ITEC
Jonathan has been searching for a job for about three months now and recently God pointed us toward a small mission in central Florida called ITEC (Indigenous peoples Training and Education Center; itecusa.org). Their focus is to partner with other like-minded missions and Christian nationals around the world to provide technical skills through which they can share the gospel – mechanical, dentistry, community health, sustainable farming, and many other areas. This gives the nationals both an inroad by which to form relationships and teach the gospel and make disciples, but also a practical means of income. This idea came to fruition after the nationals with whom the founding missionaries ministered continued to make requests for such a program. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a meal. Teach a man to fish and he and his family and their families will eat for a lifetime and can teach others how to fish so they can also eat all the while sharing the gospel with those they are teaching & feeding.
Jonathan will work there to maintain and upgrade technology, advise the directors on how best to use technology to accommodate future needs and economize available technology, and train staff and missionaries. This will be a missionary position and we will need to raise some amount of monthly support. But that is in the near future and we’ll let you know more about it later.
Mango or Bust
We’ve finalized plans for our return trip to Mango in the first weeks of January to say our goodbyes and finish up some things that were left undone when we hastily left. This will not be an easy trip. Traveling this far and for so long is always a struggle, more so with two energetic young ones. Add to that the complications of Jonathan’s condition and additional requirements for COVID19 and it’s easy to see that this will be quite the trip.
It will be an emotional trip too. We miss Mango. We miss our friends there and the fellowship. We miss the labored striving and the joy of teaching in the village. (Sure there are things we don’t miss like going days without a shower or hand-sized, furry, eight-legged critters scurrying across the floor at night.) The sacrifices paled next to joy of striving for the kingdom in a place that was ripe for harvest. Now we will go and say farewell and close a chapter of our lives that ended before we were ready.
Please pray for us as we prepare and go that God would bless this time and that He would be glorified in it all. Pray also for the parents and the children as we travel. Pray that none of us, especially Jonathan, would not get malaria and that we would have energy. Pray that we would all have negative COVID19 tests throughout the journey, that our flights would not be cancelled, again due to COVID19, and that there would be no other complications.
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year
Oh, and a belated Merry Christmas from our family to yours. May the God of all hope be the light of hope into your life that you might “be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within you.” And a happy new year to you all.
Jonathan, Bethany, Caleb, and Sélah Edwards
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