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!