The goal of our home for at risk children is reunification of children with their families and just before Christmas 6 children were able to go home to their families, just in time for Christmas!

We’d like to share a prayer request for you.  We have had a plan for this year and we are finally getting to the point where we are slowing down enough that we can finally start to enact that plan.  For many of you who have followed along with us over the years, you know that we have struggled to find the correct balance of ministry and personal life to where we have struggled in maintaining good healthy eating and exercise habits and routines for ourselves and our children.

We are extremely busy in Ecuador with ministries where we have helped to start a Home for At Risk Children and a Medical Clinic as well as we hold a lot of Medical Caravans in which we partner with many international volunteers.  This, along with having three small children, has made it extremely difficult for us to develop healthy patterns and routines for ourselves for both diet and exercise (and sleeping and personal time…. you get it!!!).  Plus, when you add in the multiple international moves and local moves within Ecuador all of this has prevented us from finding stability and good family health.  We both actually love to exercise and healthy eating and so we have really struggled with all of the weight we have put on.  I specifically played competitive soccer through college and ran a marathon while in Seminary.  I hate not being fit and not being healthy!  I actually started growing facial hair in 2014 with the idea that I would not shave it off completely until I was living a healthy life-style that I was happy with.  It is my goofy form of a penance that provides a daily reminder that I am not putting my health needs as a priority in my life.  Though I do trim it down of course, I have not been able to shave it off yet.  You can actually see the original post here: http://blogs.covchurch.org/delp/?p=3356

During this year of Home Assignment, we will have more time than what we normally do with our lives in Ecuador, so we are committing to getting healthy and even more we are trying to create a plan and a pattern for our lives that we can replicate once we move back to Ecuador and get very busy again.  We have tried many things in the past but we have always had trouble keeping things going as we get busy, one of us is traveling, etc, etc.  Our plan for this year will include a nutrition plan, exercise routine, gym memberships, daily water intake, sleeping commitment as well as various other components like a spiritual retreat.  I am shooting high and hope to lose 41 pounds in this 16 weeks.  I am going to be running 2.3 miles three times per week and I want to see my time drop as the pounds drop.  My eventual goal is to run a half-marathon by the end of the year.

Please pray for us as we undertake this endeavor.  We want this to be the change in our lives that sticks.  We feel like we are finally getting to the point where we can better balance things than what we have in the past so please pray that this plan helps us change our routines and lifestyle to be a more healthy one for us and our children.

We just want to give a shout out to Mark Hjelmervik, a fellow Covenant pastor, who has created an accountability/encouragement group that we have formed to help encourage us down this path.  Also, we need to the thank our Serve Globally staff as they have been very supportive of us as we pursue our goals.  Thank you everyone!!

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