My journey to El Ayudante
Hi, my name is Jon Dunsmore and I am from Aurora, IL. I am the newest missionary here at El Ayudante. I’d like to share a little about my journey that brought me here full time. Several years ago, I was in a very dark pit of life, feeling lost, with a huge empty space in my heart and soul. As a last resort to try to fill this void, I went to church. After several years of self-study, I decided to join a small bible study group and became an active part of a wonderful church family. While in devotion and solitude with Christ, I felt a call
from God to go into full time mission work…. Wait!… What!?!… Who?… Me?!? I opened my mind and heart to the possibilities. Fully trusting God, I started researching what this meant for me. I spent the next four years exploring what full time mission work looked like. I started by doing local missions in my area, then branched out to outside of my area, but still in the US, all while spending a lot of time in prayer and asking God to use me for his will. Be careful what you ask for, you might get it! God provided an opportunity for me to join a mission trip my church was going on to Honduras, just weeks before it’s departure, and I found myself in El Ayudante.
WOW!! It just felt “right”: everything I was looking for in mission work… it felt like home. One evening while returning from an evening activity, Denise, one of the missionaries at EA, asked about my future plans. After a short answer of the call I felt God had laid on my heart, she said there was a need at EA, that hadn’t even really been explored yet, which was a perfect fit for my skill set! She told me to mention what God had placed on my heart to Tristan and the rest is history as they say. God had put me in the right place at the right time! Looking back, I can see how God weaved all the parts of my faith walk together. He opened up doors, leading me on a path to EA. This is part of a faith walk which has taken me from the dark pit of despair to the mountaintop of the love of God and His Grace.
What is next? I have learned to trust God and follow the path He has set in front of me. This is not the end of the journey; it is only the beginning. I am excited to see what He has in store for me.