Greetings from Quito, Ecuador! Today is our first day of Summer vacation...PRAISE THE LORD! We had such a great year, but are so ready for a break. A lot of great things have happened since I last wrote and I'd like to share a little with you all.
MINISTRY UPDATES:
This year I began a new ministry at the school, called Deep Discipleship, for our Christian students who were hungry to go deeper. As a school, we really didn't have anything official to focus on the spiritual growth of our Christian students and I felt it was important to offer something to them during the school hours. The Lord opened the door for me to have 4 different groups (2 MS & 2 HS), made up of around 6-7 students in each group once a week during the school day. (What a miracle that was because their schedules can be very difficult.) These were probably my favorite times of the week because I was with a group of students who chose to be there and who were hungry to grow in their relationship with the Lord. We really focused on what it means to be a follower of Christ vs just a fan. All I can say, it was challenging and convicting to us all. Some of the comments I got from students about Deep Discipleship were, "This is my favorite time of the week!"; "I can't believe we get to do something like this during the school day!"; "When I come into this room, I just feel peace!" What an amazing privilege to invest into and grow in relationship with these students.
As most of you know, I coached the Varsity Basketball Team this year. At the end of February, we had our big tournament, which was extremely exciting. With the crowd shouting and cheering and a tie game with about 8 seconds left, the boys came out and gave their all and beat Americano (considered the best team in our conference) on a buzzer beater to win the championship. That was such an amazing experience. I really enjoyed my time coaching this year and the close relationship with my players. I learned and grew a lot, as did the players on the team. My ultimate desire is that they will come to know Jesus and serve Him with great passion. Though the Lord has closed the door for me to continue coaching next year and is leading me into other things, I will always hold these last 2 years of coaching close to my heart. It was an amazing experience and I'm so grateful I had the opportunity. I also had the great privilege to continue building our Student Worship Band at the school. Last year was made up of mostly seniors, but this year we had 3 Seniors, 1 Junior and 4 Sophmores. Boy did it start off rough, but it was so amazing to see their growth throughout the year. They lead our chapels all year, but by April they were really playing well. They lead a few All Worship Chapels for both Elementary and Secondary in May and played for our Baccalaureate Service just a few weeks ago. A few of our integral pieces graduated, but we should still have a great core for next year as we continue to build.
The first week of March was our 2nd Semester Spiritual Emphasis Week (SEW) and what a powerful week it was. We had an AMAZING worship team come and lead from South Bend, IN. Do you recognize anyone?
The last few Summers we have had the opportunity to do worship nights together, which lead to them coming to minister here in Ecuador. We lead worship twice a day, had a worship night open to the public and spent time investing into the Student Worship Band. It was an amazing week of ministry and a blessing to us as a family to spend time with people we love! (Thank you guys for coming! I love you and am so grateful for your sacrifice and investment.)
We also had an AMAZING group of young, passionate, on fire alumni who came back to the school because they felt the Lord calling them to return and minister at their alma mater. Such a blessing and testimony of God's love and power!
God moved powerfully in the hearts and lives of many students through our times of worship and ministry. We saw students physically healed and delivered from demonic oppression and many came away knowing that God was real and that He loved them. There was definitely some push back from some of the things that were happening, but through it all, I know God was in it, He was glorified and was revealing Himself in a powerful way.
Those are a lot of the major ministry highlights! It was a great year and am so thankful to the Lord!
PERSONAL UPDATES:
Carolina, the kids and I are doing great.
Carolina had a really good year teaching and coaching volleyball and she will continue coaching again next year. She is still on her club volleyball team and she really enjoys that. (She's still playing really well, too!) She really wants to finish her Master's degree from Bethel (which she can do online), so we are looking into that. She only has 12 more credits to get her Master's, but it is about $8,000, so please pray for wisdom and financial resources to do that.
The kids had a great year. Both are taking piano lessons and were involved with the after school basketball program a few times a week. Joaquin LOVES basketball and plays a lot. It's hard because he is not exposed to the same level of basketball that we have in the US, but he works hard and really enjoys it. Milena really took off with her reading. At the beginning of the year, she just wasn't that interested and then something clicked and now she is doing amazing! She was also in the after school ballet program and she did such a great job. She has a gift to dance and she loves it so much. Of her 3 dances she did for her recital, her creative dance to a powerful worship song was my favorite. It was anointed.
I have been doing well. I'm really praying about next steps for here in Ecuador. I had the opportunity to go to a ministry/leadership conference in Lima, Peru back in May. I met up with Sebastian Mora, my really good friend from Chile and we had a great time together. While I was there, the Lord really began to speak to me and place some specific things on my heart for our next steps here in Ecuador. I am really wanting to discern the Lord's plan and timing of it all.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- I was challenged recently by something Dante Gebel said when visiting our church recently. He said, "If you're doing something that you can do without the Holy Spirit, you haven't discovered your divine calling." and "God never calls us to something beyond what we can handle. He will give us the capacity to do whatever He calls us to do! God does not have a plan B for your life!" Before ever coming to Ecuador, I specifically felt from the Lord that my time at AAI was the entry point, not the end point. Please pray that God will reveal clearly to both Carolina and I the next steps that He has for us here and that we will have the courage and trust to obey His plan and calling.
- One of the biggest sources of struggle for us is looking ahead and asking, "how long can we do this financially?" We don't want to be driven by finances in what we do or do not do, but we also know finances are an important part of living and ministry. We are blessed and God has provided our every need. God is so faithful. Many of you are faithful supporters of us financially and we are SO grateful. We could not be here without you. With that said, please pray for God to show us how we can generate more income.
- I recently formed a Chaplaincy Team to help advance our ministry efforts at the school for next year. I'm really excited about it. Please pray that God will guide us and lead us to make a greater impact on our staff and students as we pray, plan and prepare for greater ministry next school year.
- Finally, we are traveling back to South Bend tomorrow night. We are so excited to be back home with everyone and so looking forward to just having some down time. Please pray for our safety and travel.
To close, thank you all for your love, prayer and financial support. As I said before, we couldn't do this without you. You are part of God's Kingdom work here in Ecuador. We love you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts! May the Lord bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you, be gracious unto you and give you peace!
Caleb, Carolina, Joaquin and Milena
