Ecuador and particularly Guayaquil have been visible on international news during recent weeks due to the sanitary crisis we are experiencing. Today we hear the voices of William Murillo, CECE staff worker, and Marjorie Bello, a CECE student from Guayaquil, who share their reflections about hope in the midst of pain.
We are living in difficult times.
How deserted lies the city,
Lamentations 1:1
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she
When I read the first lines of the book of Lamentations, I think of my birthplace, my beloved city of Guayaquil, a city with two and a half million inhabitants and the second most populous city in the country, which is also one of the cities most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The expression «she has become a widow» is applicable; we are experiencing chaos and unprecedented levels of distress. We are indeed living in difficult times!
The first weeks of April were very painful. Within the space of a few days, we received sad news: the loss of the father of a team member, the death of the grandfather of one of our Bible study coordinators, and the hospitalization of several family members.
Those who lost a loved one had to deal not only with the loss of their family member, but also with the inability to express and share their grief with others due to the limitations imposed by the quarantine and social distancing regulations. As a team, we had to think of concrete and immediate ways to respond to these situations; however, although we had good intentions to help, our initiatives were not enough. I must confess that at that time, in my role as a CECE staff worker, I felt my hands were tied, without being able to respond effectively.
In this desperate situation, it made me wonder if I was really prepared to accompany this type of situation and if I was willing to do so; because although I had not lost anyone close to me, sadness was also overcoming me. At that time, any activity was a heavy burden for me.
I remember that one of those days I entered my room, and in the loneliness of it I felt helpless and frustrated, and I asked myself: How hard it must be for someone to have to say goodbye to a loved one at this time? How hard it must be without having the company of people who are there to comfort and encourage? After that, I let my tears fall.
However, amidst the despair, the expressions of affection and appreciation were not long in coming. Members of our CECE and IFES community wrote to us asking how we were doing, and how the city was doing. So, despite the anguish, I felt great support. We received calls from Ecuador and from other parts of the world.
I thank God for those who were there; with their calls, encouraging us; with their text messages, supporting us. During those days, although we saw the pain up close, we also saw the concrete manifestations of love towards us and towards those who needed support.
Our city today is still struggling to cope with the effects of COVID-19 and as CECE we are reorganizing ourselves to respond more efficiently to the needs of students. We continue to pray together and think of practical ways to accompany those who are suffering, helping to overcome pain and sadness in a genuine way and in community, knowing that Jesus Christ cries with those who cry, suffers with those who suffer, because pain and suffering are not foreign, neither to God nor to us, they are part of our lives and we learn to live with them, without losing hope that God will renew our days as in the beginning.
Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
Lamentations 5:21
renew our days as of old
William Murillo
Willy is a CECE staff worker in the city of Guayaquil. His family is made up of his wife, Guadalupe, and his daughter, Elena. He is a graduate from the University of Guayaquil (Authorized Public Accountant). Willy first attended CECE during a National Camp in 2011 and has been serving as a staff worker since 2015.
Jesus is with us at home, He is by our side in confinement
Fear has taken hold of the whole world, a pandemic rapidly spreading throughout the nations. With regard to Ecuador and one of its main cities with the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases, Guayaquil, where I live, this is a complex scenario in which many of us can identify with what is going on since it is the context in which we find ourselves.
Bewilderment invades my mind, many of us have had a sick relative, a relative out of work, and another risking his life for his or her neighbor, all with different stories, but with something in common, the desire that «all of this will soon pass» and » things will return to normal”.
On the one hand there are those who can stay indoors, on the other hand there are those who are homeless and cannot do so, and those who are forced to leave their home as they live on what they earn day by day. However, we are all in the same sea, turbulent and amid the storm.
He is with me
There are days when we feel tired, as a family or individually, not knowing what will happen tomorrow fills us with doubts that crush us. Confinement during quarantine gets harder depending a lot on the ship we find ourselves on.
In the Bible we can find many stories of people who never imagined they would be locked up, and in situations of total despair. Being locked up at home reminds me a lot of Jesus’ disciples when they were in a boat and a big storm was rising, so much so that the boat was already flooding. But suddenly they remembered that right there with them, was Jesus, sleeping, he had not gone anywhere. They couldn’t get out of the boat because they would drown. So, they went to call Jesus, the Son of God.
If Jesus is with us in the midst of the storm, will we drown? In this same narrative, we are told how Jesus got up and ordered the waters to be quiet and everything suddenly calmed down. As we go through different situations, however adverse they may be, it fills me with peace to know that he does not abandon us for a single moment. He is with us. This fills me with encouragement. He does not go away leaving us adrift, but remains by our side, whether in the house, in the storm, or in times of success, in joy and in sorrow. At all times.
And though he appears to be sleeping, if we cry out, he rises and with his voice that echoes in the midst of the pain, he will help us. He will heal us, as he has done so far.
His love is like a green traffic light
The number of COVID-19 cases may be very high, but I take comfort in experiencing the company of Jesus in the midst of this pandemic. Even though the city is still in the red traffic light category (referring to the three-color system the government of Ecuador is using to move out of quarantine and towards social distancing), I know that Jesus has given the green light to call on him at any hour of the day. His word also reminds me that he has said that the Heavenly Father feeds the birds, that they do not sow, nor do they reap, so how much more does he care for us if we trust in his power. He will feed us with his manna, satisfying the physical and spiritual hunger that we have today. If we seek him, his word will not delay in filling us with his peace and even if we are farther away, his love will reach us.
He is with us in the midst of the health emergency in which we are living. He has not and will not abandon us, because his love is faithful and never-failing.
Marjorie Bello
Marjorie is 21 years old and is currently in her 8th semester at the University of Guayaquil where she is studying Social Communications. She is also a small group Bible study leader with CECE. She participates in the dance ministry Hefzi-bá at the Assemblies of God Evangelistic Center where she is a children’s ministry teacher and the presenter of the online program, «Passion for dance TV».
