my ever-growing family

Family

This is a term I have been defining and redefining for myself my whole life. Don’t get me wrong my dictionary definition family are some of the most amazing and influential people in my whole life BUT I think family encapsulates a lot more than just blood relatives. For me family is an ever-growing community of people who hold a special place in my heart.

You are probably to the point of wondering why the heck I am talking about how I define family. The answer is: mine has been growing exponentially since I set foot in Ecuador and especially in the last few weeks. You may not know this because I have been AWOL the past month BUT my squad and I moved to a new ministry called El Refugio. It is basically an outdoors adventure ministry that lets you adventure while also learning about Jesus. I know, dope, right? 

Because of Covid they haven’t been able to have many groups there which means our ministry looked like a whole lot of manual labor. Macheting hiking trails. Mowing lawns. Building a gazebo. Weed whacking. Also making nails out of metal bars with some random machine that spins really fast and makes sparks when you put the metal to it, but we won’t talk about that because it was an incredibly strange time in my life. 

What we will talk about is who made every day one worth doing all of those things (other than my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, of course). The interns: Bethany, Elliot, Ana, Ivan, Riely, and Josue. The “father” of interns: Luis. The man who does it all and I really don’t know his job title: Benji. THESE PEOPLE. I can’t even begin to explain to you how grateful I am to know them. My family grew by at least eight those two weeks. 

Now again, I know what you are thinking, WHAT MAKES THESE PEOPLE SO SPECIAL, SARAH? And I would love to tell you, but I can’t exactly pinpoint what makes them so incredible. What I can do is share some of the memories that will forever be joyful moments in my life because of them. Are you ready?

• The first day we went to work we were macheting trails. What Bri, Clara, and I forgot is that the main water supply comes from the mountain. So, when we heard hissing, we assumed a snake and hit it hard with the machete. The hissing was water. The snake was a pipe. And just like that we took out our water supply. Instead of getting yelled at we were met with help, love, and also a lot of getting made fun of… for the next seven days.
• Imagine with me. You are working with a small Ecuadorian man named Enrique. You speak no Spanish. He speaks no English. He chooses you NOT your two Spanish speaking counterparts to give all instruction to. You look at him like he is crazy because every single thing was lost in translation. He yells at you. You are best friends. I can’t explain it any better than that but that’s how it was.
• It’s 10 PM. WELL past your bedtime. Elliot comes out of nowhere. He wants to do skits??? Your whole squad stays up another hour creating, practicing, and performing skits. Also, just so this makes a tad more sense. You know when you are up SUPER late, and everything become funny at like 3 AM. Well apparently, when you do manual labor all day that time comes a lot closer to 10:15. So these skits albeit terrible were some of the funniest things I have seen in my twenty years of life.
•  WHAT DAY IS IT? It’s Abby’s birthday. You hiked up the mountain at 4 AM. You macheted all day. You did a high ropes course. And now… it is time for cake. Bethany brings out a homemade cake that she conjured up just for us. Elliot pulls out Polaca (a drink that tastes like ice cream) from THIN AIR. Riely comes running from who knows where to join the party. Luis, as the old man* he is, pulls up to eat dessert and then goes to bed. The rest of us dance the night away with the worst moves of all time.  *He is 29.
• WHAT DAY IS IT? Still Abby’s birthday this moment just isn’t relevant to her birthday. We had been macheting trails for a couple hours now. Elliot tells me he wants to test the trails to see if they are sturdy enough for the four-wheeler. As I would I say, “Well, I want to come.” And as it were, I was given permission. He asked Bri to follow us on the off chance the trail gave way and we flipped. Twenty yards later? The chance? Off? The four-wheeler? Flipped. Elliot and I? Holding it up so it wouldn’t slide down the mountain. This sounds like a bad memory but honestly once we realized we were okay it was such a funny moment. Even when everyone came running down to help, they stopped to take selfies of it before pulling us out. An odd day for sure.
• It’s officially our last night at El Refugio. We HAVE to take it out with a bang. Barbecue? Check. Salsa dancing? Check. Also, line dancing? Double check. Laughs, smiles, and lots of love? Infinity check. I can’t even begin to describe to you how magical this night was. It was a time that if I could have taken a picture of how my soul felt to show y’all I would have.

That’s it guys. That is what family means to me. That’s what community is to me. That’s what love is to me. Now it’s time to head on to the next adventure…Guatemala! See you there!

all my love,

sarah hicks