Brian Klein

1) We have a pretty young group, so please pray for wisdom for our leaders and maturity all around. 

2) Pray for the family that runs the orphanage, that they would be encouraged and refreshed by our visit, and not burdened. Pray also for the success of their mission, and of course for the children they minister to every day. 

3) Also, please pray for the health and safety of our group.

 

My first thoughts about the trip revolved around how much fun it would be to hang out with the children. Playing with the kids and teaching them about the Bible—kids who don't get the attention they deserve—sounded like a good time. When I thought more seriously about going on the trip, I realized I had taken off the first week of August for vacation, and didn't have any plans to fill it. I had asked for it off, randomly, months before. I took it as providential that it fell on the same week as the trip. Surely God wants me to go, I thought, no matter how insignificant my purpose may be. At that point, I made up my mind to go. 

John and Brenda Dean

1) Pray for strength and health for all going to Ecuador.

2) Pray that the people at the orphanage will be open to God's Word.

3) Pray that we will show God's love to all we interact with through both our words and actions.

4) Pray that God will remove any stresses to prepare our hearts and minds for what He has in store for us.

Why we are going to Ecuador:
Brenda and I have been talking about going on a mission trip for quite awhile. We have enjoyed seeing our kids participate in different short term mission trips and felt God calling us to go. I was unsure about this trip at first because the dates coincide with our 25th wedding anniversary, but we talked about it and decided what better way to celebrate than by doing God's work. We have seen several roadblocks get in the way since we made the decision to go, but we know that God is in charge and will clear the way if He wants us to go. We are just trusting God in all things...because we know whatever happens, He is in control!

Abbey Graeber

1) That God would deepen my relationship with him

2) That He would give me a greater passion for actively pursuing him

3) Give me a better awareness of his "widows and orphans"

As soon as Julie first told me about this trip I instantly knew I was going to end up going. I have never been on a missions trip and this one just fit me, the people who were going, the very structure of it! I feel like God has plans for me there, I'm not sure what but I know he does. I am very excited to be going on this trip and pray our team will accomplish God purpose for us there.


Abbey Graeber

Aaron Zapata

1) Please pray for our travels. I hate flying and am already nervous about the airports/planes.

2) Please pray for my fear of inadequate language skills. I feel as though I should have learned more Spanish through out my life and now would have been an AMAZING time to put it into practice.

3) Please pray for my health. I really can't afford to get sick in Ecuador or when I return.

4) Please pray for my finances. I am having to take off from work unpaid while I am in Ecuador and am not able to receive funds for bills I need to pay when I return!

So my story about how I ended up on this trip is pretty funny. I remember getting an email from Julie about Ecuador while I was on a missions trip in Montana. I read it and felt God saying I should go on this trip (something that should be noted is I had only been attending Grace for three or four Sundays!) I was too busy in Montana to respond to her email and when I returned to Lincoln I had already forgotten to reply. Julie messaged me about two weeks later wanting to know if I had decided to go or not and after a while of debating with myself (and not God) I decided that I did not have the time/money to do such an extensive missions trip so I replied with a simple "sorry. I can't go, but I will be praying for you all who can go!"

Instantly there was a turning in my stomach and an invisible red handprint across my face. My heart began to race and I had no idea why, withing literally 45 seconds I replied again to Julie's email saying "scratch the last email, I will be going to Ecuador...sign me up!" God really spoke to me in that moment and he clearly showed me that I was meant for this missions trip! :) If you ask Julie there are even more crazy ways that God revealed to her that I needed to be apart of this! Anyhow, I'm apart of this team and wouldn't trade any of it for the world! I can't wait to see how God works with our hands through are hearts and in our lives and the lives of the children and workers of this orphanage!

Until the Whole World Hears,

Aaron Zapata

Two weeks from today!

I cannot believe that in two weeks we will be in Ecuador! I am very excited to see what God has planned for us! I know He has already been doing a lot in the lives of the team members and I am sure He will be doing a lot more in and through us in the following weeks.

Over the next 13 days I am going to be posting prayer requests for the team members. The first twelve days (starting tomorrow the 21st) I will post prayer requests for a different team member each day and it will also include a paragraph saying how God called them to go on this trip. We would appreciate it if you got on every day to read our prayer requests and pray for us. On the 13th day I will put up a blog with prayer requests for our whole trip including travel safety seeing as how the next day will be our travel day. We would definitely appreciate prayers that our travels would be safe and smooth.

While we are in Ecuador we will be updating the blog everyday, hopefully! I am not sure if we will be able to update it on the 3rd or the 13th because of traveling, but we will try to get something on the blog every day so you can keep up with what we are doing.

Thank you everyone who has supported us financially and through prayers. We love and appreciate all of you and we can't wait to share this amazing experience that God has given us with you!

In Christ's Awesome Love,

-The Ecuador Team-

The reason we are going!

We have been very busy lately with all of our fundraisers and I found myself getting lost in all the details. I watched these videos the other day and God reminded me. He filled me with excitement again to help and love the fatherless, the poor and the needy. Here are two videos of the Ark. The first one is on their website. The second is one from 2006, but I still love to watch it! :-) You only have to watch half of it though because it has the same movie twice for some reason.


The Ark Children's Homes Promotional Video from Silas Allan on Vimeo.



The Ark Children's Homes 2006 from Silas Allan on Vimeo.

Please continue to pray for us as we are planning for our trip. We have a lot left to do! Pray that every team member's heart would be encouraged during this time of preparation. Also, pray that God would raise all the money we need for this trip. We have raised a lot of funds for the orphanage, Praise God!! However, we are still needing to raise quite a bit more to pay for our individual trips. We have faith that God will bring it all in even though it can seem impossible to us at times. God can definitely do the impossible!! Thanks to all of you who have already given and are praying for us! We love you all!!

In Christ's Awesome Love,

Julie

We have the tickets!

I bought the tickets today for our group, which means we now know who all is going.

Here is the list of who is going to Ecuador;

-Aaron Zapata
-Abbey Graeber
-Brenda Dean
-Brian Klein
-Chad Elam
-Hannah Beaty
-Heather Snyder
-Jared Murphy
-John Dean
-Jordan Fischer
-Julie Myers
-Sarah Bethea

Please pray for all of us as we are planning for this trip. We have a lot to do in the next 3 months! Please pray that we would fully rely on God to take care of all of the details and that we would have faith without doubting that he will take care of it all. Thanks so much!!

In Christ's Awesome Love,

Julie Myers