This week we celebrated arriving in Ecuador 24 years ago! What an adventure it has been! God has been with us guiding us step by step. Now we sense he is guiding us toward a big change in our ministry.
We will be moving back to the United States to make that our new base for outreach. Scott will continue to teach Hebrew online from Kansas to people in Ecuador and to all of the Spanish speaking world. Our leaders in Avant Ministries are encouraging him to look for ways to connect with people and institutions in all of the fields where we have fellow missionaries, and even beyond. Scott’s classes have already become quite international, and we expect that to develop even more from here on out.
Kristi has spent the past 14 years teaching! She has loved it but each year it gets harder for her to continue in this capacity due to her arthritis. During the school year, teaching was pretty much the only thing she was able to do as she came home exhausted at the end of the day. So though she will miss teaching, she is ready to do something less strenuous.
Many of you ask how Scott’s health is going. Here in Quito we live at 9,300 ft. altitude, nearly 2 miles high! We have been realizing these past months that Scott feels better when he is at a lower altitude. Thankfully he has gained back about 15 pounds since last summer when he was at an all-time low, but he is always struggling with ups and downs. We are looking forward to the added benefit of him feeling more normal as well.
We are very grateful for the timing of this opportunity as it allows us to be closer to family in a new stage of life. We are feeling an increasing need to be available to help with care for our parents. And we are very excited about being able to spend more time with grandchildren. There is a LOT that we will miss about living in Ecuador, but we have peace that the Lord is leading us toward a change that is best for this season of our lives.
Speaking of family, each of our kids has made the effort to come and visit us once more before we leave. We have loved showing our granddaughters where we have called home for all these years! We have gotten to visit all the familiar tourist spots again and experienced them from their young eyes! One of the new highlights was feeding hummingbirds right out of our hands, completely surrounded by rain forest! Scott and Talia went whale watching and you can see the best moments here. Lindsey will be the last one to come in just 3 more weeks.
We don’t have an actual date set for leaving yet. We are hoping for the end of September. But remember the Ecuadorian identification card that you have been praying for? Kristi finally received hers, but Scott’s was denied again. So we are once again waiting to hear news about that–hopefully news that it has been granted. We’ll need it in order to be able to sell our car, so please pray for God to move in the officials’ hearts. Also pray for the many other details of closing a chapter of our life in Ecuador and reestablishing ourselves in the US more permanently.
Please understand that nothing is changing in our relationship with Avant Ministries. We will continue to need your faithful financial donations to enable us to continue our ministry. Although we recognize that some might feel the need to make an adjustment in this area, we trust that God will prepare others to fill in the gaps that might be created.
Last week Scott preached in our English speaking church. Pray for him as he prepares to bring the message again next week.
Scott plans to continue to visit Ecuador every few months to take advantage of the many opportunities he has for in-person ministry here. There is also the possibility that he will be traveling to other countries to meet with students from time to time. He may find it helpful to meet in person with administrators and faculty of seminaries and institutes that are looking for his help teaching and helping to develop their Hebrew program.
As you can see, there are several reasons for our upcoming change, and several exciting benefits from it. We're thankful for the amazing 24 years we've had in Ecuador, and we’re convinced that God is moving us toward another equally amazing season of life and ministry.
