We made it!, because HE made it!

     The journey began 8:00pm when we boarded a bus in Farenafe, Peru and we were bound toward the northern border. about 6:00 the next morning we arrived in the border of Peru and Equador. We got our passports stamped, jumped into a¨"tuk tuk" and headed for the "bridge" we had read about only on the blogs. Once at the bridge, we walked across no man`s land and found ourself in the country of Equador. Immediately you could feel the difference! The people looked different. The store fronts looked different. The poverty level was nowhere near the same, and they had snicker bars and smoothies! Once we walked to the bus station and bought our tickets for our next mode of transportation for that afternoon, it was time to get to the immigration office. Luckily, there was a bus headed that way, so they invited us to jump aboard and take the 6 min ride for FREE! Thank the Lord! ( it was really hot that day, and I don´t know if we would have even recognized that place as the immigration office) After we were approved to visit Equador legally, we started the walk back to the bus station along the highway. As we were walking one of our team members saw a truck passing by and put up his powerful (always coming in handy) "hitch-hiking thumb." The truck pulled over and said we could hop in, so we did! We were on our way! When we got back to the town center we all jumped off the truck and were ready to hit the town. In the town we ran into some peace core workers that had lived in the area for two years and he asked us who we were.. He was so amazed. He said he had never seen a group of foreigners jump off a truck like that here. I replied to him, " well us from GCEX, that´s how we roll."

     Our day in Equador came to an end when our bus loaded up for an 18 hour trip across Equador. Who knew it would only take that long to drive from the southern tip to the northern tip. On that bus ride, we met a man of peace. He was a Marathon runner who had traveled the world doing the ironman in America, running races in South Africa, and had been down under in Australia. He was Colombian and he was headed home and He offered to help us get through the border control of Equador and Colombia and point us in the right direction to get to our next destination. He was a God send. Without him, I think we would have really been lost. He help us get all the stamps we needed and got us to a bus station so that we could catch a bus to Pasto, Colombia where we had hoped to catch a plane to Bogota. After the 3 hour bus ride, we caught a taxi to a town 1hour away only to find the airport closed and therefore we were without lodging. BUT, God had a plan and our best interests in mind. The taxi driver took us to a local MOTEL where we were able to bargain to pay 5 dollars per person to sleep for the night. We had the whole motel to ourselves and each room even had a bathroom! ( I know, it is the small things in life) That night we had a cooked meal and went to bed blessed beyond measure because of the incredible journey we were having and knowing that God was completely in it.

      The next day at the airport, the travel team set out to find a dea. We went asking God for a flight, but ended up finding a man of peace who not only spoke English but ended up helping get a cheap ticket with the bus system to Cali. We even had a discount on top of the discount. (during all of this, we got to tell these people about the gospel and give them the Word of God and pray for them!) After the 8 hour bus ride to Cali, we settled in for the night at the bus station to catch the 6am 12 hour bus to Bogota where we were blessed with a good night´s rest, encouraging words from old friends and yummy bread and coffee!

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE!

      We arrived in Guatemala City, waited over night for the remainder of our group there, met some new found friends in the food court of the airport, we were blessed with God providing dinner through a man who owned a chicken and pizza restaurant, and we were given a place to sleep that night by a woman who worked at a coffee shop. She was a fellow Christian and had found the Lord after being in situations where she had slept on park benches and been hungry. When she heard that we were asking about cheap accomodations in the area, she quickely invited us to stay at her house! Her boyfriend and her served us so much over the next few hours. Because of them, we had a good nights rest, good company, and they made sure we got on the RIGHT bus to Panajachal ( our final destination)! If it weren´t for them, SERIOUSLY I am not sure where we might have ended up.

    I know that this is alot to take in, and I know that it seems overwhelming to read, but in every step and every leg of this traveling process God had His hand in it. He was the one that sent us people to show us how to go about getting our passports stamped, He was the one that provided the funds to get to Guatemala. He was the one that gave us a place to rest our heads at night..... HE. GOD. THE PROTECTOR AND PROVIDER.

In all of this, the words of Matthew 6:26-33 came alive to me.
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