We're Here!!

Travel

We left Hillsboro mid-morning on Monday, April 21, bound for Juneau.  At Kansas City airport, we quickly realized our plan for carry-ons was not going to work as well as anticipated.  Surely our 5, 4, and 2 year old could carry their own backpack and rolling suitcase, right??  Well, that’s how it started out, but by the time we got to security, Ryan and I were carrying the bulk of the 11 bags being brought onto the plane.  Plus the necessary jackets and security blankets.  And being asked consistently, “Hold me!?”  But honestly, that was the hardest part of the entire first leg of the trip!  Our 3 ½ hour plane ride to Seattle was calm and peaceful, thanks to movies, Color Wonder, and some creative gymnastic moves in the seat.  We didn’t even lose any kids maneuvering through the large SeaTac airport to the motel with all that luggage!  I count that as successful parenting J. 

The second leg of the trip was slightly different.  With such a great day yesterday, I should have known today would have its share of trouble.  We had happy kids for about ½ hour after waking up, then lots of crying, fighting, whining, and hitting.  Did I mention that Asher woke up Monday morning with pinkeye?  Well, getting the drops in 4 times a day is like trying to hold down a wild Tasmanian devil.  He actually said yesterday, “I want you to put the drops in in the motel so the people at the airport don’t hear me scream.”  Good son he is, helping us maintain a positive reputation J.  So between the tortuous eye drops, typical sibling quibbles, and a bit of jet lag, we arrived at SeaTac slightly flustered.  Then I had the genius idea that it would be fun to ride the escalator.  Have you ever seen a human avalanche?  Because I’m fairly sure that’s what it looked like with the kids and the luggage as we ascended the moving stairs.  Screaming children, begging to never go on one of those again, needed hugs and bandaids at the top.  Many thanks to the couple who helped Liesl at the bottom as I tried to stop the avalanche.  Next was the security line.  Which was LONG.  I’m sure everybody believed my daughter as she yelled several times “I’M NOT TIRED!” while waiting J.  After walking to our gate (with the above-mentioned 11 bags dispersed between Ryan and I, with a little help from Asher), we collapsed and Ryan sought out some breakfast.  Liesl and Ephraim passed the time by cleaning the seats with baby wipes (you’re welcome, SeaTac).  We ate, I got some coffee, and Ephraim promptly spilled some on his hands.  He’s fine (must not have gotten much on his skin because it wasn’t even red after a minute or two), but I had several seconds of panic and visions of visiting the local ER, skin grafts, etc.  We boarded the plane and Liesl decided to get really tired (translate: fussy) right as we had to buckle the seatbelts.  Turning circles in her seat, yelling and dropping things, trying to unbuckle, etc.  It was short-lived, however, because she passed out right as we lifted off, after I told her to stare at the seatbelt light and tell me when it turned off. 

Arrival

We landed in Juneau at around 1:30pm and were picked up by Randy, the camp director.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  After some quick shopping for essentials and the usual answering of constant questions from a toddler and preschooler who were still trying to wrap their little minds around this concept called ALASKA (Ephraim: When are we going to be in Alaska?  Me: We already are.  The ground around you is Alaska.  Ephraim: When are we going to be in Alaska?  Me: Remember? We already are.  Ephraim: No, I know the ground around us is Alaska, but when are we going to be at the building Alaska??), we headed out to camp.  This ride consists of driving to the “End Of The Road” and around the cove along the beach at low tide.  If it were high tide, we would have to take a boat.  With the kids at this point completely convinced that they would be putting on suits and swimming in this water, we went down to the beach to feel it first.  I was fairly certain they would decide it was way too cold and never touch it again.  How wrong I was.  After an hour of practically swimming fully clothed with the tide coming in and watching whales do their spouting (so cool!), I had to almost drag them out to come look at our apartment.  Watching their excitement was so precious!

Life is never dull!  Nor would I want it to be, even with the frustrations.  God works in all things and an easy life means I would never grow.  In each situation, God presents me with the opportunity to grow: in patience, in love, in understanding, in compassion, in passion for Him and the gospel.  I need to allow that growth and allow Him to chisel and shape me more like Christ. 

Thanksgivings:

• ·         For those who are joining us in Echo Ranch’s ministry, both in prayer and in financial giving, and those who gave of their time to help with preparation for leaving, to talk and encourage, to hug, and to love on us.
• ·         For safe travels thus far.
• ·         For smiles from strangers that just minister to a mother’s heart.
• ·         For nice flight attendants.
• ·         For coffee J

Prayers:

• ·         For our hearts to be open and ready for God to work.
• ·         For missionary hearts, that we would not be ashamed of the gospel, but would boldly proclaim God’s love and salvation to those around us.
• ·         For our kids – adjustment to a new time zone, new surroundings, new “normal”, safety, etc.
• ·         For the Echo Ranch team to grow together this summer, keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, encouraging one another, and building each other up in love.
• ·         For other personnel needs: mechanics and counselors

In Him,

The Regier 5

The Beginning

Isaiah 42:12 says "Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare His praise in the coastlands" and in the Message it states, "Make God's glory resound; echo His praises from coast to coast".  As a family, our desire has always been to glorify God in our home.  Please understand, we are very imperfect at this.  There are days I can't think of any way that God was glorified in me or our family.  But what I am so very thankful for is grace.  That His mercies are new every morning.  EVERY morning.  Glorifying God takes being completely covered in His grace.  And He continues to cover us each day, each minute, as He leads us on.

At this point in our lives, we have felt His leading into missions.  Which is sometimes ironic to me, because at one time, I was completely terrified of being called to be a missionary.  Stay-awake-at-night-heart-pounding terrified.  But God, in His mercy, slowly changed my heart to understand Him more.  And I began to change from fear to excitement when it came to missions.  We are now ready to go where God is leading.  And right now, His finger is pointed north.

My husband, Ryan, was a youth pastor for many years.  Almost 2 years ago, we sensed God leading us to something different and stepped down from youth ministry.  We moved back to Ryan's hometown for an "interim" time to see where we were headed next.  Knowing that we wanted to pursue missions but not knowing at all where that might be, we did research and Ryan read books on missions and we prayed.  After looking at some websites for mission agencies we were familiar with, we came across a place called Echo Ranch Bible Camp near Juneau, Alaska.  It looked interesting, so we prayed specifically about that and continued to sense God's confirmation in that area.  Money for plane tickets showed up in our mailbox after I began praying that somehow we could visit Echo Ranch.  We visited this past July and continued to receive confirmation after confirmation that this was where we were to be.  Our next leg in this journey is to serve at Echo Ranch for the summer.  More specifically, for 6 months from April-October to include their spring and fall retreat seasons and the summer camps.

Which brings me back to that verse in Isaiah.  We find it extremely fitting for this adventure that God has us on.  While we aren't big Message Bible readers (we're kinda ESV people around here :), I absolutely love the words used.  "Make God's glory resound; echo His praises from coast to coast."  We want to make God's glory resound, which is actually a synonym for "echo".  We are serving at Echo Ranch Bible Camp, whose motto is "Echo God's Glory".  Echo Ranch sits directly on a coast: Echo Cove and Berner's Bay.  May we make His glory resound.

www.echoranch.org