Our Travels:

                We have been busy so far on deputation, but the Lord has truly blessed us as we raise support for our work in Ecuador.   We have had great visits at churches in Forney, Canton, Lubbock, and Levelland, Texas as well as in Quitman and Greenbrier, Arkansas.  We are looking forward to our visits to other churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the coming weeks.  Everyone’s friendliness and hospitality has been greatly appreciated as we’ve traveled with our family.  It has certainly been an adventure! 

                At the same time, we are steadily making last minute preparations as we prepare to leave for language school in two months.  There are vaccination appointments, shopping for items we will need to take, and lots and lots of paperwork!  Trevor will be leaving tomorrow for Ecuador in order to spend more time in Cuenca and its surrounding towns and villages.  We are hopeful that this trip will give us more information about the area and the people we are trying to reach. 

                Please pray that God will grant Trevor a safe and productive trip and also continue to pray for the people of Ecuador – that God would open their hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ.   

On The Road

We had a wonderful last Sunday with our church on April 29 and have now begun traveling for deputation.  During this exciting time, we will be traveling to churches throughout Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Oklahoma to share the vision for Ecuador that God has laid on our hearts. 

                God continues to open doors and remove barriers along the way.  In fact, this past week we were blessed to close on the sale of our home, and since we will only be taking what will fit in our suitcases, everything’s been packed in boxes to donate and garage sale.  Now, we are ready to move to Costa Rica in August. We have already enrolled in language school there and have signed the kids up for school/daycare at the same facility. 

                Looking ahead, Trevor will be making another trip to Ecuador next month for some meetings.  We are hoping that this visit will produce the necessary contacts in order to receive a religious visa to the country.  This is essential for us to be able to do long-term missions work in Ecuador.

 

                During the coming months, please pray that God would open people’s hearts to partner with us in reaching the people of southern Ecuador with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Willing to Go: A Wife's Perspective

Mark 10:28-30: Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”


29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.

Willing to Go: A Wife’s Perspective

As wives, it is our responsibility to lovingly and respectfully submit to our husbands and to follow them wherever God calls them. However, I know from my experience, that God speaks to women just as clearly as he speaks to men. God also reveals his will - not just to husbands, but to wives as well.


I did not feel God speak to me about his plans for our future until I was willing to go wherever he called us. Then, one night as I was praying, one word almost audibly came to my mind – “Ecuador.” I prayed for awhile longer and dwelled on it for quite some time. It was so odd because Trevor and I had never before discussed this country. In fact, I wasn’t even sure where it was! The very next day, after a meeting with the executive director of BMAA Missions, Trevor sent me a text that read, “You’ll never guess the first country he mentioned that we (the BMA) did not have any missionaries in.” Luckily, I was able to call him, and I found out that not only had Trevor been feeling called to go to Ecuador, but our association currently had no missionaries in the country either. Since that time, God has continued to affirm to both of us that he wants us to move our family to southern Ecuador in order to tell others about Jesus and to teach them to obey him.

Those that have gone before us

As I sit in the hospital with my sweet wife thinking about our future, I am reminded that today marks the 56th anniversary of the death of five men who have gone before us.  Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Flemming, and Roger Youderian were all men of God who left the comforts and safety of home and took their families to Ecuador.  Their life mission was to reach the Auca Indians (head hunters) with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fortunately, they were killed by the very people whom they were trying to reach, but their work was not in vain.  I say fortunately because these brave and obedient men paved the way for people like us to proclaim the gospel in Ecuador.   Check out the following articles on their work in Ecuador.

http://www.scriptoriumdaily.com/2009/01/08/today-jim-elliot-was-killed-1956/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1459532/posts

Trevor

God Said Ecuador

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?-2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Nafisa and I have always expected that God would call us to foreign missions.  I don’t know why, but let’s just say we just expected it and embraced the idea. 

God Pressing:

But I started to notice in about September of 2010, God really beginning to press on me.  At first I really couldn’t put my finger on what He was doing or what I was feeling.  It was like He was creating some sort of dissatisfaction within me, but a good dissatisfaction, a godly one. I knew God had called me to Pastor and preach, so I wasn’t questioning that call.  It was as if God wanted to create a dissatisfaction within me so that I could see that He was calling me to other things.  I just knew that God was moving in me and speaking to me and I had to figure out what it was he wanted.  I would pray relentlessly over this asking God to show me what He wanted and to give me clarity in this.

Why we're moving to Ecuador!

Many of you know by now that we are moving to Cuenca, Ecuador as missionaries.  Most of you have expressed your support, even though some of you think we're crazy.  We've started this blog to chronicle this journey that started in January 2010 and that will last until God sends us home or calls us to glory.  Over the next few weeks we'll recap some of the events that had taken us this far.  But for now we'll share our vision, the reason we're moving to Ecuador...