Padilla Family

Testimony

We would like to introduce you to our family and tell you our testimony of how the Lord called us t the mission field in North Africa.  My name is Eddie, my wife’s name is Lynn, and we have two children:  Maggie (6-16-05) and Ezra (6-20-07).  We first met at a missions prayer meeting and got to know each other as we prepared for our first summer team to North Africa, and basically since that first trip our whole married life has been focused on preparing to return to North Africa full time as house parents in a children’s home.

Jesus Christ came into my life and saved me from a life of alcoholism and drug addiction in 1993.  Jesus appeared to me in a dream.  He forgave me of all my sin and delivered me from all of my addictions in one moment without any rehabilitation.  The first church I went to was Calvary Chapel of Downey, and it happened to be missions week.  I knew what the Lord had done in my life and I wanted to serve Him in any way that I could.  I began to pray for missionaries, and then I was introduced to North Africa and the need for the gospel there.  One year I sponsored someone else to go, and another year I drove the team to the airport, and then in 1996 I went on my first team.  My wife Lynn grew up in a home with Christian parents who raised her in the ways of the Lord.  Although she had accepted Christ in her life and had never strayed down the paths of rebellion, she had to come to a moment of true repentance and re-dedication of her life to Christ in 1996.   She had been trusting in her own good works and her pride had kept her from realizing the depth of her sinful nature and need for confession, repentance, and reliance on the Holy Spirit to live her life for Christ.  When she was introduced to North Africa she knew nothing about it or the religion of Islam, but soon she developed a burden for the unreached people there.

Before our first summer trip to North Africa in 1996, we had only met twice and we signed up separately for the trip.  Through the team meetings and trainings we got to know each other better and became good friends.  A few months before the trip while Lynn prayed personally for me after a meeting, I knew that I wanted to marry her and the Lord spoke to me that He would bless me.   Without me saying or doing anything, the Lord spoke to Lynn’s heart about me one month before our trip.  And so we went to North Africa for the first time, knowing that we wanted to be married, but not knowing that He would be introducing us to our calling that would involve the next 10 years in preparation.

On our first trip we were introduced to two children’s homes.  Basically, the Lord has opened a door in North Africa through these homes for Christians to take in abandoned babies and raise them in the ways of the Lord.  Although they both had started in the 1950’s, one of them was closed down and one was still open.  We stood on the ground of the one that was closed and prayed that someday it would be re-opened to take in children.   We returned again in 1998 after we were married, and from 1999 to 2005 we led the summer teams.  We were blessed in 2000 to be a part of the re-building and re-opening of the second home, the Village of Hope (VOH).   Leading teams was a big part of our preparation for returning to North Africa full time.  Another preparation was that we lived at Calvary Chapel of Downey as caretakers for 7 years, learning how to live and work closely with others in a Christian environment.  In 2004 we started to take a turn towards going to North Africa full time.  We went to  VOH in November of that year for 5 weeks without a team to get a better feel for what  it was like to live there.  We took one more team in 2005, but we knew that it was time to stop taking teams and start focusing on going full time.

Learning about each other and marriage was one of the areas that we needed to grow in before we could go full time.  But one of the greatest areas of preparation that the Lord had in store for us was having our own two children.  After 7 years of marriage the Lord blessed us with our daughter, Maggie.  And one month before we left for our first year in North Africa, we found out that He was going to bless us again with a second baby. Our son Ezra was born during our first year there.  We are learning every day more of our need to depend on the Lord in raising our children, and in preparing to take in more children.

And so in November 2006 we moved to North Africa to spend a year there, learning the language and being screened as house parents at VOH.  Our goal when we return in February 2008 is to be foster parents to as many as 8 abandoned children and raise them in our home until they turn 18 years old.  Most of the foster children come to the home as newborn babies, abandoned at birth by their young un-wed mothers due to the shame they have brought to their families.  We pray for these children that they will come to know the Lord in a personal way and become fruitful believers in their own country.  There are many challenges in this task but with the Lord all things are possible.  We also depend on the prayers, support, and encouragement of our church, friends, and family — the body of Christ.  May God bless you for your participation in His work in North Africa.

Eddie, Lynn, Maggie, and Ezra Padilla  (Isaiah 12:1-6)