NO MONUMENTS, ONLY FOOTPRINTS

"By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going…" (Hebrews 11:8)

I can’t help but laugh when I read that verse, identifying so much with befuddled Abraham. At the start of 2017, Dave and I committed to a time of prayer for a clear vision for the coming year. The response was not the desired one-year plan, a monument to 2017 that we could build and point to as a success. Instead, we heard, “Just obey for the next step.” So, we’ve forged ahead like Abraham, with “no idea” of a long-term destination, just praying over each decision as it comes, and trying to obey one day at a time.

And what a year it has been! We’re sharing glimpses with you in photos here, and we thank you for walking along with us in prayer, and in personal and financial support. Eugene Peterson describes following Jesus as a lifestyle on the move. He quotes Faulkner, who writes that we do not leave behind monuments, which only say, “At least I got this far.” Rather, we leave footprints, which say, “This is where I was when I moved again.”

The true monument building belongs not to us, but to God. We don’t see the master plan, but we can offer ourselves as obedient workers. We walk faithfully forward, like Abraham, who “did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations – the City designed and built by God.” (Hebrews 11:10)

On the move into 2018,
Dave & Beth,
Levi, Luke, Aaron and Evangeline

These goofballs are sleeping much better at night. Thanks so much for your prayers!

Dave's 14-year-old nephew had such a great visit to Ecuador this summer that he's joining us for all of next semester. Please pray that we'll thrive with two teens in the house. 

Dave is currently teaching courses on Peter and Moses and keeps working on community building at the Alliance Academy International. 

Beth keeps expanding her role at our church, La Viña, continuing in music and teaching, while adding mentoring with Celebrate Recovery and serving on leadership council.

Due to changes in immigration law, we decided to submit a visa application for permanent residency. While the process is costly, we will no longer have to go through visa renewals every two years, which will be a relief. 

After three months in the shop, our car is back. We are super grateful for mobility to be able to visit beautiful places like this again. 

Everything we do is in partnership with our amazing team of supporters. You can make an impact with a donation to our work with Reach Beyond here. Thanks!

DAVE DOES DISCIPLESHIP

Dave tackles worldviews in the classroom

For some years, I (Dave) have felt that the Alliance Academy International's unique Christian identity has been under attack. Our chapel and discipleship programs were hijacked in many ways by the need to comply with new government regulations. Some of my Bible classes suffered a near 50% reduction in class time. Perhaps the most frustrating change to our Christian formation programming was the loss of our Christian Service Outreach (CSO) program. 

For decades, the AAI provided a variety of CSO ministries to equip our students to put their faith into practice through the visual arts, community service, youth ministry and evangelism. Alumni have frequently commented that our CSO programs were a life-giving highlight of their AAI experience. The closure of CSO two years ago – amidst intense transitions at AAI– was greatly lamented by many alums. A painful consequence of this loss is a growing disconnect between the vision of AAI for Christian identity formation and a narrower academic focus of many of our families. My conclusion is that we need a broader, specifically Christian perspective on how their faith integrates with the rest of their lives. 

Thus, it was a tremendous honor when our new school director tasked me with resurrecting our CSO programs. In partnership with a former student of mine, we began the revitalization of CSO with the Guardians ministry. Guardians is based on the principles of discipleship development in 2 Timothy 2:2. Our team of adult leaders is training 20+ high school students to study the Bible, craft an interactive devotional, lead a variety of team building exercises, and facilitate small group discussions and prayer times with 4^th – 8^th graders.  Our hope is that Guardians will help our students value their Christian education for more than just their diploma, but as God’s tool for developing them as the next generation of Christian leaders. Check out the video from our kick-off retreat (below) and please join us in prayer each Wednesday for our Guardians leaders. Thanks!

Guardians leaders growing their skills

A BROKEN CAR IS LIKE A BROKEN HEART

...It takes time and patience to fix! We’ve been carless for several weeks, relying on Dave’s parents’ very kind lending of their vehicle as we wait for the repair of our Ford Explorer. Getting parts and navigating repairs have been complicated and expensive. 

Back when our car - and the Chicago Cubs! - were functional

Thankfully, though, our hearts aren’t broken over it. However, we do feel our patience tested recently from our kids’ recurring sleep troubles. Sometimes it feels like a whack-a-mole game as different kids pop in during the night. We do live in a noisy city apartment, but some of their sleep troubles seem to be anxiety-related. We are still working on getting to the root of these issues.   

You can help with both these scenarios! How? Please pray for peace for the hearts of our kiddos and for grace and wisdom for us as we parent. And please consider a year-end donation to help us get our wheels operational again. Our happy (hopefully well-rested) hearts thank you!

SEASONS OF SOWING AND REAPING

In recent months, we’ve been reflecting on the tears of this past year and also composing some songs of joy we hope to sing with increasing volume! Specifically, our weeping over mandatory changes at AAI that have edged out some discipleship time during the school day is now turning into excitement as Dave plans new ministry ideas for outside school hours. Brainstorming with other teachers, he’s seen interest in building spiritual community through peer mentoring teams, an open-home hospitality rotation, outdoor adventure club, sports and other service ideas. Please pray with us for the organization of these opportunities, as well as the hands needed to make them all happen!

Prayers of goodbye blessings for our dear friends

We’ve also just experienced the perennial goodbyes of summer, this time including some of our oldest friends here. I (Beth) have been praying Bifrost Art's beautiful musical rendition of Psalm 126:

Although we are weeping/Lord, help us keep sowing

The seeds of Your Kingdom/For the day You will reap them

Your sheaves we will carry/Lord, please do not tarry
All those who sow weeping/will go out with songs of joy

The hopeful image of sowing seeds of the Kingdom even while weeping, has strengthened my heart, as I hope it does yours. Your partnership with us in Quito is part of the greater purposes of God to yield sheaves of blessing! We are so grateful for your prayers, which lift us up and keep us planting. 

SOME SUMMER SHOTS

We celebrated Levi's 6th grade graduation
along with Dave's extended family

The abuelos (grandparents) showed ten grandkids
the windy ruins of Ingapirca

Saavedra and Sons posed at the Cuenca Zoo

Luke cozied up
with a praying mantis in Baños

Aaron soared on the
"Swing at the End of the World"

Evangeline enjoyed the view
at the top of Pichincha volcano

TAKE OFF THE GRAVE CLOTHES!

Special guest speaker at La Viña 

Our church recently had the joy of hosting author Becky Harling (wife of new Reach Beyond president, Steve) at our Sunday services, where she taught from John 11, on Lazarus being raised from the dead. She highlighted an element of the story I hadn’t seen before: that when Lazarus stepped (hopped?) out of the tomb, he was still bound up in grave clothes and needed the gathered people to unwrap him. What an image! And what a metaphor for our lives! Even after we experience the healing power of Jesus’ resurrection life, we depend on the community around us to help us take off the grave clothes. 

The Raising of Lazarus by Giotto di Bondone, 1304

For me (Beth), these last few months have been a journey of being helped out of burial cloths, as God continues to restore my heart. I’ve been seeing a counselor (via Skype), who pointed out to me that times of big transition (like our kids now all being in school, and me taking a large volunteer position at our church) can be catalysts for stirring up internal struggles that we’ve conveniently ignored in the past. Thankfully, I have some wonderful friends here who have been walking alongside me on the grave-cloth removal crew, along with my best friend, Dave! 

One of the great side effects of getting more “unbound” is more freedom to confidently reach out to those around me. The learning curve for our lay-pastor work in the English congregation here is challenging, but God continually surprises us with the growth of people in our church. An English-language youth group, run by one of our small group attendees, just started, and a second English-language small group opened in February. Please join us in praying for even more growth.

Beth in the studio at HCJB

I’m also growing in confidence in teaching, along with the help of a wonderful radio producer, Veronica Saavedra, as we continue our programs for moms via HCJB en Casa. Since January, they are now available online for download, along with a summary article I write. This way, we can track their impact more easily, and have seen that they are reaching hundreds of people, in addition to the on-air broadcast listeners. This is super encouraging. Thanks for your part in making this outreach possible!

RESURRECTING INTERCESSORS

I (Dave) have also been thinking about the dynamics of resurrection. In Philippians 3:8-10, the Apostle Paul confesses that he has counted everything a loss that he might know Christ and the power of his resurrection. These words have challenged me to look for signs of God’s continued work of resurrection, even as these last few years have been marked by consistent, and at times, very painful losses. 

The Raising of Lazarus, by Duccio di Buoningsegna, 1310-11

One loss has been due to a significant shift in student population, as most students no longer come from Christian homes. In the past, a consistent small group of young people from Christian backgrounds desired to grow via a prayer team I led, called Intercessors. However, seemingly overnight, student participation in my class on discipleship and Intercessors waned, and about four years ago, neither were offered due to lack of student interest and commitment.

Checking in with students during the lunch hour

But God likes to surprise us with signs of the power of his resurrection. Due to new requirements from the Ministry of Education (MOE), the AAI is now required to provide community service hours for all high school students. To fulfill this, we submitted requests to the MOE, including mine: to allow a student prayer team under the category of “Community Health.” By God’s grace and much to our surprise, we were given the green light to officially establish a student prayer team as part of the AAI curriculum.

Praying for their teacher

Six month later, our small team of four sophomores and juniors have been praying for teachers, peers and staff every Wednesday for an hour. For the first time in several years we have a group of student intercessors!

Huge thanks to you, our support team, for your prayers and your financial partnership, which make our work with Reach Beyond possible. We are deeply grateful for your role in our lives, so that “one generation shall commend [God’s] works to another, and shall declare [God’s] mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4