There is someone assigned to take over the finances for Jon. They will be coming for training in Sept and then will be moving to Ecuador in Jan.
We are excited that our pastors Rev. Carlos and Rev. Nancy Cordero, from Venezuela will be coming soon to be the administrators of the Seminary which Jon was doing this last year. Lucho Flores, who is our assistant will be coordinating the work shop, vehicle and seminary maintenance.
More News! Things are starting to fall into place for when we leave. It was God's plan to keep Work and Witness in the family, so Angel and Krista, our son-in-law and daughter were approved to be Sponsored Missionaries for the Church of the Nazarene to be the Work and Witness Coordinators here in Ecuador. The really amazing God part is that we are basically switching houses! When they get their funds raised which we hope will be the first of November, they will be coming here and that will give us 3 weeks give or take, together. The reason we had a mountain of suitcases when we were coming back, was were were able to bring 3 suitcases for Angel and Krista.
Praise the Lord, we feel like we can breathe a little easier. Although that means we will be leaving our family behind we know that following God's will is the only way to live life. I was looking forward to being an in person mother to my daughters and a live Abuela to my grandsons but God's will is more important. I can be those to Michelle and her boys.
Please pray for Angel and Krista and little Samuel as they prepare to make the transition. They have an active church and family and friends in their life they will be leaving behind and will need to make many decisions in the next months. Pray that God will bring people in their lives that will want to support them. They will be sharing in churches about their new ministry so they need to find churches other then their own, and individuals who will want to partner with them. They will need to raise money for VISA work, passport work, health insurance and all their expenses for the first two years. That adds up quickly.
I try to think how did we plan when we were putting our lives in suitcases when we first left for Venezuela. Yes, we only thought it would be for one year. I feel it has been so long that I am not much help for Krista. Samuel will be close to the same age as Krista when she first left for the field. I know that God will bring people along side of them as they prepare and there is a wonderful mission family waiting for them here. Some of them they already are friends with. Samuel will have 3 little neighbor girls to play with and I am excited about him growing up here. It also helps that Jon and I know what their life will be like and all they will be doing and the people they will be working with. That makes it so much easier for this mom and dad to let go and allow God to take care of them. I am now having feelings of what our parents felt when we first left and I am thinking there are things I could have done to help the process.
When we leave here on the 30th of Nov. we will go through all our boxes of things we stored away for 30 years. That will be exciting! Then we have 1 year of HA of sharing in churches and during that time we will be searching for what God has next for our lives. Thank you for your many prayers as we make this change.