Wednesday – Student Spotlight

Good Morning Everyone!

Our student spotlight and daily recap is provided by Julia Powell. Enjoy!

My experience during this trip has been life changing. Two people in particular have impacted me in ways that I could never put into words (but I will obviously try!); furthermore; my heart has never felt so much love and comfort in such a new and unknown place. I worked with the oldest kids this week (8th graders) and I am so blessed and grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to build a very special bond and relationship with Karla Andy. She has pure compassion, humility, selflessness, LOVE, joy, and peace. She showed me that she has instilled just as much hope in my life for the future as I have in her. We have matching bracelets, MANY pictures together, and she gave me a way to contact her after I leave Ecuador! Goodbye with her was one of the hardest I have experienced. We were both sobbing on the last day although we both KNOW that I will be back next year. She is incredible. The 2nd person who has completely changed my perspective on life is Juan Carlos. The “girlies” (Deanna, Abby, Charlotte and myself) and I worked with Juan Carlos everyday after school, and he was the BIGGEST BLESSING in the most unexpected place. He always made sure we had water, asked if we needed a break, helped us with our jobs, and talked to us about his life and his family. I have never seen a man LIGHT UP so much about his children. The first night, we happened to see him and his daughter, GENESIS, in the park. The second night we met his wife in their shop. And the third day two missionaries came to talk about sponsorships and specifically asked about Juan Carlos and his son Fabian who needed a sponsor. Immediately, we knew we HAD to help and couldn’t imagine seeing two parents with two AMAZING children, who go to church 3 days a week, struggle financially to keep Fabian in the best place he could be. For that, the “girlies” have begun to personally sponsor Fabian this year and every year that follows, and we have found a way to make sure we have contact and a relationship with the most pure and humble family we have ever met. When we told them, their whole family started crying out of gratitude. The Lord put specific people in my life this year to show me that there is such pure joy here with an abundance of God’s grace. Many other students from the team had a relationship with the kids, and the last day with them was very hard and sad. But we know we will be back, in some form, and we will never forget the very special moments we shared here.

-Julia Powell