Achieving Mountains by Steps

One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Luke 16:10

Achieving Mountains by Steps
Our son, Luke, has developed an interest in mountain climbing. In the past few months on some days off we've made some attempts at several mountains with varying degrees of success: Pichincha, Rumiñahui, Sincholagua and Pasochoa. Although we haven't always made it to the top, in every case we've felt pretty happy about what we actually did achieve. The funny thing about hiking is that it really doesn't involve any colossal advances (at least at our level of skill); it's all about taking one more step—something we're used to doing every day. And then in the end when we step back and look at where we went, we realize that somehow all of those little steps add up to one big accomplishment.

For almost all of us, all of life is a lot like that. If we wait to act until the big moments come along, we'll probably never actually do anything of significance. Success depends on taking a whole bunch of seemingly insignificant little steps, that somehow add up to something of value.

 As I reflect on the past few months in my life, I can see some distance has been covered, even though sometimes entire days felt like a fruitless exercise in meaninglessness. I hope that you also have the chance to periodically step back and see how God often chooses the little things we do and turns them into mountains of significance. At the end of our life we want to be able to see the great things God has done through us, but most of us will see nothing unless we do a whole lot of seemingly inconsequential tasks to get there.

Macuma
The property of the mission in Macuma has been split into seven different parts to be donated to nationals who will be able to make better use of it. Since I last wrote, I took a trip to Macas to help complete the signing of the papers. The transaction is complete in six of these cases, but the seventh is still to be done, due to a big delay in that part of the paperwork. Pray that it will be completed in God's timing.

Discipleship
Because property issues have involved a lot of waiting lately, I've been able to spend some extra time in discipleship. It's been very meaningful to be involved in a few people's lives on a deeper level. A week ago Sunday was a real cause for joy as I was able to see Cristian's baptism. Just a few months ago he was a little unclear on the truths of the gospel, but now he is boldly proclaiming his faith and a desire to grow in Christ.

Sixth Grade
Kristi's teaching ministry has been full of challenges, but also very rewarding. Please pray that God will work in the lives of her sixth graders bringing them closer to Him. Pray for wisdom for Kristi in dealing with some difficult issues in the class. Pray as well for stamina for Kristi and her students as they finish a little more than one month of school. Included in this will be the annual 6th grade play and 6th grade graduation as well as lots of other year-end activities.

World Race
A few weeks ago we found out that the daughter of one of my high school classmates would be coming through Ecuador on the World Race—a missions trip to 11 countries in 11 months. We have enjoyed getting to know Jaide and connecting with her team, a great group of young ladies! Even though we only played a small part in their time here, we had some thoroughly meaningful times together. You can see Ecuador through Jaide's eyes by visiting her picture blog here. Pray for this team as they move on to Panama this week.

David
We are very proud of David for his recent graduation from Wheaton College. Kristi was the only one who still had not visited Wheaton, so she took a quick weekend trip to attend his graduation. The rest of us will get to see him when he comes to Ecuador for a visit in June. He'll be bringing several college friends with him, so we'll have a houseful, but we expect it to be a lot of fun. We're especially excited about getting to know his girlfriend, Shelby, a lot better. We are already convinced that she's a great gal! When David returns to the US, he will begin his new engineering job in Wheaton at the end of June. Praise the Lord with us for working so clearly in David's life to provide everything he has dreamed of for years.

Thank You!
Thank you to each one of you who responded to our need for support around the beginning of the year. God has met all our needs through you, and we want you to know that we appreciate your generosity. Whether you give a lot or a little, it all adds up to a “mountain's worth” of God's faithfulness to us!

We are thankful!

Thanksgiving
We had a great Thanksgiving celebration last month. Of course we miss getting together with family at times like this, but what makes our celebration really special is to focus on the rich friendships we have here.

Discipleship
I (Scott) have been spending some time lately in discipling a young man who is young in his faith. It's a real joy to see his hunger for truth from God's Word and growth in his life. Please pray for growth for Cristian.

Pastors' Conference
I will be teaching from God's Word next Tuesday at a nationwide conference for Quichua pastors. The theme will be “Shared Ministry.” Pray that what I prepare will be helpful for those who need to hear it.

Kristi's Students
One of Kristi's students in sixth grade this year is a new girl from China. She began school without knowing English, which has caused an extra challenge for Kristi. However, along with that comes the reward of seeing her grow by leaps and bounds. She is very intelligent and is started to communicate a lot more. Her family doesn't even own a Bible, but Kristi found a Mandarin Bible in the school library. This girl was excited to be able to read from it for the first time ever in her own language. She is now learning the basics of the Christmas story. Pray for Kristi as she takes advantage of  the amazing opportunities to influence this girl's spiritual life and that of the other students in her classroom at Alliance Academy.

Macuma
Our colleague in ministry, Jim Hedlund, has been working really hard on some property issues in Macuma. The mission has owned some property in this jungle village for several years, but we are donating it to nationals in the area who will be able to make better use of it as we move forward. It looks like the legal documents are close to being ready for signing. Our hope is that later this month things will be ready for our legal representative and me to travel to Macas, the capital of the province, to do the signing.

David
David is in his final year of civil engineering studies at Wheaton College and Illinois Institute of Technology. He will be coming to visit us for almost a month over Christmas. During that time he will also be making a presentation at a conference here in Quito called International Perspectives on Water Resources & the Environment. He has had a lot of opportunities to learn about water treatment and is seeing his interest grow in that area. Pray for guidance for him as he considers the next step after he graduates this spring.

Financial Need
Our support account at the mission dipped quite low this fall as a result of expenses for home ministry in the summer. Some of you have done some extra giving to help meet this need and we really appreciate that. Nevertheless, this month we weren't able to receive our full salary because of a lack of funds to cover it. Things will be really tight this month, but we think we will be okay. Nevertheless, if you are able to send an extra donation to Avant Ministries this month, it will be really significant in helping us start the new year with a good financial margin. You can make an online donation by clicking here, or print this donation form for mailing in with a check.

God Is Working

Kristi's Class
I am teaching sixth grade Math and Science for the first time this year—the same classroom I've worked in for the last two years as an aide. These first weeks of school have definitely been a time of being stretched, but I know that it is the place God has for me to serve right now. I have 39 students I work with through the day from around the world, not only from Ecuador and the US but also from Korea and China. It is an amazing opportunity to share Christ with not only my students but also with their families.

For instance, I have twin boys from China in my class. Their family owns a Chinese restaurant here in Quito. They invited us for a meal. Their mother is a Buddhist and father is an atheist. But the boys became Christians through Alliance Academy. The boys pray that at some point their parents will believe as well.

One of the biggest challenges this year is having students for whom English is a second language. I have 4 students who are new to the school this year and came in knowing very little English. That has definitely been a challenge—especially the 2 new Chinese students who don't know Spanish either. The fun part is these 2 are both really good at math.

Finances
We are still in need of additional support to cover the expenses we had this summer. We really appreciate the extra support that we received last month; but it didn't keep us from significantly going into the red in our account with Avant Ministries. If you are able to make a special gift, please consider helping us take care of this need. You can make an online donation by clicking here, or print this donation form for mailing in with a check.

Property
The sale of our property in Quito is finally coming to an end. We signed a contract this summer and have been working out bureaucratic details since then. We think we have the last issue taken care of now, and are expecting to hear confirmation that the buyers are satisfied and able to pay us the final amount they have been withholding.

Now that the Quito property has been taken care of, there is a potential for moving ahead more quickly on other mission properties in other parts of the country. Pray for God's direction and timing as we are waiting on the next step in a few different locations.

Scott's Involvement at EFC
During the past few years we have been attending an English church close to our home in Quito. It has been a joy to see how God is transforming the church into a place with potential to minister to people from all over the globe. It is increasingly attracting not only Spanish speakers who want to improve their English skills, but also people from many other countries for whom English is either their first language or their preference over Spanish.

During this time that I (Scott) have been involved more deeply in administration, I have found English Fellowship Church to be a place where I can maintain an involvement in direct Biblical ministry as well—serving as an elder, teaching God's Word and discipling other believers.

Exciting opportunities have been abounding here lately, you can pray for an ever increasing impact through this avenue of ministry. Pray especially for one young man who has been attending the church. He recently asked to be baptized, but I'm not confident that he is actually saved. He is very open to learning more, and we are making plans to study together what God's Word teaches about salvation.

Thankful!

I like to think about the goodness of the Lord.

He gives me everything I need and so much more,

So I just wanna lift my hands and say that I love him!

I just wanna lift my heart in praise!

I wanna be thankful!

I wanna be grateful!

I wanna remember everything that the Lord has done!

I wanna be thankful!

I wanna be grateful!

I wanna be! I wanna be! I wanna be!

As I look back over the past month, the word “thankful” is what comes to mind. One month ago I was in the hospital following my hip replacement. Today I am walking with less of a limp than I have since before Christmas. The surgery was successful and I’m doing physical therapy to regain complete strength to my leg. I still have a ways to go but am very thankful for how far I have come. And I’ll be going back to work starting tomorrow as well.

While I was in the US for surgery, Scott held things together at home. On top of being both dad and mom, he had additional responsibilites. We had some major plumbing leaks in the house we rent, so the plumber was working on fixing it all for about 3 weeks. Also 2 of our computers crashed and Scott had to replace the hard drives in both of them. It wasn't fun to be separated for a month, and the stresses of life on top of surgery made it worse, but we felt the Lord's comfort through it all; and we are very glad to be back together again now.

As far as the mission property goes, Scott signed a contract with a realtor to sell the property. There is still a lot of work to be done before a sale could be completed, but the realtor is committing to doing a lot of the legwork for us so it can move along faster.

We also are excited to let you know David’s plans for his summer. He has accepted an internship working with HCJB here in Ecuador. He’ll be working in Shell, which is about 5 hours from where we live and on the edge of the jungle. He’ll be using his engineering skills and working in villages providing clean drinking water. We're glad that he’ll be coming a week early to spend some time with us.

The rest of us will be spending our summer in the US. We hope to see many of you during July and August.

Praise the Lord for a good surgery.
Pray for continued healing for Kristi.
Praise the Lord for being our strength during a potentially difficult month.
Pray for progress on the property.
Praise the Lord for opportunities for David.
Pray for a good learning experience for him.
Pray for our upcoming home assignment.

Keep Praying

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever. --Joshua 4:4-7

We are so thankful that we can be part of God's story here in Ecuador. Many days it is easy to feel discouraged with all of the day to day and family issues that we have to deal with. But we want to choose to remember just like the Lord asked the Israelites to—remember all the amazing things God has done for us. Please pray that we not become discouraged but continue to be faithful to God and what he has asked us to do.

From Scott

I continue with the administrative role of trying to sell mission property here in Ecuador. I'm hoping to travel out to the jungle this week along with our legal representative to sign some papers for a couple of properties out there. Please pray that things can move forward in this area. It's amazing to me how many details need to be waded through to make the slightest bit of progress, and how often it feels like I'm making no progress at all!

From Kristi

As you know I have been working as the 6th grade teachers aide the past 2 years. I am excited to let you know that I have been hired as 6th grade teacher for the coming school year. I will be teaching Math and Science as well as Bible to my homeroom students. This whole process has been quite amazing and definitely designed by God. I am in the middle of taking a class "The Truth Project" along with several others at Alliance. After I finish this class I'll be able to apply for my ACSI teacher certification.

The other news is that I'm scheduled to have my 2^nd hip replacement next month. I've had a lot of pain in my second hip since a year ago April and since Christmas it has gotten worse. I'll be having the surgery in Wichita again and will be gone from home for about a month.

Family News

We really enjoyed having David at home for a month around Christmas. He is looking at doing an internship this summer in his field of civil engineering.

Joel could use some extra prayers as he finishes up his senior year. It has been a difficult year for him. He has decided he wants to take a year off before going to college but we still don't know what that is going to look like.

Luke is now a teenager and has passed Kristi up in height. He finished his basketball season and really loved it. His team finished 1st in the tournament. Now we actually have him home after school.

Lindsey turned 8 back in December. She loved playing soccer. She keeps us all smiling with her love and energy for life.

Pray for encouragement in our responsibilities.
Pray for advancement in paperwork for mission properties.
Praise the Lord for Kristi's new teaching position.
Pray for Kristi's upcoming hip replacement.
Pray for David's upcoming internship.
Pray for Joel during his senior year at school.
Praise the Lord for Luke and Lindsey's growth.

Good News / Bad News

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

We have shared before that much of what keeps me (Scott) busy lately is bureaucracy related to the sale of our mission's property in Quito. Bureaucracy is never much fun, but it's often even more difficult in third-world countries. It is so much a part of life in Latin America that somewhere along the line some Spanish speaker coined a word to be used only in the context of bureaucratic situations. There is no real English equivalent, but trámite basically refers to one step involved in bureaucratic or legal processes. Sometimes it takes only one visit to a government office, but more often it involves several trips and standing in long lines.

Since trámites are pretty much a part of my life lately, I thought I'd let you in on an email I recently sent to my supervisor in Kansas City:

Good News: We finally got the right guy to go out to the property and do an inspection, so what we've been waiting for finally happened.

Bad News: Although we thought it was a no-brainer that the city took some property to pave the street, the inspector concluded that in no way was our property affected by the street. That means that the official answer to the paper work (tramite) we've had in process since (maybe) April is "no". We are convinced that he is wrong.

Good News: We don't necessarily have to accept that answer. There is a process for appealing it.

Bad News: The appeal process would take at least 6 months to a year and be a very detailed and involved fight, showing old pictures, documenting past history, etc.

Good News: During the time we've been waiting for this answer, new city ordinances have been passed making it easier to make adjustments to land titles specifically in regard to the area of property.

Bad News: In order to make use of the new ordinance, we need to start a whole new tramite, beginning from zero.

Good News: Our first step in this process would be a survey of the property, which we already did for the last tramite we are completing.

Bad News: The new tramite will take at least 2 months and we will need to pay a fee of somewhere around $150 to complete it.

Good News: The new tramite will probably take about 2 months and we will need to pay a fee of somewhere around $150 to complete it, which compared to appealing the previous tramite sounds kind of nice.

Bad News: Tomorrow is a holiday, so I can't begin working on the new tramite until next week.

Good News: I hope to get our legal representative's signature today so I will be ready to stand in line first thing Monday morning.

Bad News: I have to stand in line again on Monday.

Good News: This is the end of my news!

There have been a lot of ups and downs with all of these trámites, but we know God's timing is best and the property will sell when it's time for that to happen. In the meantime, just pray for wisdom for me to handle each step of this process in the best way possible.

At the end of October, our support account with Avant dipped into the red. Please pray for God to provide for the financial needs we have. If you would personally like to help, you can send a donation to Avant Ministries to be applied to our ministry account. You may print the following form and send it in to:

Avant Ministries

10000 N Oak Trafficway

Kansas City, MO 64155 

I am sending a donation of $                                       

Please apply it to the account of Scott and Kristi Edgren

Name:                                                                                                              

Address:                                                                                                           

City:                                                State:                   Zip:                                

Grieving

"If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans." Romans 8:27 (The Message)

On August 29th we received a phone call that a dear friend and fellow missionary, Darrel Klassen, had entered into the presence of the Lord. Unfortuanately he chose to end his own life. Hearing this news shook up our lives. We have worked quite closely with the Klassen's, especially during the last years. Darrel often played the role of Grandpa in the lives of our children. They left Ecuador in May to return to Canada. So much of what keeps Scott busy these days, was passed on to him by Darrel. Darrel was the one who taught Scott so many of the ins and outs of dealing with all the city offices here in Quito. As we have been processing his death, we have had to focus on God's faithfulness instead of all the questions filling our minds. Please join us in praying especially for his wife Mandy and the rest of his family.

Darrel Klassen

From Scott:
I have been busier with teaching this month. I am teaching Greek III during two weekends this month. Five students have persisted through Greek I and II and for the first time I have students ready for the final class. We have finished the first weekend and I'll be back on September 28-29 to finish up. It's a real joy to work with these students who are the most committed to learning. I also taught a one-day workshop on what the Bible teaches about angels to a group of 40 Quichuas. They seemed to enjoy that topic and we had lots of good discussion. Opportunities like these remind me that there's nothing on earth I'd rather be doing!

The process of updating our title deed on our mission property here in Quito was put on hold by the city of Quito for most of the summer. Please continue to pray for this process so we can once again put this property up for sale. Also when I head to the coast in a week to teach Greek, I'll be going a couple of days early to work through some problems regarding donation of the mission's property in Guayaquil. It has been hours and hours working through details on these properties so we'll be thankful when everything with these properties comes to a close.

Family News:
As the school year starts again this year, we have 1 in college, 1 in high school, 1 in middle school and 1 in elementary. David is in his 3rd year of college. This year he is still living at Wheaton, but all of his Engineering classes are in downtown Chicago at Illinois Institute of Technology. He spends a lot of hours each week taking the train into Chicago. Joel is a senior this year. He's especially excited for the mock presidential election he'll be part of in his government class this semester. Pray for Joel this year as he has a lot of decisions to make about what to do after high school. Luke is in 7th grade and learning to adjust to all the new things like lockers, different teachers for each class, etc. He seems to be enjoying the new challenges and responsibilities. Lindsey is in 2nd grade and thriving with all of her friends. She loves to come home and ride her bike after school.

First Day of School

Joel had a great time visiting the US this summer and experienced a lot of opportunities for growth. His favorite parts were spent with family, at the Art Institute in Chicago and in drama camp at Camp Witness.

Drama Camp

The rest of us enjoyed a few short vacations. We took a trip to the beach and got to go whale watching.

Scott, Luke and Lindsey enjoyed a couple of weekends of camping. They camped in two extremes: a wet mountainside and an arid Andes forest.

Lindsey seems to be turning into a budding photographer. Here’s some of Ecuador's beauty that she captured.

From Kristi:
I am once again working at Alliance this year but my position was cut to part time. I am in the same classroom working in 6th grade along with the same teacher as last year. I stay busy grading papers, helping students, making copies, entering grades, doing bulletin boards, etc. We have 38 sixth graders this year. It is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to kids when they are struggling, encourage them with biblical truths and share my faith with those who don't believe. I love my job and am so thankful for the opportunities God sends my way day to day!

Here recently when I've been listening to Christian radio online, this song keeps popping up and has been an encouragement.

Pray for those who are grieving the loss of Darrel
Praise the Lord for good teaching opportunities for Scott
Pray for the process of selling and donating property
Pray for each of our children and their new school year
Praise the Lord for Kristi's ministry at Alliance