Well, this has been a long time coming. These past few months have been so busy. Rick went to Honduras with Pioneer Evangelism and would have stayed there if he could have just sent for us! He came home and graduated from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary with his Associates of Divinity. We decided that since God was calling us to the mission field that it would be best to move back to south Mississippi where we could be by our family for the time remaining and so we could prepare to go where God would lead us. It was a hard decision to leave our church family and our close friends we made during this awesome time at seminary. God showed us Himself during this time and we grew these last three years. I would not trade these years for anything in the world. We had two children and grew closer as a family there.
After getting semi-settled in, it was time to drop the kiddos off at my Mama's house and head to Ecuador. This is where my life changed forever. I had been anxiously waiting for this trip because of leaving the kids behind while both of us went to another country, but also not knowing what it would be like outside of the United States. When we got off the plane in Quito, Ecuador, we got on a bus in the middle of the night and rode through the mountains. About daylight, I awoke and looked out the window. I was completely overwhelmed with what I saw. The mountains were unlike anything I had ever seen. The beauty of God's creation was almost more than I could take in. It was not just the altitude that took my breath away! We arrived in El Tambo very early in the morning. I cannot compare it to anything in the U.S. The people are different and the sights, sounds and smells are different. Even though it was July, it was very cold. Rick and I quickly found a market where we could buy scarves and gloves. The need is urgent to take the gospel to South America. People are dying every day having never heard the name of Jesus. We may have been cold physically, but this place was cold spiritually. I pray that we would never forget what we saw there and how God broke our hearts for His sake.
I will write more later about what happened during that week, but I know that God confirmed time and again His calling on our lives that to missions that week. There is no other way we can imagine spending our lives except doing that which He has called us to do.
