Life as a Sinchi Warmi

They are working on building one of the new cabañas.
This was after the said "Warmi! Límonada con hielo por favor!"
Sonya, Nelli, Abuelita, Betti, Ernesto and Jamie

Ahhhh, the country of Ecuador. So many wonderful things this place has to offer.  I really feel like I live in a country of rainbows and happiness. First off, the country's modo is 'Ecuador: ama la vida' in English: 'Ecuador: love life' and with that is a wonderfully, circular emblem of color. I get to live in the middle of the Amazon basin where I always know it is going to be pretty warm with rain almost every day, so basically Louisiana in the summer time. Which means, I am surrounded by green: trees, grass, flowers, fruits many of which are only found here in Ecuador. I can walk through the jungle and pull a piece of fruit off a tree and there it is, a delicious gift from The Lord. There are waterfalls, mountains in the distance, rushing rivers, and jungle all around. What a life.

Favio teaching us how to use
the leaves to make jewelry

the kids like to sleep in my hammock
Kati, Karlita, Latícia, and Rina

I would have to say though, the best part of being here is that I get to live in community with the people of Sinchi Warmi. My favorite charism FMC has, other than Catholic, is our great since of community. I LOVE COMMUNITY! It was already a blessing from The Lord that He gave us community with the guys only 20 minutes away in Ahuano, but He also gave us this community to live in as well. The best part of every day is when the kids come home. I say the kids like they are mine, but I really feel like they are sometimes. That is the life of community. But everyday at 2 o'clock, we all of a sudden hear a bunch of little Spanish voices yelling "Lorena! Raquel! Graciella" and suddenly our house is filled with 4-20 little nuggets. 

fishing for some tilapia

we turned our room into a movie theatre: Cinderella in Spanish
Rina, Andrebella, Shalla, Latícia, and Ronni

The family here has taken us in as their own. Like we say at FMC "We are a family of families." This is how the Kichwas of Sinchi Warmi live. They are all one big family of nine families. They are currently building three more cabanas for tourists to come stay. We are so blessed to be able to work alongside them as they are building up this community. They are a great help not only with learning Spanish, but they take time to teach us Kichwa as well. They like to teach us how they live. How they use the jungle around them for things they want or need. If I ever have free time, there is always someone to go talk to, someone very happy to spend time to teach me a little Kichwa, or guitar lessons with two of the youth here, Bryan and Miguel, and of course there is always some adorable children who just want to spend time with us. They are always so happy to see us, to walk with us to town, to help us do different tasks around the house or the property. Bryan, Miguel, and Jipson also like to come with us to do ministries in the other communities or for a day of fun at the river or waterfalls. Thank You Lord for this incredible blessing of communal life.

Rachel really loves washing laundry by hand

The Power of Prayer for The Joy of the Gospel

So the other day we had about an hour to kill before we had to go to a community for Mass. I was so excited to have this time during the day to pray.

For those who don't know, Rachel, Candice, and I are stationed in a small town called Mishualli, which has 54 communities surrounding it that belong to the Parish. Most of the communities are 'Kichwa,' a culture of indigenous people here in Ecuador that live in the jungle and have a strong since of work ethic. We have the great opportunity of living in one of the communities called 'Sinchi Warmi' which means 'strong woman' in Kichwa. This community is owned by one big family of nine siblings along with their individual families. It was built/being built as a tourist lodging place where visitors can stay in a cabaña(wood floors, bamboo walls, and a roof of palm leaves) explore the trails of the property, fish in their tilapia ponds, learn and enjoy life like the Kichwas. 

On the property they have a gazebo type cabaña overlooking one of the tilapia ponds. It is such a great place to pray. After making lunch, eating and cleaning up, I started to make my way over there, then checked my watch and realized I only had 20 minutes before we had to leave. Ahhhh Dios Yayalluna! ("My God" in Kichwa) Definitely not a sufficient amount of time, so I turned around and headed back to the house for another monotonous chore. 

I then thought back to the beginning of Intake when it was so "difficult" for me to devote only 20 minutes a day to pray with The Lord, and now 20 minutes isn't enough! Praise Be Jesus Christ for that!! That is the power of prayer. I was so ignorant when I didn't corporate prayer into my daily life, thinking I could make it through life without the help of God. 

Blessed John Paul II said, "Prayer to a Christian is like breathing!"

It is how we get strength from The Lord, how we know what HIS Will is for our lives, how we receive the gifts we need, how we recognize all the many blessings He gives us each and ever day, by entering into that intimate relationship with our God, reading His Word, listening for His voice, telling Him our joys and struggles, and asking for what we need. We have a compassionate God, loving like a Father who wants an intimate relationship with his child. 

Pope Francis' encyclical: The Joy Of the Gospel reiterates this message:

"Though it is true that this mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassing anything which we can see and understand . . . This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us." (12)

If we think we can go through this life without the help our Lord, we are so very wrong. Before answering "Yes!" to The Lord's call for me to be His little missionary, I lived everyday for Him and was a devoted Catholic. I loved serving Him and others but I lacked this Spirit led life driven by prayer. 

In our wonderful cabaña, we have a few little problems: Rats. Roaches. Tarantulas. Bugs. Bugs. Bugs.
I remember when I lived at home and I once heard a tiny mouse that had fallen down from the attic into my wall... Guess who didn't sleep in her room that night... I woke up to my dad looking down at me confused why I was sleeping on the couch.  He laughed at me and said, "It can't get you if it's in the wall!"

Well, now the only thing that separates me from a big ole rat is just a thin little bug net, and I sleep soundly through the night. WHY? Because I live out the Joy of the Gospel with a whole lot of help from The Lord and a whole lot of prayer!

 Being a missionary without prayer is impossible! Living out the fullest life possible as a Christian without prayer is impossible! I quickly changed this great lacking in my life and now CRAVE time to pray, and every day God shows me all the ways He blesses me. He constantly strengths me so I can "maintain a spirit of joy" while doing His Will. What a gift!

I challenge everyone who isn't setting aside time for personal prayer with God every day to start doing so. He has a great mission for each of our lives to do His work, to live out His Gospel, to be a tool He uses to bring about Eternal Salvation! What a mission! He wants to give us a great Joy "in the midst of a task that is so demanding and challenging." He wants to "offer us everything"!