Otro Color

"He is no fool to lose what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."- Jim Elliot

It’s been way too long since I last updated! Sorry for the hold up! Just in case you hadn’t heard I arrived safely in Ecuador. After about 28 hours of hanging in airports and flying I arrived in Quito and spent the day exploring the city. We took off early the next morning to begin our 5-hour journey to my new home in Shell but about an hour into the drive our van broke down. We spent around 3 hours on the side of the road while waiting for a tow truck and a taxi to drive us the rest of the way. Good thing I love adventures! After arriving in Shell, my roommate Melissa and I spent the next couple days getting settled into our new home and exploring the town. We started meetings at the foundation (Casa de Fe) that following Monday where we met with all the new staff to go over what we wanted the school year to look like and to decorate our classrooms. We started classes on September 7^th and all the kids were excited to be back in school and start learning! I get the privilege of teaching two different grades. I teach English, Science and Computer classes for 2^nd and 6^th grade and so far it has been great! We are now 3 weeks into our school year and I think everyone is finally getting settled into a routine. Even though it’s been quite an adjustment from being the student to the teacher it is definitely a learning experience! I know I will come away from this school year having learned a lot from the students and the other teachers.. there is so much to learn! Coming to Ecuador was a huge culture shock, I didn’t think there would be because I had been to Latin America many times before but visiting another culture is very different than moving and trying to adjust to a whole new way of life. At first I was homesick and missed all my friends back home. And I was questioning whether or not God had really asked me to move here. But as I asked God these questions, He assured me I was where He wanted me and that He had a huge plan for me here. The first two weeks were really hard but they made me rely on God for strength and reassurance of His promises. God has been so faithful in keeping His promises. Little by little He is revealing to me areas of my life that He wants me to surrender to Him and even though it’s been hard, it’s been a really good time of healing and growth in my walk with the Lord. Very freeing! God is also showing me who He wants me to invest in, at CDF and in the community and how He wants me to serve Him while I am here. I am so excited about this year, about the time I get to spend with all the great people I am meeting and the work God is going to do in my life and in the lives of those around me!

“My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the good news about God’s wonderful kindness and love.” (Acts 20:24)

I'm moving to Ecuador

This week has truly been one of the hardest weeks of my 22-year old life. This week I had to make a decision whether or not I was going to give up the comforts of my life for the sake of the gospel. I’ll rewind about two months to when I felt like God was preparing me for a transition coming up. I didn’t know what it was or what He meant but I thought I was ready for whatever it was He was going to throw at me. Two weeks later I got a phone call from a family friend who had been praying for me and had heard about a need for teachers at an orphanage in Ecuador that I had been to. As soon as the words left her mouth I knew that this is what God had meant by a transition and I began to weep. So I prayed a lot and began contacting the orphanage and got conformation that this is where the Lord was leading me. My heart was torn by the decision because even though I would be going on this awesome adventure getting to tell people about Jesus, I knew that I would be leaving my comfortable life of being with my family, friends and my tribe (my high school girls) that I had invested in for the past 2 years and my heart was broken. he truth was, even though teaching at an orphanage in South America had been my dream since I was 16, I didn’t want to go because it wasn’t the timing I wanted. I wanted to be here in Alaska until my tribe finished high school and I finished college. But God had other plans and I wrestled with God for weeks but the most challenging question I’ve ever had to answer, was I going to obey Jesus? God began revealing verses to me that challenged me in a huge way. In Luke 9 Jesus says “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” he continues on saying, “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Then I went over to Mark 10 where Jesus talks to the rich young ruler who is asking how he can inherit eternal life and Jesus tells him, “ Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me.” Jesus was asking me to abandon everything to follow him and I realized that if I didn’t then I couldn’t be His disciple. I realized I had been selfish to ask him to let me stay and that the best thing I could do was to be obedient to his call. I know now that the cost of being a discple of Christ is great but it’s worth it, He’s soo worth it! Once I realized how that, I got super excited about this upcoming expedition. So I am moving to Shell, Ecuador on August 25^th to teach at an orphanage called Casa de Fe (House of Faith) which provides 24-hour care of abandoned children, especially children with special needs.