What's up?

What is up with us?

We start school on Thurs.

We found a sitter for Aiden while I am at school!

We are headed out on our 1st date since we got here!praise God!

Ethan starts school on Thurs (pre-school).

Our boxes are still in customs, boo hoo.

We are looking for a church, pray that we find one as awesome as Mckinney & WHCC.

I will address the school on Biblical Conflict Resolution Monday.

We are doing a 10k next weekend.

Ben has started a Spanish class that the school offers for gringo teachers.

We are trying to get Ethan to stop peeing in the bed at night. Any suggestions???

We are shopping for living room furniture.

Ben is building our bedroom furniture.

We need to decide on how we are going to be involved in the lives of our students outside of school. Plz pray for that there are so many opportunities.

I love how recreational family time is such a priority in Latin countries!

Every morning that I have gone running it amazes me to see how full the park is. I wonder don't these people have jobs to go to(grin). They do but they have a way of making time for family and fun. As I run around the park my tummy is awakened with the aromas of the little restaurant huts in the park who have their grills fired up ready for the morning traffic. The park is packed with men in their suits out playing with their kids before their day gets started, with 50yr old men playing basketball, with young and old zealous soccer players moms and kiddos going on their morning stroll. On weekends it really is packed every inch of grass is covered. They have little carnvial rides, horse rides, boat rides, cotton candy, this is a new one -bebe gun shooting, stunt bike riders etc...

What have we been up to?

We have been here in Quito, Ecuador for a little under a month now! So some of you have been wondering what have we been doing?
-First couple of weeks it was just catching up on our sleep, getting unpacked, going to the airport everyday to identify our lost luggage and settling into our new home.
-Now that we're past that we have been venturing out into the city on our own. We still haven't ventured out too far - no more than 10 miles from our home. We're baby stepping. Walking everywhere with 2 kids keeps us close to home.
-We took a trip with our school to a nearby village. (see pictures below in the other post)
-Ben started Spanish classes
-Going grocery shopping at least 3 times a week because, as I am cooking, I realize I don't have what I need. Starting your pantry and kitchen from scratch again is quite the task.
-I visited the local City Dump where there are families that live on the property and go to work there. We did a bible study, craft and songs with the kids.
-I hosted our first girls nite out with our new friends and neighbors while Ben went out with the men.
-Ben has been getting ready for class: preparing his room and lessons
-I am preparing for my first staff session on Biblical Conflict Resolution.

We have been enjoying our time here. And we feel blessed to have the Lord lead us here and use you all to get us here in so many ways! Gracias!

Beyond the Cement Walls of the Big City of Quito

For all of you who live in big cities, you know how it is to live in the hustle and bustle of smog, traffic and cement buildings, loud music, constant honking of cars etc... If you go out far enough, though, eventually you can see behind the cement walls. Every country has its roots- here in Ecuador they date back to the Pre-Inca times. Our school took a group of us to a small town just outside of the city so we can breathe some fresh air and get some traditional sights and sounds of Andean music.

The Northern Andes is breathtaking! Look at how clear the water is. We got out at this lake surrounded by mountains. We hiked up to that little house you see on the trail and then we kept hiking up because Ethan was doing so well, although we didn't do the 5 hour hike around the mountain!

After this we headed to the little villages. As soon as we stepped out of our big 15 passenger van that is screaming "tourists!" this sweet little old indigenous lady came up to us with a big toothless smile. She didn't seem to speak Spanish so we just smiled back. Ethan quickly became her little buddy. Every time we saw her, Ethan would come up to her and give her his hand so she could kiss it and he would give her a big smile and say "hello" (in English).
This picture below is our team having breakfast at a cute little hotel we stayed in.
Looked at Aidens hair it was pretty windy up there. Here we are going back in time to some of the customs and traditions of the indigenous people at the market. This craft market is one of the most spectacular in South America. Yes, this is a pig on a large hot pan that is being served on plates for hungry shoppers at the market. I think I lost my appetite.

He loves music!

A Tour of our Home in Ecuador

We wanted to share with you our home here in Quito! We are the only family that lives on campus besides the dorm parents. There will be 9 students that will live in the dorms, just above us. We live in the basement of the dorm. We have a nice 3 bedroom, 2bath apartment with a good-sized kitchen and living area. We pay a reasonable amount for rent, which I guess it would be equivalent to the States, around $700 utilities included.

We live in the capital city of Ecuador, right in the smack dab of the city. So, as in most big cities, it's really hard and expensive to own a house - so everyone pretty much lives in an apartment building. Similar to NYC, there's one big tall building after another with lots of apartments on each floor. Another thing about living in a big city is that you always need a guard outside your home. So whether you live in a house or apartment, you have a guard. Because we live on the school property we have 2 guards since the school has 2 entrances. So we feel pretty safe in our new home!

Our apartment is provided by the school and is temporary. We can only live in it for one year. So by next summer, we will be transitioning into an apartment near our school. I have gone out to price furniture and it seems pretty equivalent to the States, but without the sales :( But, there are so many other inexpensive things - like flowers, fruit and bread, which are some of my favorite things!

An eventful beginning

Our 5hr trip slowly turned into a 7hr, 10hr and then 33hr trip. We were flying the day the hurricane was going through Houston so we couldn't fly out of DFW to catch our flight into Houston to Quito. So we waited around at DFW for a couple of hours and then waited a couple of more hours on the plane that was not allowed to fly out. All of this w/ a baby and 4yr old who hasn't had their naps. We finally got into Houston and by this time had missed our flight so at midnight we were checking into a hotel. The next day we had to start the whole process again out of the Houston airport at 6a.m. Thanks to God we arrived safely into our apartment in Quito at midnight.

Really it wasn't as bad as I make it sound. The worst part of it was uncontrollable crying from our baby. And at times I wanted to join him. Under the circumstances they really did great! God was good in answering our prayers for us not to get stuck in a foreign country w/ all our luggage and kids. I really think this was His way of answering it. I would rather get layed over in the middle of the night in the U.S. than in a foreign country any time.

Our second day in Quito I was stopped by some tv reporters for an interview. I told them I had just arrived and had no idea what they were asking and declined the interview. They persisted so I gave in. The question was a political question about the president. I had no idea what they were talking about but I said " no I didn't agree" As soon as I said that they looked at each other in shock that I said no. As I walked away I began to wonder if I made a dumb mistake by answering. Images of the president hunting me down for answering against him began to take over. Next time I will keep my ignorance to myself instead of broadcasting it to the world.

Adios, Amigos!

We are heading out tomorrow, July 24th!

This bittersweet day is finally upon us. We walk forth in the grace, strength and guidance of our Lord but we do not walk alone we walk surrounded by friends and family as they shower us with their prayers and blessings. I can't even begin to explain how great it feels to not go alone as a family. Thank you for walking with us!

Big prayer request for tomorrow-
Quito is surrounded by mountains and at night it gets very cloudy and windy therefore making our landing conditions hard. We are landing at midnight and there is a big possibility that they won't land our plane in the Quito airport but in another city which means we will need to spend a night there and catch a plane the next day. So please pray that we are able to land in Quito. It will be chaotic to land in another city that we don't know with 6 very large pieces of luggage, a stroller, 2 kids, and 3 carry ons trying to find a hotel in the middle of the night and a taxi that will have room for all of our stuff.

How to contact us:
817.294.9870 OUR HOUSE # IS THE SAME SO IF YOU WANT TO CALL US YOU CAN WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY INT'L RATES .
Our cell # is no longer any good.

Also, please don't send any support checks to our Ft. worth address send them directly to RCE, PO Box 4528, Wheaton, IL 60189 made out to RCE with only our account #3928 on it not our names. Thanks so0000 much!

Keep in touch!

Come Let us rejoice in who He is Ps. 66:6

I want to share the following so that you can rejoice and give Him the glory with us. This is the first topic of many to come:
Support Raising
The "S" word we didn't want anything to do with this word when we were looking into going as missionaries. We thought this was not for us. Well, God had other plans.
God put on our hearts Alliance Academy Int'l. A perfect fit for our family but guess what? We had to raise support, $2,500 a mth. Read on as we share His provisions for us:
-We began by sending out over 100 letters to friends and family. After a month into it we still had not heard from anyone. Though it was a slow start the Lord knew what He was doing and 2.5 months later we are at full support!
-After our estate sale was over this couple comes the next day and said "God had put us on their mind and they felt like they needed to come back and pray for us." Here's God bringing people along to encourage us.
-Our church was one of the first to come along our side and decide to support us not just finacially but also with moral support. The Body of Christ unites with us.
-This lady who has no idea who we are randomly comes across that we still needed support and she felt like the Lord was leading her to give. God working in the hearts of total strangers.
-We presented at a church of about 50 people we felt bad asking them to support us since they were so small and probably didn't have the budget to. Well to this day they are our highest supporters. God works in the unexpected!
-So many of our wonderful friends and family have given sacrificially of their time and money to help us get to Ecuador so we could spread the Gospel to students! This has been humbling and amazing to see His people at different stages of life: young, single, old, married, divorced, poor, rich, christian and non-christian (yes he even uses the non-christian to answer our prayers).... The body of Christ coming together is an amazing thing to see in action.

This journey has been hard as He has had to strip us of our illusion of control, our pride in our independence, our illusion that we have it all together and the hardest our illusion that we totally trust in Him. But He has been so merciful, compassionate as He works in us- a work in progress molding us as people after His own heart not our own desires. Though it has been hard I wouldn't trade it for the sweet times we have had with the Lord individually and as a family!

A miracle waiting to happen!

Moses has been our companion throughout this journey of becoming missionaries. Recently, I was reminded of how the Lord guided Moses through the desert as they were exiting Egypt. Now picture this with me: You're heading out with thousands of people into the desert, your goal: the promised land. He leads you towards a massive body of water and there is no bridge, no boat waiting to help you get over it. As you approach it you begin to hear in the background horses, chariots and masses of soldiers coming towards you. You're thinking - we're going to die. We are cornered. Moses looks in front of him and he sees the massive sea and then he looks behind him and he sees the soldeirs coming at them, but when he looks up he hears the Lord. The Lord tells him to "go forth". Can you imagine what it took to take the first step into that parted sea? But can you imagine how tragic it would have been if they would not have taken that first step. They would have missed seeing God's amazing power!

We are taking a step of faith by heading over to Ecuador with our house still on the market. We believe that God will open doors and right now we just need to be obedient and "go forth," even though things are not lining up as we wished. To be honest, it's a bit nerve racking, but we believe. Many of you may be thinking we're crazy, this is foolish, you still have to use your brains even though you have faith, young people just don't think things through. Well, you may be right about some of those things, but you know, as I think back to the miracles the Lord has performed in my life there is always a pattern: it was the impossible, He made it possible, He got the glory and I needed to take that step of faith to discover it. So we go forth! So go forth with us as you pray for us because we need it - we leave JULY 24th!

Please pray for a miracle for our house to be sold/rented. A miracle of reconciliation for Mari's family. Please pray that we would not rely on our own understanding but that we trust in Him for all that we do.

clarification about our newsletter

For those of you have had a chance to read our recent newsletter, we wanted to let you know that it is Mari's family that we mentioned needing special prayer.

Meet our Team!

This is part of our team that we will be working with in Ecuador. The directors of the school, David and Lois Wells, are the first couple on the left. Then in between Ben and me is the elementary school principal Mr. Driscoll and his family (their boys are Indonesian) and the rest are couples and some lovely single girls.

Part of our Pre-Field Orientation Training fun was visiting with our future co-workers. We were in classes all day and then would meet at our house for games in the evening.
The people there were just like us, getting ready to embark a whole new world as missionaries. We were a smorgasbord of ages, cultures, languages and lifestyles. It was fun to interact with everyone and hear how the Lord brought them to this point in their life.

This is our small group. We split up into small groups throughout the week and had a bible study time. Everyone here is going to either Ecuador or Morocco.

Here is Ethan with his new little friends from class: Tavin and John who will be serving in China.
Everyday our meals were in the cafeteria with about 150 people. We realized that Ethan is definetly an extravert. He would go around to different tables asking people their names and conversing with them. He would leave our table and say, "I'll be back. I need to go say hi to my new friends." This sweet couple, Cameron and Elisa, are going to serve in Tawain and are one of the couples Ethan befriended. We got to know them as a result of our child's extraversion. We were known as Ethan's parents by many for the past two weeks.

Pre-Field Orientation

I shared in our newsletter how this whole transitioning time has seemed surreal. Well being here in traning has made it a lot more tangible and more real. Alliance Academy International sent us to a pre-field orientation for missionaries in Houghton, NY. If you're thinking I never heard of Houghton neither did we and there is a reason b/c there is not even one stop light in this little small town. It's very beautiful though and we have enjoyed the tranquilty that it brings into our busy life.
So we have spent the last week here and have one more week to go. We are learning a lot about how to transition into another culture, how to work with other cultures and how to be flexible. Our classes are from 8-5p.m. everyday except Sunday. Ethan has some culture transitioning classes also and Aiden is in childcare. The schedule is strenuous on our family but the information has been great. We have had the pleasure of meeting part of our mission team and that has been great fun. We are excited that we will get to minister beside these people who also have a heart for God's kindgom.

Pray for us: Ethan and Aiden are totally out of their element, schedule, environment, food etc... and I know it's been hard on them physically and emotionally. Ethan has forgotten that he's potty trained, he is constantly having tantrums and Aiden cries about everything.
It may get worse from this point on because our whole life will be in transition until we get to Ecuador. So pray for wisdom, patience and lots of love for our boys.