dinner was great again and after dinner, Patrick, Anna, Dale and I traveled back into the city of Quito for practice with Cumbre Alta. This practice was extremely challenging for me. The drills that I was involved in were frustrating and lasted a long time, doing the same thing over and over again. After these drills, the coach took us through an ab, arms, and legs workout. This workout, along with the todo lodo today, were very physically demanding and I will definitely be feeling it in my leg tomorrow. All those things aside, the end of practice brought more opportunities to interact with some players. One of the players, Daniel, invited us over to his house to play FIFA. It was cool to see this relationships continue to be built and to see God working despite the frustrations of practice.

Once practice was over, we headed back to el Refugio and called it a night. Today was another awesome day with the interns and I have been amazed at how quickly the interns have bonded through the things we all have gone through. God has blessed me with amazing new friendships that I never foresaw happening.

That’s it for Tuesday. Wednesday started with us eating breakfast and then completing two activities that the camp offers. The first one we did was called Leap of Faith. What you had to do was climb a pole that had climbing rocks on it. Once you got to the top you had to stand on top of it and then jump off to grab a trapeze. The leader wanted us to think of insecurities that we had that could inhibit us during our internships this summer. Once we got to the top of the pole, we were to write our insecurities on the pole and leave them behind as we took our leap of faith. This exercise was fun but intimidating at the same time.

Brad chilling with a llama

The other exercise was called the Phoenix, which was basically a huge swing. The leader told us how a Phoenix represents new life in Christ and how when we were at the top of the swing we were to think of what was holding us back from having new life in Christ. Another fun activity added with deeper meaning. After we were done with both of these activities, we talked about them as a group. Myself and others shared about the insecurities that were holding us back and it helped a lot to get to share that and hear others share as well.

The afternoon consisted of a test that concluded the Amazing Race. After the test, Rich and Elisa

Brown, the founders of Inca Link, told us their stories and trained us for our upcoming summers. We then ate a quick dinner and were driven back for practice by Rich and Elisa Brown. It was cool to get to talk with these two and share how we got here and just a little about ourselves.

This was from when we went to Panecillo

Practice was frustrating tonight due to the fact that my legs were sore from the hard workout yesterday and the team I was on didn't want to play defense and we lost 4-0. However, after practice we caught a ride home with Daniel, a player who Dale and I have had the chance to get closer to. On the ride home Daniel asked us if we were Christians and we told him we were and we found out that he was too. He wants to hang out a lot with this summer which will be awesome to get closer to him and hopefully prepare him and help him spread Christ throughout the team. 

After another long day, I look back and see the many ways God was at work despite my frustrations. It has been amazing to see all the different relationships I have been able to build so far this summer and it has only be a week. Keep praying that I would continue to surrender my all to God and put my full trust in him, despite the struggles and trials I might go through.

Dios Bendiga,

Nich