Impact
Gabriela Elias traveled to Ecuador to lead a team of five young
adults.
Impact. What God did the summer of 2004 in the Ecuador Division of South America’s Southwestern Territory was impact many lives through a small group of young people from the United States Southern Territory. Our Territory sent our group of five young adults to work in the mission field for 6 weeks in the beautiful country of Ecuador. These young people, myself, Gabriela Elias(team leader), being from the Georgia Division, Daynes Viera, from the Georgia Division, Elizabeth Prieto, from the Florida Division, NevaJean Sales, from the Kentucky & Tennessee Division, and Joel Colon, from the Florida Division, found ourselves on a battlefield across many lands. We pressed on throughout the summer, remembering and quoting the powerful passage of scripture, John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” Even though we traveled to a different country, the love of God was present in the lives of the people who greeted us with open arms. This love allowed us to recognize the God-filled relationships that had to grow between the two groups of people in order for us to work together and spread the Gospel. God answered many of our prayers and concerns for the mission trip, and He multiplied one of our greatest answers to prayer by five! We prayed to obtain help during the summer from some of the young people in Ecuador. We prayed that a local might even join the group for the summer. During our time in Ecuador, we had five different people join us. God’s blessings poured upon the group from before our departure from the United States and to this day continue to pour upon all of those that we encountered.
The first city we were in was the capital of Ecuador, Quito. There we helped at the Quito Sur Corps as well as the Sierra Hermosa Outpost. Afterwards, we went to the coastal city of Esmeraldas where you can hear music playing at all hours of the day and night and God’s people really know how to dance for him! After our stay in Esmeraldas, we went to another coastal city, Manta. The Divisional Congress took place in Manta. Upon our arrival in Manta, we had a huge breakfast of fish and rice followed by extensive work to help prepare the new buildings for the Battered Women’s Shelter, Daycare, and Corps Building to be inaugurated at the start of the Congress! Of course, that work took several days. We still remember being on our hands and knees scrubbing the chapel floor just hours before the first meeting of the Congress!
Our team was quite busy working alongside the various corps officers from the different corps we visited the entire six weeks we were in Ecuador. In each city, we led Hours of Joy, which would be the equivalent of Children’s Church except that it would be held in local schools, on the streets, and in the different corps buildings. We were also in charge of many Youth Meetings such as Sunday School, Young Adult Groups, workshops for Sunday School Teachers, and Bible lessons. We also planned and participated in many Open Air Meetings which most of the time we did not even know where we would hold them. We just knew we would ride around for a little while until we found a “good” spot. We also planned and taught workshops on the history of The Salvation Army, our Commitment between God and The Church, and on how to use music, mime, drama, timbrels, and sports to Praise God. We also participated in Home League Meetings, which we sometimes even led, a Music Festival in Quito, and the Divisional Congress. At the Sierra Hermosa Outpost, Joel even held their first ever Men’s Club Meeting!
At the end of our journey, the team felt we should have stayed even longer so that we could knock on more doors, to hold more open-air meetings, to distribute more bread, and much more, but the Salvationists of Ecuador continue the work in the mission field! The seeds were sowed in many hearts. The locals continue to this day to reap what they helped sow. However, the mission does not solely continue in Ecuador but in the lives of the young people that participated in the missionary work from last summer. The blessings we each received from participating on the summer service corps from 2004 will always remain in our lives.