What Mark-Jerzy is teaching me

     Never in a million years did I imagine we would have a baby with problems, not that it mattered. I had actually kind of hoped we would be blessed to have a baby with Downs Syndrome....Syndrome what at word.

    Never did I imagine there even were other Syndromes, I always just heard the word "Downs" identified what it was and never really heard the second part. It was just a word you take for granted.      
     Never had I ever imagined having a baby with a Syndrome, especially since we have 11 healthy children or that there is a whole world of people whose children have any one of the number of Syndromes. I have always thought how beautiful the children were and how much love the parents of these super special kids had.

     Never in a million years did I even think about hearing, "we think your baby has a Syndrome"

     Never did I think I would hear the words "a Syndrome incompatible with life"


     Never did I know how much pain others have gone through......and are still going through

     I never knew how small my love and compassion were and that is one thing Mark-Jerzy has taught me. I know that I would never want to live in the world I lived in before that was so blind to it and now I constantly think that there must be so much more pain out there in the world and that it is more real than I understand and I want to have compassion on people and love as God loves, because I don't.

   Mark-Jerzy is teaching me:

      That God's love is great, that His love is so "other", so infinite, so much more than our human love.
 
      That God's love is incomprehensible and marvelous I knew and believed, but now I know that I do not truly know or truly believe as I should, but I want to. I want to love like He does.
   

Mark-Jerzy's little coffin that Odilio and the kids helped with

      That I can't wait to spend eternity, only in part because Mark-Jerzy is there, but because the reality of God's love and His love being so much more than is possible for a human mind to imagine, then going from surprise to surprise and marvel to marvel, wonder to wonder, and delight in His loving presence and His goodness is ever new.

      Because of Mark-Jerzy I have tasted a tiny bit more of our Loving Father's Goodness and Love and I want more and I want to show it more. I want to walk in God's Grace that allows me to lay aside my failure and sins and truly love.

  "Above all preserve an intense love for each other, since love covers over many a sin"
                                                                I Peter 4:8

Thank you Mark-Jerzy for all you are teaching me!

Thank You Lord for giving Mark-Jerzy to us for those 40 hours and all the time in the womb!




                                   Thank you loving Father for being "Faithful to the end"

   

And we are going to Ecuador

      For the past 10 months two young men have been working in a small village in Ecuador called Ahuano. Ahuano is downstream from Misahualli on the north bank of the Napo river. From what I have read we will be right on the edge of the jungle. For those of you who have read Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, Ecuador will bring to mind the five men who gave their lives to convert a tribe in the jungle of Ecuador. For those who have not read the book, I highly recommend it.

View Larger Map
We have committed to this mission post for two years and the whole family is very excited! We are excited to learn Spanish and Quechua. Some of you may recall of our Visa difficulties in the Philippines and their high cost. It seems that Bishop there in the Diocese of Tena has a much easier time getting Missionary visas (the other Missionaries have two year visas already) and the cost is significantly cheaper, so this does not seem like it will be a problem. The Bishop has picked a house for us to live that is right next to a church. There are two priests in Ahuano with more than 50 little villages, where we hope to help them (and possibly a couple teams of other missionaries)  reach out with the Good News of Jesus Christ!

The church is to the left and our house to the right! The Missionaries there, Matt Holland and Ryan Lawless sent us other pictures of the inside of the house. 5 bedrooms and 3 baths, wow!
Hope you enjoy our first look! It looks great to us! The Bishop was excited that “the father knows carpentry” because he thinks the house needs some repairs, well Praise the Lord that I do! I plan to take a good amount of tools as these skill have been useful in every mission post we have been to.

Please Pray for the Eckstine Family Mission to Ecuador!