To the Uttermost Parts of the Earth

Hello Everyone! We hope you are having a great summer and that you are not as busy as we have been! First I want to apologize if you haven’t heard from us or seen us since we have been in the United States. We arrived in late May and hit the ground running. We always feel the great pressure of knowing we only have so many days to do x,y, & z and once it’s time to go….that’s it! I will give you a quick update of a few major things we have been able to accomplish since being here.

We were supposed to receive Sam’s citizenship papers upon arrival, only to find out that the embassy gave us the wrong visa and we have had to do a bunch more paperwork. We finally got it sent in and we are just waiting to hear back if it was enough. Please pray that God will put the right worker on the job and that we will get his citizenship papers soon. We have been able to get Jude a new custom brace and Sam’s full evaluation completed. Neither of them needed surgery at this stage, by the grace of God alone!!! We have been able to see most of our family and closest friends and we are so thankful for everyone that made that possible. Words do not express the feelings of being so far away for so long and then being reunited. We have also visited numerous churches, but still have a few more to visit. Please pray that the Lord will speak through us and that missionaries are called to the mission field and conviction comes through the preaching! Also, we were recommended to a Christian lawyer (wait a second before judging…lol) that has offered to help us pro-bono with a bunch of things we feel needed to be taken care of. He is making up a living will, a standard will, a durable power of attorney, AND helped us file paperwork to start our own 501(c) (3) mission. That’s right, we NOW have our own 501 (c) (3) mission called ACTS 1:8 Mission Society Inc. (an independent entity). We have felt for a long time that we should do this, but because of costs and difficulty of being in another country it has hindered us until now. God opened the door and we ran through it! Our hearts and our vision are to recruit missionaries to go to the uttermost parts of the earth to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as we continue to do so in Ecuador. Please pray for us as we go through this transition. We still have a great relationship with Church of New Miami, but they are also going through awesome changes and will be leaving New Miami and moving into a new (and much bigger) building in the west side of Hamilton, OH, so their name and tax ID will be changing as a result. Just the Lord’s perfect timing for all this to happen! Just so everyone knows, you should NOW start making donations out to “Acts 1:8 Mission Society”! This is our official announcement and our mission has been approved by the State of Ohio to fully function as an independent organization that has full tax-exempt status (a not-for-profit organization). Priscilla is the vice-president and Andy will be the current president of Acts 1:8 Mission Society. Thanks so much to all of you who have supported us through the years thus far! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us by mail or phone (contact information below in this letter). The only difference is the name of the organization you will give to. We will still have the same mailing address and person (my dear sister-in-law) doing all of our secretary work! Thanks so much for everything you have done for us through the years! We will also be praying about and believing God to help us with the education of our kids on the mission field. We are currently looking for an elementary school teacher to come and be dedicated to teaching not only our children (just our oldest right now), but children of a couple other missionaries in our area of Ecuador. We all currently home-school, but know that it could be better if a true educator were to teach them in all their classes. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in serving missionary kids in this capacity, please contact us! Please pray with us as we seek God’s will in this very difficult part of life. Now I have another awesome praise report! Many of you read our last prayer letter where we talked about wanting a newer and much more reliable car in Ecuador and explained some of our finances. A few people had asked us how it was going since we have been here and I know of several who have prayed for us in this area. Well, an awesome man of God came to me a few weeks ago and told me his testimony of how God has been teaching him about true obedience and then handed me a check for half the price of the truck we are wanting to buy!!! Nothing like this has ever happened to us and we are at complete peace that the Lord is going to help us get a reliable vehicle to traverse the mountains and enter into rough places! Incredible!!! May God bless each of you and we pray that we are able to see you soon if we haven’t already!