If I had to choose just one word to describe my time in Ecuador so far, it would be: bittersweet. For every beautiful moment, there is a painful one. I feel like I am always living with both joy and grief at the same time.
For example, every time I go to the grocery store, I feel so much gratitude when I’m able to buy everything I need, but I can’t help but think about how the women we serve are selling themselves just to be able to buy food for their kids. Or when I’m talking with them, I feel so grateful that they trust us enough to share such vulnerable things, and many of them inspire me with their faith in the midst of extremely difficult circumstances. But at the same time, my heart breaks more and more as I hear about all the suffering, abandonment, trauma, and abuse these precious women have endured.
But living the bittersweet… makes me feel closer to Jesus. Because He lived that way. He is “the rainbow that appears in the clouds on a rainy day” (Ezekiel 1:28), and only with Him can “lamentation and mourning and woe” become “as sweet as honey” (Ezekiel 2:10, 3:3). Life is bitter, but with Jesus it is bittersweet—because He is the sweetness; He is all the good we see and long to see. And one day, all who believe in Him will live a life without bitterness when He makes all things new.