Life Continues Forward....

Well since the last post we are continuing to prepare for launch with support raising, Lord willing, in February. We pray that the Lord is preparing hearts that are willing to partner with us in our ministry to the Ecuadorians. Our presentation of our mission and vision is almost complete and we are very excited about it. Why? Because we will be living this out in Ecuador!!

 From one generation to another may our God be glorified.

Our mission statement is below:

Our mission is for the peoples of Ecuador to know God's way and salvation, so that, they may praise Him.
We understand and fully believe ALL authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus Christ and in that authority we are going to make disciples. We want to entrust the Gospel to faithful men who will be able to teach others and make the manifold wisdom of God known. We will proclaim Him, teaching all men and admonishing all men, in all wisdom, so that, we may present all men complete in Christ.

Looking forward:

May God provide us faithful men who will be able to teach others!

Looking unto HIM

David

Preparation....

We are still in the midst of preparing ourselves for support raising. As I put the finishing touches on the presentation of our calling, I thought of this song that we sing so often at New Life Church Eads. It's called "Lead on O King Eternal" The first stanza is below:

Lead on, O King eternal,
The day of march has come;
Henceforth in fields of conquest
Thy tents shall be our home:
Thro' days of preparation
Thy grace has made us strong,
And now, O King Eternal,
We lift our battle song.

What a beautiful song! 

When I think of all the preparation it takes a missionary to become ready for support raising, these lyrics that Ernest Shurtleff wrote in 1887 seem so appropriate. It is God's grace that makes us strong as we prepare for His work. The fields of conquest, no matter where they are: Ecuador, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Peru, to the ends of the earth, God is our home. As the day of march comes and we are ready, there is One who is in front leading the way, O King Eternal. 

Praise Him for never leaving us!!

Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we finish our preparation as the day of march comes near.

In Christ,

David

Word.

 



2014.

A new year

which means:

Time

for a new

resolution.

...

Or not.

...

I mean

after all,

I did 

change my name

to Oxymoron

a couple of years

ago 

when I resolved

"to resolve no more".

Remember?

So instead,

I choose 

one

single

word.

In 2012, I chose

discernment.

In 2013, it was

still.
 

This year,

in light of 

our call

to missions,

and our

desire

to be obedient

to that call,

I see

nothing

more fitting

for our

family

than to

choose

the word

faith

to meditate on

in 2014.

So there you have it, "faith" is my word for 2014. What about you? Do you have a word of the year? Perhaps you stick with the traditional New Year's resolution. Whatever you do, feel free to share in the comment section. I'd love to hear what changes, if any, the new year means for you. Who knows? We might end up holding one another accountable! :)

Thanks for dropping by to check on us!

~Lindsay
 That Family [who is not quite, but soon to be] in Ecuador

Approval

Reflecting back on the last few weeks of status updates on Facebook I clearly remember typing this one in particular:

"...anxious, eager, excited, hopeful, nervous, thankful, humbled and hugely blessed: These are a few of the emotions I have waded through today as our family waits to hear from the board regarding our applications for career missions with Reaching and Teaching. Would you pray with us while we await that call? Also pray for our family and that we would be obedient to go wherever God leads us, even if it involves us {gasp} staying right where He has us. Thank you friends!"

Well, I am so excited to share that as of December 11, our applications for appointment as career missionaries to Ecuador have been approved. In light of this new information, I think I might need to update my Facebook status to something like:

"...anxious, eager, excited, hopeful, nervous, thankful, humbled and hugely blessed: These are a few of the emotions I have waded through today as our family heard from the board today of the approval of our applications for career missions with Reaching and Teaching. Would you pray with us while we follow His lead through the next few steps of this journey?"

It's funny, you know, because when David and I discussed this desire to serve in foreign missions and realized that God was leading us to go ahead and move forward with the steps needed to make that happen, I thought to myself "If the Lord will just get us through the application portion, I'll be good to go." (Meaning that I believed I would calm down, be less nervous, have more confidence, feel like I had a little more control; I could go on and on.) The Lord, indeed, saw us through the application, but then came the period of waiting for a response. The waiting, I quickly learned, was more intense than submitting the application! "Oh, if the Lord would just give me the patience I need to get through this period of waiting, then I will be ready to rock and roll," I thought. And He definitely was gracious to give me the patience I needed as we waited. Now, we have been approved and again I see my need for the Lord. This is just not something we can do on our own. He has called us to this, which is so far out of our comfort zone it is unreal, but at the same time there is a peace in knowing that He has not left us to figure this out on our own. He is constantly providing and encouraging us along the way.

In the meantime, as we seek to get things up and running would you commit to pray for a few things for our family?

• That we would get plenty of helpful information from Dr. Sills when we Skype with him on Tuesday afternoon.
• That we would be able to get our own personal website up and running.
• That we would be able to make some contacts with local church leaders who may be open to letting us share our vision for the people of Ecuador with their congregation.
• Please pray for us as we are prayerfully considering an "official launch date" to start support raising.

As always we appreciate your prayers! And we would love to pray for you as well. Leave us a comment, even if you just say "hi" so that we can pray for you and your family in general.

all for His glory,

David and Lindsay

That [Soon to Be] Family in Ecuador

The Beginning....

We submitted our applications to Reaching and Teaching International Ministries to become full time missionaries to Ecuador on November 7th, 2013.  After going on a short term mission trip to Ecuador, the Lord confirmed the calling to missions for us.  We want to use this blog as a means of help for those who are thinking about or starting in missions.  We want everyone to see the ups and downs of preparing and going to the mission field through us. We pray also that it will be very obvious how the Lord is working in our lives to prepare the way for us.  So, come along with us as God directs our path to Ecuador!