Live By Faith Not By Sight in 2012

Wow what a year this has been for us! As we look to 2012 with hope of new opportunities, we are excited to see how God will show His Glory once again in our lives. We have been through peaks and valleys and God has been so faithful. We began our year in Atlanta with Extreme Response and really believed this was where God planned for us to be for the next 5 to 10 years. We bought a house and saw God at work and expected to build relationships and find an awesome church to attend. It was shortly after we got settled that we realized that the financial support it was going to take to live in the states was not going to be easy to attain, but we did receive what was needed. We lost two big supporters but believed that it was not about them, that God could use anyone to fill that gap, and that He did. This process started in March when a friend from Iowa sent just what we needed for the month of April. From then on, until the end of December we received notes that individuals had sent us just the amount that was needed for the month… never the same person never the same amount but always just what we needed! We are so grateful to each one of you who listened to the Lord and followed His lead. We were reminded through the circumstances with our car that He will remain faithful! That was a miracle in itself. He sold our house in September within 48hrs. of putting it on the market, even in a down market, without losing any money and provided us a place to live in the Chattanooga area. We have been blessed to be close to Mike’s children and grandchildren and able to spend time really getting to know them as adults. This has been a wonderful Christmas season with our families and we are looking forward to a joyful New Year. We are still looking for a church where we can get connected and serve. We are also excited to see how the Lord provides on the career front. Mike starts a new sales job next week, working mostly in North Alabama, so he will be away several nights each week. This will be a big adjustment for us. Pam is still waiting for her opportunity!! Please continue to pray for us to seek and follow the Lord’s perfect will for our lives.
We want to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year! May God bless you use you in 2012.

Fountain of Life Team 2nd Week

We have just finished working with the Fountain of Life Team from Kernersville NC. Their ministry time here serving at Pan De Vida, meaning Bread of Life, was amazing. We worked alongside serving over 400 meals to the poorest of the poor, took the children to the amusement park and zoo, and started a bathroom to help accommodate all the people who come each week to hear the Word of God. We weren’t able to finish the bathroom project but the maestro and his team will finish it in a few weeks after the concrete has cured. This was a disappointment to the team because the normal for us Americans is if we start something we want to finish it. God has a plan and it is in His timing. As we ended our second week with this team, there were many whose lives have been changed forever. Again, ER is about changing lives for both the people we partner with all over the world and the people who come on a short term team. It is a step of faith for those who come on a mission trip and we want to encourage all of you who read this to have this experience of a lifetime. It might not be Ecuador but it could be with any of our other places we serve around the world. Many times you may ask God why am I here and not get an answer, other times He may answer with a clear understanding. Mike and I are so blessed to be a part of this ministry and pray we can continue to see lives changed in the future.

Macas, Shell and Banos

Between our two teams we had some time set aside to visit a partner of ER’s in Macas, near the Amazon jungle. Part of the staff drove down on Monday and the rest of us flew down Tuesday afternoon. There were 8 of us all together. We visited Emmanuel Christian School where Robin and Wendy, local missionaries, are teaching over380 students to learn English, computer skills, basic courses and most of all learning about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of these students come from Catholic backgrounds so the opportunity is abundant to reach out to them. Only 20% of the students are Christians. ER has a wonderful partnership with them and we are excited to see what God does through them in the future. We stopped over in Puyo for lunch at this quaint little restaurant called El Jardin, which means the Garden, where the scenery was magnificent, including the parrot in the photo. We then continued on our way to Shell where Nate Saint and four other guys flew into the jungle to try and evangelize a particular tribe of Indians. There was a movie titled End of the Spear made about them. The end result turned into them being martyred. Fortunately this tribe has turned to Christianity, because after many years one of the sons returned to the village and lived among the tribe and forgave and discipled the man that killed his father. We visited an orphanage/foster home, Casa De FE, where a lady felt called to help the children of this area and since then they have had rapid growth in the need for volunteers to help serve with them. ER is looking into a possible partnership with them, so it was great to visit this ministry. After Shell we headed towards Banos. In Spanish, Banos means bathrooms but this little town was very tranquil and didn’t meet up to its name at all. Thank goodness!! We spent one night here and attempted to ride quad bikes the next morning up to one of the active Volcanoes. Unfortunately, we had bike trouble all the way and had to call the company to come and get the bikes. We decided to call it a morning and pack up and head back to Quito. One of the most incredible things about this trip was the gas/diesel prices. We paid $1.03 for a gallon of diesel fuel and regular gas costs $2.00 a gallon. There is something to be said for using your own resources! On our way back we stopped by one more partnership, For His Children, but didn’t go in. We will be going back with a team this week for a couple of days before we leave to go back to the states. This was a great opportunity to get to know the ER team in Quito better and to see Ecuador and the beautiful country side.

Kitchen Duty

I have found myself on a number of different occasions serving in the kitchen on our short term mission trips, but a lot of you know this isn’t my favorite place to be. This time it has been in Quito with the Fountain of Life team at Pan De Vida. The team had planned for all of their members to be doing VBS, but didn’t realize they needed to have some people in the kitchen. Mike and I and a few other locals were in the kitchen for most of the time over the last two weeks. The team was able to help when they weren’t doing VBS. When Mike and I arrived in Fiji, we were all given assignments for 4 weeks at a time with different opportunities to serve. For whatever reason, this was the one place that I didn’t want to work, but it seems God really had a plan. I ended up having kitchen duty for the entire 3 months. I did my normal complaining behind closed doors of course, but God knew my heart. Four years later, my heart has been transformed for working in the kitchen and I am so thankful for it. We met a wonderful lady named Roceo (see picture above) and she taught us a few tricks in the kitchen. She was sad to see us go and told us we would be missed very much. I was reminded of my attitude again with a couple of people on this team where they felt the same way I did four years ago about their job and I shared my story about how God can use us even when we don’t like the work we have been assigned. It may not have made much sense to them now, but I know it will in the future. Jesus always has a reason for the discipline needed for the moment. (Hebrews 12:7-11)

Glory to God

Every day we have seen the Lord at work and we just want to give him all the Glory!! On Wednesday for instance, our bus was running 45 minutes late and “we” thought we would not make it in time to get breakfast fixed and served to the children. However, with it out of our control we were able to get there and get breakfast prepared and serve the kids right on time. We also prepared lunch and dinner for that day and ended up having just enough food for the dinner feeding. On Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings, Pan De Vida has a church service with praise and worship and a feeding program for the adults and children. Wednesday night we fed about 160 people and ended the last meal with the last person standing in line. I am so amazed at how many times this continues to happen to me and Mike on the mission field. This has been unique team in that only a few of them have ever been on a mission trip much less out of the country. We love to see God at work changing the lives of the people on the team in such a short period of time. We have had to pray on a number of occasions for the rain to go away, for the gatekeeper at the dump to let us come in and serve the night workers, and for someone living on the street to be available when we are driving home to give them the extra food we have had left over from our dinner. God has certainly shown up in so many ways and we still have another week to go.

Fountain of Life Team in Ecuador

We have had our first week of VBS at Pan De Vida ministry and it has been a wonderful time with an average of 57 kids each day. Most of the children that come each week really get there stability from the Pan De Vida staff because they have so many issues at home. They see this place as a safe haven and get lots of TLC from them. The FOL team has brought a lot of love and support for the staff and kids for this 2 week period and Extreme Response is so grateful for this partnership between Fountain of Life and Pan De Vida and we are thankful to be a part of it.They have had a drama each day, played games outside, made crafts, and memorized Bible verses. They have also been fed breakfast, a snack, and lunch. For most of these kids if they get one meal a day they are very fortunate. There are 19 on the team and they have been a really big help in coming alongside the ministry to help further the Kingdom through VBS, and a construction team. The construction team is working alongsidethe maestro (foreman) and 3 co-workers to build a bathroom onto the side of the building. Fountain of Life has 3 guys that are helping with the project but it is sometimes difficult for a construction team from the states to come and work in a foreign country because so many techniques are done so differently. However, it almost always has its rewards even if you don’t see them right away. God always has a plan in place and the team usually ends up gaining more from the experience than the project itself.Thursday evening we fed the night workers at the dump and this was an opportunity for the team to meet some of the poorest of the poor in Quito. On Friday, we took the kids on a field trip to a small amusement park and had so much fun with them. For most of them it was their first time to go and it was great to see so many smiling faces when we know they have very challenging situations at home.I was lucky enough to have the oldest kids so they wanted to ride all the “big” rides and play some of the games. Two out of the 7 won stuffed animals and they were very happy to be taking a memory home with them. Through the Lord’s provision, the FOL team really blessed these kids and gave them a wonderful week.

USC nursing team at Zambiza Dump, Tosagua and Mindo

On Wednesday last week, we took the team out to the Zambiza Dump where we did medical screenings for about 40 children in the morning, then fed them a meal. These children are cared for and go to school at the dump daycare while their parents are working sorting out the recyclable materials. In the afternoon, the children have a little play area built by another team and we entertained the kids with face painting and loving on them. We left for a while to go have dinner and then came back to the dump to do medical screenings for about 70 of the night workers. The USC team wanted to do something special for them so they bought two huge pots of Chinese food and we distributed that about 8:30 that evening. There were a few out of the box thinkers that wanted more, so they took 2 liter coke bottles and cut off the top and filled them up with left overs and took food back to their families that stayed back to continue to shuffle through the trash. Jose and Theresa, the Pastor and his wife, who have been working with the people at the dump for about 4 years, always use this opportunity to share the Gospel with the workers and to build relationships with them. Extreme Responses ultimate goal is supply the need and be able to come along side and support the local pastor and his ministry.
The next day we left early for a 9 hour journey to Tosagua with a short stopover in Santo Domingo to teach CPR to a local church group. Dr. Moss and a few other team members instructed them with a Red Cross video and mannequins. They were very eager to learn and were very appreciative. From there we drove through the rainforest to Tosagua. The first day we did medical screenings for about 92 people in the village where they didn’t have any electricity or running water. One lady accepted Christ and that was the biggest highlight of the day. We are always so amazed at how the local people bless us when we want to come to be a blessing to them. They managed to serve us a home cooked meal, Ecuadorian style of course, and provided all kinds of fruits throughout the day. They were very thankful for the team coming out and it was a great opportunity for the team to see how people live on very little means. The next morning we had a screening from 8:30 to 11:00 at the church and saw 80 people. We left for Manta, on the coast, and then caught a plane back to Quito. This was a wonderful experience for all of us and a wonderful opportunity to see more of Ecuador.
The last day we drove to Mindo where the team had a little R&R before flying back to the states. They got to go on 11 zip lines over another rainforest and then stop over for shopping at Mitad Del Mundo, middle of the world. The team came back to the team house for a wonderful dinner and debrief and then we took them to the airport for the red eye flight.

God is still in the Business of Doing Miracles

Nissan came through for a transmission for the car! We have been persevering diligently with Nissan and trying every avenue we know to get Nissan to replace a faulty transmission in our "new to us" car. We received word from Nissan that they would be willing to grant our request for providing the parts for our car if we still agreed to pay the labor. We agreed and the car is in the shop today getting a new transmission. We still have to pay $1000.00 for the labor and we are trusting God for that too, but we are excited that we will be able to travel now with peace knowing we won't be broken down on the side of the road somewhere. We know this is a miracle from the Lord and there is no other way to say thanks to Him except to give Him all the glory. We have patiently waited for His timing and His orchestration and it has come to fruition. Don't ever give up on all that God can do when you think there is no hope because we are living proof that His promises are real. It just requires faith in believing He will do what He says He will do!!
James 1:2-4 NLT says, "Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy. For when your faith is tested,your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.

Who would have thunk it!

Trying to understand what the world is coming to is an unraveling nightmare. Glad I know there is an eternal life with Christ where we won’t have to deal with these issues. For those of you have health insurance with your company Thank God every day for it. I mean this literally. I never thought I would see the day when it would cost more for health insurance per month than it would to own a house. Not to mention you have to carry over a $5000.00 deductible before they will even pick up a claim. What would it cost if you were sick? Obama care has every health insurance company running with their tails between their legs instead of fighting for the people. Of course we all know they are getting kick backs as well from the administration!!! I don’t know how much longer America is going to be able to stand on the expectancy of the government for everything. It appears that it is crumbling before our very eyes. God is giving America every opportunity to look to Him and to trust Him but we, including myself right now because we have just been hit hard, aren’t getting it. They continue to raise rates for innocent people who are healthy and just go for an annual physical every year and charge a lot for the location in which you live. Yes I am upset right now and voicing my opinion. Oh how I would love to be one of those people who can just head up to Washington and start telling people what I think, however that isn’t me! I am the peacemaker Is it just me or is there anyone else fed up with higher health insurance premiums?