LIFT and Facilitator training

Mid March we had a group here from Camp of the Woods in New York, I thought it would be fun for you to hear from their Associate Directors perspective, Tim Owens, as he wrote on their blog about their time with us:

We spent this weekend here at El Refugio, which is quickly becoming our home away from home. To summarize, LIFT partnered with a discipleship program that is run out of El Refugio. About 30 Ecuadorian young adults were here going through what essentially amounted to an international discipleship conference. The experiences of the past couple of days will stand out in my memory for quite some time to come.

Team from LIFT with our Facilitators

First, some background. El Refugio (The Refuge), is a Christian ministry center that utilizes outdoor adventure to facilitate spiritual growth (sound familiar?). They host a wide variety of groups throughout the year, including teams from the US, but primarily groups from here in Ecuador. Their vision is to especially reach the people of Quito, a major city about 45 minutes from here. They have spent the past 3 years reaching out and building a network of about 80 young adults who volunteer on weekends, whom they call 'facilitators'. The goal from the beginning was to develop those volunteers into a discipleship program. This weekend was a HUGE weekend for them, as they intentionally shifted their focus from bringing in more volunteers to going deep with the volunteers they have. Of the 80 or so in their network, about 30 wanted to commit to coming this weekend; these will be the 30 that will form the foundation of their discipleship. The basic idea is to create an intentional system of discipleship as these Facilitators (volunteers) spend about 2 weekends at El Refugio a month. The vision is that they will not only mature as they are here at El Refugio, but that their discipleship here will also help them to serve God more in their normal contexts. Many of them are in school or already have jobs, and are eager for Christian community.

Early morning hike at El Refugio

 I can barely express how beautiful it was to see the language and cultural boundaries between LIFT and the Facilitators break down throughout the weekend. I think that we were all deeply encouraged by the bond, by the connection of Christian brotherhood/sisterhood, even though we are so different in many ways. We would go to sessions together, eat together, play games together, talk about life together, and worship through singing together, all the while discovering that we all have the same passion for Christ. For lack of a better word, it was incredibly special to discover the unity that existed between two groups of strangers who are further separated by some significant language barriers.

If you are thinking Dejavu, you are correct, this is the third group putting the third tower in place.

Getting ready to "LIFT" the tower in to place

 This was perhaps no more evident than what happened in a work project we did together. We needed to move a 50 foot radio tower to the outdoor climbing wall and then raise it from a horizontal position to a vertical position, and then install it into its concrete base (we will be doing further work with the climbing wall the next two days, so I will include more details next time i write likely tues. For now, it is enough to know that the retired radio tower is being used as the support for the climbing wall). Nearly everyone had a place along the radio tower as we carried it up a hill to where it would go. Then we all worked together to raise it to a vertical position. The process was actually a bit of an engineering wonder, employing several guide cables, stabilizing ropes, a tractor, and around 30 people's brute strength. At the end of the process, everyone could look back and survey the standing radio tower, firmly bolted into place, towering above us at 50 feet. And there it stood, a living testimony to our corporate unity and combined abilities.

Third tower in place for the climbing wall on the far right

That afternoon we broke into groups along gender lines and discussed the importance of Christian accountability. We were amazed that there is no Spanish word for 'accountability'. And yet, while the word may not exist, it's a concept that many here have already begun looking for. The afternoon was spent playing a variety of games as we continued to get to know each other. Not that it's important, but the Americans beat the Ecuadorians in futbol (soccer). Then we rounded out the evening with a meal and a time of praise and worship by the fire. We would sing a song in English, they would do one in Spanish, and so on for an hour or so.

Some final thoughts from Tim~

A climbing wall in itself is not much of a big deal, but we are so excited about how God will hopefully use this wall in the future ministry of El Refugio. For one thing, it will be one of the best climbing walls in all of Ecuador, which will serve as a draw to this place for both Christians and non-Christians. In addition, the Facilitator program utilizes a lot of outdoor challenges for their Facilitator discipleship process. The climbing wall will play a large part in that process, as they use it to develop teamwork, instill confidence, and also humble those who already have too much confidence! Some may look at it and see only a wall, but we look at it and see a huge tool for discipleship. We look forward to hearing reports for years to come of what amazing things God can do with a couple pieces of plywood and some old scrap radio towers.