Stories from Ecuador

These stories are written by me, Stephanne Marsh, and are my personal intellectual property. The posts on this website are not to be copied without my express written permission. Please contact me if you would like to use my stories. Thank you. (Legal stuff….not my favorite, but has to be done!) Stephanne Marsh – November 21, 2019

Jackson and Danny

June 22, 2015
Stephanne Marsh

June 22, 2015 – Today was extremely wonderful and emotional. We are on day three of our medical clinic, deep in the Amazonian jungle of Ecuador. I’m laying here in bed with my Jackson. Recounting today’s events. Tears are pouring down both of our cheeks. Jackson’s heart is so very tender. There was a beautiful little boy named Danny. He is 8 years old. He has Leukemia and has tumors throughout the right side of his body. They brought us the X-rays they had done and asked if we had medicine to help. Our hearts were crushed as we had to tell him no, BUT, we were able to tell him about Jesus, and we were able to pray for him and his grandmother. He has the most beautiful smile. After he went through our clinic, he went and played soccer with Jackson. Danny’s shoes were broken and were flopping open. You could see his toes. We have no idea how they even stayed on his feet. Yet…even with his Leukemia and his pitiful shoes, he ran and smiled and played with his whole heart. Jackson and Danny became fast friends. They were precious. The next thing I knew, Jackson had taken his shoes off and was standing in his socks, in the jungle, with his arm around Danny. My baby gave his shoes to his new friend. (Small side note to say: Jackson had worked around our neighborhood to earn money for a new pair of shoes before our trip. They were a pair of Nikes and they were expensive, more than I was willing to pay. My baby boy took those new shoes off of his feet and gave them to a little boy that he had just met. Later, on the bus, I asked him if he was sad he had worked hard for the shoes only to give them away, Jackson looked at me and said, “Why, mama? Danny needed them a lot more than I did, and I can work to buy more.”) Jackson and I are laying here praying for Danny. Will you pray for him too?

Update on Danny – 2019 – Danny is alive and well. Miraculously healed, and serving in the church that we started back in 2015. There is no better ending to the story.

There is Something about a Name

June 24, 2015
Stephanne Marsh

You know, sometimes I wonder if what I have done in my life matters. Haven’t you? Late at night, laying there in the dark, have you wondered if you have done enough? I most certainly have. What I can tell you is this, God is faithful. When you sow a seed, it is not in vain. And sometimes, you are just blessed enough to see the fruit from that seed. This story is definitely one of those times where God allowed me to see the fruit. We were on our last day of a 5 day medical mission trip deep in the jungle of Ecuador. We were probably about 50 miles away from Katsutka, a tiny village my family ministered in when I was young. Katsutka was one of those villages that you had to either fly into in a tiny 2 seater Cessna, or take a canoe down the river for hours. I hadn’t been back to the jungle since I left Ecuador when I was 18. So I was extremely excited to return to the area with a medical team.

A little background information is necessary with this story. To make a really long story short, for the purposes of THIS story, I will tell you that my Daddy, Brad Morris, had really formed TRUE relationships with the people in the village of Katsutka starting back almost 40 years ago, in the early 1980’s. The people that lived there were part of the Shuar tribe. Shuar are the native people that you have most likely seen on National Geographic. They are known as head-hunters or head-shrinkers. They lived in an extremely primitive way, in bamboo huts with grass roofs, deep in the middle of the jungle. They hunted for their meals and they very rarely wore clothes, mostly just jewelry and paint on their faces and bodies. My dad become such a beloved member of the village, that the village chief, Luis, bestowed the family name on my father and our family. The people of the village were known as “Naichapi” and that is precisely the name that was given to my father. My dad was known as “Naichapi”. This name was extremely special as it was never given to outsiders. More than that, this name meant that my family had the protection of the village of Katsutka, because we were part of the Naichapi. Isn’t that kind of what God does with us? When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are adopted into His family, we become the very children of God. We carry His name and His protection.

Fast forward to 2015. As I have told you, this was the first time I had been back to the deep jungle since 1992. It was the last day of our medical clinic, and we had hiked deep into the jungle. It was pouring rain and we were holding the medical clinic under a traditional communal hut with a thatched grass roof. We were standing on packed loam, and water was pouring around us in literal rivers around our feet.

The pharmacy was really backed up, as every person receives at the very least, vitamins and anti-parasitic medications. I was helping fill orders and explaining to each patient how to take the medications. I reached back to grab the next order and read the name I needed to call, and I froze. The name on the bag was Naichapi. Now, Naichapi is not like Smith or Jones, Naichapi is specific to the tribe we served and had been adopted by. I was shaking, and so excited. It was all I could do to call the name out loud. “Naichapi!, Naichapi!” A woman stepped forward and indicated that she was Naichapi. I looked at her and tapped my chest and said, “Yo soy Naichapi!” (I am Naichapi!) She looked at me like I had lost my mind. So, I said it again. “I AM NAICHAPI!!” She looked at me again, and then the craziest grin spread over her face. She said, “Eres la hija de piloto Brad!” (You are the daughter of Pilot Brad!) I started grinning and almost jumping up and down. “Yes! Yes! I am the daughter of Pilot Brad!” She grabbed my hands and said, “I am Rosa, Daniel’s sister and Luis’s daughter!

Rosa and I had played together as children. Please tell me what the likelihood was of me being deep in the jungle (not in Katsutka!) and running into a Naichapi? It wasn’t very likely. But you see, God knew I needed to see Rosa. God knew that I needed confirmation that I was doing what He had called me to do, but even more than that, He knew that I needed to know that all we had done in the many years before, deep in the jungle in Ecuador, had not been in vain. You see, the church is still strong in Katsutka. Rosa still follows the Lord. Her father, Chief Luis still follows Jesus. I was able to connect my dad to talk with Chief Luis. He was very ill, and in the hospital. Facebook is a wonderful tool, if for not other reason than it allowed my dad to talk to Luis while he was near death. The Lord always gives us exactly what we need, when we need it, even deep in the Amazonian jungle.