We were so confused!  We had just gotten word from our supervisor and the CEO of our organization that the Manta church plant (our group) had been canceled or delayed for at least a year.  There just wasn't the amount of young missionaries necessary to form a whole team.

We had sold our things, raised a lot of money, and moved our family down to Ecuador to help plant this church and in one conversation we realized this may not be why the Lord brought us here.  “Why Lord?  We know your plans are good; this one just doesn’t make sense yet.  We’ll trust you and wait for your answer.” 

In the midst of it all, God gave us a peace that there was a specific purpose in this change.  

This all happened right before Christmas.  We went through the next month with little idea of what we would be doing in the coming months/years; trying to brainstorm ways we could be useful for Extreme Missions and Christ’s kingdom.  Some possible options on our plate were to help with another church plant already in process, or travel home for an extended time to wait for the next opportunity to plant a church with Extreme.  Flexibility has definitely been the word of the year for us!

On Saturday, January 18th, we got a Skype call from our Supervisor.  He asked us if we would be willing to jump in as the Cluster Coordinators of a team that has just recently started their work in Ibarra, Ecuador.  Due to health reasons, the current Cluster Coordinator family needed to relocate so their team was suddenly in need of a support family.

The former Cluster Coordinators are dear friends of ours, so the news was difficult to receive.  We were grieved for them, and yet had peace about filling their position, with great desire to honor the work they put in before us. 

We needed the Lord to confirm it for us, and He did in a beautiful way.  Throughout his young life, Malachi has had a love/hate relationship with prayer.  He loves it when it extends his awake time before bed.  He hates to take it seriously, and he never likes to pray out loud.  This time, Kurtis asked him just to pray for our family in his heart, and he shocked us with this one: “Jesus, please help Mommy and Daddy and Kai Kai know what to do.  Aaaaamen!”  

And we did know what to do.  

It all started making sense now.  This is why the Manta team didn’t come together.  The amazing thing is, there are 4 people on the Ibarra team that were originally scheduled to be on our team in Manta, so we had already started developing relationships and praying for them.  Even crazier is that most of the others were with us in language school or studying ministry on the same campus during our time there.  So we already had this amazing base of relationships with this team before we ever knew we would be working with them!  How cool is that?!

We packed up all our belongings (with the help of friends who showed up at just the right time without us asking) and in 2 days moved to Ibarra, Ecuador on Monday, January 20th.  We were welcomed by our new team with a beautiful lunch they had prepared, flowers, and many welcoming hugs. It was overwhelming.  This team is the one who was experiencing a difficult time, but still they chose to bless us with their welcome.  What a special day!

Pastor, Pastora and some of our amazing team fixing us lunch on our first day

A very warm welcome!

We are now the Cluster Coordinators (or Support Family) for 6 amazing young missionaries, with four more coming in May.  These missionaries have a great passion for the Lord and have a true desire to share His love with the people of Ibarra.  We have learned a lot from them in a short few weeks and we are excited to grow alongside them as we seek to follow the Lord’s call together.

From left to right: David, Chase, Priscila, Pastora (Astrid), Jared (Pastor & Pastora's son), Rebecca, Abigail (you may recognize her from our first newsletter), Pastor (Yoan), Michaela, & the Strunks

We are also working alongside a Pastor and his family, who are incredible examples of what it means to follow Christ and who we are fortunate to consider friends.  Another blessing in this is that Kurtis became good friends with Pastor Yoan while we were studying language at the seminary.  Yoan was one of our language professors.  He and Kurtis bonded through Jesus and playing basketball, and somehow a lack of a common language did not seem to matter.  We are very excited to support this family in ministry over the next two years!

In case you are wondering, Ibarra is a beautiful, small city surrounded by mountains and an active volcano called Imbarbura!  The weather is a bit warmer than Quito, but not bad at all, especially compared to the beautiful oven we lived in for the past 15 years in Arizona.  Ibarra has beautiful lakes and very kind people.  We are looking forward to getting to know the city and the people better and can’t wait to show any visitors around!  Hint, hint…. ;)

A local park with a view of the volcano

Malachi thinks it is pretty cool here ;)

I will write again soon to fill you in on all we will be doing here.  It is such an honor to be doing the Lord’s work with this team in Ibarra!