It’s a hard day for us as we are leaving our home and country of service in Ecuador. This sadness is lessened when we think about all of the family and friends we’ll be seeing very shortly but we are quite sad nonetheless. We had a very special “despidida” (good-bye party) at the IPEE offices today before going to the airport, which was a great way to end our first term as missionaries. We are arriving in Chicago tonight around midnight after making a stop in Panama City. We are in the Quito airport right now and our 7 bags and Hireq all got checked through successfully so we are very happy about that. Your prayers for safe travel today are very much appreciated.
We’d also like to ask for prayers for all of our activities for this week. We have a very busy week! Tomorrow, Joel’s parents, Ruth and Earl, we’ll be driving from IN to Mt. Prospect, to pick us up from Jeff and Kristi Lundblad’s house, which is where we are staying this week. They are coming to pick up Hireq and our extra bags as well as give us a car to borrow for our time in Chicago. They’ll be driving us down to Merriville, IN where we’ll have lunch with them and Kim’s parents.
On Thursday, we’ll be going to the Covenant Headquarters in Chicago for a meeting but also to say hello to the staff there. On Friday, we’ll have a big day as we will be interviewing together with the World Mission Committee of the Covenant Executive Board for our application to transition from Short-term Missionary status to Long-term Missionary Candidate status. Your prayers for this important interview are greatly, greatly appreciated. Finally, on Sunday, we’ll be visiting our home church, Northwest Covenant in Mt. Prosepect and this is something we are greatly looking forward to.
We have a big week ahead of us the next week also but we’ll try to update you this weekend on how things went and what all we have planned for the next week. Thank you all so much for your support and prayers!
The Santiago Partnership