Out of Winter Hibernation

As most of you have realized by this time, I might not be the most consecutive blog poster of all time. That being said, each time I do post something my post percentage does get better.

Christmas break for the most part went great! I was able to visit with the family, meet up with long distance friends from out of state, go to my home church, have a beach bonfire, work some at my old job and have the opportunity to go to  Passsion2013 in Atlanta.

Passion was a total God thing. I found of that I was going at 9am December 31st, the ride to get there was leaving at 3pm that same day. I had to pack, change work schedules and everything but God made sure that everything just fell into place and was able to get there and enjoy some wonderful speakers, make great new friends, refresh my soul and be spoken to by the Lord. He knew that the conference was something that I needed and made sure that I got there.

I am back at school in the Valley (Rio Grande Bible Institute), for the semester and will be finishing up with the language program in this May.

While I wasn't the keenest about Christmas break coming to an end, I was a happier about being back than I expected after arriving. It has been great seeing everyone and catching up on what they did for break. Classes started the 8th and I have already completed a full be week of schooling. This semester on top of what the class dictates me to take, I will also be taking Vida Familiar on Monday nights. This is a Bible school class and I will be taking it with the rest of the normal students that are not in the language program. I have been told that it is a very good class and am looking forward to it, although it does mean that I will be reading close to fifty pages a week in Spanish for this class alone. It will be worth it though. This semester is going to be packed!

Prayer requests:

School load - this will be a busy semester with all the classes and school work.
Job - Trying to get hired at the Academy across the street to help pay for school and daily expenses. Pray that if God wants me to have a job that I will be hired and if not that I will not get the job so that I can focus on other things.
Health - I have had a cough since March of 2012. I have been to the doctor twice for it and so far they do not know what I have. For wisdom.
Focus - That I will stay on track to finish all my work in a timely manner and make the best use of my time.


Stay warm and come back soon! Another update at the end of the month to follow!!!

Auction Information

As most of y'all have noticed, there has been a whole lot of postings and not a lot of information being updated. And I'm sure more than one person has asked what this whole auction thing is about, and I'm more than positive that a couple are wondering about what I am doing down here.

To start off, this is my second year down here in Ecuador (which last year can be read about on the first several posts on here), I work for Jungle Kids for Christ in Pununo, about 30 minutes from Tena. I am currently teaching English 3 days a week and as soon as we get transportation for me, I will be traveling to the isolated community of Pusuno which is deader in the jungle. There I will be teaching English again for another three days a week, traveling back and forth from to teach at both schools.  I encourage you to email or facebook me about what I'm doing here in Ecuador and how I got here. 

Now to get onto the auction part of it. Before the first year down here in Ecuador, I worked several jobs prior to leaving to pay for about 65-70% of my yearly expenses.  I also had family and several very good friends donate money to help make sure that all my bills got paid and expenses were met. The Lord called me back for another year service down here and since the Ecuadorian government wont allow me to get paid down here due to a low amount of jobs, I am having to raise money by other means. While I was in states over the summer, I was able to raise a little bit of money. I have  about $500-550/month in expenses (food, cell phone, internet, bus/taxi, school supplies, etc) plus my travel (airfare, visas, etc) to come back to the USA at once/year. I will also have a new expense this year; gas and maintenance on a used ATV that the organization will purchase to get me back and forth to the small village downriver of Pusuno. 

Last year, we had some good friends, who are very missions minded, have an auction to help support their trips. I liked the idea, so we stole it and it is one of the ways we are helping to raise funds for me to be here. Also, you get some really neat-o stuff in return for your support. So you can't really go wrong there either.

Since I am in Ecuador, a good 3,000+ miles from all of y'all, my family is helping me out. A TON. All the items are at my house and at the end of the auction they will deliver your items as soon as they can.  If you live close by, it will be taken to your house or business. They will mail all items to people that are farther than 30 miles away. There is no additional cost for either delivery fee.  We will just ask for confirmation on mailed items.

I (Jake) will receive 100% of the funds that are raised from this auction and they will help support me for the rest of the year.

If you are wanting to bid on this item, please post the amount you would like to bid in the comments. It will be delivered to you after the auction ends (and payment is received). I will have several items from Ecuador to sell and even items from other parts of the world that will be posted later on.

I really encourage to keep coming back since it will take several days to get all the items up. Also, if you wouldn't mind spreading the word about this with other people that would be stupendous.

You can be outbid, you will put the amount you want to bid in the comment section.  The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction will be awarded the item.  If there is something that you are wanting, make sure that you check back often.

We (myself and my family) will try to describe to the best of our abilities from what we know personally or what we have found off the internet.  If the item did not meet your expectations, please let us know and we will refund your money, minus the return shipping.  We want you to be pleased with your purchase.

I greatly appreciate you looking at these items and supporting the Lord's ministry has let me be apart of.

Another blanket in use =D

This is Jake and Steven, crashed out after a hard day of playing this past summer as he was resting, visiting friends and seeking GOD on what His plans were for Jake.  He knew he was going back to Ecuador, Jake just was not sure if it was to stay full time at the school where he was previously or go deeper into the jungle to minister to the natives.

It is not so much that I wanted to show you how cute these boys are but wanted you to notice the blue blanket - we are auctioning off several blankets and wanted you to see how big they are. ~~~momma b