These past few weeks have really been incredible and great to see God spoiling us! We can feel your prayers for us, our family, and our ministry.
One huge prayer request that we asked for over a year ago was that we would be blessed to have a strong community of friends in Memphis. That request came from broken hearts, missing our community in Ecuador and feeling alone in a strange place. Well, it took a few years, but God has really spoiled us with some incredible people. And it really is so weird to see how He mismatched such a strange mix of people. From a pastor’s family and a missionary’s family who returned from the field to a police officer and St. Jude’s nurse to a high school principal and his amazing wife to one of Richard’s Uber passengers to a few accountant/finance friends, God has given us some incredible people around us who are there for us in so many ways. We were even able to have a BBQ recently and invited some people from our neighborhood that we didn't know well to kick off the summer and it was so much fun! Of course, we had to have traditional wet ribs (Thanks Uncle Randy and Aunt Nette!)…Memphis-style ribs still don’t compare! It was a great time to continue to form community here.
We had also hoped that our house would be the place for neighborhood kids to come and hang out and that was a prayer that we had multiple people praying for (especially Julie Huffman and Ryan Smith!). And God has again rewarded our request!!! We have kids from our street as well as 2 other streets come and hang out at our house. We now just have to be careful to open our garage door, because we guess that is the international sign for “We’re home…come on over!” But we usually have kids running around a few days out of the week and Ximena is constantly asking to buy more popsicles. We even got a snow cone machine given to us that we just started to use too!!! It really has been fun!
There were also 2 specific times that made our Roseland ladies feel so special these past few weeks. First, Peyton Miller set aside a Saturday to come on a Ukulele date with Leilani. Lani is head-over-heels for Peyton, even though she knows he is dating someone else, but she was eating up her special time with him. They just sat there and practiced the ukulele for a few hours and Peyton sang to her as well. It made her feel like such a princess! Also, Ximena was able to get together with Kristen McDaniel, who drove up from Mississippi. They are such kindred spirits and it was a time for them to spend an evening together over a meal. Ximena came back from that dinner so refreshed and so thankful for the incredible people who God has placed in our lives. They are real, down-to-earth people who love God and don’t want to hide behind appearances. Really amazing!
One thing that Ximena has had on her heart since last year was to invite women who are serving in ministry over to our house for a time of encouragement. She has experienced how lonely it can feel sometimes and how easy it is to burnout, so she wanted to serve women like this in the Memphis area. This month, she invited ladies involved as missionaries, ministry directors, and pastor's wives over to our home. What they didn't know is that she was having a special brunch, time for them to share their stories, time for them to hear some encouraging scriptures, and to be prayed over. It was a beautiful time and there was no need for icebreakers! Everyone was sharing, making connections, and sharing phone numbers to stay in community with those around them. Ximena received so many messages afterward sharing how encouraging and uplifting it was ("I felt so special" and "God is amazing. This was just what I needed. To be reminded who I am in Him...Thankful for your friendship and pouring into me and others in ministry" and a few others). God is so amazing and He showed up in incredible ways! One of the missionary ladies suggested that she do it again and that each person bring a friend who is in ministry as well. Who knows what could come out of this!
Another thing that we are extremely thankful for is for Taylor Churchwell. It is an intern from Mississippi who applied to help out at Orphanos over the summer. She committed to helping out 3 days a week, even though she knows that there won’t be any compensation in return. She is sacrificing her summer to help us out! Since we are going to be out of state for 6 weeks this summer, she has already been trained by Ximena to help process the money coming in for our missionaries and has been learning how to do all sorts of things from the Member Care side of things with Richard, from planning international travel to finding the best medical insurance for our partners. Taylor truly is amazing and has such an incredible servant’s heart. And she was a complete answer to prayer!
And that leads us to our final exciting news that we are about to begin our TEXAS TOUR! It is so weird to think that it has been 2 years since we last we able to tour Texas, visiting friends and supporters. But the time has snuck up on us!!! We are going to be in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Houston, starting on June 1st until the beginning of July. We have started to contact many of you, but if you want to get together or visit with us, please just send us a message, because we really want to see all of you if possible! And we are really thankful to a few people from our community who have been willing to take care of things like our house, dog, and ministry things here in Memphis while we are gone (Austin, Wes/Claire, Kelsey, Samantha, and Taylor!!!) As well as so many incredible people in Texas who are receiving us with open arms into their homes and getting things ready for us.
Overall, we are just so thankful! We know that there are so many things going on with our family and kids, with those we minister to, and those that God has placed in our path. We know that we could be focusing on the drama, being tired, overwhelmed or looking at the bad things in a broken world. In a book both of us have been reading, called "Start with Amen" by Beth Guckenberger, she says, “Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said, people will know who we are by our love. When someone loves you well, you are moved. This season, I was convicted about all the previous times I had put a task or an accomplishment above a relationship. If I am too busy for people, what exactly am I doing?”
So that is where we are. We have just continued to see how God is spoiling us with a roof over our heads that still isn’t leaking, cars that only break down occasionally (well...it's been more frequent recently!), a refrigerator with food and a grocery store that is literally just a mile away, clean water that we drink and shower with, and so many precious people that God has given us. Sometimes, Ximena does push Richard even a little more by seeing those needs and reaching out to people more frequently than even he is used to (He never knows who he will find when he comes home!). But shouldn’t our actions just be an outpouring of our love for a God who loves and spoils us so well???
And we do covet your prayers!
1. Gustavo: He is heavy on our hearts as he has "disappeared" again. We know where he is and that he is alive, but whenever he "hides" it usually means that things aren't going well.
2. Car: We had to do an overhaul on the brakes for the vehicle we are going to travel in. They also said that we will need new tires soon. Please pray for safety as we travel over 1,000 miles and for the finances to pay for the maintenance costs (maybe even along the way!).
3. Texas Tour: That God would allow us to connect deeply with each one of our friends and supporters that we will be able to see. That we would be able to bear each other's burdens in a godly way. And that we will be able to share in such a way that everyone around us continues to discover a global and gracious God.
4. Ministries on hold: We are really wanting to get everything done before we leave and we know that there will be so much to catch up on after the time we are gone. Please pray that our minds will be able to fully trust God to take care of the things we do and don't get done before leaving and to be able to disconnect. And that a miracle will be done so that we won't have too much to catch up on in July!
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