It's been over ten years since Christa and I first discussed starting an international team missions base, last Friday we saw that dream fulfilled with the arrival of our first Submerge Team. We have spent this last week introducing the team to Quito, getting to know each other, and even doing some ministry together. We are excited about what is on the horizon and what God is doing in our midst. We truly are expectant about the things that will happen as a result of this team working together. As I shared with the team this week, our vision is three fold in what is to come from this first group; that the individual lives of the team members will be changed, that lives in Ecuador will be transformed, and that future Submerge teams will be influenced.

After a year break from leading a team it feels great to be surrounded once again by young passionate people who are willing to lay it all on the line to receive what God has for them. Our goal is that we would inspire them to be who God has created them to be, but there's no doubt that we are also inspired by the passion we see in these young people. This next week will kick off our regular schedule where the team will begin Spanish classes, and daily outreaches. We ask for your prayers as we continue to walk in this new season!

Journeying Together,

The Baca’s

In Their Own Words Occasionally we will be linking to the individual blogs of some of our team members so that you can hear about Submerge directly from those who are participating in it. Today you can hear from Ashton O'neal and Justin Kila by clicking HERE and HERE.

Speaking Engagements This past week we had the opportunity to speak to the youth of a church called Corederro de Dios. They are doing a four part series this month on creativity and have asked us to speak each week. Also our team spoke on Wednesday night to the students of OneHeart. Tomorrow we are doing a joint outreach with OneHeart in a local park!

Pray For Us As many of you read this past week we've been working on our extended visas, we ask that you continue to pray that all goes well as our application is being processed. We should have them in hand next Friday. Also I ask that you pray for our family as we strive to strike the balance between leading this new team and guarding our time as a family.