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.

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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!

quick post from my trip to the Philippines

Trip to the Philippines!

(a quick post)

      Recently our family experienced something we have not experienced many times and not at all since our family grew to 8, 9, and 10 children. I left to family.....I was gone for 18 days. This was very difficult, to be away from my family, thankfully the Lord knows each of our personalities and sent me to the Philippines. The Filipinos are such a family centered society so being away from my own family was made endurable by holding other peoples babies and enjoying their families! 

We went with our mission team in Malaybalay to San Isidro College: http://www.sic.edu.ph/ and got to hold a baby while the mothers are making pillows at a workshop hosted by the college. 

Malaybalay is such a beautiful place! We are praying the Lord will send us there!

 Joseph and myself with the Malaybalay mission team: The Romero family, Sarah, Rebekah, and Susanna.
Also in the picture some of our friends from the college and the president of the community at Isla Bonita. There is a special bond between fellow missionaries! What a privilege to get to visit the mission team!

Pictures of the Benedictine College Group that came for Spring Break. What an amazing group! There hearts were so open to follow what the Lord had planned for the week. I learned a lot. I hope to post more in detail....

In the center front row, our wonderful cooks!

Leaving on the 19th

   Back at the Big Woods in Louisiana and well, we are in the countdown, yep on the 19th we fly to Miami then St. Lucia. Packing to do and projects to finish up. Yesterday we got a background check at the Lafayette Police department. We may need this for our Visa to stay in St. Lucia for a year. I hope to update the blog often as we prepare to leave the U.S. for a year.

   Family Mission Company has two short term mission trips going on right now. One to General Cepeda, where we went during our training. We also have a trip that is in Ecuador. The team in Ecuador had a bunch of stuff stolen yesterday, computer, cell phones, cameras.....

    FMC is expanding to do more stateside ministry, specifically a youth program and continuing the weekly mission formation, but both are taking place at the old Dominican Convent that we spent so much time working at during our formation. FMC and all the teams need to be held up in prayer. I think it is easy to think that the items on our prayer lists that we don't get to see the results of our prayers for are not doing any good. This is just not the case, all the prayers we make for other people in the Body of Christ are of the utmost importance and we will not see all the results until heaven. So please continue to pray for FMC and all their works in your prayers(this obviously includes us and our mission post)

   Some of the things we are praying for as we pray our mission into being are:

• The Bishop, priests, clergy, and religious we will be working with
• That the people the Lord sends us to minister to will good soil for the Gospel to grow in
• that we would have generous hearts and love for all those we come in contact with
• for benefactors with generous heats of prayer for our post
• protection and safety
• local help for the team 
• Adequate housing
• the Lord would show us poor to serve
• a schedule that works well for the whole team

   I thank all those that take the time to read this blog, with all the information and stuff that is out there for us to do in our American culture, it can be hard to take time to read something like this.

God Bless!