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!

Heading to Mexico

Hello all,

Well we are about two and half weeks from our first missionary trip out of the United States. Wow, from wondering if we were really called to missions to actually being in training and now our first trip. So the plans are that we are going with our intake group (the other missionaries that are training too) as a caravan of vehicles. This means vehicle preparation. I going to check stuff out. We are going to need new tires and there is another missionary family that will need tires too before we head south. I am going to change the oil and check some other stuff before we head down.

We got Isaacs passport today! So that is one less concern.

I have been working on some old gas heaters, converting them to Propane. They are old enough so it seems like it will be easy. But wow have we been busy, that is why the blog is not updated in a while. I should be typing my Biblical talk right now for a talk I might have to give tomorrow and we have so much we are studying. It is so nice to be studying again. It is a blessing! The scriptures are so rich!

But back to work!

Blessings,

Mark