Nope. Still not a zombie...

After living here for a month, things are going pretty well. I haven't been sick, classes still make sense most of the time, the food isn't poison AND I haven't been killed off yet. All in all, it hasn't been too shabby. But in all seriousness, those are things to be thankful for. So far, so good. Also, I went back to Corpus for Labor day! First time that I was able to be with my family close to my dad's family in two years. I had a great time and it really is a huge perk being less than a 3hr drive away as opposed to a 6hr flight. 

P.S. I now own more collared/button up shirts than I do t-shirts. There's a first time to everything!  AND I'm for sure holding the #1 slot for slickest unmarried white male on campus... Although I will be the first to day that the competition is a bit lacking.

At the moment, classes are smooth, understandable and about to get hard. Or at least, I know the end is near. What was once me wading in Spanish has turned into treading water, which will be in the near future become me drowning.  I am still amazed at how much my grammar has improved, even in this short month. Although now when I go to pray, I can't figure out which language I'm supposed to be doing it it. It turns is to a poor excuse for gibberish most times, accompanied by smatterings of Spanglish. Little by little my brain is being hijacked from me.... pretty soon my thoughts will look like this guy.

In my previous post, you would see that God was just smothering me with "Give me your desires and dreams, die to yourself." Now the tune of the song has changed to "Give me your distractions, focus on me." While it may seem obvious to some of y'all, these things go hand in hand with each other, and in most cases overlap. Strangely, this second, seeming simpler part is harder to follow through with than the first. While dreams and desires are things that we desperately want to hold on to, they are all future and aren't quite as tangible as of right now. However, the distractions are happening constantly and right now. Whether they be the rabbit trails your brain follows, the people you keep in contact with, the amount of exercise you do, how much food you eat or even the songs that are stuck in your head. All these things are taking conscious thoughts, and while not anything wrong in their own right, need to be filtered and have their worth tested. Sometimes, it could be you just need to fast from something, in order to keep your perspective from being overtaken. Sometime stressful, frustrating, aggravating, seemingly senseless and in constant need of patrolling, I have faith that it is worth it in the end.  

If you would like more information on what I am doing please feel free to find me on Facebook and/or send me an email to jakeinecuador@gmail.com and I will do my best to get back to you as my school schedule allows.

If you feel led to support me, please send donations in my name to:

Bayshore Bible Church

2145 Rodd Field Rd. 
Corpus Christi, TX 78414

Life on la Isla de RGBI

After living here at RGBI for two weeks, I have to say one thing; God must know I have a thick head. If I don't learn a lick Spanish while I am here, He is making sure I get one thing down pat; die to myself and give my dreams to him. Since I have been here, this topic has come up on average, once every two days or more. All in new and different situations; in church, in my tutor class, talking to fellow students, while playing Ping-Pong, daily devotions, EVERYWHERE. And to make things even more interesting, it is I picked up on it at the beginning! But still The Lord persists to steer conversations in this direction. I guess He knows that I need to be reminded about it every now and again, but this is a whole lot more intense and more often than normal reminders on things that I get. So here I am, waiting for the next rock to step to.

Shifting gears, school has been going well over all. My roommate, Jamil, and I get along well, despite the fact he likes to keep the room hovering just above cryo- freeze temperature.

 I'm getting into the swing of going to classes every day, and have already learned a lot of things that I knew, but didn't know how to use, and my grammar has improved noticeably.  After I am done with all of my classes, in the afternoons I'm helping out at the repair shop on campus. Doing whatever they need me to, from wiring thermostats in dorms and changing oil to fiddling with bike brakes. Along with that, if there is nothing for me to do, I am learning how to weld. Which I am very excited about, and have wanted to learn how to weld for many years. So far, I've just set myself on fire once, from getting my shirt too close to the radiant heat. The burn is healing well and is not bothering me at all.

On Sunday afternoons, I and seven other people are going Reynosa, Mexico to minister to the kids of two different neighborhoods. While yes, it is in Mexico, we are not near the main area of the city and there has been nothing eventful happening there.

Prayer Request:

• Transportation - I do not have any way to get places without bumming a ride. While I am not against doing this, few people have cars, and those who do are married and have kids they need to take care. This makes it more difficult to have the same opening in schedule that they do. Wal-Mart is a good walk of 5 miles round trip and most other places are closer to 7 miles with the temperature just under 100*. It is like living on an island, without a boat. Looking for a cheap car/motorcycle/something.

• Reynosa - While the area we are in is safe, please pray for the continued safety of the trips as well as for the openness of the people that we will be ministering to.

• Continued diligence - In all aspects of life. Spiritual, physically and educationally.

A different type of teaching... being taught.

For the past two years, I have been teaching. However, that has now changed and I am now being taught. Life on the other side of the table if you will. I feel that in order for me to be able to do the best work possible in Ecuador, I need to be able to reach people not only with my actions, but by communicating with them and being able to share experiences, whether it be just chewing the fat, talking things happening in life or passing on encouragement. At the current stage of my Spanish, I am not able to do that efficiently. While I could speak some and understand most, there was great room for improvement. Because of that, I am currently attending Rio Grande Bible Institute (RGBI), in Edinburg, Texas a missionary language school. (http://www.riogrande.edu/English/language_school.html)

I arrived on the 5^th of August and classes started today. I know that I will learn a tremendous amount while I am here. Not only on the language side of things, but also about other cultures, living in community, organization and above all spiritually.   I will graduate in May 2013 and have plans of returning to Ecuador for the long term.

I feel that this is the direction that The Lord is leading me to and this is the next step in getting there. Due to the 19 hour work load of Spanish, plus non credited Spanish activities that I am expected to attend, the school will not let me get a job in town so that I can focus on my studies. Going to school, while very cheap compared to many other places at roughly $4,200 a semester, it is still money that God is providing through donations. For the time that I am here at school, it will cost me roughly $9,000-$10,000 for both semesters, as well as money for traveling to speaking events and paying for one times purchases that I have had to make, such as books and a computer. I am 100% faith funded and I am asking that you would prayerfully consider supporting me, whether monetarily and/or through prayer, as both things are essential.

If you would like more information on what I am doing please feel free to send me an email to jakeinecuador@gmail.com and I will do my best to get back to you as my school schedule allows.

If you feel led to support me, please send donations in my name to:

Bayshore Bible Church

2145 Rodd Field Rd.

Corpus Christi, Texas 78414

Out of hibernaion

Hello long lost internet people, as y'all can see from the last entry (September), it's been a while. That being said, I'll touch on some of main things that have happened in the last 6 months really quickly.

- The auction went great and I was able to raise a good amount of funds from it. Thank you so much to everyone who helped, either bidding, supporting, just looking, praying or spreading the word about it.

- I was able to go back to the States for Christmas this year (2011)! I was able to find some very cheap airfare and spent almost 2 week state side visiting with family and friends. It was a blessing being able to go as I had missed it the year before.

- Willie (one of the fellow interns) when back to the states as planned before he came and now I am teaching History class. 

- Truck! I bought a vehicle. Late in January, there were some missionary friends of mine that leaving to go back to the Colorado, and I bought their Chevy Blazer.  It needs/needed a good dose of love, but once the bridge is finished being put together, it should get me to Pusuno just fine.

- We are in the process of having two more intern cabin being built. One is in the electrical stage, and the other is just piers at the moment.

- The house of Roberto and his family is getting close to being done. They are planning to move in by this Easter, even though things are not quite 100% finished.

- Oh! One of the several teams that we have had come down to help, brought at water filter for the school/house and helped install a cistern. This means that we are now able to fill up our water jugs at the school from the tap water and no long have to worry about running out of water, because the truck didn't show up for a week.

- There is a team from Texas/Arkansas that my family has put together, that will be coming down at the end of May. I am really excited about this, since I have never actually 'known' anyone who is come before as part of a group and I am looking forward to seeing family and close friends.

- Spencer and I have been playing futbol (Soccer) with our neighbors most afternoons after school for the last couple of weeks. This has helped our Spanish and our relationships with the people we live around. While they used to talk to us when we approached them, now they are seem happier to talk to us and have us around. Especially the kids, they wave and call to us every time we pass by them.

 As always, prayers are appreciated:

- Car mercies, there have been several small things happen while I have had it. Nothing major, just frustrating.

-  Two of our 1st grade students do not have sponsors; Eduardo and Pamela.

- We are starting our third trimester in school, for all the students and teachers to finish the school year strong.

- That the next year's teachers will listen to The Lord's call and be prepared to come down.

I think that is all for now, y'all are now all caught up on most of exciting/new/import things that have been happen to us jungle dwellers.