Peace in the present, excitement for the future

This is our first blog post since we left Ecuador. The past 6 months have been very important for us. We absolutely needed this time to pray and process many things. We have experienced a lot of stress and uncertainty the past year. This time away from Ecuador has given us peace, clarity, and excitement for the future. We are so grateful to OMS and to our many supporters that we have had this opportunity to seek the Lord, to renew, to reflect, to re-evaluate, and re-focus.

One of the things God has taught us over the past few months is that we truly do want to be missionaries in Ecuador. We have been reminded that it wasn’t for no reason that we felt called to apply to OMS back in 2012. Our missionary journey began 5 years ago and we look forward to returning to Ecuador soon. Over the next few weeks we will be meeting with our Field Leader and OMS Headquarters to set a return date.

We did return to Indiana with a desire to pursue adoption. But as we went through the adoption process, we began to feel less peace and more uncertainty about continuing, and we began to feel more peace and more certainty about new ministry opportunities with OMS in Ecuador. We have decided that at this time we do not want to continue to pursue adoption. Since making that decision, we have experienced a great sense of relief and peace.

We believe the last few months have given us the healing we needed from the failed fertility treatments, and now we can move forward. We wouldn’t have gotten to this point if we hadn’t returned to pursue adoption and to pray and seek the Lord about all of these things.

We are so grateful we chose to pursue adoption with Bethany Christian Services. Our case worker really helped us think through many things and evaluate the direction we wanted to go. All of our experience with them was excellent and we would highly recommend working with them.

We have had a lot of uncertainty and confusion over the past few months, so we are very thankful we now have a fairly clear picture of what we will be doing going forward.

Here is a brief description of the ministries that we will be involved in:

Treasurer: This is an urgent need for OMS Ecuador. The previous treasurer completed her term in Ecuador and soon will be transitioning to be the Controller at OMS Headquarters in Greenwood. Currently, someone is filling in state-side on a temporary basis but this is not an ideal situation. Steve will be the Treasurer and Hannah will be the Office Manager. This is not a full-time ministry and will allow us time to be involved in other things. Over the next few months we will receive training for this position. We will be able to take it over from Indiana and continue when we return to Ecuador.

This is an important position for OMS Ecuador. Funds given for OMS ministry need to be properly controlled and spent. The OMS missionaries and our national partners need someone to administer the funds that are given to help build the Kingdom in Ecuador.

Billion.Global: The OMS president is leading us in a “billion” vision. The vision is to give at least 1 billion people, over the 10 year period of 2016-2026, at least one opportunity to hear and respond to the Gospel. Many individuals and organizations have joined the coalition, and together, by God’s grace, we can accomplish the goal.

Hannah and I will be involved in this in some way.  Potentially we will be the coordinators or point-persons to help facilitate the Billion.Global vision in Ecuador.  If so, we would be in regular communication with our OMS missionaries and coalition partners to accurately account for all who will have their "one opportunity".  We would also encourage our OMS partner churches and coalition partners to "press on toward the prize" (Philippians 3:14).

My dad and the OMS president Bob Fetherlin recently took a short trip to Ecuador to speak with our national partners about the Billion.Global vision.  Our Ecuadorian partners are really excited about doing their part to reach the goal.

Please visit the website billion.global for more information.

Train and Multiply: “Train and Multiply” is the church planting multiplication model that OMS uses. It is a proven and successful model for training leaders and reproducing churches. We are excited to be attending training for this in August in Greenwood, IN. We are looking forward to using this method in Ecuador alongside the national association that we partner with.

Based on our previous time in Ecuador, we know that being near others from our OMS team is a high priority. These ministries will allow us to work at the OMS Ecuador office, close to other members of our team.

If you are interested in investing financially in our ministry with the resources that God has blessed you with, please click here: www.onemissionsociety.org/give/theskinners2 (Our OMS profile page isn't updated yet but will be soon)