Members of our traveling group had varied personal reasons for making this visit to Ecuador, I'm sure. Before our trip, I felt my reasons for going might be more selfish than others' reasons. I'll revisit that thought later.
I had wanted to go on a mission for a long time. My friend Sarah long ago had invited me to go with her when we were both college age and she was planning to go as a teacher to Cuba. I had not gone then, but had seen how Sarah and her husband Ken had given their lives in other parts of the world sharing God's love and seeking practical solutions for more abundant living.
A couple months earlier, I had been preparing to go on another SIFAT medical mission to Ecuador. But because I was a late addition to the team without the same preparation of the others going and because of my age and the high altitude of the destination, the teams leaders turned down my request to go on that trip.
Another close friend had consoled me in a telephone conversation. She said something to the affect that "If God wants you to go on a mission trip, He will make it come together without problems or delays and you'll be on your way just like that." And that is exactly what happened for me. I'm sure pulling this trip together was more complicated for SIFAT, but to me it was the mission God intended for me.
On our first or second day, Tom, Sarah's son who is now director of SIFAT, explained that this was not a typical team. A typical team meets for months or sometimes even a year, getting to know each other and becoming a team, learning about the culture of the country and people, preparing what each will be responsible for during the mission.
Some of us had never met. Some of us were longtime friends. Family ties were
present as both Sarah and I were there with children and when the Shreveport part of our group arrived, we added another mother and son duo. I was there with my son and elder daughter. And Mama Luisa, who was mourning the loss of two sons in the past two years, took a liking to my son and he to her.
Sarah wrote about her first mission in 1958 in her 2014 Christmas letter you can read at this link:
http://sifat.org/hope-in-christmas/
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