May 25th
Thank you for your prayers! God is answering. You may be wondering why I am praying God that I am weak. Well let me explain...since I have been here in Tabacundo I have felt completely inadequate and very lonely. I know that God has given me a heart for the nations but now that I am here it has been so difficult to impliment my hearts passions into the reality of the circumstances surrounding me. Serving God here is so challenging and comfort seems very low on God´s priority list for us. But through all my weaknesses, fears, inadequacies, homesickness, and times when I know my lack of faith and trust disappoints my Lord, God is bigger than all that!!! I am only a weak vessel which God has chosen to give me the privileged of being used by Him- despite me! 2 Corinthians 11:30 says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things which show my weakness." So let me just tell you...I AM WEAK...and I´ve already told you how! But the reason I rejoice in that is that when God works here, now its all on HIM! He gets all the glory for it because if it was based on me, nothing would get done, I´d probably be back in Quito if not Henderson by now, & if I stayed people would only see a pathetic, weak Gringa (white girl)! So tonight...praise God with me for my weakness!!! "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9
Today, Brittany, Joy, & I went out to Tupigachi Centro. We prayerwalked and talked to a few people. We had a good icebreaker because the first thing that we did was help pick up trash in the communities outdoor sports facilities after the towns weekend of parties. Then we visited the elementary school and talked with the director. We have set up to go teach bible stories, a little bit of English, and help with their new computer every Tuesday & Thursday from 9-12! Pray that God will open doors into the rest of this strongly Roman Catholic community through the children & teachers. So tomorrow is our first day!
D.L. Moody presented the gospel individually to over 750,000 people on streets, in stores, on trains or anywhere God would open the door. He saw souls rather than towns and people. My prayer is that I will always do that! Today as we traveled by bus I talked to a teenage girl. First about her school & family. I told her about myself and why we were here.Then read a track with her and asked her what I could pray about for her. She did not answer my question but asked me if it was more common for people to pray in the US. Before I could answer I was at our stop and had to go. I told her that we would be praying for her. Please pray for Joanna to be curious & that God´s word will speak truth into her life. Pray that she will know that she can pray to God on her own without a priest. Pray that God will send someone else into her life to take her one step further toward the truth.
Last night we went to church here in Tabagundo. It is the only Baptist church in both Tabagundo & Tupigachi. (There is one other evangelical church in a little community in Tupigachi.) It was so wonderful to meet other brothers and sisters in Christ in a place that is so dark and in bondage to the insecurities of Catholism rather than assurance in Jesus Christ, alone. The people were very welcoming. Please pray that the Lord will burden their hearts for this community and surrounding communities and that they will partner with us in the ministry here so that they can continue the work when we are gone.
Thank you all so much for your love and encouragement and prayers during this time. I am excited now! Though this task is much bigger and more difficult than I ever imagined, God is so much bigger than all of this! There is nothing outside of His control or His plan!
May God bless you all and also keep you challenged in the places where you are at this time. I pray that you allow Him to use you & stretch you! It´s all worth it because HE is worth is all!
"I will lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth." .......good thing Ecuador has lots of hills! I need all the reminding I can get!
May 24th
We are here in Tabacundo. We arrived yesterday, Ruby & Fletcher showed us around our area and then left for Quito about 5:30. The area is so big. It is mountains upon mountains and hills upon hils with houses scattered throughout it all. Our adopted area is actually 15 communities, rather than the one that we thought it would be. The task seems so huge right now, but we will be taking it one day at the time, probably one hour at the time. Brittany, Joy, and I are living with a Spanish couple and their son. They rented 2 rooms out to us as they normally do to people in the Peace Corps. Please pray for us as we begin our ministry tomorrow. We slept until 9 today and then spent the day in prayer and preparation and planning. Tomorrow morning we will go out to Tupigachi to begin prayer walking and looking for open doors of opportunity. Please pray hard right now because right now the task seems so overwhelming and being out here by ourselves feels very lonely to me. Today God is reminding me to not worry or overthink this but to let Him lead and then me follow in simple obedience. I just keep praying and telling myself keep on keeping on, just as Hebrews teaches. 2 Timothy has also been a huge blessing to me the last 3 or 4 days. God is teaching me so much through that. Pray for our spanish abilities and to always be prepared to give an answer to why we are here and to God´s truth. Pray for us to be a light in the midst of darkness. Pray for our transportation to and from the small communities which we will be ministering. Thank you all.
May 22nd
Hey Everybody!
I can not thank you enough for your e-mails and the cards sent from my church family! They have so greatly lifted my spirits. It is hard to believe that I have been in the country for one week tonight. This past week has been spent in training with the rest of the REAP Ecuador missionaries. (If you want to know more about REAP then check out- reapecuador.org and I can't wait to tell you all about it when I get back.) I have already learned so much. Yesterday, we learned about evangelism. I have never viewed evangelism in the way we were taught yesterday. It is a concept called "X + 1." Our goal is find out where a person is at spiritually, in their life, or beliefs and then to take that person just one step closer to knowing the truth. We are not looking for mass decisions but for individual lives changed, one step at a time, one person at a time. It is Relational Evangelism. Its about simple obedience and teaching the people a lifestyle of obedience. It is more than just to pray a prayer because in South America the people would do that just because we are white and because they think we are rich and that they owe that to us. Here is is crucial to teach the truth of Jesus Christ and a life changed followed with obedience. We also learned about simple church (which is like house church). Our ultimate hope would be to establish such a church. It would be a time of Bible Study that could be continued after we left. We are simply covering a month in between visits when the southern baptist church from the states that serves as missionaries to this community.
Tomorrow we leave for the villages where we will spend the next 4 weeks. The six summer missionaries have been divided into two teams. My team will be serving in Tupagachi and living in Tabacundo (10 minutes away from the community which we will be serving). The other girls on my team names are Brittany Gieselman (from FL) & Joy Doriety (from AL). The community has been adopted by Brittany's church in FL. Through REAP Ecuador, that church are the missionaries to this community. They come 4 times a year. They will be coming our last week there.
When we arrive there tomorrow we will be living in a house with a family who usually rents out two rooms to the Peace Corps. We will spend our first couple days prayerwalking and going to offices and schools to meet government officials, police officers, teachers, and directors in the town. Then we will begin to go make connections and build relationships as the Lord leads and gives open doors. As I mentioned in the last e-mail with prayer requests, to pray for a person of peace- someone willing to open their home for a Bible study. They may not be a Christian but it is someone more than just friendly and desiring conversation with us.
We have been told this week that we are serving as church planters to an unreached people group! This has been a huge thought to soak in. God is so big and all of our (us six summer missionaries) concerns have been so heavy. Then it dawned on me that all I am is a privileged vessel chosen by God. He does not need me! This is not about me! I am so incredibly blessed to be here a part of God's work! I have been reading about missionaries who have done the same and now I GET TO DO IT TOO! As we prayer walked (pretty much just for practice after they taught us what exactly prayerwalking was) my eyes were opened to the great lostness and spiritual darkness among the Catholic people here. They live in such poverty, but that is not the greatest need. My heart was broken and initially overwhelmed with the great lostness in such a small town in such a small country on just one continent in such a huge world. Then God reminded me of how GREAT He is & that despite the hugeness of the world He sees each person I passed and each person I come in contact with as an individual who he ordained their life and wrote their story just like He did mine and yours before we were even born.
I'm sorry this e-mail is so long. This is my last night in Quito (& my last night with the six incredible summer missionary girls that I have gained a great love for already) so I wanted to update you all on as much as I possibly could. I will have access (but likely very slow) to send updates during the next four weeks.
Keep praying! Keep e-mailing! Keep praying for my family too- Mommy with recovery from surgery. Daddy with business at church and loving care for Mommy. Britney- clinical rotations at ER with 12 hrs shifts plus 3hrs round trip driving. Meredith- at Snowbird (camp).
Thanks to you all!!!
May 22nd
I am limited on time right now, but I want to ask that you please pray for these specific things:
* Unity among the three girls that will be in each village because we are the representitives of the body of Christ among these people.
* That God will provide a person of peace (Luke 10) for each team to open their homes for bible studies.
* That the Holy Spirit will go before us and prepare the hearts of the Quichua people.
* Our personal growth in quiet times with the Lord, that we will be receptive to his direction and be obedient.
* That our Spanish abilities will increase to a level that allows us to effectively communicate with the people of the village.
* Sharing the Gospel and building relationships.
* That in times of weakness, tiredness, loneliness, and discouragement, that we will know that our steadfast hope is found only in the Lord.
* A spirit of peace as we settle into the villages which will be our homes for the next four weeks.
Thank you so much for your prayers and for your messages of encouragement. They couldn't have had better timing. Keep them coming! :-) Sorry that I do not have more time to update in detail, but please know that your prayers are being felt here in Ecuador. I can't wait until I can share everything with all of you!
May 18th
Just wanted to give a little bit of news. I am here and things are going great! The training is going good. We are staying at the Nazarene Seminary. The 6 Summer Missionary girls are getting along very well. The missionaries here are wonderful and have been spoiling us. We leave on Saturday to go to our villages. We will know on Thursday where we are going and which girls will be on which team. Its so much info in our sessions this week. It's exciting and kind of intimidating too but how cool is it that we are going to be church planters! The ministry strategy is up to us (our team of 3 Summer Ms). God is reminding me that He has been preparing me for the last semester, especially the last month. Through the Hebrews class, prayer nights, certain chapel services, and especially my time with strong, missions minded friends. He has also been reminding me that it is simple obedience that God is requiring of me. He has reminded me that its not about me, despite all my concerns, but really I am just a privileged vessel that God has chosen to use at this time. I thank God for your love and prayers. I will be in touch with more details soon.
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