Live the Aftershock
When I first visited Ecuador to know the Comunidad de Estudiantes Cristianos del Ecuador (CECE) it was March of 2015 and I was able to join them for their National Camp which, that year, had the theme: ‘Terremoto: Vive la Réplica’ or ‘Earthquake: Live the Aftershock’. It was a great metaphor to use as we studied the parables of Jesus. As we saw Jesus teach, each parable created an ‘earthquake’ within the hearers of the day and at the same time called them to ‘live the aftershock’ of His teaching – and the call remains the same for us today. Little did we know that a little over 13 months later, Ecuador would be rocked by a 7.8 earthquake and even now, after more than a month, we are still living with frequent aftershocks, some even up to 6.8.
As we as a CECE Quito staff team reflected on how we could help after the initial earthquake, many of us realized that physically going to the affected areas was actually going to be more of a nuisance than anything else. Up to this point, the only people really needed are professionals, be them medical, engineering, counseling, etc. So many volunteers were making their way to the coast following that initial urge of “I have to help” focusing a little too much on the “I” instead of looking at it and finding out how best to help those in need – even if that means simply donating the needed items from home. As the volunteers made their way to the coast, the already chaotic towns became inundated with hands wanting to help, but having no idea what to do, especially once they were confronted with the reality of death and destruction around them.
So as a staff team we looked at the needs in our own city, within the CECE movement. We found various specific families we could help on the coast by collecting and sending needed items to, as well as encouraging our students to partner with the churches doing various donation drives. But we found one specific area very few were engaging with, especially on campus – the emotional impact.
Personally, this was the first earthquake of this magnitude I’ve ever experienced. Coming from Nevada, one of the most (if not the most) seismologically active states in the USA, little shakes are nothing new, but the one in Ecuador was in a completely new weight class. I noticed my emotions were all over the place. Initially I was disconnected, expecting it to end in a second or two like the ones from Nevada. Later I was sad and feeling helpless watching the amount of destruction. Then I was angry seeing the death toll rise as a result of faulty construction and cutting corners. I recognized I suffered from a form of PTSD thinking that every big truck driving by my street and shaking the building or the window was yet another aftershock. With the last two 6.8 aftershocks last week, I was finally fed up. I didn’t want to try to leave the house, I didn’t want to deal with it. I just wanted it to STOP. It was quite the emotional roller coaster. Because of this, we decided that could be where we invested our efforts – creating a space to dialog about how students feel about the earthquake, the destruction, and the aftershocks, and then relating it to the gospel story and seeing how it can relate to the bigger story God has for us all.
Insert the proxe. What is a proxe you ask? Well, it is a very InterVarsity USA tool used for creative and engaging evangelism. It is much more than your simple tract, but rather uses a specific topic and creates a personal and intentional dialog that goes deeper and more personal until arriving at a connection to and presentation of the Gospel. While in college, I did a ton of them, so I figured we should see how they would work here in Ecuador. We had tried some out while I was at my training in Panama (read about my greatest takeaway here), and it worked really well, so I was pumped to try one with my students in Quito. We got to work designing our very own proxe to use on campuses throughout Ecuador. Our theme was the earthquake, our artistic component was the art of local Ecuadorian artist Guayasamín, and the Bible text we ended on was Isaiah 53:2-5.
With the current InterVarsity USA team visiting us for the next month, we decided that would be a great opportunity to test out the proxe. We found one university group that was willing to try it out and began prepping them. God also prepared hearts by bringing the emotions of the initial quake back to the forefront of people’s minds with the two 6.8 aftershocks two days before we headed out for spiritual conversations. Our students broke up into 6 pairs and ended up having various spiritual conversations in each pair. When we met up to debrief the experience and share how it went, we learned that one pair actually led two non-Christians to accept Jesus for the first time!
We may not be “in the field” right now in response to the earthquake (although we watch for future opportunities to serve!), but we choose to watch where God would have us serve. We saw a very specific need and God is using it! We have experienced the earthquake. Now it’s time to live the aftershocks!
This post has been viewed 57 time(s).