I got the itch in 2005 while working for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, that God had something different planned for me. Since then I've been all over the place, 3 trips to Brazil, a year in Iowa, a year in Spokane, and a few years in Oregon, am I missing a stop? All this time I've had my eyes on the end goal of being a full-time missionary with Evangelical Church Missions (E.C.M.).
I've lived through the cold Iowa winter and the hot Iowa summer working at The Latin Bistro, Izabel and I spent 2 years with the great people at Park Place Evangelical Church. I've delivered furniture at Walker's furniture, and I've had 3 stints working at Costco. I knew that all of these were leading me to where God was calling me, but I just wanted to be there already. I want us to be in Brazil already helping with E.C.M. Brazil, but that is still a little ways away. Now, however, we have been told that I can stop working at Costco and that is a major step foward for us.
The exciting news though now is that Izabel and I have been approved to be full-time missionaries with E.C.M. allowing us to spend more time in Partnership Development. This will aid in getting us to Brazil much sooner. It is something that we knew was going to happen sometime soon but I now have an end date for my employment at Costco, Jan. 3.
There are plenty of things that we have been doing to prepare us for our future in Brazil. I've been studying with Rosetta Stone, we have reading to do that deals with Cross cultural ministry, we have a partnership base to maintain contact with. The difficulty is finding energy to do these things after working an 8 hour shift. Come January we will be able to dedicate all of our energy towards Partnership Development.
We have exciting things to share and we are looking for people to share them with. We will drive to Spokane for the first week of January and then be in Seattle on the first weekend. We would love to share our stories and are looking for friends to share them with. Please pray for us as we need to make phone calls to schedule ministry opportunities with our friends.
