When we were in Ecuador, we had the privilege of working with a local Assemblies of God church right outside of Quito in a town called Lleno Grande, as well as spending a day with a small Indian church in a Quichua Indian village outside of Otavalo. While at the church near Otavalo, we did a children's outreach. The excitement among those kids was unreal. The smallest things, like a bouncy ball or a balloon animal, made them just light up! We would be swarmed with kids so excited to have something so simple. It was amazing, to say the least. The hugs and smiles from those children were the warmest I've ever experienced in my life. We could feel their genuine love and gratitude, despite the fact that we couldn't understand most of what they said (I made lots of balloon animal dogs, cause it's one of the few Spanish words I know! :D). They didn't care what it was we gave them, they were appreciative to have anything.
The rest of our time there was spent in Lleno Grande, and it was truly a wonderful experience, every bit of it. From the moment we arrived at La Presencia for the first time, we were treated like family. The pastor spoke of how we were the first sign of all of their dreams coming true. We helped dig holes to create the foundation for their brand new building, one that will actually be theirs! It was amazing to be apart of such a huge step in their church's journey. We also were able to help run a VBS (Vacation Bible School) for the children of the church and their friends. The amount of knowledge these kids had about the Bible was inspiring to me. I sat in on a class and heard the teachers tell a story about Samuel. As soon as they were done and started asking questions, the kids knew every detail! It was astonishing to me how thirsty they were for God's Word!
Like I said, this trip to Ecuador was my first mission trip ever, and it definitely taught me a lot. But, the biggest change in my life from this trip is the new perspective I have on joy and contentment. We don't always think about this, but in reality, all anyone really sees is the world directly around them. Here in the states, even the worst parts of our world can barely compare to how many people live in the nations around us. We like to think the rest of the world is just as comfortable as us, or that our problems are the worst there is, but it's just simply not true.
Most of the people of these two churches had nothing or very close to it, and most of them walked miles or took 7 hour bus rides just to attend church each Sunday. But it was humbling to see these people who had absolutely nothing walk into the doors of those churches and be completely filled with joy, because they knew they had everything they could ever need in Christ. These people who were physically so poor, were so rich in the presence of God!
That is what the Bible teaches us after all, isn't it? The things of this Earth do not make us rich. What makes us rich is the fact that we have the kingdom of heaven to look forward to! In Matthew 6:19-21, it says "Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be."
So many times, we take what we have for granted, and we even take God for granted. I am guilty of it too. We don't lean on God to sustain us in every situation because we have so much already to fall back on. We rely on our "treasures" here on earth to sustain us and get us through. But what if everything was taken from us? What if we didn't have all of these earthly treasures? Would we curse God, or would we continue to praise him because he is all we truly need?
I think that this is exactly why the Bible says in Mark 10:25 that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” We don't necessarily think of ourselves as rich most of the time, but compared to the majority of he rest of he world, we are, just because we live in America and have roofs over our heads... We cannot let the treasures in our lives distract us from our eternal treasure in heaven. Our joy has got to be founded in Christ and our salvation in Him.
This experience was truly eye-opening to me in showing me this. We need to rely on God for everything and find our joy and hope in him. If our joy is not found in him, when everything else is stripped away from us, we won't have joy, because our joy wasn't rooted in the right place to begin with. We have to have our joy grounded in The Lord and the hope that one day we will be with him. If our joy is found in anything other than him, we can never be truly joyful.
From one heart to another <3
