Here we go!

This is real! After a long lay over and break with friends in Houston, we are boarded and ready to fly to Quito. Next time I write, we should be in Ecuador. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Farewell to Belleville

We traveled to my hometown of Belleville, PA this past weekend to say goodbye to friends and family and also have a fundraiser at Locust Grove Mennonite Church. It was a great time of reconnecting with lots of people and sharing our vision for ministry in Quito. Our "adopted" daughter Victalina and her two kids Ismaelito and Dayana came along with us.

It all started out on Thursday night when we packed up a U-Haul truck with all the things we wanted to store in my parent's basement. It was great to have my cousin and his girlfriend with us to load the truck and then have some homemade pizza for supper.

We got to Belleville Friday evening and after a quick supper at my parents house we went up to the church to start working on the meat. First we had to cut off the extra fat from the pork shoulders.

 Then we rubbed them down with mustard and my brother Daniel's secret recipe dry rub.

We packed them up in a homemade cooler for several hours until 1:30 AM on Saturday when Daniel, Marcus and I got up to put the meat on the smoker.

 

Daniel spent the night outside in a lawn chair recliner and then at about 10:00 AM Gaby, Marcus, Victalina, my dad and I helped to take the meat and put it into pans with butter, apple juice and apple cider vinegar so it could moisten and cook completely.

 

Finally at about 3:30 in the afternoon we took all the meat off the smoker and up to the church to start pulling it off the bones and shredding it up. We had lots of people helping out so we got all 42 pork shoulders pulled in about an hour!

After that we went to Bob and Emma Templeton's house with the rest of our MST. We have been meeting with these three other couples over Skype for several years to share about what all we are doing in ministry. It was great to be together in person and just hang out and get to know each other better.

On Sunday morning, Daniel took his smoker up to the church to start warming up all the pans of meat.

Naty and I shared with the congregation about our vision for ministry in Ecuador and several people came around us to pray for us in each of the two morning worship services at Locust Grove.

After that we had our fundraiser meal. About 450 people came to have pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, cole slaw, Hartley's chips, veggies, desserts and Neil Renno's homemade ice cream.

We were overjoyed with everyone's generosity. Donations for the meal totaled $9,039.00!! God and his family are SOOOOO good!

Sunday evening at 7:00 we gave a presentation at Allensville Mennonite Church and were very encouraged to see several other ways their congregation is serving in missions.

Our friends Nubia and Armony came all the way from Philadelphia to see us and say goodbye on Sunday. It was great to see them again after many years.

On Monday morning I took my last bike ride for a while. I'm hoping to buy a bike in Quito, but I'm not sure how easy it will be to bike there.

On Monday evening we had a goodbye meal with the Yoder family.

After dinner, we helped to rescue a runaway calf and find it's owners. That was an unexpected experience!

Finally it was time to say goodbye. Nobody wanted to let go!

Goodbye Coffee

On Tuesday night we said goodbye to Coffee our wonderful friend for the past 14 years. When we got her as a puppy we had no idea what would be ahead for our lives! She had got to a point where it was very difficult for her to walk and even to stand up sometimes so we decided that it was time to have her put down. All of us shed lots of tears as we hugged her and told her all the things we were thankful that she did for us over the years. What a faithful friend!

Our dear friends Derrek and Carla invited us to bury her in their backyard so she will be somewhere that can go back to see her resting place. Naty had the great idea to plant a tree in her memory, so of course we planted a peach tree.

Rest in peace dear Coffeecita. July 2002-July 2016

R.A.F.T.

During our training in New York we learned that we need to think about building a RAFT to float across the waters of transition. So we are working through these phases.

R - Reconciliation: Restoring relationships that have been challenging.

A - Affirmation: Speaking words of encouragement and validation to the people around us who have impacted our lives.

F - Farewell: Taking time to say goodbye to Places, Pets and People that have been special to us where we are.

T - Think destination: Take time to set our vision and make plans for where we will be going.

All of these steps take time and intentional action. We are down to 20 days until we fly so we are trying to do all of these the best that we can. 

¡Me Hallo! - I've Found Myself! - WE'VE Found OURSELVES!

Way back during my REACH time in Ecuador in 1997 I remember learning the Spanish phrase "me hallo" from my host uncle Tío Humberto. He was asking me about how my time was going and how I felt about being in Ecuador, eating the food and learning Spanish. I told him I liked it and it was going well. He said ¿Te hallas? I didn't know exactly what he meant and I needed to look it up in my dictionary back then. But when I found it, I agreed. ¡Me hallo! I had found myself, I fit in, I belonged there. That's the way I felt back then, after being in Ecuador for several months and that's what I'm looking forward to about going there again.

That's also how we feel where we are here in Houghton, New York at PFO.

 PFO is dedicated to teachers and their families going all around the world to international schools. So far we've met teachers going to Ecuador, Suriname, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, China, Taiwan, Germany, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda. It is amazing! WE BELONG! All of these people are passionate about Jesus and passionate about teaching kids from all over the world! We've loved every minute.

We moved in on Sunday and will be here until next Friday, almost two weeks. At first, I didn't want to do this because of how much time it takes, but Naty insisted and now I agree. This is so worth it. 

 All the classes are on the campus of Houghton College. I'd never heard of it before, but it's a great place...

in rural western New York. I've loved biking and running here in the evenings. Great for soul care!

We've had classes every morning and afternoon with topics such as: serving with humility, understanding culture, TCKs Third Culture Kids, the TRANSITION experience, cultural differences, personal differences and professional strategies. We also have mentoring/advising times with the recruitment coordinator from our school.  

Gaby and Marcus have also had classes about their identity and preparing to move to other cultures. They are also making friends with other kids moving or already living all around the world. The kids with them in this picture are also moving to Quito and their flight date is the same as ours, July 25!

It has been so good to see them making new friends and enjoying this time too.

We definitely feel at home with these folks and more and MORE convinced that we are going exactly where we need to go.

Visas Part 2

We are very happy to have received this Email today:

Dear volunteers,

This emails is to inform you that this morning I talked to the consul and she confirmed that all your visas have been approved and are on its way to you.

She posted them yesterday. Please let me know as you as you got then.

Thanks for all your help!

YESSS!!!! Thank you Lord!

Our DAYcation

It's been challenging this year to see vacation pictures of friends and family on Facebook and know that we can't have a vacation this year. However, this past weekend on our way here to Houghton, New York we made time for a family DAYcation, about 24 hours to relax and enjoy life a bit in the midst of a lot of transition.
Instead of coming straight to Houghton College for our Pre Field Orientation we went straight to Niagara Falls!

We got to see the falls a bit and walk around Niagara Falls State Park, but the best part was connecting with our friends Randy, July, Rachel and Josh Sunderland from Dion's hometown! We had dinner and then ice cream together and got to walk around the falls area on the American side. Our family couldn't go to the Canadian side because we don't have our passports back yet. It was so good to catch up with Randy and Juli and our kids had a great time with their kids too.

We spent the night in a motel, that was probably the worst we've ever been too! Then the next day, after a hearty Bob Evans breakfast, we set out exploring. Our first stop was to see a lighthouse in Buffalo, NY that Naty wanted to visit.

Then, since it was Father's Day, my request was to go to a beach, which we found in Hamburg, NY. It was great to swim in the crystal clear water of Lake Erie and soak in the sun for a little while. 

After that we started heading east through hills and valleys of farmland to make our way to Houghton College in Houghton, New York for our PFO. In some ways, it felt like going to Belleville!