Leader Highlight: Wilson Orellana

Dany and Wilson

      My name is Wilson Orellana, I am 29 years old and I live in a small town named Gualaceo that is about an hour away from Cuenca. I am the youngest of my siblings, and I have a six year old son named Israel. Currently, I will soon graduate with a major in Tourism from the Azuay University.
      On October of 2012 I accepted Jesus in my heart after living a very chaotic life. It was during a church retreat for men that a friend invited me to go to. I was 23 years old at the time and on the last day of that retreat I decided give my life up to Christ, my heart was on fire for the first time. During the next few days, I couldn’t believe I had missed out on this for so many years. I was walking on clouds emotionally, but even then, I still couldn’t comprehend the depth of His love for me.
      My hometown is a place with one of the highest indicators for alcoholism at the province (state) level. I grew up knowing this and was part of it for so many years because it was the norm for all society. It was the very last and hardest strand I let go of when coming to faith, and it’s what I went back to face once the retreat was over. Like I said, emotionally I was untouchable in the beginning, but reality soon hit me with one little event after the other. Being the outgoing guy that I am, I love to be surrounded by people, so when my society began to fade due to my new devotion and abstinence to drink, I began to doubt His power.
     Every day it got harder since this church was an hour away from my home and even though I was there every Sunday and Friday for youth group I felt I wasn’t welcome in some ways. I covered my dreads every time I entered the church, but the stares were constant. I saw how the youth got along so well with each other and my heart longed for a society who would root for me, but it never came. I felt so alone, even my family who had begged me to change so many times were now against me because of my new faith. For four months I was faithful to that decision of following Christ, reading the bible, praying that God would fill the emptiness I felt, I cried many nights and upset I would say “Why would you make me know you just to leave me all alone?”
      After getting no response, or so I thought, little by little I began to go back to my old ways. I would excuse my actions by saying “just a little bit” but it didn’t take long until I was worse than before into my old sins. Only that this time was different, Jesus was in the picture. I never felt peace while sinking back, it just didn’t feel right but I kept going because of the little satisfactions of feeling part of a society again
      Then on March 3^rd of 2014 God answered my prayers.
I was living my life uncomfortably, in sin but knowing Christ was…watching?  I was invited to go see a group of kids in the amazon region of Ecuador in a small town called Shell.  I didn’t know what exactly I was going for but I just went because it was during our holiday of Carnaval and I love Carnaval.  I just wanted to have fun like I did every year.  Little did I know it was going to be the road back to reality.
      On this trip, I met Ivan Peñafiel, who was and still is the National Director of YL Ecuador. He presented us this youth organization by taking us to a really fun event, I now know as club, and then to a meeting with all his leaders in that area. In this meeting, seeing the love and informality of it all I found myself thinking …this is what I’ve been asking for all this time. For the second time in my life I felt God calling me and so lovingly and giving me the society I had asked for.
      From that day a desire began to grow inside of me to serve God and make sure that no matter the appearance of the kids or where they were in life, I wanted to be there for them. Rooting for them, offering the love they so desperately seek. We traveled back to Cuenca with this new goal in our hearts, and with three other leaders, Young Life Cuenca was opened in April. I felt unfit for the job, many times I felt I wasn’t good enough, but the necessity to reach kids for Jesus was bigger. God was faithful still and strengthened me through it by molding me so that I could tell young adults that there is a way and that way is Jesus.
      This April 5th marked 3 years since I started volunteering with YL.  I have been able to see how God works every day, not only in them, but in me as well. I love what I do and I like to call Him ¨God of opportunities¨ since He gave me the opportunity to follow His steps and I want other kids to have this chance as well.

Enrique, Ivan, Marcela, and Wilson (2017)

Trip to Shell in 2014