State side.... for a little while at least. Part 1

Since I arrived in Ecuador at the beginning of August, I had not left the country. I had traveled all through it and seen various parts of it, but I had yet to return to the States. Originally I was planning on only being down here for one session and after school ended I was hoping to be able to  travel around a bit and possibly visit some of the neighboring countries. However, since I knew that God was going to be having back for at least another year, I made plans to make the most of my summer in the USA. My plane flew out on the morning of the June 14th and I was back in CC Town before 2pm.

My family and Holden met me at the air port and went dirrectly to my grandparent's house. We had an awesome time just visiting, seeing all of my cousins and grandparent's and eating, eating way to much. However, that evening when we got home, at around 11pm Dad woke up in severe pain and went to the ER. Because he had knee surgery the week before, and had taken an eight hour trip to Dallas a few days after surgery, he had developed two blood clots. One in his calf and the other inside part of his lung. He was in the hospital for over a week and has since been doing great!

There is a Christian AWANA type camp that I have done for the last five years in Arkansas. While last summer (2010) was my last year as a camper. Since it was a few days after I returned, I was able to go this year, even though my dad was still in the hospital. I helped out as a staffer and have several occasions to speak to the high schoolers about what I was doing, how I got to Ecuador, what I have experienced and be able to challenge them about what they were doing currently as far as the big picture. I had a wonderful time being with everyone, seeing old friends, meeting new campers and having a busy but restful time. We filled up thousands of water balloons, covered people's faces with peanut butter, heard some great sermons and excellent fellowship.

On the last evening of the camp I received and email from my director, talking about the direction that he felt the the Lord was taking the ministry, and that was to the community of Pusuno. We have been going to Pusuno for a while now, mainly when there are teams down or when we have clothes or something to take them. But we have not yet had a solid future changing, long term impact relation with them. Not that they are ungrateful for our what we do, but there is so much more that we could be doing. That we ought to be doing.  And that was the purpose of the email, to test the waters so to speak, getting my thoughts on going down river every morning 4 days a week to teach English. To see if *I* would be interested in going. Now I had just spoke three times in front of 200 people and talked individually with several of them, urging them to leave their comfort zones and really, in essence being more than what we currently are, being more than mediocrity, going for it no matter what and seeing what God is wanting them to do in their lives. And then this was put in front of me. A shot out from left field,  something that  caught me completely off  guard. Not that I was against going, but it was not what I thought the email was about at all in the slightest. That night, the last night of camp, I was confused about what God was doing. I thought that I already knew what I where I was supposed to be. In Ecuador, in the jungle, teaching, but not several miles down river from where I was last year. I had become comfortable with where I was, and I started to wonder, almost fearfully "what if I am truly out of my depth?"