The Unexpected Trip to Ecuador
Our team wasn’t planning on going to Ecuador ...
... but it quickly became clear that it was exactly where the Lord intended for them to be.
Last May, our Global Engagement team from Azusa Pacific University was preparing to serve in India, partnering with a medical ministry there. Then, just four days before departure, due to circumstances out of our control, we had to make the difficult decision to change locations. It wasn’t what anyone had envisioned. But we also knew we didn’t want to simply cancel the experience and send students home disappointed.
So we made a bold ask.
We reached out to our partners and Living & Learning, and said, “Would you be willing to host a team of 10 for two weeks, create opportunities for medical ministry, and pull it all together… in about four days?”
I know. It was a big request. But as they so often do, our partners showed up in extraordinary ways. Within 24 hours, the team was rerouted and preparing to head to Ecuador. To help ensure everything came together well, I joined the team at the last minute, and from the moment we arrived, it became evident: we were always supposed to go to Ecuador.
During my few days on the ground with the team, we stepped into spaces that stretched and shaped us. We toured a public hospital, shadowed nurses at a private hospital, provided care at a children’s home for kids with differing abilities, and hosted a pop-up clinic alongside an organization committed to helping women transition out of the red-light district. In every place we entered, the Lord confirmed why we were there.
Hospital Vozandes
One moment that especially stayed with me happened at the private hospital we shadowed: Hospital Vozandes. One of our students mentioned to her parents, almost in passing, that we’d be spending the day there. Come to find out, her mom had interned at that exact hospital thirty years earlier when she was young. What are the chances? Moments like that grounded us. They felt like small but intentional reminders that this wasn’t random.
This wasn’t a backup plan. This was purposeful. It was as if the Lord was saying, “I see you. I’ve been weaving this story together longer than you realize. And I have something for you here.” Those simple, sacred moments invited us to pay attention. And it was important that we did.
The Team's Experience
The team was able to use their medical training, thanks to Living & Learning’s deep connections throughout Ecuador, but what impacted them just as much was witnessing leaders who truly see people: leaders who show up consistently and sacrifice quietly and faithfully for the sake of their communities.
Our students were challenged not just to practice medicine, but to become the kind of people who notice need and respond to it, both at home and abroad. What could have been chaotic and disappointing became something steady and formative.
The Lord met them in the pivot. He met them in the uncertainty. And He met them through Living & Learning. And now, one of those very students, who went as a team member, is preparing to return to Ecuador, this time leading a new group of students and stepping back into what God is continuing to do there. What could have been a story about plans falling apart became a story about trust, flexibility, and following wherever the Lord leads, believing that He will always show up.
About the author: Julie Ploehn serves as the Associate Director for Mobilization with the Office of Service and Discipleship at Azusa Pacific University, where she gets to challenge students to put their faith in action. She loves creating spaces where students move from good intentions to meaningful action, whether that’s across the street or across the globe. Her favorite part? Watching students light up when they’re serving. There’s something powerful about seeing them step into what they were created for and she loves getting to be a part of that process with them.