Hold the phone

Hold the phone! I heard from Kent today that yesterday he spoke with 2 people about the Lord and they wanted them some Jesus. That is 2 more in the family that is what i am talking about. Jesus is still working and a vital part of life today. We went through the big city today and got more stuff for our luggage. We had a great last meal in Ecuador. After coming back to the hotel and working off our meal we said a special thank you to Chris our interpreter. There were some tears and some laughter. He revealed some of his struggles with God latlety and his intial doubt of even being with us because he didn't feel worthy. He was encouraged and stregthened with us this week. You never know what someone is going through or who is listening to you. If you focus on God He will take care of the rest. May I encourage you how you have encouraged us. Get you some Jesus and walk with Him in your life and please, please surround yourself with other christians encourageing eachother with the love of Christ. We leave bright and early tomorrow starting at 4:15a.m. We are not excited about the time, but we are all looking to being back home with all of you. We will see you tomorrow, thank you for all of your prayers and support.

Jesus is not finished

We began the morning walking around the church just inviting people to come. What a neat thing to walk around with our brothers and sisters in Christ inviting others to join in the worship and learning oof our creator and savoir. For such a simple act we can sure complicate it. The service ended with many tears and really goood hugs. Goodbyes went aswell as can be expected. It was sad seeiing that last picture of our famliy waving goodbye as we drove off to our next destination. On the long drive to the big city David hared Gods love and message with a young man helping us out and lead him to the Lord. Amen! God is not done. I did not have to understand or hear the words to know that the spirit was moving. David then continued to extend love to the young man throughout the rest of the trip. It was sad to see him have to part from uus so soon, but he is not alone. God is with him and will continue to be wiith him all of his days. That is just an awesome thing to know and feel. We made it to the hotel for the night and we all feel very blest for many reasons. Tomorrow we will experience the big city and all of its beautiful craziness. We end the night at Kents favorite restauurant. He is like a little kid everytime he talks about it. Even as we experience Ecuador a little more please help us to reach up and look out for Jesus in your prayers, you never know when He could use us or you for something grand.

Gods team

We have had a busy, but relaxing day. We met new people and young out with the youth from church. They guys, Richard Kent Josh and Brian, showed them how to play our form of football then they kindly showed us theirs. It was a sight to say the least. Everyone is now packing up their suitcases for a quick departure from the hotel after morning services. I have taken some of this time to reflect on our team. They all do not disappoint. The young boys, Ducan Layton and Noah, have had a good time in another country. They have hung out with children younger than them and have tried to be good role models for them during their time here. They do not think that the food is half bad either. Some do not want to leave so soon. Josh and Trevor have been loving the attention and have been seen often just surrounded by other teens trying to get to know them. Shea and Hunter have loved on everyone they can, child and adult alike. Becky has made a special effort to remember people's names which can be a feat among itself. Richard and Brian are double trouble I have learned. They are both ready at any moment to share what God has already done for everyone. Cynthia has had no prob helping us all through the surprises with her knowledge and love. David is always talking to someone in Spanish, although I am not really sure want he is saying but I am confident it is good. Kent and Jill have been showing love to all through the interesting situations we find ourselves in. Their leadership has kept this team going and motivated for God. We have all slowly changed our English over to Spanish. We leave shortly for our talk of love to the youth of the church. We are all serving Gold boldly and wholeheartedly. Thank you for your part in all of this. Your prayers have encouraged and strengthened us. Tomorrow we worship one last time with the church we are serving then leave for the big city. Please pray for our goodbyes and the travel in the upcoming days.

Gods strength

The strength of the Lord was given to us today. Although 6 oclock came early this morning we were all able to make it through the day without coffee. I am told that is a God sighting in itself. The trip into the school was awesome. The students were receptive and excited to say the least. They heard the word of Gods love and the testimonis from Trevor, Josh and Cara. Brian even shared his ose trick with dental floss. We quickly moved over to the church to prepare for the bible fest. It was worth every moment of planing. The kids greatly enjoyed all of the activities. The count was lost after we counted 40 kids. That is more than the week leading up to it. Everybody had a helping hand which was nice to see the whole team work together on the same thing. We leave shortly to hand out certificates and motivate others for missions. Reality is setting that our time to leave is closing in. Some are already sad to think about leaving. Please pray for God to continue working and help us close things properly within ourselves and with others. Tomorrow we were invited to a families home that struggles with understanding who Jesus is in there home. Then the youth has worked hard to be able to do something special for us. Then David will rap it up tommorrow night with the youth. We are not done and we are excited in the Lord and that is a good feeling.

God is rocking

Today was a great day. The guys hit it off with a bang. They went to the drug and alchol rehab center and 18 guys reached up to Jesus instead of themselves. Short and sweet yet filled with jouful rejoicing. The english and bible school had their last day of classes. The certificate will be handed out tomorrow night. The children received their dolls and loved them God already knew how many was needed and provided. They all wanted to take more home for their orher family members. Tomorrow os the bible fest and it is going to be awesome. The day ended with great encouragement at the ladies bible study. One could feel the spirit working. We all received homemade banana bread for our early morning start tomorrow. We get to go into a school of 3000 sharing Gods message of love through David and music from USA. Of course Jesus music is the best thing to share. Please pray for nerves because we will start at 7am in front of 300 students then rinse and repeat 4 more times. God rock and we are ready to roll. Okay it is late just go with it. Thanks for checking in. Choa

God is working

Each day just gets better and better. Visitations went very well. We all walked around and talked to people on the streets and business owners. It was nice to stop and talk to the people who have been looking at us all this time. Everyone was polite and willing to hear what we had to share. After that we split into groups to visit church famliy that have had hurting hearts in Jesus's service. Then right over to the church we went to eat and get ready for the english, bible school and the youth detintion center. Thankyou for your prayers, english went so much smoother today. The students were eger and receptive. The bible school is rocking! 6 More children showed up today making the total to a growing 32. It has been a delight to hear the children laughing, singing and participating. Brian, Kent, David, Richard and Josh went to the juvinile correction center. This trip was anticipated to take just over an hour and they didn't get back until 2 hours later because God had different plans. Five young men choice Jesus today over themselves and their lives will be forever changed. YEAH! When we are weak God is strong and will carry us through. Tonight Kent will talk about missions and what an encouagement to lead up to such an important topic. Sharing Jesus isn't our duty it is our privilege. Our bodies are wanting to wear us down with swelling feet and drained nerves, but we are not done yet:). Tomorrow all of the guys will go to a drug rehab place ready to share the power of Jesus Christ. Then the last day of english and bible school is here already:( It seems so sad that we must end almost as soon as we began. The ladies will round up the evening with a bible study with the women of the church. Please pray for our spirits to stay strong and focused. God has been working this whole time ad we don't want to miss anything He is doing because it is good stuff:)

on the side

I made a mistake earlier and I just must share something. Brian and Richard both got on a moped and went driving on the crazy streets of Ecuador. We couldn't help but laugh as they went zooming past like two teenage boys riding on a new toy. Then again they fit right in because sanity is not a requirement to drive here:) I am sure pics will show up somewhere and the video Richard took while riding will fill you in on the experience.

God is in control

Another day another praise. I love losing control when Jesus is in control. We never really know every moment that is planned and even when we think we do God reminds us it is on His time and not ours. Ofcourse we all know God never disapoints. We started the morning visiting two families encouraging them in the Lord. Sometimes we forget how important encouragement in the Lord really is. Life is hard and can be confusing and if we are not encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ then we are sure to stumble.:( Pastor David encouraged us to practice our songs after the events of Monday:) we all laughed then praticed. Our English classes grew so much that we added another full class and we are now up to three. The children grew into 26 all excited to be there and participate. They came and went with smiles on their faces. Our interpurter, Chris, is running all over the place. Children do not fully understand the language gap, but that might be why they are so easy to fall in love with. While all of that was going on David, Brian and Richard went with pastor David around the surrounding neighborhoods. They were well received and five people prayed to have Jesus lead there live and their hearts. Are you excited? Because you should be, our family just got a little bigger and a little sweeter. Tonight we go out again to visit people with the love of Jesus. Tomorrow we start out the same way with visitation then bible school and english but this is when it gets interesting, the guys will leave is to speak with the youth in juvenile correction facility. This is where we need you to rock the house with prayers. Satan has been unhappy with this and ofcourse our awesome God keeps putting him in his place:). We end the night talking about missions with the.church. I can not express how much we all apreciate your prayers and support, so i must end with a simple but true Thank you

letting Jesus shine

Today was full of fun. We went into a school and saw well over 300 students. They all heard worship songs for Jesus, testimonies and of Jesus's love. Trevor and Josh shared their testimonies and David shared the message We had 3 groups go through n we learned along the way. We were glad that our God is bigger than our shortcomings. We laughed at our misstakes and just kept on going. English classes had a great turn out with 30 people showing up. Pray that they give us another chance to share english and the love of Jesus with them. There were 22 children for the bible school at the same time and they had a blast. Shea brought food from the states and some of the children didn't know what to do with them. We have the night to relax then we get back into it tomorrow morning with evanglism. People are getting tired so tonight is going to be great. The team is reaching out to the Ecuadorians like crazy and they are loving it. The younger boys, Ducan, Layton and Noah are starting to get out of there protective shells as they learn to love like Jesus even when words can't be exchanged. Along with our morning visits of evangelism we will also go out in the evening . English classes will cintinue along side of the bible school. Jesus is here in and working and we are just happy to come alongside Him to join in on serveing the people here in Ecuador. Please pray for our continual strength and obedience to Him.

Begin with a bang

Well Monday is the start of a full weekin Pasaje. We are ready to get things in motion. We start bright and early to be in a school:) Josh will give a short devotion, which he has never done, Trevor will follow with the guitar, which means our beautiful voices will be lifted to the Lord, and David will bring them a message inspired by Gods teaching, which he has done before. We will repeat that 4 times in the morning for four different classes of students. After what is sure to be another good Ecuadorian meal our english classes and kids bible school kicks off. We are excited to love on all the people we can with the love that can only come from Jesus. No matter how prepared we think we are God always keeps us on our toes. Please pray for God to always be the center of the many times we find ourself winging it. Ducan bounced back as hoped and was able to go to the southern mission and stand in for a lion when we played out the ture story of Daniel and the lions den. Richard explianed how our light for Jesus can easily spread when we allow Jesus to shine in us. Kent spoke with the adults and shared what was on his heart. Thank you for thinking and praying for us.

Worship with Christ is in your heart

We just gathered together to worship our one true God, Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter where you are or what langue you speak, or don't speak, Jesus always understands our heart. It was an honor to worship with people who love and hurt just like I do. Brian did a good job and david translated for him. Our interperter from Ecuador has a hard time understanding Brians lingo sometimes:). Yesterday's talk with the young men and young ladies started of a little shaky but ended with a bang. Today we will go to the Southern Mission, the poorer people of Ecuador, to continue to share in God's grace and love to all. It rained this morning so it will be extra muddy and comfortable for us to sink into Gods word. Tonight we meet at the church to show the movie "Courageous." We passed out flyers yesterday and ran out so now we just watch what God has planned. Ducan is really tired as we all are, but it is hitting him a little harder so he had to go back to the hotel to sleep some of it off. Hopefully he will join back up with him soon. Please continue to pray for our health and Gods hand to continue to lead us as we go. Thankyou for keeping up with us. Our WiFi comes and goes, but we will post as much as we can. Our activities really kick into high gear tomorrow ,we will keep you in the loop as we go. Pictures are coming;)

In pasaje

The team made it to pasaje safe and sound. Everyone was excited to see us and we were excited to see them. We entered the church through a tunnel of people full of joy and in the dark. We were smiling but a little concerned, but it was great when the lights came on n we saw all. Of the smiling people. Today we will walk around to invite people to church with the gringos. Tonight we separate boys and girls ages 13-21 to talk about who they are in christ and show the what He desires for them. We know it is impprtant and it is a little nervous to talk about. Please pray God calms our nerves. Everyone is adjusting to things and learning to see things a different way. Thankyou for all your prayers they are needed and appreciated.

Destination Ecuador

 Hello to all of our friends :) We are glad to say the day has arrived for the Ecuador team to pack up and ship/fly out.  We all met around 4am in the church parking lot with our sites set on Ecuador.  We arrived safe and sound enriched by Gods greatness around 9:30 pm.  The journey was certianly part of the fun for some of us and an chance to find new positions to sleep in for others.(Hunter, Becky) Trevor is wooing the flight attendents for free TP before we landed at our first stop in Dallas. I  was able to speak with Eileen Elerals from Hotsprings on a mission/vission trip to Hattie.  If that is not cool enough she is on this trip only 3 months after losing her husband of 22 years in marriage. It is always good to hear how big God is and how much he does. Oh and He didn't stop on that plan ride. On the next flight I met a woman by the name of Carmenella who couldn't help but sing Gods praises in the way He healed her not once but twice from brain tumor and breast cancer.  I want to encourage you to talk to someone you don't know, you never know what you might find out. :)