heavy hearts
Our hearts are heavy for the people of Ecuador. We have been glued to the different Ecuadorian news stations, skype, and email, in order to better connect and understand all that is happening in Ecuador, yet we feel the distance.
It was so good to finally skype with Richard’s family last week after the earthquake. They are fine but were very scared, especially Richard’s brother, Jairo, who, a half-an-hour before, was in a building in the coastal city of Manta, that collapsed and killed many people, we are thankful that Jairo is okay, but many of their friends were in that building when it collapsed. Please continue to pray for the people of Ecuador.
We have been so blown away by the unified efforts of so many different people, organizations, and governmental services that have been working together to rescue, serve, and rebuild the many different areas along the coast of Ecuador that were destroyed by the earthquakes.
We are so thankful for God’s protection over our family and friends in Ecuador, but our hearts mourn and hurt for the many, many families and individuals who have lost EVERYTHING. Some, literally EVERYTHING.
As we have been in contact with our family, friends, and different churches and ministries in Ecuador, we are beginning to hear stories. Stories of lament, of loss, of pain, and desolation, but also of thanks, of hope, of determination, of unification……and how much more as time goes on. These stories are important, so very important, and I hope we will give grace and time to hear and listen to these stories, not just now, but especially weeks from now, months from now.
I am so thankful for the ways the Covenant, the missionaries, along with many other organizations and denominations, are joining in on the efforts to help in healthy, holistic ways.
Please continue to pray as the process of relief, rebuilding, and recovery are long.
-E
finding joy .3
light. morning light, afternoon light, sunset light, sunrise light, moonlight, light, light, light! I seriously can’t get enough of the different ways light looks as it crawls across a floor, sweeps in between the trees, lays across my lap, flickers on the walls, diffuses through the curtains, agh! can’t. even.
heart listening. not physically listening to your heart, but more than just people listening. Really, truly, staying in that space and getting past that fluff and good stuff but oh baby, the richness is inside. Yes, teaching myself to stay in those spaces and wait, and listen, and ask, and listen…wow, the stories that are told! So important!
staying in other people’s homes. okay, I’m not weird, it’s just so…what? so…..honest and gutsy; to invite someone into your home to eat, sleep, use your bathroom, see your stuff, spend the night….it’s so vulnerable. and I just so badly love it! it’s so connecting!
jumping across streams. but you already knew that. BUT seriously, if you ever want to feel alive (and possibly wet)…DO IT. Okay, right, there are some…guidelines:
1. make sure you can almost NOT make it. gives you more of an adrenaline rush, more of a, “wow, I almost didn’t make that jump” feeling afterwards.
2. ALWAYS jump with others. because you get to laugh SO badly if the other person falls in, or you get to join in on the laughter after YOU fall in. either way: laugh.
3. ALWAYS preface your decision to start jumping (once you’ve found an adequate stream and have checked off numbers one and two on the list) with: “Okay, we ALL have to jump otherwise you ARE the weakest link. Goodbye.”
and
4. ALWAYS take pictures to document.
continuing on….
my sweet kindergartener’s reasoning. as follows (literally, word for word): “I really want the blue swatter, because….well, I just love the color blue, in fact, my SISTER really loves the color blue, actually, you see that blue wall behind you? Well, I love that blue wall sooo much that I just want to put it in my pocket and take it with me wherever I go…there, you see, so can you give me the blue swatter?” i die, every time.
flavoring kombucha with Abby. pure joy!
our small group. man, what am I going to do without those crazies!? I love you guys and have been SO impacted and changed by your honesty, stories, community, and friendship!
remembering memories of my grandparent’s old farm in Wisconsin. it’s the weirdest thing but every time, right before I fall asleep, a new, delightful memory pops into my head about staying on my grandparent’s farm when I was a little girl and man, I just fall asleep so happy and content!
the fact that Richard now likes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. i really can’t explain it, he just…started liking it one day. well, maybe it’s because he said this one preschooler would have one everyday for lunch and he would wonder, “could it really be that good”. well, it is. it really is that good. i am so excited for the future pbj picnics we are going to have!
Jasne. possibly the best soup I’ve ever had in my life, made by my husband. It is so good. google it. make it. so good! *update: you can’t google it, I tried and it doesn’t exist, so you will just have to ask my husband to make it for you 😉
Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint soap. I could walk around smelling that stuff all day. “Is that soap in your nose?” “Why yes, yes it is”.
DARK CHOCOLATE peanut butter cups. no explanation needed.
With love,
E
to Ecuador we….go?!?!
Sorry for the long silence!
I decided to take a break from social media for a while so I could really refocus and “unplug” (such an overused word but SO appropriate!) and just take. a. break.
It was really nice.
Anyway….
Well, a lot of changes and planning has happened and we are super excited to say that:
WE ARE GOING TO ECUADOR IN MAY!!!!
Now, just hold on a second…
…we will be coming back in late August (like we mentioned in this post) to continue fundraising, but we are so excited that we can get started and join in on the different ministries and projects in Ecuador, start ministering as Merge staff and working with different teams coming down, start re-connecting and connecting with our friends and co-workers, and be able to start looking around for a place to rent…which we are all super excited about, but…going to Ecuador also means that:
we get to see our family and friends!!!!!!
It truly is such a blessing to be able to live and do ministry as short-term missionaries in another country where we have family and friends…familia y amigos….conocidos! (as they say!)
We are pretty excited! and I would say that they are too!
(I, Elizabeth, haven’t seen them in over a year!)
So, as soon as we have our plane tickets purchased, we will get some dates up on the sidebar so you can journey with us during our summer in Ecuador and see where we will be and what groups, ministries, churches we will be partnering with at different times. We will also be updating here during the summer as well!
In other news:
We are still around 30% funded so we are still looking for supporters so please, partner with us today:
Click here: SUPPORT to go to our online giving site.
Anyway, that is our short, but exciting update for today and we will have more details later on for you!
We will also be updating this here blog/online journal AND we will be sending out our FIRST newsletter coming up soon, so stay tuned! 🙂 and give us your emails!
peace and joy,
E
p.s. here are photos of us jumping. why did I post these photos of us jumping, you may ask….well, other than the fact that jumping over streams is an activity that I think EVERYBODY needs to try at some point in their life, (it is also a past-time of ours, more like a…hobby?)…..it is really significant of the journey we are on right now. steps and leaps of unknowns, in faith.
A financial update…..
Hello! and Hola!
We have just about 30% of our funds raised now.
And we are hoping to have at least 80% by the first week of April.
We need to raise 67,746 dollars in 1 1/2 months.
Let’s just say we have been learning a lot about faith lately.
🙂
Because we are the new trip facilitators in Ecuador, we are required to be there this summer, starting June.
Now, the ECC has graciously made an exception for us and has told us that we can leave in June for Ecuador to facilitate the teams coming during the summer months, but, if we do not have 80% of our funds by then, after the summer is over and all the teams have left, we have to return to the USA to continue fundraising.
Our hope and prayer is that we would have (at least) 80% of our funds in before then so we do not have to return and can stay in Ecuador and start life and ministry there.
That means, starting now until April, (when the director of Merge Ministries is going to buy our tickets to Ecuador, which we are hoping he will not have to do and that we can use the funds we raised to buy the tickets instead, like we have budgeted and planned for) we need to raise $67,746 to reach our goal of 80%….
by April.
It seems a bit crazy. That is a TON of money, in a very short amount of time, BUT…..as I said, we have been learning a lot about faith through this whole process and we know that God is the giver and sustainer of faith, we just need to take our part, act, say yes, open the door, sign up, step out and THAT is when we start to see God reality, God initiative, and God provisions happening.
I love what is says in Luke 12:29-34:
“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself. Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.”
Of course, we aren’t going to do anything without praying and seeking the Lord and talking with our close friends and family, much like the process of saying yes to God’s calling us to Ecuador in the first place. But we know that He started it, and we know He is faithful in every step we have taken thus far, and every step we will continue to take.
So, we are asking YOU to take that step of faith with us, however you can. We know without a shadow of a doubt (although sometimes the shadow seems REALLY large and REALLY dark), that God is greater then $67,746. And that this whole process of fundraising is neither us sitting back, letting God do all the “work” nor us thinking that WE are the ones gathering in the funds…..it’s a partnership; He’s so relational, so close, and so intimate with every detail of our lives and yours.
We pray together: “Father God, we believe, help us with our unbelief! Strengthen us and sustain us as only you can. Show us today, in this moment, how you are working and moving and how we can join you in what you are already doing! Amen!”
Please click the link below to donate online:
ONLINE GIVING LINK
Or go to our “Partner With Us” page to see the others ways you can support and partner with us!
Thank you!
Love,
The Santanas
Finding Joy .2
watching the sun creep across the floor while sitting sick on the couch
reading my friend’s deep and encouraging words on her blog
that birds still sing in the middle of winter (I can hear them now)
walking on the frozen lake at sunset
being able to celebrate (with my WHOLE family) my grandpa’s 91st birthday
traveling, with my siblings and husband, to the point, the tip top of of Wisconsin’s peninsula, which is Gills Rock.
stacks of books on the floor around the house
caring about my body
the noises the house makes as its warmed by the sun
starting my first seminary class!
dates (the fruit)
reading about Sabbath
this wooden table and beige blanket
meeting my dear friend’s sweet babe
free mondays and breakfasting with my sister
finding joy
Today’s Monday favs:
1. first day back at work and seeing my sweet (sometimes crazy) estudiantes!
2. getting back into that sweet routine (finding the delight in it, and learning to be fully present in it)
3. starting new year changes (steadfastness, prayer, joy, spanish, piano)
4. better self-care (rest, creativity, books, walks, time, etc.: healthy mind, body, spirit)
5. the power of words (speaking truth, recognizing lies, speaking truth)
6. pottery time!!!! (#3 and #4)
7. laundry day (this and this=FUN! Thanks, Katie D.! )
8. the sound of pen on paper (so missed, so welcomed)
9. morning tea, midmorning joe
10. being organized
11. sun filtering in through high windows and crossing my work table
12. my job (spanish all day, children all day)
13. listening to sherlock holmes (audio book babes)
14. sneaky joy letters (sending and receiving)
15. my co-workers from spain (ONE WORD: VOSOTROS) No me digáis!!!!
a summary of 365 days.
Feliz Año Nuevo!!!!
For me, it’s always the dreaded blog post, the dreaded Facebook post, the dreaded Instagram post, the dreaded whatever-type-of-social media-post, that being, and decidedly titled,
“Summarizing 365 days of my life in two (maybe three) short sentences (or paragraphs if I’m feeling nostalgic)”
I’ve always had a hard time encapsulating a year as we move into the next one.
I’ve always had a hard time summarizing 365 days of living, experiencing, breathing, eating, laughing, crying, yelling, singing, whispering, dreaming, feeling, listening, hearing, learning, unlearning, failing, triumphing, growing, stretching, opening, closing, creating, taking, breaking, and all that is this….life. Living.
I can’t summarize it. I can’t encapsulate it, properly, that is.
Or maybe, I just don’t want to.
Maybe it’s my reluctance to let go of the year and all that has happened (the joys and sorrows) and embrace a new year and all that will happen. Maybe it’s growing a year older, now three years married, now 29, now not anymore in Minnesota, in the United States….change can be really hard for me.
But, like I mentioned in my previous post, I am learning to intentionally enter into and be apart of the changes and different seasons of life. And part of that process is, I think, not forgetting the past seasons, but learning and growing from them, carrying certain “experiences” over to the next season (or year) or choosing to leave them behind. And to do that, we must remember, we must reminisce, we must go into the hard places, the glory places, the sacred and holy places of life.
I think it’s okay to ask, “why’s”. And I think it’s okay to grieve that which is no more, that which will not enter into the new year or new season with us, even if we so badly want it to. Yet we can’t stop there, we can’t lose hope. We also need to enter the spaces of the past year that were holy and hard and remember….and recall, His faithfulness, His peace, His active love and sweet and gentle grace.
I suppose it’s a healing thing to do, that’s what people tell me at least, and I am finding that to be true.
So, I won’t let the new year, and all that has happened in the year we are leaving, hinder me from doing the hard work of being present, nor will I let it slip out of memory without recalling and remembering, without purposefully holding on and letting go. Nor will I let the year go without being grateful and giving thanks for another year, no matter how hard, how good, how lost, how grounding it was….I will choose to give thanks and I will choose joy and hope for the things to come.
So there, I did it. I wrote a “Farewell 2015, Hola 2016” post.
The end.
Love,
The Santanas
p.s. watch out, I did my summarizing in pictures…..
Farewell, Minnesota Christmas…….
I can’t quite let go of Christmas yet.
I mean, every year when December and the Christmas season are coming to a close, we begrudgingly get back into the routines of daily life, but this year, knowing that this is probably our last white, Minnesotan Christmas for a while, I am even more reluctant to dismantle the tree, the greens, the hanging cinnamon stars, and the cozy, stringed lights.
I am even more reluctant to end the daily gatherings at my parent’s or siblings’ homes, sitting by the wood-burning stove, playing games, reading together, going on morning, winter walks or evening moonlit strolls.
I am reluctant to let this season end, literally and figuratively speaking.
I know it is a process, of letting go, of holding on, of saying goodbye, of saying hello, er…hola. But still….it’s hard. It is a PROCESS. Just like much of life; growing up, getting older, experiencing sorrows and joys and mountains and valleys and days of triumph and days that feel like a failure.
This process of life, of seasons…..it’s hard stuff. It really is, but to resist it, I think, would only make it worse, as hard as it is, I am learning to be fully aware and to be consciously and intentionally apart of it. To be awake to the changes and the feelings and emotions of it all, to not let it drown me, but be okay with feeling sad or feeling excited. To be okay with it being messy and not exactly what I thought.
But the hope of process for me is, we do not have to do it alone. We are all in process, in different seasons, in motion, in change, but we are not alone. I am so thankful for the community of support around us, for our friends and family who have known or know that seasons and different processes we are going through and offer us their space and time to process with them. We are so thankful!
I am so thankful for Christ and how he intentionally and purposefully chooses to travel with us through every season and process, daily.
Just today, as I was spending sometime alone, thinking on the past year and how some parts of it were so hard and ugly and thinking to myself, “what a waste that time was, I wish I could re-do or re-live those moments and do things differently” or, “I wish I never had to go through that season, that I could have erased that moment in my life”. Instantly after I thought that, I felt in my heart, God saying:
“It was not for nothing, it was not in vain, it was not lost. The things that you think are dead are breathing in life again. In silence, I was and am there. I am in the grief. I am in the seemingly wasted years, in the mistakes, in the ashes, in the pain, in the unnoticed, in the broken…look closer, look closer, I was there and am there. I am there. There is no “wasted” or “lost” in me. I am NOT a passive Father”
And it is so true. He isn’t passive, in the waiting, in the silence, in the proceses, in the different seasons, he is not passive, he is right with us, walking with us. Oh, that my eyes would be open to Him. OH, that even when I don’t see or feel, that I would choose to believe. Oh that I would choose to believe!
So, in this process of “lasts” and in this season of change and bittersweetness, I am going to try to have my eyes wide open to each moment, to intentionally be apart of the process and the season, whatever one it may be, I want to be apart of it, not wishing it were over, or trying to blur the days away, but through the mountain highs or valley lows, singing out to remind my soul, that I am not alone and I am not alone.
So maybe we’ll keep the tree up just a little bit longer and we will linger just a little while longer in the moments we are together, and be thankful for this season and the next.
Love,
The Santanas
Still climbing: Antisana
Hello friends!
We wanted to give a quick update:
While we were still in the process of creating this “challenge” we had two generous friends donate in the Antisana category. We are so thankful!
That just leaves us with 8 supporters left to give in the Antisana category! Woohoo!
Click here! to support us today!
Remember, you can give either 100 dollars a month for a commitment of two years OR a one time gift of $2,400. Of course, you can give whatever you feel compelled or called to give as well.
Thank you so much for your support and hope!
love,
the santanas