We have been in involved, individually and together, in overseas missions since 2002; John by serving in an Ecuadorian children's AIDS orphanage in the winter of 2002 and returning in the summer 2003 and Rachel by working with the Elim Honduras Nursery and Youth Work in the Spring of 2005.
During this time John studied 'Children and Adolescence Studies' at Liverpool and Rachel served as the Youth Worker for our now sending-church in Carlisle. After getting married in the autumn of 2006, we settled in Carlisle where John worked as a Young Men's Community Worker while Rachel continued the church youth work. Both of these involved us working with groups of hard-to-reach and vulnerable young people.
However, both our experiences in South America had given us a real passion to return and work in that continent and, specifically, in the field of missions.
We thought about how our skills and abilities could be utilised and, after contacting Elim International Missions, we got involved with a children's home in the south of Paraguay. We had first visited Che Roga in the winter of 2007 and had had a fantastic time meeting the children and staff, and felt this could be an area in which we would like to serve further. Returning in the summer of 2008 we looked deeper into the possibility of moving to Paraguay on a full-time basis to help with the ministry of the orphanage. After completing the Elim Missions Training Course, we moved to live in Paraguay in the Spring of 2009.
We had a great time being involved in the day-to-day running of the children's home as well as helping with the newly established youth meetings, learning a lot from living full-time in the orphanage and working with the community there.
During our time in Paraguay a need arose in Honduras for youth work help and support and although we were growing to call Paraguay home, we felt it right to move to Honduras to help. We could see how the new experiences and skills that we had learned in Paraguay could benefit the need in Honduras.
So we are moving to Honduras in Spring 2010 and feel privileged to be doing what we love with such incredible people where we hope to be a blessing to all those we come in contact with.
You can follow our journey through our newsletters and photos.
Spread?
Rachel: Marmite
John: Bovril
Chocolate bar?
Rachel: Galaxy Ripple
John: Riesons
Cheese?
Rachel: Mature Chedder
John: Organic Smoked Applewood
Childhood toy?
Rachel: Barbie
John: Duplo pirate ship
Ketchup or Mayo?
Rachel: ketchup with a dash of ketchup topped with ketchup
John: Mayo
MacDonalds or Burger King?
Rachel: MacDonald's
John: MacDonald's Big Tasty, Burger King fries
Film?
John: Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
Rachel: At the moment…Becoming Jane