Off to Olon

Hi friends. Just wanted to post before we left for the coast (I´m a poet and don´t know it!) Okay, but seriously, we have had a great week and are much indebted to the Arroyo family. I have had 20 hours of intensive language school and still can´t speak Spanish but I am beginning to understand a lot more.

Tomorrow we have a 12 hour bus ride to Olon and then we are home for the next year. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel tomorrow and please do send us your intentions. I will try to post again soon to let you all know that we arrived safely in Olon. Email will be a lot slower now but we won´t be completely out of touch.

I also have a cellphone now and it is free for me to receive calls. My number is 011-593-92916045. Check out the phone card site on this blog, it is the best rate I have found yet. Love you all, Dios te bendiga.

¡Estamos aqui!

"Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give."

We have arrived safely in Quito - praise Him! Our new family, the Arroyos, were waiting for us when we arrived and have been showing us the best of Ecuadorian hospitality. It is beautiful how well we are being taken care of and how generous they are to us - there are no strangers in the love of Christ. I believe that the hospitality that we will receive this week will set a solid standard for the way we will be called to live our time as missionaries. In a way, the Scripture verse above calls us to ¨pay it forward¨ and I certainly intend to.

Thank you all for continuing to hold us in your thoughts and prayers, I will keep you posted on our adventures in Quito this next week.

Going...going...gone!

Hello family & friends. Well, this is it. I have my visa and ticket in hand and I am packing my bag, scheduled to leave Atlanta tomorrow afternoon on a 4:30pm flight. I will be meeting up with my mission buddy, dearest Mariya, in Atlanta and we will board a flight together, bound for Quito, Ecuador. We will remain in Quito for a week and then will head off for our final destination of Olòn.

Please continue to check here for more updates, especially for once we set up a phone number. I will be adding a few links for cheaper phone cards, just in case you decide to give us a ring. Also, as soon as we figure out the mail system, I will add information for that as well. Please keep me updated on your lives, my email will still work and I would love to hear about life back in the US. Count on my thoughts and prayers to be with you all and please do let us know how we can pray for you.

As the old Irish blessing goes...May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, the sun shine warm upon your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

~Maribeth

Testing, 1...2...

Welcome to my blog! I'm am so hip and cool now, I can hardly stand myself :)

This is how I plan to keep everyone posted on my life in Ecuador, which (hopefully) begins Sept. 22nd. Keep checking back for more info, pics and so on. Dios les bendiga.