A New Year, A New Start

As any of you who had been following my blog know, I've been severely neglecting it for a number of months, and that's really a shame as it's such a great tool for allowing people to stay caught up with all of the advancements that are taking place as I get ever closer to being on the field full-time in Ecuador.

So, since w're into a new year, I have resolved to keep this site updated, even if there are only a handful of you who follow it. Because you have an interest, I will keep you informed, and I thank you for your support.

ONWARD WE MARCH!

I just returned Tuesday from a training course with Team Expansion, which marks one more requirement off of my list. The course I was taking in called Kairos, and while it was pre-departure requirement, it was well worth it. I am so thankful to Team Expansion for requiring it. I wish they could require it of all churches. I really did find it to be that inspiring and that beneficial.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kairos, its vision, in a sentence, is "to see the whole Church mobilized for cross-cultural mission to the world’s least-reached peoples." It gives a great overview of how world mission has been a part of God's plan from the beginning. Though we tend to think of missions as a New Testament thing, the concept of world mission is found scripturally throughout the Bible, from Genesis through Revelation. Kairos also gives a clear picture of the state of world mission today, who is involved, who should be involved, how far we are from reaching the goal, and methods by which we can draw closer to reaching that goal if only we will be obedient to the call. Interested in knowing a bit more? Watch this overview video.


I pray that I can fit in all of the training necessary to actually facilitate the course before I head to Ecuador, because I really, really want to implement this in the churches there. I want not only to play a role in reaching the least reached, I want to be a part of mobilizing the Church to cross-cultural mission as well!


July 20, 2012


I now have a target date for being on the field full time! Woohoo! And I'm getting closer to meeting that target daily. As some of you know, one of my most pressing needs for a while has been a teammate. Well, I'm happy to say that I'll be meeting with a North American couple that is already living in Quito and currently working in a youth camp ministry during a short trip down to Ecuador mid February. They have already expressed interest in partnering with this Stadia/Compassion International/Camino de Santidad project as teammates. How exciting! Please, please, please keep this meeting in your prayers. 


Of course then, my next big challenge is raising the rest of my needed support. Currently, I have about 36% of my monthly needs and 25% of my startup needs covered. This is awesome, but I still have a long way to go. Should you know anyone who might be interested in being a financial partner, pass along my info to them. Better yet, pass along their info to me. I know how to be persistent :-D


And I'm almost at my initial goal of 100 prayer partners. Only 12 more to go (though I'd really love to have a lot more than 100 by the time July rolls around)!


Ooo, and I have a fancy new prayer card to send out to all of you who have so graciously pledged to support me in prayer. Thanks so much to Shauna Peterson at Team Expansion for putting this together.

Meeting Deborah Today!

Wow! So if you don't get my prayer newsletter, you have no idea who Deborah is because I've been horrible about keeping my blog updated. I promised you guys on July 20 that I would update soon...I lied. Here we are, more than a month later, and I still desperately need to fill in all of the details because much has happened since I was Launch in July (and even that hasn't really been fleshed out here...ayayay!).

For a quick recap, just before heading off to Launch, Team Expansion's two-week training program held at Emerald Hills, the Team Expansion international office located in Louisville, KY, I was informed that I will need to find a full-time teammate to accompany on my mission to Ecuador. This is not a small feat by any means. How does one go about finding someone with an almost identical vision for missions, someone whose heart has melted for the same people as yours has, someone who is ready to pick up and leave their life here all of a sudden and on short notice? Apparently you go to Launch, meet another couple that is also looking for a teammate, and then have them go back to their church, participate in a Bible Conference and happen upon a young woman who meets the above criteria. Thank you, Anthony and Kimberly, for scouting a potential teammate for me!

Deborah is a young lady from Fresno, California. Her mother was born in Ecuador and moved to the States when she was 17. Her father is from Panama. So she is no stranger to Latin American culture and traditions. She had the opportunity to visit Ecuador for the first time this summer, and her heart grew for the people there as a result.

As an brief intro, I want to share with you some of an email she sent to me (Deborah, I hope that's okay):

Teaching has always been my passion since I was a child.  I currently work with kids and have for the past 4 years in an After School Program which I enjoy.  I am also a youth leader at my church in Peoples Church.  Becoming a missionary has been on my heart for a very long time.  And if God calls me to the mission field I am willing to drop everything to fulfill his will for my life.   

I would love to partner with you!  I know this is God's doing because ever since I left Ecuador I have a longing in my heart to return and share God's love with the people there.  The Ecuadorians really need Jesus because I literally felt a huge oppression over the country.  I did attend an assemblies of God church there, but there are very few Christian churches.  Building churches in Manta is an amazing blessing that the villagers in Manta will surely need.  I never had a chance to go to Manta but my mother says it's gorgeous.  She was born in Ecuador and came to the states when she was 17.  I have been to Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama as well.  I went to Nicaragua and Mexico on a missions trip and I went to visit family in Panama since my Dad is from there.  So I am Panamanian Ecuadorian.

I love mission ministry.  I have been a Christian my entire life but it was only a religion for me not actions, but when I was 18 years old I went to Mexico on a missions trip.  God did the greatest miracle in my life.  He healed my eyes (I had Lazy Eye).  I had worn glasses since i was 4 but one night God touched me.  It was our last night in Mexico and our team was having a worship night.  That night I felt God's presence like I never did before.  It was late so I got ready for bed.  I took out my contacts and it was all blurry as usual and went to bed.  About 2 minutes later someone turned on the light and woke everyone up.  As I opened my eyes my vision was perfectly clear and my eyes felt worm.  I couldn't believe that God healed me in my sleep.  I was not even asking God to heal my eyes but God works in mysterious ways.  That is one of my testimonies of what the lord has done in my life.  Since I was 18 until now I have developed a personal relationship with God.  

What an amazing story this young woman has to share! She calls it nothing short of God's doing that I am looking for a partner and was led to her, and to further emphasize that point, it just so happens that she is in Illinois this weekend with her youth group for a conference. So, I'll be making the drive this afternoon to meet her face-to-face. Isn't it amazing how God provides? Not that I doubted that He would, I just didn't expect such quick action (though I'm certainly grateful for it).

Will Update Soon

I know I owe you all an update. Things were just crazy leading up to Launch (which I'm realizing now that I may never have gotten around to mentioning in the last update, so you may have no idea what I'm talking about) and have been even crazier since Launch started, so I haven't yet had the chance to catch up. Of course, the farther behind I get, the more there is to write, so I'd better get on it! 

If you would like little pieces that will either work to catch you up to an extent or completely confuse you, visit and subscribe to my weekly prayer newsletter (see last update or right sidebar).

For now, I'd better get back to work on my presentation. As part of our training, we're required to put together a presentation that we can use for support raising, and we have the opportunity to practice them and have the Team Expansion folks critique them on Friday afternoon. At least I know I'll be very well prepared when I head out Friday evening. I'd be happy to talk any of you through it at a later date and ask you to partner with me and Team Expansion as well. I know you'd all LOVE the opportunity, so be expecting a phone call! :-p

P.S. This is the AWFUL location I've been stuck at for the last two weeks. I know, I know, you all feel so bad for me... I appreciate the sympathy.

New Prayer Newsletter

I have started a new prayer newsletter that I will be sending out weekly which covers my prayer needs for that week. This one of my efforts to garner support for my missions adventures, and, of course, prayer is really my biggest need, especially at this point in the process. The first issue went out yesterday! Click the link above to view it. If you would like to sign up to receive the newsletter weekly by email, you can do so in one of three ways:

1) Subscribe via the newletter (open the newsletter link, say a prayer, then scroll to the very bottom of the page and click "update subscription preferences - it may give you a funny message, but I'm pretty sure you can still do it that way)
2) Click the link on the right sidebar
3) Click the "Sign up!" link below

Some of you I already added to the email list on my own, so if you go to signup and find out you already have a subscription or profile, that's why. If that's the case but you didn't get the letter, check your junk mail. It will be coming from a new email address that I just set up, so you may need to add that address to your safe list.

Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested.
Also, I have a lot to add to that last update, so I will try to get a new update added this week.

Until then, have a great week and pray! I'll be praying for all of you prayers as well!

Sign up!

It's about time!

It's been over two months since I last posted an update?! Really?! Then I guess it's about time that I let the masses know what is going on in the mission planning process.

I'll start with apologies:

1. for any mistakes or weird formatting - I'm writing this update from my phone while on a bus on my way to a Hillsong United concert (woohoo) in Indianapolis with a group from church (and to steal a phrase from my dear Karen, I love my church!)

2. for my absence, though I realize it has more potential to do my ability to keep people interested than anything

The truth of the matter is that I had no real updates to give for a while. When I left you last, I was in the process of trying to find a sending organization that was willing to work with me and First Christian on this project. I had already been in conversation with Team Expansion, and I believe I had already begun the application process to go to Ecuador with them as what they term a Discovery project. Several weeks after submitting my application, I hadn't heard anything and began to worry slightly, so I contacted them to find out what the status was. Come to find out that they were waiting on one of my reference letters that had not been submitted (*sigh* good bosses are a great thing, but sometimes they're too busy for their own good). After lighting a fire under his rear and pestering him constantly until he submitted it (I can be quite pesky if you give me a reason to be, so watch it!), the application committee reviewed my application and gave the green light for me to move forward! Praise God for His mercies!

The next step then was to set up a meeting with Doug Lucas, the president of Team Expansion, and Tom Chamberlain, their coordinator of Latin American missions, and my church's mission team to discuss the details of my expected role, the church's involvement, Team Expansion's role, the training process, timeline, etc. That meeting took place this past Saturday. To summarize things that I found out:

1. There is some amount of confusion as to whether I should be considered short term or full-time. We finally decided on full-time :)

2. They think I might be crazy and so I need a psychological evaluation. I kid, I kid. I do have to take the MMPI-2, but they require it of everyone.

3. I will need to complete a 2-week training course called Launch at Team Expansion's Emerald Hills facility in Louisville, Kentucky.

4. I need to go through Kairos training, a program developed in the Philipines aimed at training churches for cross-cultural missions work in order to reach unreached and least reached people groups. There are currently still approximately 6900 unreached people groups in the world comprised of about 2 billion individuals. These people would literally be clueless if you asked them what they know about Jesus. They have never heard his name. This is astounding. Upon completion of Kairos training and Kairos facilitator training, I'll be able to come back and lead a Kairos course at church. How cool is that? Very cool! I find it exciting. I love teaching :)

5. After completion of the  training, a committee will review my entire package and decide whether to promote my status to missionary recruit or to require further improvements from me before agreeing that I am ready to begin preparing to mobilize.

6. I will need to choose a forwarding agent to handle all of my finances while I'm gone. A forwarding agent would be defined as someone who loves me (not a family member), who won't embezzle money from me, who is a glutton for punishment as they'll be required to keep up with everything and provide frequent (monthly) reports to Team Expansion all out of love for me and for God and for missions and without being paid. I'll go ahead and apologize in advance to the person who accepts this mission...

And I'm not finished, but my battery is dying, so I'll have to get back to you later. This time, I promise it won't be months!

Progress Update

"Full speed ahead!" says Doug Lucas of Team Expansion. "Whooooooooo-hoooooooooooo!" (Also a direct quote from Doug :)

That's where it seems my ship's telegraph has been set pretty much since I decided to take a step of faith in September and start exploring my options for missions in Ecuador. From the time I began asking questions and sharing my calling with people, God has opened door after door with much more rapidity than I ever expected, and it's been such an exciting experience! As exciting as these initial stages have been, I can't even begin to imagine the opportunities that wait for me in Ecuador.

I don't mean to say that we haven't already run into some hangups. We have. Actually, until about a week ago, things were at a standstill. The current phase of the project is to find a missions organization that is willing to stand behind this project and serve as my sending organization. This may leave you scratching your head as I've already thrown out names like Stadia and Compassion International. While both of these organizations are heavily involved in this project, neither is really an organizations that sends missionaries internationally for longer term service. That being the case, Brent of Stadia suggested that we try to partner with an organization that regularly sends missionaries into the field. He first contacted NMSI (New Mission Systems International). NMSI is a missions organization based out of Fort Myers, Florida, whose mission is to "engage, prepare and support people to proclaim Christ and make disciples globally." They currently have about 200 missionaries serving in 28 countries, but Ecaudor is not one of those 28. This may have contributed to the fact that Brent got nothing but negative feedback from them when he approached them about serving as a sending organization. NMSI seemed to be less than excited about our project and even less excited than that to stand behind it. This, of course, was a bit discouraging, especially for Brent, who began to doubt whether sending me was such a great idea. He was very reluctant to agree with NMSI, but as sending missionaries out is part of what they do full-time, it only makes sense that he began to question whether what we were planning was a good idea, so he suggested that I have a "plan B" ready to go...or maybe a "plan A" with the Stadia/Compassion/Camino de Santidad project as my "plan B." And things ground to a screeching halt. But we weren't halted for long...

(Note: I am not trying to present NMSI in a bad light. They are a great organization doing great things for God, and I encourage you to check them out. We were just obviously not meant to partner with them on this project.)

Before plans had really picked up and taken off with Stadia, I had been in contact with another big missions organization, Team Expansion, about serving in Ecaudor as a member of one of their teams. They already have missionaries in Ecuador who have been serving there for over 20 years and are thus very familiar with the culture, region and sending process. When Brent told me about the bad news he had received from NMSI, I suggested that Team Expansion might be a better option as they already have a team in Ecuador and as I had already been in contact with them, filled out a profile, had a phone interview and been invited to apply. I knew that they were excited and eager to work with me when I approached them about joining one of their teams, so I thought there was a good chance that they might also be excited to get behind the new project with Stadia and Compassion. But I had already tried twice to contact them to find out if the application that they had sent previously would still be applicable and to see if they would even be willing to support the Stadia/Compassion project and had gotten no response. Of course, I knew there was the possibility that my messages got lost in the email shuffle, or that people were traveling and unable to respond, or that my messages were sitting in an inbox somewhere, waiting patiently as some diligent worker went about trying to find answers to my questions. But I am not as patient as my messages, so I asked Don, our minister of missions at church, to contact Doug Lucas, the president of Team Expansion, to speed along the process (no, I did not just march up and demand that he contact the president...he had previously mentioned to me that he knew Doug and could contact him for me if I needed any help). And speed along the process it did! Not only was he excited about partnering with us, he immediately contacted a boatload of other people in his organization to get them excited and get the go-ahead, he had already been following this particular project, and he was even more excited that I had already taken steps to get things moving. Hence the quotes at the top of the page :)

So we are back to "full speed ahead!" Now I just need my fundraising effort to start moving ahead with as much steam as everything else is moving along...I'll get back to you guys on that veeeeery shortly :D

If any of you reading this have any experience with deputation (missions fundraising), have any good fundraising ideas, or know people/companies who might be interested and willing to support this project, HOLLA! And pass along my info, please! I will take all of the help that I can get!

Gettin' on my soapbox



Japan after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami



I woke up this morning wanting to be grumpy and in a bad mood becuase it's cold out again. After last week's beautiful spring temperatures, it was no chore to be depressed and moody about the swing back into winter.

Then God must have smacked me upside the head and told me to get over myself. I realized that I should be thankful that I woke up this morning and that it was just cold. There had been no earthquakes to destroy my home during the night, no tsunamis to tear down and flood what hadn't been completely destroyed by earthquakes. There's no potential nuclear meltdown going on in my back yard. There were no tornadoes that swept through to destroy my home, no hurricanes to wash away parts of cities, no volcanic eruptions, no landslides/mudslides, floods, plagues...it was just cold. Meanwhile, Japan experienced two more earthquakes, still considered aftershocks, last night, and conditions at the Fukushima nuclear power plant continue to deteriorate.

It struck me just how greedy we as a human population tend to be, especially those of us living comfortably in our developed countries and cultures. We complain to no end because the spring weather went away while people on the other side of the world are probably waking in thanks and praise every morning that no more disaster has hit them yet. We go to expensive restaurants and complain because the food was overcooked or undercooked, the meat was tough, it was too chewy, there wasn't enough salt, it was too salty, there wasn't much flavor, it was too hot, it was cold, the vegetables weren't fresh, the bread was stale, the drink was watered down, the coke was flat, and I could just keep going with this list of things which, when you put it into perspective, are completely absurd to complain about. How many people would not fall on their faces in thanks to have the money with which to pay for a dinner like that, a dinner which they would savor every bite of, a dinner which you are eating alone and they would very willingly share with an entire family. We have the resources to get to the restaurant, the opportunity to ENJOY that kind of dinner, the finances to pay for it (or at least the illusion that credit gives us of being able to pay for it). So many people have none of this. Yet we look for every small thing possible to whine about instead of just being grateful for what we are blessed with.

You can apply this to practically every area of life if you stop to think about it. We, as a people, are so selfish! And this sounds like an angry rant, and the truth is that I did get somewhat angry upon thinking about these things because I realized that I'm just as greedy as everyone else. I never would have classified myself as a greedy person, but then I actually stopped to think about it. My most selfish of behaviors of late deals with relationships. I have been down and depressed because one individual has treated me in a way that I consider undeserved and unjust. I've been carrying on in this manner for a couple of weeks. What I have failed to realize is that I'm surrounded by people who do care, who are concerned for my well being, who are always supportive, who don't judge me when I fail but who aren't afraid to be bluntly honest with me when they need to be, who have put forth a completely voluntary effort to point out the positive in this situation. They try their hardest to lift me up, show me my worth, make me smile, and I continue with my Debbie Downer attitude, saying "Yeah, but..." "That's true, but..." "I believe that, but..." And the truth of the matter is that I do deserve to be ignored like I've been ignored. I am deserving of the bad treatment. Maybe not from the person who is dishing it out, but so many times, in carrying out relationships/friendships, I do exactly the same thing to the One who cares about me the most. God tries to bless my life through these people that He puts in it, and I turn around, ignore the rules He has set for proper conduct in these relationships/friendships, put these people in front of Him, and then I am crushed when He takes them away or when they decide to turn around and treat me as I have just treated my Father.

Realizing all of this very quickly changed my mindset for the day. It was a very humbling but very necessary blow. It actually reminded me of Francesca Battistelli's new song "This is The Stuff":

I lost my keys in the great unknown
And call me, please, 'cause I can't find my phone

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff that's getting to me lately
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use

45 in a 35
Sirens and fines while I'm running behind

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff that's getting to me lately
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use

To break me of impatience
Conquer my frustrations
I've got a new appreciation
It's not the end of the world

This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff
Someone save me
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
And I've gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use

I have to admit that I have classified this song as being a bit childish, but it actually sounds like most of the adults that I know, myslef included. Hmmm...something to consider.

Yeah, it's cold outside, but my home is still in tact, there have been no natural disasters, and I'm sitting comfy in a great job. Yeah, occassionally people mistreat me, but I'm surrounded by so many more people who care, who lift me up, who pray for me even when I don't ask, who genuinely love me and have my best interest at heart. Yeah, sometimes my dinner is cold or not cooked to my liking, but I have food and the finances to buy more food than I could ever possibly eat. God has blessed me with more that I might give it to those who have less. So, yeah, it's cold outside, but I'll take it. I'll even send up a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for it. Why? Because it's just cold.

"In the middle of my LITTLE mess, I forget how BIG I'm blessed."