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| Singing around the cross in the middle of Quito... |
One sunny Sunday in Quito, I found myself walking through a city park with nothing to do. La Carolina park is probably the liveliest place in Quito on Sundays. There are families everywhere, buying cotton candy, going on circus rides, playing soccer tournaments, riding in the bumper boats, and even doing 80s-style aerobics (pretty entertaining). On this day, though, I felt like I would have rather been somewhere in nature, getting away from all the commotion in the city (I am DEFinitely not a city girl). I wandered around the park for a while, trying to find a quiet place where I could be alone and think. After thinking of myself and wandering like this for a while, a thought hit me. Maybe God was about to do something. Two weeks from that Sunday (Jan. 23), I was to realize a dream that has been in my heart for a long time: God's incredible creation manifesting itself in the lives and testimonies of young people, whose lives have been changed by knowing Him, in the form of music and art. God sent me on a prayer walk without my even knowing it! Later that day, I heard the original version of a song we would perform for the first time ever, completely “by chance”, on one friend's cd and on a different friend's computer! From that day, I knew I should be expecting something and my mind was more focused in prayer than it has been in a long time. Wow.
It seems like in most events like this, people don't show or one group will show up late, etc. But, nothing like this happened on the day of the event. All of the musicians/dancers/artists I invited showed up and it was an amazing time! Three amateur Christian bands (they all played acoustic this time) and some rappers/beat-boxers and dancers were able to perform with us! Most people were students at the institute or friends of students at the institute, but we were also able to include the guys and leaders from Casa Gabriel, which is the home for street boys I mentioned in an earlier blog. This video is of my a cappella choir from the music institute performing the arrangement of “I Wonder as I Wander” we've been working on. The recording quality is not good, so it is difficult to hear all the parts, but hopefully you get an idea of how much fun we had doing it! After we took turns performing for a while, we were able to have a time of group worship. It was so different than what I expected, yet so good. I had been expecting God to move in a big way in a serious time of intercessory prayer, or something like that. What happened instead, was that God gave us joy. The group wanted to do all of the fun latin-rhythm-infused worship songs we knew. We also jammed and improvised. The biggest surprise for me was that everyone wanted to improvise a cappella-style, too! I didn't think we'd be able to do that, so I hadn't really planned anything, but God gave me some great ideas and it was AMAZING!
So, you might be thinking, “Wow, that must have been a pretty big day!” Well, that was only ONE of the awesome choir performances we had that day! My church choir also performed songs from Russia and Africa in the service! (Ok, I'll stop using exclamation points, now.) It was really an exciting day though, and a ton of fun for everyone involved.
There have been many other encouragements lately. I get to work with 31 energetic little ones everyday. Here are some pictures of us on a recent field trip to see SNAKES:
I have also been able to lead worship a couple of times lately and I always come away humbled by being able to experience His presence so clearly. It is just fun! My voice and piano lessons are going well and we are getting ready for a recital in April. I was able to play Mozart in a friend's wedding last weekend, which is always a lot of work, but fun. I am also thankful that God has been providing for a lot of the financial needs and it's coming just in time! Even though my great new apartment is very inexpensive (my roommate is a veteran missionary who works at Alliance Academy), everything always costs more than expected and I am really thankful for how God has provided. Thanks to all of you who are taking part in that! I even got a guitar (for a while)! A friend went to the states for a while and asked me to hold onto it for him until he gets back. Of course, there are always difficult things about being a missionary. One imparticular was that the place where I was house-sitting was robbed while my roommate and I were asleep in December. Thankfully, we were able to recover all the things they tried to steal and we were all safe. So, there are always difficult things and I definitely deal with discouragement sometimes, so I could use your prayers. But, overall, life is good in Ecuador and I am going to keep walking down the path He sets out for me. I could use your prayers that it will be a clearly-defined one and that my heart will keep moving in the direction of my feet.
