Dear Family
and Friends,
I am so
excited to tell you about what has been going on in our lives lately and also
share with you something wonderful that we´re going to be doing!
If it seems
to some of you like it has been a while since you heard from us, first I want
to apologize. The truth is that this year has been very challenging for our
family, and we have been keeping a low profile and trying to regroup. Over
Christmas and New Year´s, Isabella and I were both sick, and I was in the
hospital. We were barely recovering from the physical and financial strain that
brought on when, in February of this year I suffered a miscarriage. It was a
very difficult time for us as a family, and we needed to take time out to heal.
Unfortunately, on the mission field, time out is hard to come by. We kept
saying we would do it, take time as a family, but it just never really worked
out.
In July of
this year we got the first really good news that we had gotten all year—we were
expecting another baby! We were very happy to receive this news, but also
cautious about announcing it, since the last pregnancy ended in loss. We
recently saw the 12 week ultrasound and everything is going great so far! We
even saw the baby´s little nose!
Some of you
will remember that I had some complications in my pregnancy with Bella,
especially that near the end I had preeclampsia and had some very scary
experiences with Ecuadorian health care before Bella was born. Because of that,
and the miscarriage after that, we felt that it would wise for us to get
medical care for this pregnancy in the US.
We started
talking about taking a furlough from the mission field a while ago, after the
miscarriage. Both Jairo and I felt like God was leading us to take this step.
We decided to commit it to prayer and see what God would do. Over the next few
months we saw how God began to open the doors, in many ways. We believe that
now is the time that He is calling us to the US, to have the baby, to rest and
to fundraise for the next phase of the ministry here in Ecuador.
We plan to
stay in the US for 6 months to a year, depending on how God leads. During that
time we hope to visit family and friends, fundraise and visit those churches
that support us, and seek proper medical care for myself and the baby. We plan
to split our time between Illinois and Maine, since God seems to be opening
doors for us in both places, and we´re really looking forward to this trip!
God has
already used many generous people and churches to help us fundraise to get to
the US, but we still need to raise more money to pay for tickets and travel
expenses, as well as other costs, like a passport for the new baby! We´re
getting there, and we know God will see this through!
We are so
thankful to those people who have donated funds to the ministry for this
purpose without us even asking! Thank you! We know how hard it is for people to
sacrifice their money during this difficult economic climate, and we know God
will bless your generosity! We don´t have the funds ourselves to pay for
tickets, since we are full-time missionaries and live off of support and God´s
mercy, but we do want to work for this vision that God has placed on our
hearts. After a lot of praying and brainstorming, we decided to organize a
fundraiser for the trip in the form of a drawing!
We
will be
offering 3 (three) items in a drawing, and the tickets for the drawing
are $5
(five dollars) each. The items are a hand-carved, Ecuadorian-style
wooden
nativity set, a hand-embroidered table cloth, and a hand-crafted chess
set,
whose characters are Incas vs. Spaniards. You can find pictures of the
items below. They are all hand-crafted here in the
artisan market in Quito, Ecuador.
We are officially opening the drawing today, September 19th, 2012,
and it will close at 11:59pm, central time, on October 17th, 2012.
The
winners will be announced here on my personal blog, our Revolution Ministries
webpage (https://revolutionministriesec.wordpress.com/) and on our
facebook group page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/110803655739903/).
If you
would like to participate in this drawing, it´s easy to do. First, let me know
that you would like to participate by sending me an email at
revolution_ministries_ec@hotmail.com. Let me know your name,
address (for shipping the prize/s if you should win), and how many tickets you
would like to purchase. Then you can send in payment for your tickets to:
Revolution Ministries
844 Hackberry Rd.
Chatham, IL 62629
844 Hackberry Rd.
Chatham, IL 62629
If you send in a check or money order, please write
¨drawing¨ and the number of tickets you are purchasing (¨# tickets¨) on the
memo line. If you send cash, please include a note with your name, address, and
number of tickets you are purchasing. You will be given a number for each
ticket you purchase, and one winning number per prize will be chosen on
the date given above.
Legal stuff: There is no limit to how many tickets you can
purchase. Keep in mind that your chances of winning are increased if you buy
more tickets. Obviously we can only send a prize after we receive payment for
tickets, so if we do not receive payment we will have to choose another winner.
That´s it!
Our goal is to sell at least 750 tickets. It´s a big goal, but we serve a big
God! Please feel free to share this drawing with your friends, family and
coworkers. The items we are raffling are beautiful and hand-made, so even
people who aren´t familiar with our ministry might be interested in a drawing!
You can
track the progress of the drawing on our facebook group page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/110803655739903/), which I
will try to keep updated as to the number of tickets sold.
Thank you
so much for taking the time to read this message and for considering your
participation in this fundraiser! We are so excited to see what God will do!
And we can´t wait to see all of you in person soon! Please help us by praying
for this fundraiser and for our family as we get ready for what God is doing!
In Christ,
Revolution Ministries
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