Day 8 in Ecuador

Today turned out to be a more relaxing day, which was very nice since we didn't have much down time the past two days. After breakfast, we were told that we would be cleaning the house for about an hour, but with a twist. The leaders were going to take on a personality that sometimes exists in Short Term Missions teams such as the boss, the complainer, or the over-enthusiastic person. The purpose was to learn how to deal with these personalities when leading teams over this summer. It made cleaning more fun, although the complainer was really annoying.

We had some down time after our cleaning in the morning until lunch. Then we went to the Brown's apartment for some more training. We took a leadership/personality test and it was interesting to see how accurately it defined my strengths and weaknesses.

We then went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant for some delicious Chinese food. Rich shared a story that's main point was that at the end of the summer, we are going to be feeling happy and sad. Happy to see the many ways God worked over the summer and sad that we didn't do more in situations where we felt we should have. He encouraged us now to truly seek the voice of God and to be obedient to His spirit wherever that may be. It was a helpful story for me to remember to keep submitting to God's will throughout the summer and not my will.

Dinner was followed by practice with Cumbre Alta. Dale and I thought that we might have some problems because we had just eaten a lot of Chinese food but we turned out to be okay. We had a good talk with the assistant coach, Edgar, who is taking over for Nate while Nate is in the States. Edward splits up the first teamers and the second teamers and only focuses on the first team. So we were left with a crappy drill and with players that didn't want to play. We talked to Edgar about this after practice and he said that he is fine with us leading those players in some drills and having them work hard. It was an encouraging talk with the coach and helpful to know that we are able to lead these players and hopefully influence them positively.

Tonight, we rode back to the Casablanca with Sebastian and David Mejia (we call him Mejia). Dale and I have been saying how these rides back have been our favorite parts of the day. It is a great opportunity to get to know the players better and to practice our Spanish and for them to practice their English. It has been awesome to see how receptive they have been with us and I pray that our relationships will continue to deepen over these next two months.

The night was finished with watching the Cavs lose (sorry mom and Ohio family), hanging out, and playing worship music with the other interns. Tomorrow will be our last day all together as interns, which is depressing to say the least. Please be praying for these interns, especially for one named Bonnie who is gonna be the only intern in Colombia for two weeks!

Sorry I don't have any pictures today, but hopefully you will still read!

Dios Bendiga,
Nich