Thursday, July 05, 2012

Amanda and Lukas Translate in the Jungle!


Saturday, June 23, 2012, Amanda and Lukas loaded a van headed to Tena, Ecuador, to translate for a group of 20 from Global Expeditions.  They helped with construction of a jungle church, translated for 3 different VBS ministries and shared their love of ministry and the Ecuadorian people.  Amanda lead a little boy to Christ and she was burdened for the Ecuadorian people she served.  She would like to be a missionary and an artist here in Ecuador.  During the trip, Lukas stated he would like to be a pastor or youth pastor.  When his sister asked where, he said, “Ecuador of course!  Mom won’t let me go anywhere else!  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth!  3 John 1:4.  Of course we would love it if they served in Ecuador, but we are thrilled to hear of their heartbeat for the lost!  Please pray for the pastors and Christian leaders that will continue working in these jungle areas in follow-up and discipleship.

Friday, June 15, 2012

A "Courageous" Turnout in Cumbaya!



For the past 3 years we have been praying, "Lord give us this Valley." I “just gotta” share what God is doing!


We asked you to pray this past weekend as we had a showing of "Reto de Valientes" (The video “Courageous” in English) in our urbanization this Saturday. We invited many people. Lukas and I went door-to-door in our urbanization of 180 homes, posted fliers in public places and prayed.

There we 92 men and boys in attendance and a few women snuck in also! We saw 60 first time visitors. We cooked 20 racks of ribs, 25 lbs of potatoes and 5 gallons of coleslaw. We praise the Lord that the next day in our church we had 1 new family from the film and 9 first time visitors in all. Several who attended the video are ones we have been praying for, making contacts and building relationships with over the past 3 years. We praise the Lord for one more touch with the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.

One of the greatest blessings I received was a call on Thursday before the presentation from a police officer in our area. He asked to meet with me at 9 AM to hear of our plans. Someone had given another officer an invitation in Tumbaco, our neighboring town. The officer brought the invitation to the police chief and the chief sent the officer to speak to me. They are asking us to provide 2 more showings of the video to more than 500 officers in our valley…PLUS their families! When each of my children heard that they said… “That’s a lot of ribs!”

In further discussion, he is part of a task force of officers from Quito that want to take the movie to ALL OF THE PRECINTS IN ECUADOR! He is asking for our help! They have plans in the works now for...get this CUENCA and Loja! We currently have 3 partnering churches in Cuenca and 2 missionary families arriving here in Ecuador in July to work in Cuenca. He stated they needed the spiritual connection also! I shared with the officer the need to connect each precinct with a local Bible believing/preaching church for continued follow-up and care with the officers and their families. We talked about my vision for starting a chaplaincy ministry here in Ecuador which we currently do not have. He stated that there is a great need and I suggested we start right here in Tumbaco. He mentioned the officers need help because daily they are faced with prostitution, drugs, and alcoholism and many of them fall.

There is another showing of the movie here in Quito with the Captain of police for the entire country, on July 7. He is trying to get me an invite!

More open doors! I just found out one of my neighbors in the urbanization (180 houses in a walled, guarded community) is the Ministro de Defence of Ecuador! Also found out the Ministro del Interior is a Christian. He is responsible for more than 40,000 police officers in the country. We invited the Ministro of Defense to the movie on Saturday! He did not attend, but he knows we are here!

Revelation 3:8 - "I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name."

We have no idea how long the door is open, but please pray with us as we serve!