Call To The Nations Blog

Ministry Update

2011-12-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

We are gradually getting settled in here in Cuenca and occasionally finding opportunities for ministry. The Bible study with our neighbor is going well. He is very hungry to learn more about God and to follow Him with his whole heart. We are beginning to go through Genesis and are continuing to meet once a week. On Saturday, I went to CREIAD, a local drug and alcohol rehabilitation center with some other people from the local church. They were celebrating their fifth year of weekly ministry to the men at the center. While my personal involvement was minimal, it was exciting to see men desiring to turn their lives around and follow God. Please pray for them to take these services and their relationship with God seriously and that it would carry on beyond their time in rehab.

We have connected with a local family who are interested in helping us plant a church. We don't have a timeframe yet, but we will be looking at starting a Bible study in our home in January. Pray that we hear God clearly and follow His will and timing.

Visit to Foursquare Churches in Sigsig and Loja

2011-11-29T12:33:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, I visited the local Foursquare churches in the towns of Sigsig and Loja with the Foursquare pastor here in Cuenca and the president of Foursquare Ecuador. It was an excellent time of developing relationships with the Foursquare leadership here in Ecuador, as well as getting to see more of this beautiful country and what God is doing in it. The highlight of the trip was a water baptism of 17 people in the Volqueron River near Loja. God is doing wonderful things in these churches, but it's sobering to realize that there are only 3 Foursquare churches in the whole Southern Sierra. We look forward to what lies in store for the growth of His kingdom here in Ecuador over the coming years and the part we get to play in that growth.

Foursquare Ecuador National Convention

2011-11-07T07:52:00.000-08:00

We recently attended the Foursquare National Convention here in Guayaquil on October 28-30. This was a great time of connecting with pastors and the national leaders. Guayaquil is the largest city in Ecuador and is on the coast. I describe it as a different country from where we live in Cuenca due to the climate and culture differences. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera but it was a well-attended conference with over 1,000 people at many of the meetings.

Please pray for a potential trip I may be taking in a couple of weeks with Fercen Granja, the pastor here in Cuenca and Jose Molina, the President of Foursquare Ecuador. I may join them on their visit to the Foursquare churches in Sigsig and Loja here in southern Ecuador. Along with the church in Cuenca, these three churches are the only Foursquare churches in the entire Southern Sierra region of Ecuador.

Our new home in Cuenca

2011-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've received many requests for pictures of our new home here in Cuenca. God has so tremendously blessed us with this house - it has everything that we had asked for and we found it right away. Unfortunately, there is still a bit of work to do to have every room ready for viewing as we're still unpacking suitcases and setting up the things we have purchased here. We are able to show you a few pictures of our home with more to come...perhaps even a video! Click the link for a slideshow.

Deployment Date

2011-09-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen from our website or our updates, we're getting ready to move to Ecuador on October 10th. This has been a very hectic time for us as we take care of all of the last minute details, pack, visit with friends and family, etc. It has been a long journey for us to this point, but in some ways the journey is just beginning. Thank you for all of your prayer and support. There will be many more updates on this blog once we deploy, so stay tuned. Here is the link to our latest update.

Almost Funded

2011-07-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we posted, so I thought I'd better get started again since we're so close to leaving. These past few weeks, we have had so many new supporters and are now over 90% funded. Thank you so much to all of you who give; we are so humbled by your support and so encouraged that you support this vision. We don't have a departure date yet, but we hope to leave in September. Stay tuned for more updates.

Support Raising Training

2010-07-31T19:38:00.000-07:00

Praise God!!! We just completed a three day support raising training through Foursquare. When we had our original training, the support raising part was basically to say "Good luck." This training was with an awesome former missionary named Henri Moreau. He has experience raising his own support and years of experience training others. These three days were such a blessing and really gave us a vision for how to accomplish what lies in front of us. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're pretty sure it isn't another train! We believe the time for our departure to Ecuador is approaching.

Yard Sale

2009-09-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

We had a yard sale on Saturday to help raise money for the ministry. Who decided to do this on the hottest day of the year?! While it was extremely hot, the yard sale was very successful. Thanks to all of you who donated and came to help. We were able to sell quite a bit, but we have received so many donations that we still have items to sell and plan to have another yard sale in the near future. Stay tuned for more details.

Week of Prayer & Fasting

2009-08-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of you who participated in prayer & fasting for this ministry. We saw God move and know He did even more than what we can see. A large part of what we felt God do in our lives was simply taking time to be quiet and listen to Him without all of the distractions of life. To that end, we were able to start the week in the mountains and end it housesitting for some friends.

We have a vision of taking the city of Cuenca for God, and He spoke Proverbs 16:32 to us, "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city." May we never forget that our responsibility to honor God in our own lives & in our character is more important than anything we "do for God". It was truly a blessed week.

Fundraising Update

2009-08-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

These past two months we have been able to focus much more on fundraising. We have visited several churches to share the vision God has given us and to encourage the people. We still have a ways to go in fundraising, but we have seen God move in wonderful ways in our visits with other pastors and churches. Please keep this ministry in your prayers as we know the devil will try harder and harder to discourage us as we come closer and closer to leaving for Ecuador.

Foursquare Convention

2009-06-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

How can we possibly describe everything that happened this past week at the Foursquare Convention in Anaheim, CA? Perhaps in a book!? God blessed us time and again as we found ourselves in His place and at His time. We connected and reconnected with many pastors who have been or will be part of our spiritual and financial support.

However, the biggest thing that took place was undoubtedly our connection with the two Pastors who came from Quito, Ecuador, Alejandro Visuete (also a member of the board of the Ecuadorean Foursquare Church) and Edisson Valle. God moved so powerfully as we were immediately knit together as family and had the opportunity to pray together for the move of God that we all desire to see in Ecuador. Their recommendation is for us to travel to Ecuador in November (if we haven't already moved by then) to meet with the entire board.

We have only scratched the surface of the entirety of what God did, but suffice it to say that He did "exceedingly abundantly above" all that we could ask or imagine!

Check out more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/calltothenations/sets/72157619070369795/show/

Board Approval!

2009-05-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Finally! This has been a long process through which we have learned to have a lot of patience and to trust in God even more. We found out today that we were board-approved on last Thursday. This means that the only remaining hurdle to going to Ecuador is raising the financial support, and we have complete freedom to begin this process. (We had been limited to friends & family.) We are now officially "Missionary Candidates" with Foursquare until we have raised the support needed and are deployed. Then we are officially Foursquare Missionaries to Ecuador! For now we will have to live with the memories of our time in Cuenca like here on the Tomebamba River. Please be praying for us. Thanks to all of you who are so faithful in your prayers and financial support.

Prayer Trip

2008-08-31T17:41:00.000-07:00

We recently returned from our prayer trip to Cuenca. It was an amazing time and God confirmed our calling to Ecuador. During our time, we met the pastors of the only Foursquare church in Cuenca, Fercen & Patricia Granja. We spent some time getting to know each other as we will be working with them as we acclimate to our new home. Thank you to all of you who prayed and gave.

Our Prayer Trip To Cuenca

2008-06-11T21:07:00.001-07:00

In preparation for our move to Ecuador, we (Michael & Jennifer) will be taking a trip to Cuenca in August. While we certainly have many questions we would like to answer before our move, our primary purpose is to hear from God whatever He wants to show us. Logistical planning is important, but we want to be fully prepared spiritually. The dates of our trip are August 14-23. Please pray for us.

Hope For The Nations Church on Yakama

2008-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the First Nations Conference back in March. One of the couples we met are Frank & Mary East. Today we had the privilege of sharing at the church they pastor on the Yakama Reservation in Toppenish, WA. Their church blessed us financially, but we are especially excited about the relationship we are developing with them. Frank & Mary have pastored native peoples for over 20 years and have a lot of wisdom to share regarding the challenges we will soon face reaching out to the indigenous people of Ecuador.

Foursquare Missions Intensive

2008-05-02T19:25:00.000-07:00

As part of our continuing appointment process with FMI, we were asked to complete a number of different tasks to help prepare us for the transition to Ecuador. One of those tasks was to attend a Missions Intensive. We just completed this eight-day training in Federal Way, WA. This was a wonderful time where we learned a tremendous amount, made some wonderful new friends, and were able to visit friends & family since the training was at our former church. We see the hand of God orchestrating so many things with regards to our preparation. We can't wait to see what God has in store next!

Foursquare First Nations Conference

2008-03-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

This weekend, March 14-16, is the annual Foursquare First Nations Conference. It is being held once again in Escondido, CA, the site of the conference in 2004 when the vision for Call to the Nations was birthed. We will have a table displaying our brochures and other information about the ministry. Nastassja and Michael, Jr. will be selling handmade, knitted scarves and other crafts at our display to raise money for their room in Ecuador. You can order a scarf for $5 by contacting us through our website. Please keep us in prayer as we hope to make contacts for raising support at this event.

Mt. Zion Lake Elsinore Foursquare

2008-01-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Today we had the pleasure of sharing at Mt. Zion Lake Elsinore Foursquare pastored by Jason & Rachele Brannon. It is always a privilege to be invited into a church and it is also exciting as we get to go to different churches and see what God is doing there.

To update you on some upcoming events, we have a tentative appointment scheduled with Foursquare Missions(FMI) on Wednesday, February 13th. This interview combined with an invitation from the National Board of Ecuador will get us our official appointment as Missionary Associates. Also, at the end of April, we will be attending an FMI training in Washington state. This training takes place at our former church, Northwest Church, in Federal Way! We plan to combine this week-long training with a vacation to visit friends and family one last time before we move.

First Nations Church

2008-01-13T13:32:00.000-08:00

We have begun to go to churches to raise spiritual and financial support. The first church that we had the privilege of sharing at was First Nations Church in Santa Fe Springs, California pastored by Randy and Cheryl Bear Barnetson. You can find a link to their ministry in the "Links" section of this blog. We will be sharing about Call To The Nations at several other churches in the coming months. We need to raise the financial sponsorships needed for our move, but we also need to raise prayer support! Please pray for God to continue to open the right doors as we continue in this endeavor. Thanks again, Randy and Cheryl!

Foursquare Licensing

2008-01-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

Today we had our interview with a Foursquare licensing panel. While this may sound very intimidating, it was actually quite fun! The panel was made up of three pastors from the area whose job it was to ask us questions concerning our personal lives, our doctrine, and our understanding of Foursquare Polity. The four hour interview could have been very intimidating, but the panel went out of its way to make it anything but. Since we have already been through a long licensing process up to this point, their approach was to get to know us and to encourage us. They even provided lunch! The next step is to receive approval from our District Supervisor and the Foursquare Board. When we receive this approval (God willing), we will obtain a Foursquare District License which will enable us to receive our appointment with Foursquare Missions International.