Week Four: An Eye-Opening Tour of South Quito

What is the poorest area of the world that you’ve seen with your own eyes? A bad neighborhood in your city? Or in another state? Have you been in other country on vacation or a missions trip?

I live every day in the midst of extreme poverty. Every day I see people who literally have nothing. At the end of the day, they lie down in the streets with their children to sleep. Little children every day get on the busses to beg for money. In restaurants they come up to your table and beg you for your leftovers. There are people who are blind, mute, deaf, paralyzed, who can do nothing but sit on the side of the street and beg.

I see it every day. It breaks my heart. But even for having seen it every day, I never get used to it. A lot of times on the bus I have to try to hold back the tears. Today was a day like that. Jairo and I went with Bre and our friend Byron to the south of Quito, relatively close by where we live, to see some of the ministries of Isaiah 61, the non-profit organization of Byron and his wife Becky. We saw orphanages, poor schools, small churches, and a food bank.

Sometimes the evil in the world is almost paralyzing. I came home feeling like the problems in this world are so huge, and I’m so small. I will work my whole life to help people like these, orphans, widows, poor families, and I won’t even make a dent. How do you feel good about the five people you helped today when there are millions who are still dying?

In these moments, I have to cling to my God, who is bigger than all the poverty, all the illness, all the evil in all the world. I think the reason that we cry when we see these things, the reason we care, the reason we can’t sleep at night, is because God wants us in action. The Bible makes it clear that God wants His people lifting up these people and giving them new hope and new life. His heart aches for the lost, and ours should too.

It frustrates me that there are so many non-Christian organizations in the world feeding the hungry and giving medical care to the sick, while our churches do nothing. We should set the example in giving, in healing, in giving hope, in lifting up the downhearted, in liberating the world from evil and suffering. Why aren’t we doing anything?

God is going to demand an account for every person who died lost, without hope, while we were comfortable in our pews on Sunday morning. I want to see more Christians getting their hands dirty, like Jesus did. If you don’t know where to start, we need your help here in Ecuador. But please, just do something. We can’t fight this battle alone. Help us save the lost. It’s not just the job of “missionaries”. We’re all called to do it. It’s a commandment that comes straight from Jesus. You don’t have to look very far to see the need. Be a light in the darkness. Please. The world needs us. The world needs Jesus.