We have to work toward that goal of helping the children to become a part of the ECK life. When they get to be about eight or nine, they’re at an age where they want to help you—they just love to help you—and we have to figure out ways in which they can.

At one point, I wondered if perhaps it had been a mistake to get married, and an even bigger one to have a child—I felt I was no longer able to give out the ECK in the same way I had before. But when the ECK comes in, you find ways to give. Being married, I found I couldn’t just go out on the road when I felt the need to do something, so I worked locally and at home. I’d get a bunch of posters and have my daughter help me make them up. She enjoyed doing this.

We also plan weekend family outings about once a month when I’m not traveling. We drive to a town that we haven’t visited before and stay in a budget motel. The family enjoys themselves while I go out and put up posters, and later we’ll all go out and pick fruit or find something else that we can do together. We mix our family time with ECK time, and we know that when we go on the road, no matter what happens, our efforts are blessed.

It’s best to work together, especially in a family where your spouse isn’t in ECK, because otherwise they’re going to feel that ECK is getting in the way. They’ll think it’s standing between you and them, and there will be resentment. But you can tie in activities where they can enjoy themselves and be included as you’re doing your ECK thing—something affordable that you can do together.