Hello everyone! Eli and I are so excited to visit Nicaragua and help where the need is great. Every one of you have been so supportive of our goals and we appreciate you all so very much for all of your encouragement. We will miss you very much and we hope this will help us keep in touch.
This year makes 10 years since Eli and I have been married. There's no better way to celebrate this occasion than to finally reach our goal of serving where the need is great! Jehovah has blessed us in so many ways throughout the years but this one is the best yet. He helped us buy a rental with an amazing tenant who is a dear sister and pioneer. He allowed Eli to quit his job he had for 10 years and for us to move to Louisiana. With the help of Jehovah and my parents we were able to start a business online and this will hopefully continue to support us for many years of service to Jehovah where the need is great.
You may wonder "What in the world made you choose Nicaragua?"
One day during pioneer school, during lunch several of our classmates were asking Sister Hendershot (whom I didn't know yet) when she was leaving for her trip to Ecuador. Excitedly she talked about going where the need is great and the many other places she had been before this trip. This piqued my interest so much that for the rest of the school I enjoyed asking her more and more about her plans and finding out about this wonderful avenue of service I hadn't considered before. This encounter rooted a desire deep within my heart to serve where the need is greater.
When I got home I discussed this desire with Eli. But neither of us could see how we could ever save up enough money to serve where the need is great. We didn't have many debts but we were living paycheck to paycheck with utilities and rent leaving little to no money to save. Saving enough to travel to a foreign country where there is a greater need seemed impossible. But nothing is impossible for Jehovah.
As time went on, we began to discuss ways we could simplify our life. Renting wasn't something we viewed as a waste of money because we knew that one day we would be able to serve Jehovah in a more full capacity and we didn't want anything to tie us down. However no matter how we tried we couldn't see how we would reach our goals with so little savings. So we began to consider buying land and a small home to fix up and then rent out providing us with income. Eli's parents helped us out tremendously while we were buying the home and other friends in the hall helped us with fixing it up as we had no idea how to do many of the things the home needed. These friends hold a dear place in our hearts as they helped make our current situation possible.
In January 2014, I began working remotely with my family's business. This set the foundation for the work we will be using to support ourselves in Nicaragua. I spent many hours talking with my mom about how we could make this transition. The family needed help in caring for some of the business and we needed to rent our home out and to begin selling our things. My parents very lovingly arranged for us to stay with them in a small apartment behind their home while we made the arrangements to move to Nicaragua. So in September 2014, Eli put in his two weeks notice and we moved from Texas to Louisiana. I was very glad to be in my home town again in the very congregation I grew up a part of. And Eli was glad to be no longer rubbing shoulders with the world at a refinery job.
Part 2 of the story to follow.....
