I Don’t Believe in Coincidence

June 28th

Patate, Ecuador

Today was fairly uneventful….for the most part at least. But I say that looking at the Andes Mountains surrounding the camp and the Southern Cross star formation in the sky. No day is really uneventful anyway. I did get to catch up on lots of sleep today, the first day I’ve been able to sleep in during my three weeks here in Ecuador. The weather has turned a bit cold, hovering around 12˚ C or about 50-55˚ F. It was a good day to stay inside and catch up on my writing and laundry (which there was lots of it to do).

I did, however, decide to venture out in the late afternoon to climb the mountain next to the camp across the river. It was getting a little late, around 6pm, and the sun sets rapidly here in the Andes, so I knew it would have to be a quick climb. With my gear and a headlamp, I set off alone for a peaceful climb to the top. On my way to the base of the mountain, I heard a truck coming behind me. It struck me as a little strange considering that there are maybe two houses on the road I was traveling and the truck had the markings of a taxi. Being a gringo, I waved at the two men in the truck as they pulled in someone’s driveway. I continued to walk until I heard the truck again, this time going in reverse on the dusty road. A little confused, I stopped walking until the taxi pulled up next to me.

To my disbelief, it was Milton Rodriquez, the very same man I had met in Artezon just a few days earlier. The first time we met, he was one of the many villagers digging a ditch for the new water system to be placed along the main road to the town. It was a meeting I’ll always remember as he told me that he was one of twenty Christians in the village of three hundred families. He admired the work we were doing with the kids at the school and our paintings and murals of the past two weeks. I prayed with him for the village and for encouragement to the handful of other Christians in the village. Needless to say, I was a little taken back to see him again. We were a good 15 minutes away from Artezon and in the middle of nowhere.

He greeted me warmly and was extremely happy to see me. He introduced me to his friend that had just become a Christian and a look of shock and dismay seemed to stay on his face for our entire visit. Milton got out of the truck and hustled me over to the man on the other side in order to pray for him and his family. Afterwards, I pointed towards the hill where the camp stood and told him that’s where I worked and would live for the summer. A few minutes later in our conversation, Milton invited to go to his house sometime and told me that he wanted to visit the camp and see what God was doing in the valley. We had a problem though, no pen or paper and I needed his cell phone number in order to contact him. So he pulled off a thick leaf from an aloe plant on the side of the road and engraved his nine digits into it. It was very apparent that he was a man who wanted to continue to learn about God and be a witness to his village.

After parting ways and promising to meet up again, I walked down the dusty road to the base of the mountain with my aloe leaf in hand, thinking about how God uses us to encourage one another in our walks with Him. I don’t know my complete purpose for being here this summer, but if it’s just to encourage Milton and the other believers in Artezon, then I’m okay with that. If God wants me to be half way around the world to encourage the growth of His church, then so be it.