Isaiah 6:8  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Who should I send? Who will go for Us? I said: Here I am. Send me.

 
Around 800 BC God was looking for someone to send to help His people better know Him and His Word. Isaiah heard God's call and stepped up to the call. This is the heart we desire to have as we plan to go to Montevideo, Uruguay next summer.

My name is John Hoyt and my wife is Kay. Most likely, by the time you read this article, our first daughter Maya will have been born. We currently help lead the campus ministry in Gainesville. Although we have just recently decided to become missionaries, God has been working on our hearts for many years.

 
For Kay, the desire to be a missionary has existed since childhood. In 1986 her family moved to Bombay, India to plant a church there. After about three years there, the family was forced to leave, but this experience left a deep impression on Kay's heart. From then on, her desire was to travel around the world helping God's people. Kay became a Christian in 1993 and I was baptized in 1994. In 1996, I had my first opportunity to travel abroad to attend the Latin America H.O.P.E. conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During that conference I was able to be at a concert with 30,000 people. It was the largest event I'd ever attended and it gave me a dream for God's Kingdom in Latin America. The following year, Kay and I met each other for the first time in Mexico City during HOPE Youth Corps. As we got to know each other, we shared our dreams of traveling and leading in the church. We continued to bond over the next few years and in 1999 we both move to Gainesville as freshmen at the University of Florida as part of the mission team.

 
In Gainesville it quickly became clear that we had very similar aspirations for our lives. We began dating and growing in our relationships with God. During our first four years in Gainesville, we saw first hand how to build a church by starting with a small mission team. We also learned how to study the Bible with people and God allowed us to be part of many conversions in the campus ministry.  In 2003, one week after graduating with our degrees we were married.

 
From there we decided to move to South Florida to serve the church in the Teen Ministry. Those two years were filled with spiritual growth, tons of fun and a number of teen baptisms. In the summer of 2005 we returned to Gainesville to serve the campus ministry again. We were sure we'd be in Gainesville for a few years before God directed us somewhere else.

 
In each of the past three years, 2004, 2005 and 2006 we have been able to go on Member Missionary trips with various groups from the church to Santiago, Chile. We have grown to love and respect the disciples in that church so much. On each visit our hearts for Latin America and more specifically South America have become more passionate. We realized on our trips to Santiago that the disciples there deeply love God but are in need of the help and maturity that can be provided from their connection to the Florida churches.

 
So, when Martin Bentley approached us about moving to Montevideo to help the church there our hearts immediately jumped at the opportunity. It was the chance that we had both dreamed of for years. We began praying everyday about the decision. After about two months of praying and seeking advice from various people, our hearts were set: Here we are. Send us!

 
We are super excited about what the future holds. We know that it will be very challenging to leave our lives here in the United States and move thousands of miles away to a completely different culture. Mastering Spanish and adjusting to a very different lifestyle will be difficult. But, we believe that now is the time to step out on faith and let God use us as He will. In Acts 9:15 God calls Paul his "chosen instrument." Both Kay and I have always wanted to simply be instruments which God can use to accomplish his work.

 
We are fired up that the small group of 5 disciples in Montevideo has recently added one to their number. We believe that God has prepared us through our years of being disciples, our trips all around the world and the incredible people that have taught us so much about leadership in God's church. I believe my Biblical training through the Athens Institute of Ministry will be so valuable as we deal with people from various backgrounds. Most of all we know that God is faithful and that he desires all men to know him. Please pray for us as we prepare for God to send us to Uruguay!