Thanksgiving in Ecuador
Thanksgiving was very different this year. For as long as I can remember, I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and extended family. Even when I moved away for college, I always traveled back for our family’s celebrations. So by the beginning of November, I was already getting worried about the start of the holiday season. I was prepared for it to be a really sad day, but I was pleasantly surprised!
While I was still very sad that I couldn’t spend Thanksgiving with my family, I was so very grateful for an invitation to a friends house for a traditional Thanksgiving. We made all the fixin’s and got to introduce two Ecuadorians to their first Thanksgiving (it is not a holiday celebrated in Ecuador). It was so sweet to spend time with other families and friends who weren’t able to go home either. And I have to say, it was the best Thanksgiving food I have ever eaten! Making everything from scratch is definitely not something I would recommend if you have easier options, but it did make for the best and freshest food I’ve ever celebrated with!
Personal Reflections
In my time with the Lord recently, I’ve been reflecting on the miracle of Jesus multiplying the fish and loaves to feed the crowd of 5000. While reading the passage, I was listening to Fishes and Loaves by Josiah Queen, one of my favorite artists. This song is a creative narrative of the story, but he doesn’t tell it from Jesus’ perspective, or even the disciples. He shares from the perspective of the boy who shared his food.
We don’t really know much about this boy. All we know is Simon Peter’s recount saying, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” We don’t really know how Simon Peter found the boy, or even the willingness of the boy to share – much of his story is a mystery. But what we do know is that he gave up the security of his lunch to serve Jesus.
No matter how hungry the crowd was, the young boy had no obligation to share his meal. He had safety and security in knowing that he had enough food for himself. He could eat whenever he wanted and would be fully satisfied. But when the time came, he surrendered this security to Jesus. He didn’t know a miracle was about to happen. He may have thought that he was giving up his entire meal to serve Jesus, or maybe he thought they would sit down and share it; but he certainly didn’t expect to leave that field with a full belly and 12 baskets of leftover food.
It can be so hard to lay down security, safety, and comfort to serve our Savior. It is by far one of the hardest lessons to learn as we walk in our Christian lives, especially as North American Christians. But there is also so much opportunity in this surrender. Jesus knew he was about to perform a great miracle, but he needed the boy’s surrender in order to perform it. What I have been asking myself, and what I now encourage you to ask yourselves is this: Is there anything in my life that I’m not surrendering to the Lord? Is it for fear of losing my personal security? And what would happen if I surrendered it anyway? What could the Lord do with it?
Ministry Updates
The Cafecito program is continuing to go so great! It is already so fruitful and has been such a blessing to our team and the women!
We are in our final stages of preparation for the Christmas parties! Please be in prayer December 9-12 as we serve the women, share the love of God, and celebrate Jesus’ birth with them!
Our Black Friday sales at EsperanzArt went great!! And we had a small pop up shop in Arizona that performed really well. We’re so grateful for this extra income that we can use to serve the women better. Ps. if you’re still looking for Christmas gifts, you can shop AND support our women here.
Answered Prayers
• The women we are connecting with and whom are opening up to us
• The power situation has improved significantly! We’re down to only having power cuts for about 2 hours during the day and 3 hours overnight!
• The success EsperanzArt has experienced over the past few weeks
• We launched ESE’s new website, you can visit it here!
• For the people God has put in my life and Thanksgiving spent with friends
Prayer Requests
• For our Christmas parties this coming week! That they would go smoothly, be a blessing to our women, and that we would be able to connect well with them
• For the women to continue to be open with us, share their stories, and allow us to help them how we can and, most importantly, be open to the Lord and his help
• For safe travel next month when I come home for Christmas!!