A journey based on faith

• Armstrongs

submitted photo John and Gioconda Armstrong (far left) are shown in Ecuador in 1998, when the couple went as missionaries to Gioconda’s native land.

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WORTHINGTON — Throughout her life, faith has been an essential part of Gioconda Armstrong’s journey from Ecuador to the United States.

Gioconda, a professional interpreter and the co-founder of Insight Language Resources, has traveled from her native jungle to the comparatively barren prairie of the Upper Midwest, encountering tragedy and plenty of reward along the way. Today, she is thankful for the path she believes the Lord has led her on.

“As a person you can accomplish many things, but it’s always under God’s will,” Gioconda said Monday in her office, located inside Worthington’s BenLee’s Café. “Living in the middle of the jungle, I would have never dreamed of coming to the U.S. and having a family. I give the honor to God for what He has been able to accomplish in my life.”

Gioconda’s journey began in the small town of Shell, Ecuador, which she believes got its name from the oil company. The community is located in the eastern part of Ecuador — “in the jungle, or the Amazon.”

Growing up

The early years of Gioconda’s life were spent in Makuma, an even smaller town than Shell that’s located in the midst of the jungle. To this day, she said, there’s no road that gets there.

“My mom and dad were teachers there for the indigenous people,” Gioconda explained. “My mom and dad were teachers working with the missionaries, who were doing missionary work for Shuar people. At the time, it was Gospel Missionary Union, and it’s currently Avant Ministries.”

Gioconda and her siblings (four sisters and one brother) went to school with the indigenous people their parents were teaching. There are about 21 indigenous nationalities represented in Ecuador, Armstrong said, and each has their own variation of language or dialect. Most in the nation speak Spanish; a second primary language is Quechua.

“I also had the opportunity to grow up with some English-speaking missionary kids, as I think the majority of missionaries were from the U.S.,” she said. “We did kind of a combination of going to school where mom and dad were teaching as well as home-schooling, so we could learn the English language. … In Ecuador, it’s mandatory to have a second language when you’re going to school, and I think that’s the basis of my being able to adapt to coming here.”

In the meantime, Gioconda observed the faith of her father, who regularly prayed for the well-being of the family.

“He would pray for our husbands, wherever in the world they were,” she recalled. “We would laugh and think, ‘We’re in the middle of the jungle.’ But God has a plan.”

A key part of that plan was a move to Puyo when Gioconda was in about sixth grade. Her older sisters were beginning high school, and their parents realized it was time to leave the jungle.

“Puyo is in the same area where I was born, close to Shell,” Gioconda said. “When we moved to Puyo, the electricity would go off at night, and then come back on in the morning. If you want to call outside of Puyo, you had to go to a phone booth.

“I’m not that ancient,” she continued, laughing. “I went back just a few years ago and felt like a tourist in my own town. There was Internet … and so much technology.”

Years of study

Gioconda went on to graduate from high school in Puyo. Since that city didn’t have any choices for university at that time, she opted to go “the big city” — Quito, Ecuador’s capital — for the next stage of her education.

“I got my degree in commercial engineering — it’s a combination of business, finance and economics,” she detailed. “I believe there were seven years of school, including two years of pre-university classes.

“In those two years you’re asked to work really hard, but it makes you think ‘do you really want to do this,’” she went on. “After you’re done with this, you have a good idea of what field you’re entering.”

Gioconda credits her education with giving her the professional opportunities she’s had.

“Even though you’re doing something you may not have gone to school for, you just have the broad knowledge to help you do whatever you want to do.” she said.

Gioconda completed college in Ecuador in 1994 and made the decision to come to the U.S. — and, more specifically, the southwest Minnesota city of Marshall — that fall.

“My sister, she needed some help — she had two little ones and she had a pregnancy that was at-risk. I came to help her, and I actually came with a student visa. The idea was to help her for six months and then go to school and take some classes at Southwest State.” she said.

Upon returning to Ecuador in May 1995, Gioconda began receiving job offers from almost everywhere she interviewed, which had been far from the case before leaving for Minnesota.

“It was an asset to bring that back with me as part of my resume, and it wasn’t even a degree,” she said. “My goal going to Southwest State was to get some English classes, get acquainted with the language and become able to actually speak the language, but my advisor said, ‘I think you need to be able to challenge yourself.’ He threw me in 400-level classes, and I didn’t know what I was getting into. He was instrumental in making me realize I could do that … really challenge myself.”

A tragedy at home

Upon returning to Ecuador, Gioconda began doing inventory accounting for a pharmaceutical company. It wasn’t long, though, before her sister in Marshall was once again pregnant.

“She asked me to come back and help, and I really made the decision that I wasn’t going to come. I had this job that was really good. But in the weeks that I was waiting to decide to come, my sister (in Ecuador) was killed in a bus accident, along with my nephew who was 3 years old. It changed my life, and it made me realize that if people need help ... they’re asking you because they need it.” she said.

Gioconda ultimately submitted her resignation and came back to assist her sister in Marshall. Though it was difficult, she was also looking forward to spending time with the children she had begun to get close to when there for the first time. Her decision to return to the U.S., though, brought up many questions.

“Everyone thought I was going back the second time to get married,” she recalled. “And then, when I landed in Miami about 3 in the afternoon, I wasn’t done with questioning until around 11 that night.”

Gioconda, however, did come back to the U.S. to get married — she just didn’t realize it right away. She arrived once again in Minnesota in May 1996 and was married just six months later to John Armstrong, who she met in a Marshall church shortly after her return to this country.

“I was almost 30, and I had always been a person of faith,” she said. “I just know this was the person my dad had prayed for all these years.”

Back home,

and back here

John was a missionary at the time he met Gioconda and was slated to go on assignment the following January.

“I ruined those plans for him,” Gioconda said with a chuckle.

Instead, the couple soon got married and went east — John is originally from West Chester, Pa. — to live and work in the New Jersey area.

“Long story short, John tried to get back into aviation and ended up working with Northwest Airlines, which brought us back to the Twin Cities area,” Gioconda said. “Then, we had the opportunity to go to Ecuador on a short-term mission for a little more than year. We were actually filling in for a missionary couple that was having a furlough here. I went back to Makuma. I think it’s amazing the way God plans your life.”

Gioconda assisted with computer work as well as the editing and translation of Bible into Shuar. In the meantime, the Armstrongs’ first child — a daughter, Kattiana — was born in the same hospital as Gioconda, exactly 32 years and one day later.

When they were about to leave Ecuador, John and Gioconda learned the city of Worthington was looking for someone to manage its airport. The city had been speaking with John’s longtime friend, Cameron Johnson, about the position. Johnson was already working in Redwood Falls, but recommended John for the post.

The job brought the Armstrongs to Worthington, where John worked at the airport and Gioconda ultimately began home-schooling their children. (A son, Karsten, is now 10.) John co-founded Integrity Aviation with Cameron Johnson; the duo later founded Proclaim Aviation Ministries, in which the Armstrongs have continue to serve in the capacity of missionaries. In September 2009, Gioconda launched Insight Language Resources.

“America is the land of opportunity,” Gioconda said. “If you come here and work hard and you are a law-abiding citizen, this country has a lot to offer. Most of the people here are very friendly and willing to help — I think that’s what distinguishes America from other countries … When you have community needs, everybody’s just there to help.”

Daily Globe Managing Editor Ryan McGaughey can be reached at

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