Hello there!!
Throwback to the week before coming back home. Enjoy reading the life of a missionary overseas in the middle of a pandemic & the process of getting back home.
THURSDAY
Started off just like any other day.
6:30am: Woke up!
7:00am: Morning Devos
8:00am: Breakfast
9:00am: Hit the road to catch a bus to Ministry
10:00am: Arrived at the High School & began grading papers for teachers
11:00am: Talk started about Coronavirus outbreak in Quito
11:30am: Rumors that school was cancelled for tomorrow
11:30am-12pm: Uncertainty & teacher drama
2pm: Found out we didn’t have school tomorrow & headed back home.
3pm: Found out another team’s ministry was cancelled.
FRIDAY
Copy paste the first part of my morning because it was the same except we didn’t go to ministry.
10am: Uber’d to the Mall
10:20am-12:00pm: Working on my patience as I was getting a SIM for my phone.
12:00pm: Received an email that precautions were being taken by Adventures in Missions & one squad was being sent home because of the virus & to be checking our emails often for upcoming changes & info.
1:00pm: Uber’d back to the house uncertain about the unknown but filled with peace.
The rest of the day was spent hearing assumptions & uncertainty of what it meant for us.
9:00pm: I had a strong feeling from the Lord that we would get an announcement tomorrow that we’d be sent home.
SATURDAY
7:00am: Woke up & the Lord told me to stay home & process/hangout with Him instead of going to Old Town Quito with friends.
7:30am-9:00am: Morning devos!
9:00am: Made some bomb Chapin breakfast (scrambled eggs w/ fried platanos & beans) with some friends.
10am-2pm: awesome time with God hangin’!!
2pm: worked out
3pm: Received an email about AIM putting each squad in a group of highest priority to lowest. We were the lowest priority.
4pm: went to a little pizza place around the corner from our house.
4:30pm: Received another email about Adventures in Missions deciding to send squads home & things were getting worse.
5pm: told to come home asap for a squad meeting.
6pm: Announcement made that all squads have reached highest priority & we were being sent home as soon as possible but not sure when.
I immediately felt peace from the Lord & thanked God for preparing me ahead of time.
6pm-6:30pm: sad sad sad
6:30pm-8:00pm: Filled with Joy & rejoicing at all God has done the last seven months & all He will do in & through us at home. Wow!!
8:00pm-8:30pm: packing party!
8:30pm-10pm: Hanging with friends & watching Life as we know it
10pm-3am: lying awake not knowing what I felt or anything because my mind hadn’t caught up to reality.
SUNDAY
SLOWEST DAY OF MY LIFE
6am: Woke up to our Bros coming back home from living in a different city in Ecuador.
6:30am: Tried to do my morning devos but my mind couldn’t focus.
7:00am: Found out we weren’t leaving until Wednesday & that we weren’t allowed to leave the house because there could be possible changes.
1:00pm: Found our flight got changed to tomorrow morning at 3am & to book a flight home from Atlanta for Thursday because we were going to have a two day debrief.
1:00pm-4:00pm: Going stir crazy & waiting!!!
4:00pm-5:30pm: Cleaning/dance party
5:30pm-10:30pm: trying to stay up, going stir crazy & making some last memories in our house & with each other.
11pm: Goodbye to our house & hosts & headed to the airport.
MONDAY
12:45am: Checked in & found out half of our squad didn’t have seats on our connecting flight.
3:00am: Goodbye Ecuador!
5:00am-9:00am: Chillin’ in Columbia & trying to figure out seats.
9:00am: yayy! Everyone got seats! Goodbye Columbia.
3:00pm: Hello USA! Wow, things just got real.
3:30pm: Goodbyes to some people 🙁
5:00pm-6:30pm: Relaxing & settling into our hotel & taking hot wonderful showers
6:30pm: Pizza party!! & announcements made that we can’t be in groups of more than 10 people so changes were made to our debrief schedule. No more all squad events 🙁
The rest of the night was spent relaxing, processing & hanging out.
TUESDAY
10:00am: Shocked that I slept in so late!
12:00pm: Found out we needed to change our flight asap & that we aren’t actually having a two day Debrief.
12:00pm-2pm: Changing flights. People packing fast. Rushed goodbyes as people running down the halls trying to catch the next shuttle & find squadmates to say goodbye. Everyone running around & rushing completely overwhelmed, sad & shocked.
WEDNESDAY
And the seventh day I rested…
These six days felt like one day & one month at the same time! There wasn’t a moment to process or to really understand what is happening. It was crazy! I am sooo extremely thankful for AIM staff & how hard they were working with everything that keeps getting thrown at them. They are truly amazing!! I’m so grateful.
Well, I hope you have a better understanding of everything I went through & enjoyed reading about my six days of chaos.
Thank you for your continuous prayers!!
