The Latest

I have been in contact with my fellow missionaries in Quito and there are some exciting things happening there. As you know, one of my jobs when I get back will be to help start Adventure Short Term Teams. I have now heard that we already have 5 or 6 teams lined up, beginning in March. Praise God! You can start praying for these teams already, that God would be preparing their hearts for what they will experience and for the people they will come in contact with. I am still hoping and praying that God would bring in the money for me to be back in Quito for mid-January.
Also, I have expanded my ring of contact to include fellow students from when I was in school in Ecuador. One of them have responded already and I am hopeful that more will follow. This time back in Canada has been kind of a roller coaster ride with ups and downs. Please pray that I would be ok with being here as my heart is definitely in Ecuador. Pray that I would help out with a high school youth group at my church with excellence and that God would use me to speak into the lives of these guys.

I'm still in Canada

Here is the latest on what is going on in my life:
I am still in Canada, living in Belleville, ON, with my parents. I had planned on hopefully getting back to my ministry in Ecuador by October 15, but that was not God's plan and so I remain here. So far, my time in Canada has been training at International Team's headquarters, time with my parents' church and people in Belleville and Calgary, and some work. I have been doing odd jobs at people's houses and part time work at a plant nursery. There is a pretty good chance I'll get a full job drawing steel structure plans for a detailing firm. I have attempted to take a course in photography here in a local college but the course was canceled.
So, for the time being, I am looking for new people to share my passion and ideas with. If any of you have suggestions or perhaps friends who you think would be interested, please let me know. I have found it difficult to get people to commit to being monthly supporters, and that is what I need most at this point.
Here are a few things you could be praying for:
-Patience. I am very anxious to get back. My life is all back in Ecuador, and I miss it. I am also excited about my new job description when I get there.
-That I would be open to God's lessons. Pray that I would use this time to focus on Him and be closer to Him.
-Funds. There is no way I can raise the support I need. It is all up to God.
-For the rest of the time here with my parents. It has been great living with my parents, although that is something quite new for me. Pray that we would continue to get along well and that this would be a profitable time for us all.
Thank you all for your support. You are such an encouragement to me.

Chicago

Monday, the 10th, I took a 25 hour bus ride down to Chicago to surprise my girlfriend. I was able to stay with some friends in the area from my highschool years in Ecuador. They live in the area. Ashley was at International Teams headquarters in Elgin, IL for her training to get back to Ecuador. I spent most of the time that she was training working on editing a video and then we spent the evenings together. The first evening we got together with seven of my classmates from Ecuador. It was a really great reunion. The whole time was great for us as a couple because we had only been together dating for a couple of days until I had to return to Canada. I have now returned to Ontario and tomorrow I head out to Calgary where I hope to meet with supporters and a few friends. My time in the Chicago area was also profitable in another way. One of the friends I connected with offered to support me as well. I am excited to see who God is bringing forward to help me!

Back in Canada Update

Greetings everyone. I have been back in Canada now for about three weeks. Here's what that has looked like. I arrived on August 12 in Toronto and my parents met me and drove me west right away to my uncle and aunt's place. We visited there for a few hours and got caught up. That evening we went to Elmira, Ontario where I proceeded to go through my two weeks of training. Nothing like hitting the ground running! Since then I have been working on putting together a presentation and I've put together a coffee table book of some of my better photos from Ecuador. I ordered 25 of them and plan to sell them as a fund raiser. Still ahead on my list of things to do is putting together a short term teams promotional video that I'll use in my presentations.
Training was one of a few reasons I came back to Canada. Now I'm on to the other two main reasons. I wanted to connect with everyone back here in Canada. I will be spending the majority of my time in Belleville, Ontario in my parents' church. I will also fly out to Calgary, Alberta for a while and spend time with my supporters out there. My tentative dates for Calgary are the 17th to the 27th although I haven't bought my tickets yet.
Finally, the last main reason I came back is that I need to raise full time support. Please be praying with me on this subject. This is my least favorite part of being a missionary. As I have mentioned before, full time support will look a little different than it has in the past. I have been able to live based mainly on generous one-time support. Before I go back now though, I need 100% of my budget to be covered by monthly donations.
Anyway, before this gets too long, I look forward to being able to meet with a lot of you. Let me know if you are in Calgary and would like to get together. I really appreciate all of you.

Summer is Over

This will be brief but just a note to say that summer has officially ended now. The last teams are gone now. My role with the last set of teams was to roam between the four teams and film and photograph in order to make a Short Term Teams promotional video. I will be working on editing that video when I return to Canada.
Along with the end of summer came the end of the no dating policy. I now have a girlfriend. Her name is Ashley and she is from California. She has been my partner in leading teams for the second and third blocks of teams. This coming year she will be doing what I did last year: working in the chaplain's office of the Alliance Academy International in Quito.

Travel Plans

Some of you heard that I had one final last ditch interview with the new director of the Alliance Academy this morning. I'm sorry I didn't let everyone know beforehand; it came up rather quickly and I didn't have time to email. Anyway, the result was similar to before: I will not be at the Alliance Academy this fall. I have now purchased my ticket home for August 11-12 (it's an overnight flight). My plan at this point is to raise support during the fall, live with my parents, help out at Quinte Alliance Church where my dad is the Senior Pastor, and visit people. My brother gets married January 5 in Calgary so I will be there for that. I hope to be able to return here to Quito as a full time missionary immediately after the wedding.
My time this summer is drawing near to the end. Three of the four teams are completed with the last ones starting tomorrow. My role with these last teams will be to float between them all and film in order to make a short term promotional video. It will be a lot of time and work but I look forward to it. I should be in my element. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Mid Summer

Wow, my summer is half over and it feels like it has just begun. So far I have had two short term teams: St. Mark's Missionary Church from Mishawaka, Indiana and Capistrano Valley Christian School from Southern California. Both teams have been great although very different. The leader of St. Mark's had graduated from the Alliance Academy here when I was in grade 2. He remembers picking on me, which I thought was funny. St. Mark's was a very reserved team so part of the challenge was getting them to speak up and pray for example. CVCS was quite the opposite. It was great seeing them learn to relate to some of the people they were working with. Also, a couple of them felt God's guidance on their lives which is great. St. Mark's worked at Carmen Bajo which is a poor neighborhood in the north of Quito. They spent about half their time in construction and half running VBS for the students there. CVCS worked mainly with Argelia Alta which is a poor community in the south of Quito. They spent some of their time building and a fair bit of time visiting homes in the community. It was these home visits that were most impacting for most of them. Both Argelia Alta and Carmen Bajo are also Compassion International sites, which means if you've seen those cards for supporting a child, those are the kids we've been working with.
CVCS left last night, so I had a break today. Tomorrow I will be running a checkpoint for an adventure race here. Pray that I continue to develop good relationships with people in the outdoors/adventure world here.
Starting Sunday I will have a week break and then I have another two teams back to back which will run me through the end of my commitment time here. I plan on returning to Canada August 11 or 12. Plans are still up in the air to some extent. I hope to nail things down more with Youth World this week. Please pray that God will raise up monthly supporters so that I can return full time. Pray that God would provide wisdom to the Management Team of Youth World as they work out what my job description would be. Pray for the two teams I have coming still this summer: that they would be changed and that they would change the people they come into contact with. Finally, pray that I would know how to best spend my time back in Canada.
Thank you for your time as you read this and pray. Thank you for the encouragement you are to me.

Summer Start

I'd like to begin this note with my thanks to all who prayed for me over the past week. After a rough couple of days, I am doing much better. I have had the necessary time to process and seeing all my friends who came down for the funeral helped a lot as well.
Alliance Academy graduation is tomorrow and with that comes the departure of nearly all the students. Goodbyes will be... well, goodbyes. I never look forward to them but I have become somewhat numbed. It still will not be easy.
At the same time, my first team is here and running. I will be running three more over the course of the summer. This team's leader graduated from the Alliance Academy back in '93 and oddly enough, remembers me as a second grader in the Alliance dorm. I have really enjoyed being with this team so far and have no reason to expect anything different for the remainder of their stay. Carmen Bajo is the ministry site where they will spend most of their time. It is a very poor section of north Quito with an Alliance church that partners with Compassion International to run social aid programs as well.
Thank you for your prayers yet again. I cannot tell you how much it encourages me to know I have you backing me up.