I´m back!

If you notice the dates on these blog posts, you´ll notice I haven´t been blogging lately. Like, for a very long time.

It isn´t a problem of not having anything to say, but actually just the opposite. Sometimes there is so much to say that you just have to be quiet.

In the past year (yes, it has seriously been a YEAR since my last post) we have been through so much that it´s hard to find the words to express it all. Ministry, like life, is messy and hard and imperfect. It requires growth, and if you remember being a kid, you know that growth comes with pain.

We have been back in Ecuador for just about a year, and that year feels like an eternity. My girls are so big, and I can´t slow them down in any sense, which, as a mother, all at once gives me joy to see them blossom before my very eyes, and it terrifies me, thinking that the days of childhood are numbered and pass by so quickly. Watching them grow is like watching the sand flow out of an hourglass, and the days go by so quickly and so slowly that I don´t know what to make of it.

I see our ministry align more and more to the ministry of Christ, and it makes me glad, and at the same time it is exhausting and requires the pouring out of every last ounce of self, until I am so empty and broken that I must depend on His healing and filling to get up every morning.

I never imagined I would be buying a casket for one of our precious sponsor children, but that is how I spent my husband´s birthday weekend. I never thought I would be singing in a concert for thousands of people, but just weeks later, there I was. I didn´t think I would ever see one of the poor little girls from Kid´s Club give her pair of shoes to another little girl who needed them even more, but I did. I didn´t think the most difficult trouble-makers would run to the front of the room to be chosen to dance for God, but they do. I had hoped I would never spend sleepless nights in the hospital, pleading with God to keep my daughter alive and breathing, but there we were. I never knew what it was like to feel an earthquake every day, but now I do. I would never have thought that a simple workshop for parents would have us all in tears, but there we were, crying together.

I see in Jesus´ ministry a love for those who the world pushes aside, marginalizes, looks down upon and hates. I see him touching the untouchables, dining with the unworthy, teaching the uneducated, healing the sick and walking along the road as just another man, though He was certainly anything but ordinary. And I pray that our ministry would every day become more like His, until we can find no difference.

When we opened our church and Kid´s Club, my husband received advice from a pastor, telling him to set up shop elsewhere, because the people in our neighborhood are just not worth the effort. That day we loved our assignment 100 times more.

Give us the outcasts, the addicts, the wretched, the foul, the destitute, the souls that no one else wants. Our church is full of people like this, and it is chaotic and noisy and smelly and frustrating and there are roots growing below the surface and tiny shoots beginning to find their way through the murky soil and we are blessed because we get to see it all happening.

And all of it, every last moment, hurts.

Because suffering and pain are the divine prescription for what ails us. Because true joy is closer to heartbreak than happiness. Because every day is so full of frustration and challenges and pain and sadness and love and peace and joy and blessings that you feel you may just break apart for trying to contain it all inside you.

Because no matter what you do, you will never be more than a piece of the puzzle, and no matter how far you reach, you will never reach them all. You will never meet every need, you will never dry every tear, you will never save every soul.

But you can, today, reach one person, meet one need, dry one tear, minister to one soul. You can listen to the person who has no one to talk to, even though you don´t have time. You can keep hugging a little longer because you know the person receiving needs you to stay where you are. You can be patient and kind through the behavior that disappoints, frustrates and infuriates you because you know that God is so patient and kind with you. And little by little these moments add up, and you look back and see how God is weaving you into a tapestry too beautiful to imagine.

I look back on this year of ministry and life and I see the tapestry forming, and it is full of these moments. It is full of these moments and it is full of you, too. Because every kindness, every generosity, every prayer, every word, hits this ministry and our lives like a tidal wave of encouragement as we walk through the wilderness. I read how Mary, when she saw how people honored her tiny son, cherished all of these things in her heart, and I know exactly what that means because I do the same with every kindness, big and small, that you share with us. We cherish you in our hearts and we want you to know just how thankful we are for you. You could not be more a part of our work if you were here in person. I´m only sorry that you can´t see it for yourself, the tremendous impact you have on so many.

It is too simple, and it will never be enough, but we will continue to say it: Thank you. We would not be who we are or do what we do without you.

Getting our hands dirty: New Ministry Blog

Check out our new ministry blog, with our first entry by me! (Excerpt below)

¨God is funny. My plea upon returning to Ecuador was that I was desperate to do more, I wanted to make a real difference: I wanted to really get my hands dirty.

I don´t know how many doses of hand sanitizer I have applied today, but I have to laugh in the midst of it all. This isn´t exactly what I meant, God. But yes, my hands are dirty.¨


Want to read more? Click here!

An Eternal Christmas Gift

This Christmas, are you happy with the gifts you have gotten for your loved ones? While we each open our many gifts on Christmas morning, there are children all over the world who will not open so much as one present. They will receive abuse, neglect and poverty instead of hearing and feeling the love of Christ. You can help change that! For a one-time gift of $20 you can change this Christmas for one child, and provide a toy and/or clothes for that child, as well as the opportunity to not only hear about God´s love, but experience it as well. Just email us at revolution_ministries_ec@hotmail.com for more information!!

And the winners are....

It´s time to announce the winners of our drawing!

We had a total of 90 tickets sold

 And the winners are:

For the chess set, number 673: Darci Brown

For the table cloth, number 750: Gretchen Castro

For the nativity, number 712: Rosemary Weistart

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you to everyone who participated!!

You can check out a video of the drawing here. (just as soon as it loads onto facebook!)

Revolution Ministries Fundraiser!

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 19^th, 2012, and it will close at 11:59pm, central time, on October 17^th, 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

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,

Jairo, Ashley and Isabella
Revolution Ministries

Handmade chess set, Incas vs. Spaniards, 6.25in x 6.25in board. In this picture: The Incas.

Handmade chess set, Incas vs. Spaniards, 6.25in x 6.25in board. In this picture: The Spaniards.

Handmade chess set, Incas vs. Spaniards, 6.25in x 6.25in board. In this picture: The whole set.

Handmade chess set, Incas vs. Spaniards, 6.25in x 6.25in board. In this picture: The set is self-contained for easy storage. All pieces fit inside.

Handmade chess set, Incas vs. Spaniards, 6.25in x 6.25in board. In this picture: The set is self-contained for easy storage. View from the outside when packed up.

Hand-embroidered square table cloth. Known here in Ecuador as a ¨table center¨, looks lovely centered on any size table. The cloth measures 32in x 32in.

Hand-embroidered square table cloth. Known here in Ecuador as a ¨table center¨, looks lovely centered on any size table. The cloth measures 32in x 32in. In this picture: Close-up of some of the crochet and embroidery work.

Hand-embroidered square table cloth. Known here in Ecuador as a ¨table center¨, looks lovely centered on any size table. The cloth measures 32in x 32in. In this picture: Close-up of some of the crochet and embroidery work in the center.

Hand-embroidered square table cloth. Known here in Ecuador as a ¨table center¨, looks lovely centered on any size table. The cloth measures 32in x 32in. In this picture: The cloth, partially folded.

Wooden, hand-carved nativity set. Beautiful detailing, hand painted. Six pieces: Three wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Height of pieces, about 5.5in.

Wooden, hand-carved nativity set. Beautiful detailing, hand painted. Six pieces: Three wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Height of pieces, about 5.5in. In this picture: Close up of the wise men and some of their detailing.

Wooden, hand-carved nativity set. Beautiful detailing, hand painted. Six pieces: Three wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Height of pieces, about 5.5in. In this picture: Another view of the pieces.

Wooden, hand-carved nativity set. Beautiful detailing, hand painted. Six pieces: Three wise men, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Height of pieces, about 5.5in. In this picture: Close up of detailing.