Buenos Dias! (Good
Day), and welcome to the LIFT 35 missions blog. The buzz of excitement has
been growing as we prepare for this mission trip. Under all this
excitement is always an immense appreciation to those who have made it
possible. We all extend our gratitude for your support and prayers.
We hope you will check back here often and stay with us as we travel and spread
the good news. The LIFT program has been going to Ecuador every spring
for seven years now and the leadership has built great relationships with many
local people and ministries with whom we will be partnering. In
supporting and praying for us you also are partnering with these great
ministries.
We
will be traveling down to New Jersey tomorrow afternoon to have a home cooked
meal by a family (The Kuders) of one of our LIFT students and a little time to relax before going to JFK. We will be spending
the late evening with our TSA friends and plan to get to the gate with plenty
of time to spare. When traveling with a large group you never know when
there is going to be a snag (especially with Tim's new titanium hip), or how long the TSA agents may want to visit with
you. We have to plan that time in. If you wish to track us we are
flying LAN flight # XL 539 to Guayaquil then transferring to flight # XL 1508
arriving in Quito at 11:15am.
From
Quito we are driving to Hacienda El Refugio http://www.haciendaelrefugio.com/ in Calacalí. This is home base for our time in
Ecuador. We will spend a couple days here likely preparing for "Todo Lodo" http://www.todolodo.com/acerca-de/ (a mud
run event) that happens on Saturday 4/9 while we are in El Chaco.
Hacienda El Refugio is an outdoor retreat center which facilitates a deeper
relationship with Jesus Christ through nature and outdoor adventure. This
event drew 700 participants last year and is expecting more this year.
Please keep this event in your prayers as you pray of El Refugio with us.
From
El Refugio we will go to El Chaco and Oyacachi to serve with the churches
there. We will be providing manual labor, teaching English, teaching
Sunday school, preaching, giving our testimonies, leading worship, dancing,
playing games with the kids, and sharing the gospel in our day to day lives.
The
final leg of our trip is back to El Refugio then off to the mountains.
What is a LIFT adventure without a good climb up something big! Sincholagua is a 15,988 ft high mountain in the Andes. After this
adventure it is back to the USA.
Throughout
our Holistic Ministry class we have been learning the importance
missions. We have been learning what works and what doesn’t. We
have been learning from the success and failures of Steve Saint, Richard
Sterns, Rick Borman, and our fearless leader Tim Trezise. We have been
preparing our hearts and minds to minister to those in need. Now is the
time that we take this knowledge and put it to use.
Once
again, we thank all of you who make it possible to go on this missions
trip and ask that your prayers would surround our work there.
Lord
God, We ask for your guiding hand as we journey to meet with your people
in Ecuador. We ask for safe flights and opportunity to share you with
those we encounter on the way. Lord we ask for your will to be
done. Lord we pray over El Refugio that their ministry there would
be full of good fruit. We ask that Todo Lodo would be an opportunity for
planting, watering, and harvest for your kingdom. Lord we pray that our
service there may be pleasing to you. As we travel to El Chaco and
Oyacachi we pray for the people there. Lord, you know their needs.
Lord let us love them with actions and in your truth. Let us be your
hands and feat serving and guiding in holiness and faith. Let the people
in these communities see you. Let our love be your love, our hands your
hands, and our words your words. Lord, we pray over our adventures.
We pray that our time in the mountains may show us glimpses of your majesty and
grandeur. May we be reminded how small we are and remember that we fit in
the protection of your comforting hand. Lord, we lift this time up to you
and ask that your work be done thru us, willing vessels in your hand. In
Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Thanks for reading and please be praying,
Paul Exman
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