|
You are using an insecure version of your web browser. Please update your browser!
Using an outdated browser makes your computer unsafe. For a safer, faster, more enjoyable user experience, please update your browser today or try a newer browser.
|
|
Serving Christ in Ecuador |
For those of you who know us, you know that being missionaries is our livelihood, it’s what we live for and it’s what we know we are called to. You also may know that it has been a LONG time coming to actually BECOME long-term missionaries. Kim felt God nudging her to be a missionary when she was 10 years old, Joel when he was in college. We felt God weaving our dreams together before we got married, Joel had a burden for children and helping them through homes or centers for at-risk children, Kim saw nurses running clinics on their own and she thought this is what God was wanting her to do. Our lives have been woven together by God’s thread and after we got married 11 years ago, we began searching for where God might want us to go long-term. Much searching led us to Ecuador. Our schooling at North Park seminary and university lead us to the Evangelical Covenant Church and our home church of Northwest Covenant Church has kept us in the Covenant. We began seeking a call with the Covenant to be missionaries and started our short-term service in Ecuador in 2010. Yes, you are reading this correctly that it has been over 11 years that this has been in the making.
We are pleased to announce however, that today, we area OFFICIALLY LONG-TERM MISSIONARIES! HALLELUJAH!
On Friday evening of the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church, we were commissioned as long term missionaries, along with 7 other friends and colleagues. Our denomination, family and friends laid hands on us and ‘sent us out’ just like the missionaries in the Bible! What a humbling and amazing experience! After more than 11 years, our journey as long-term missionaries finally begins!
On Saturday, Joel was ordained (yes he is now OFFICIALLY a Reverend) and Kim was consecrated. We were prayed for and hands laid on us by mentors and leaders.
You may wonder how we felt during these events. I will speak for myself (Kim). On Friday for the commissioning, I just felt it was SUCH a time of celebration. I had been waiting for that period in time for the majority of my life. It was quite surreal in the midst of it, but such an exciting experience. Listening to those around us pray for us specifically in such specific manors, showed me that people have been walking with us on this journey and that is truly humbling.
For the consecration, it was very different. I felt, like I never have before the responsibility that taking the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth. I reflected on this responsibility and wanted to listen to every word being spoken. I was focused and concentrated.
For Joel, the overwhelming feeling throughout the weekend has been… finally!!! In addition to all of this time of planning and preparing for long-term missionary service, he also has been moving all along to Ordination. He started Seminary in 2001 and so it has actually be 12 years until that call (of receiving a MDIV and becoming Ordained) has been an even longer process.
Safe to say, we are both happy to be done but also both feel extremely blessed by God for His providence and steadfast love and to be blessed by so many wonderful friends and family members who have supported us and encouraged us along the way. Thank you for being who you are!!!
Here are some pics from the weekend:
We were flag bearers at the beginning of the service Friday night. Kim was lucky enough to carry the Ecuador flag.
All missionaries lined up for commissioning
Having hands laid upon us to be prayed for was an awesome and emotional moment for us both!
We also had the opportunity to serve communion which included serving communion to our parents.
Reverend Joel and newly consecrated Kim showing off their stolls after Saturday night’s service.
Thank you Hope Community Church for allowing us to worship with you today! We enjoyed it and really it was an amazing time of worship together in community! Thank you for showing us what true community it like! Blessings!
I’m going to be brutally honest with myself and with you all today. I went to church today, at a new church, not in the right frame of mind. My heart wasn’t prepared, my mind wasn’t, and frankly, I arrived tired and just ‘going through the motions’. I don’t say that because I am proud of it, but I’m sure we have all experienced those types of days if we’re honest with ourselves. I first want to start by saying, THANK GOD that He doesn’t work based on how WE feel or how prepared (OR NOT PREPARED) we are. He works in spite of us!
We visited a brand new church today, Hope Community Church. As I said, I wasn’t prepared to be in the house of the Lord, no matter where it was and I certainly didn’t feel that I was representing Christ, I wasn’t in a good place just coming off a wonderful weekend of being commissioned and consecrated as a long term missionary where leaders, friends and mentors laid hands on us to send us out for this amazing work God wants us to do. I just wasn’t in a good place. The sermon this morning from Pastor Kevin Butcher shared a story of a lady who was kind of on the outs at his church. He came to her one day and asked what was going on, why she sometimes came and sometimes didn’t and her overall thoughts about church. She stated simply, pastor, “I’m just not feelin’ it”. He inquired more and it seemed she didn’t understand how SHE could be used in any way in the church. He encouraged her to be herself, to share her story, which was quite a story of overcoming, restoration and deliverance from addiction. The next Sunday, she sat down by a lady who communicated to her that she was trying to decide if she was going to get clean from drugs and was thinking about rehab. This lady, who ‘just wasn’t feelin it’ was used in an amazing way to change a life! BOTH were at church today and BOTH are clean from addiction and following Christ!
The way this woman described her feeling about church, was exactly how I was feeling. After being BLESSED by this story, the sermon and the sense of community today, I left feeling exuberant, ecstatic and THANKFUL that God meets us where we are and brings us out of whatever junk we are stuck in. I sure wasn’t feelin it this morning, but God touched me in a way that no one else could to meet me and bless me and REMIND me I am His. I am called. I am a child of HIS no matter where I am OR how I feel.
Where are you today? Allow God to meet you, allow Him to commune with you and remind you whose you are!
This coming weekend will entail a couple of moments that we have both been waiting a long time for. In Detroit this weekend, the Evangelical Covenant Church will be holding its 2013 Annual Meeting. During the service on Friday night starting at 6:30 p.m., we will be commissioned as Long-term Missionaries. We have felt the call to “long-term” missionary service since we got married in 2002, so it has only taken a little bit over 11 years before that day has finally come. In addition to the commissioning part of this service, we will also have hands laid upon us and prayed for in the sanctuary with the membership of the Evangelical Covenant Church laying hands upon us and praying for us. Finally, in this service we will also be one of the servers providing the communion elements for those participating.
In addition to this big event on Friday evening, we will also have a big moment on Saturday night. During this service which starts at 6:00 p.m., we will both be receiving permanent ministerial credentials. Joel will be ordained and Kim will be consecrated as a long-term missionary. Both of these credentials will be permanent and will never need to renewed.
We mentioned the times because we know that not everyone is going to be able to make it to Detroit on Friday and Saturday night. Well, guess what? You don’t have to miss out. They will be steaming both of these services live off of the website for the Annual Meeting. If you are able, we would feel honored for your participation in this service through your computer.
Here’s the link to the website for the Annual Meeting where you can get the streamlined video: http://www.covchurch.org/am/?repeat=w3tc
Ecuador has been the news recently, see what’s happening here:
We have some really good news! Check this out:
For those of you who don’t know Spanish, this is a screenshot from the Ecuadorian Website for Higher Education that shows that both of Kim’s degrees (her Undergraduate Nursing degree from North Park and her Masters Nursing degree from Rush University) have both been accepted, recognized and approved. This means that her Diplomas are now recognized by the Ecuadorian government so she is considered to be a Medical Professional in Ecuador. If everything works out as had been previously discussed, once we return to Ecuador she just needs to do a one-year internship and then she will be licensed as a doctor in Ecuador. Pretty exciting, huh? Please continue to pray as Olguita Burbano continues to help Kim out in getting her internship placement where it will coincide with our future ministry plans.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
-Jeremiah 29:11
I feel when I originally thought about being a missionary, like most people, I thought you sign up and then GO! It’s easy! I’m glad it isn’t that way, but I also didn’t think it would take almost 10 years to get to where we are. It has been a journey, difficult sometimes, times of questions and wondering what we are doing or not doing that is taking so long.
We’ve had people ask us along the way if we ever thought about quitting, about throwing in the towel and saying “we’re done”, it’s taking too long. I guess I can honestly answer, no. We never thought about throwing it in, like I said, there were questions along the way. There was a time when I was in grad school that I failed a class and thought about quitting school, but I didn’t. There were tears and there was even anger, likely more with myself, but some frustration with God for letting that happen and taking even MORE time in school. When we both started school, right after getting married, again we thought it would be a couple of years and then we would go to the mission field. We ended up in Chicago for 8 years. In the midst of it, we probably wouldn’t have thought it was something we needed, hence all the questions as to why it took so long. But, we can now look back on it and say that was a time of preparation that we needed before going to the mission field. I suppose some people may just be able to sign up and GO! Maybe they’re ready on the spot. Heart-wise, we probably were too, but we realize had we gone at any other time than when we did, we wouldn’t have been there at the right time. God set up the time of preparation for a reason, a purpose, bigger than us, but watching out for us and weaving together in us what He has for us. We have seen in many steps along the way how God has woven it all together. We were told when we first went to Ecuador in 2010 that we came at a great time in the history of the Ecuadorian Covenant Church. We are thankful for this and we are blessed that God has prepared us to go at this time, in this way and in this place, our new home in Ecuador.
God truly has gone before us and has prepared our way!
Thanks be to God.
The Santiago Partnership