Blog

16 May

A trip to Piñas

Written by Josh
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Some of you might wonder what one of our trips to Piñas might look like. Here is an outline of what we did the last time we went. This time, just Tomas and I went. Other times we have another person or two that come. With just two of us this time, we had to split up quite a bit.

A family in our church in Loja makes backpacks and they sent several backpacks for us to give to the children. School in that part of Ecuador started a few weeks ago. Also, as you'll see with many of the meetings we are focusing on stories of the bible. It's a method we're using for those who aren't believers but have interest in meeting with us and those who are very young in the faith. The idea is that by learning these stories and talking about them we are able to see God's character and understand the Gospel better.

05 Apr

Video update

Written by Josh
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Here is a video that we recently made. I hope that you all are encouraged by hearing about what God has been doing here. If you have any questions, just let us know. May God bless you.

11 Aug

Back to the Blog...

Written by Josh
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I think the first thing that is in order is why the blog has been so silent. There are really two reasons. One is because we were having some problems with the website itself. We've moved it to a new host and everything is now working. The other is that we've been busy moving and getting settled in here. So between the website not working and everything else going on, it's been hard to break the silence and start writing again. Not the best of excuses, but it's true. If you haven't been following us on Facebook, you've probably missed quite a bit. Here is a quick timeline since the last post.

28 Jan

Benjamin Silas is here!

Written by Josh
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Silent night.. Actually it wasn't a silent night. There was crying, pain, blood and sweat. All to bring into the world a precious life that was once in darkness and now in the light for us all to truly enjoy. Even though throughout his life he might see suffering, pain, sickness, and sin it's quite amazing to think that his conception was in a moment of joy, love, and purity.

family life

23 Dec

Behold Him!

Written by Josh
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I wrote this poem while thinking about a message I was going to share. Karen recorded me reading it so I thought I'd share with all of you. - Josh

28 Nov

Alone In a New Country

Written by Josh
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Have you ever made multiple phone calls and no one answer and then think, "Is this phone working? Do I even exist?" It seems like when we go a while without real interaction with people we begin to doubt. The other day I was reading a book about crossing cultures and ran across this quote.

“Because I speak no Portuguese,” Moritz Thomsen wrote of a trip through Brazil, “and have chosen to move through those parts of [Rio de Janeiro] where tourists do not go, I find after a few days of not speaking that I have begun to doubt my own existence”

Storti, Craig. The Art of Crossing Cultures (p. 102).

05 Nov

5 Miles from Christ

Written by Josh
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I know it's just the beginning of November but I'm already hearing and seeing Christmas stuff. So maybe it's not too soon to start thinking about the events surrounding the birth of Christ. Here is an aspect of the wise men coming that I never noticed before.

21 Oct

A Late Night with a Crying Toddler

Written by Josh
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The other night was a rough one. No one likes to wake up to a crying toddler. They are usually unreasonable and you just can’t figure out what to do to make them calm down. That was our experience the other night. It's interesting how God uses our kids to teach us lessons about our own relationship with Him, and that's what happened the next morning as I started to think about it all.

It was 12:07am and Aletheia started crying and asking for mommy, but It just wasn’t time to wake up so I (Josh) had to work with her to get her to calm down. Here is what happened.

15 Oct

Update: A Grace-Filled Pause Before we GO

Written by Josh
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Last month we let you all know that we had plans of leaving in October. This month we're letting you know that we'll be postponing our departure until after the first of the year. If you are as ready as we were to see us go to the mission field, then you must be wondering what happened.

17 Sep

Update

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For those who are looking for an update: We're still working towards having firm dates for a departure time line. Pray that soon we'll be able to have more clarity. The goal is next month.

Here is what's in front of us:

Complete building financial support team.
Purchase tickets.
When we have 90% of our support team complete we will start the visa process. When that's ready we'll be making a road trip down to Houston to get the visas. That should all be done in a matter of weeks after it's started.
Schedule a going away party. We'll do this when we get some firm dates to the other steps.

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support!