A Trinity Baptist Church, Roanoke, missionary family originally bound for Chile has launched its international missions efforts in a different place.
Trent and Angel Tomlinson’s purposeful detour landed them in Ecuador.
This rerouting was initiated by the International Mission Board (IMB) after considerations of family and the assigned missions field. Angel Tomlinson said the IMB told them they were going into an “impossible situation and were setting them up for failure.”
“We were pretty stunned for a while at the last minute changes,” she said in an e-mail to her church family. “After settling down and having time to review and think, we know God is providing the best thing for our whole family.”
She explained in an e-mail from Ecuador to The Alabama Baptist that while they were at missionary orientation in Richmond, Va., two of their children were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
“Because of that [diagnosis] and my pregnancy and the good [educational and medical] support in Quito, Ecuador, we were sent here for our language school,” she said.
“We are still currently assigned to the Mapuche people of Chile and hope to go on there after a year of school here in Ecuador,” she said. But there is no guarantee that is where we’ll be, she noted.
Before leaving the United States Angel Tomlinson trained to teach learning disabled children at the National Institute of Learning Disabilities. Now she has entered the missionary field in Ecuador as a licensed therapist for learning disabled children.
With her psychology degree from the University of South Alabama and her recent special training, she will be working in home and community-based ministry. She said much of her time will be homeschooling and caring for the home.
Lifestyle outreach
“Outreach will come through mothers and children in the community as well as having nationals in our home,” she said. “Everyday outreach at the markets and stores will also be used.”
Trent Tomlinson, utilizing his forestry degree from Auburn University, will be helpful in forestry practices and forums as a platform to get into the Mapuche people’s lives, some of whom live in jungles — distant from the familiar forests of Alabama. The couple is excited to be in the field, studying Spanish in Quito and will be working some with the Quichua people, indigenous to Ecuador. Living and working in Quito, Ecuador, a city of 2 million people, the family was settling into their home and lives there after arriving July 21. The Tomlinson’s have three children, Caitlynn, Ashlynn and Aaron with a fourth child due in October.
“We are still getting used to the culture and the altitude — two miles high,” Angel Tomlinson said.
Back home their church and friends and family are supportive.
“His hand is continuously here and He’s called folks forward,” said Richard Richie, pastor of Trinity Baptist. “It’s a challenge to us here to do what we can to help them, but we are getting ready,” Richie said.
The church walks the path of praying, giving and going to support the Tomlinsons and their ministry, Richie said.
The church also plans to send a team of volunteers to assist the Tomlinsons with their work. The Tomlinsons have been members of Trinity Baptist for almost five years and were previously members of Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn.
At Trinity Baptist Angel directed Team Kids for several years and Trent served as a deacon, discipleship director and helped with prison ministry at Randolph County Jail.
“You’ll not find a couple more friendly, loving and dedicated to the Lord,” Richie said. “They have a heart for reaching people for Christ.”
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