Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

We have been doing a lot of visiting lately and it has been great. It has been amazing to finally meet people who have been praying for us and sending us support in our efforts to get to Ecuador. I have to tell a little story because it has been such an encouragement us. When we were training at The Master’s Mission we received support from a church we had never heard of before. I even wrote to them asking if perhaps someone made a mistake and it was supposed to go to someone else. I did not hear back from them but we continued to receive support. The second Sunday we were back in N.Y. the pastor from that church was visiting our church and the mystery was solved. We decided to visit this church recently. It was like a postcard, a little church way out in the country all by itself, nestled in the rolling hills. We went inside and sat down. It was the smallest church I have ever been in. Our prayer card & newsletter was on a little bulletin board in the sanctuary. There were maybe 15 people there, including us. To know that God has placed us on their hearts and they are being faithful to Him to pray for us and send us financial support is the most humbling thing I have ever experienced. It reminded me of the widow’s offering in Mark 12. They were so happy to see us and finally meet us in person too. It was a great day! We plan to visit more of you soon. We want to meet you and thank you personally from the bottom of our hearts for the blessing you are to us!

Our goal is to be in Ecuador by March of 2011 and things are going at a nice steady pace. I believe we are now at about 28% of our monthly income needed, which is up 10% since our last newsletter! We have applied for our passports so that is another thing to check off our list of things to do. We have finally finished our detailed outfitting list as well and can have that available for anyone interested in seeing it. Just let us know. Maybe I can figure out how to put up a link on our blog.

In April we took a trip back down to The Master’s Mission. It was nice to meet the families and individuals that are going through the training this year and to hear where they are in their future plans. It was also helpful to get some more detailed direction on where we need to be in our planning. We also stopped in Ohio to visit the Craig family who have become our missionary mentors during this time of preparation. The Craigs served in Kenya through TMM for 20+ years. They visited us in NY this spring and helped us with our prayer cards and spoke with our friends at Findley Lake UMC about how they can help in our preparations for Ecuador.

Once again we can not thank you enough for your prayers and support in this journey we are on. It means everything to us!

Love & Blessings!

Tracy (writing for) Marshall, Tracy, Devin, Cameron, & Kaiden Dixon