Last week eleven Xavier students along with three faculty members travelled to the province of Duran outside of Guayaquil, Ecuador, to spend a week on an immersion trip with Rostro de Cristo. Between visits to after school programs, a home and hospice for individuals with Hansen’s disease (leprosy), and neighbors’ homes in the community, the trip challenged students to experience the lived reality of the poor in Ecuador.

It became clear pretty quickly that this CFX trip to Ecuador was going to be a bit different than other CFX trips. The group arrived without hammers, without power-tools, and without work boots. The focus was not to build a house or to provide service to people in need. Instead, the goal was simple: to be with the people of Ecuador.

“Our notion of community and agape expanded and deepened as we got to know the people in Ecuador,” said faculty chaperone Meghan Borah. “As we listened to their stories, we humbly realized our inability to fix complex social, economic, historical, and political realities of our brothers and sisters in Ecuador. We accepted our lack of control, and realized the greatest gift we could offer was the ministry of presence.”