You might be wondering why we are writing about volcanoes and eye doctors.  Living where we do, volcanoes are something over the years we have had to learn to deal with.  The last 12 years Reventador, the volcano to our east and on the road to the Cofan villages, has been active and presently considered having “high” activity by the Geophysical Institute.  Besides seeing it on this recent trip, Ron even heard it while he was in the village of Sinangue – the closest Cofan village to this mountain.  He said it sounded something like distant thunder.

While we were in the States the last few months, we noticed in the local Ecuadorian news that one of the most prominent mountains in Ecuador, Cotopaxi, was starting to wake up with increased activity.  It has been one of the favorite mountain climbing destination of many climbers – the Borman family included.  In the last few weeks, Cotopaxi has been really puffing away to the south of us.  Most of the ash blows due west, so it doesn’t affect Quito.  But many farmers and small towns are being effected by this activity and there have been some evacuations in places where there is danger of mud slides from the glaciers melting on the mountain caused from the heating up by all this activity.  Seeing volcanoes wake up first hand is amazing!  Psalm 95 talks about how great God is.  Verse 3 and 4 states, “For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.”  And in Psalm 97:5 the Bible says, “The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.”  Cotopaxi is presently the tallest active volcano in the world.  It is beautiful, immense, and a monument that has stood up to time.  But these verses remind us that God controls it and it will “melt like wax” before our great and mighty God.

Ron just returned from a five day trip to the jungle villages of Sinangue, Dureno and Dovuno.  He was able to have good visits with individuals and families in each.  While we were on furlough, the Dureno church had to be torn down for a building project by the Ecuadorian government.  It was in the zone being leveled for what is called locally a “Millennium City” housing project.  Many of the materials from the old church were salvaged and are being stored now at our jungle house in Dureno.  The church leaders have drawn up a petition to bring before the community president requesting that one of the community buildings in the “Millennium City” be a church.  Currently, the believers in Dureno are meeting in homes while they await the decision.  Depending on the time-line for everything, they are also considering building a temporary meeting place outside the “zone” using the salvaged materials from the old church.  Please pray, that the Lord will guide the leaders in Dureno in this decision.

Ron returned from the jungle with Ramon.  Many of you have been praying for this Sinangue church leader and contributed towards eye surgery for him.  We found an experienced eye doctor, Doctora Alma Chiriboga, who is very willing to do the surgery for Ramon.  He suffers from Pterygium ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterygium_(conjunctiva) ) a fairly common disease among people who live in the tropics.  If he doesn’t get it taken care of, it could potentially blind him.  Ramon is presently using eye drops to bring down the inflammation in his eyes and we tentatively have the surgery scheduled for the first eye on September 11th.  Because his condition is quite advanced, they only do one eye at a time.  We appreciate your prayers in the coming weeks for Ramon and his impending eye surgery.

Some more Bible studies and homeschool activities will be starting up in the next two weeks and we appreciate your prayers during this busy time.

Our oldest daughter Lydia is soon setting off on an adventure on another continent!  If you would like to see what is happening, you can go to her blog:  amazonninja.wordpress.com

Serving Him,

Ron, Esther, Isaac and Aaron