Training Camp

Hey everyone this is Richard. We are all here together at our Uruguay mission training camp. Our team is incredibly excited and ready to go to see how we can serve and what the Lord has for us in country.

I'd like to share with you some of the trials and the amazing miracles that have already taken place. I hope you will see the hand of God as much as we have.



When the preparation for this trip began over 1 year ago, we were asked to step out from the countries we had been called to in the past and go to Boliva instead. You will notice I did not say Uruguay. The destination was changed because of the amount of work already being accomplished in Bolivia, versus the lack of work being done in Uruguay. There are no official FourSquare churches in Uruguay. Plans for a FourSquare church have been underway and origianlly our trip was going to assist in the construction. When we found out the church building had finished early, plans set into motion for a medical missin trip. We will as help prepare the church for it's grand opeing which is set for Decemeber 2009.



We contacted the Doctors that have accompanied us for the last several years but they were unable to join us due to financial reasons. We continued to plan and and move forward knowing full well the Lord would provide in His time and not ours. At this point we had a medical trip with no U.S. doctors and only a few local doctors. In the course of the next two days the wheels really fell off...or so I thought. (Oh me of little faith!) I called our airline to confirm our 15 flight reservations. I was told by the ticket agent that they had cancelled all of their flights into Uruguay for economic reasons. I was told "We can't help, sorry." All other airlines had flights that were either way out of our budget, could get us into Uruguay but not back to the States, or were fully booked! Wow what a blow!



Later that day I got an email from our contact in Uruguay and was told that since we had no US doctors coming the local volunteer Doctors were going to cancel. The question all mission coordinators dread was asked... "Are we going to cancel the trip, or what?" All along a peace that the Lord can only explain (I did not know why then) about this trip was evident and we continued to move forward. As if that wasn't trial enough, one of our leaders had to get a new passport and he had not recieved it yet.



Keeping in mind the peace I felt about this trip, I contacted a travel agent for missionaries and she found us flights (with a slight date change) for $100.00 less than our original quote. I went to Pastor Greg and asked him what to do. We prayed and he gave me the name of a doctor in the community. Pastor Greg felt it may be a long shot, but to check and find out. On a Monday afternoon I met with the doctor and he said he would check his other obligations and get back to me by Thursday. I felt at least a small bit of hope, but still had a promise of peace. The next day I got a call and a commitment from the Doctor. Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus!

In the mean time our number of peaople going on the mission had climbed! God is ever faithful...we now had 23 members, our doctor, and airline tickets, and Jerry's renewed passport arrived in the mail.



Now we had to deal with the amount of money all of the missionaries had to raise. $2200.00 each was an amazing amount of money! Could the missionaries all raise the money needed? They could not, but if the Lord showed up this goal could be accomplished! And through it God would be glorified. We did a bake sale and raised over $600.00! We did a garage sale and raised $2400.00. This was truly a blessing. God was working! The Lord showed up in amazing ways!



When we were about 2 weeks away from training we found out another member of the team had just put in for his passport and it was not here yet. A couple of days later, and a lot of prayers later, the passport arrived! God had shown himself again in a mighty way!

We are finally ready for training and I can't wait to see what else is in store for us. I really can't wait to see how the Lord will continue to show up. And show up he will...for he has covered us with his protection and blessing thus far!



So here they are: The 2009 missionaries to Uruguay, South America. From left to right back to front. Scott Weidner, Richard Farris, Jordon Mynarcik, Tiger Mynarcik, Jerry LaMontagne, Amy Higginson, Paul Meyers, Becca Buchanan, Greg De Simone, Maryann Weidner, Laura Perry, Savannah Cooper, Ricky Farris, Eladio Carrara, Leah LaMontagne, Theresa McMillan, Angel Ray, Kellinee Barber, Jake Jackson, MaKay Novak, Austin McMillan, Jenny Leary and Taylor Jackson.