It has been a while since we have shared here on our blog. Life and work has been busy! We do share more day-to-day needs on our ministry Facebook page, so let us know if you would like to become a part of that. Because there is so much to share, we will just give a quick overview for the last few months.

March:

Mid-March we headed up to the States to help our daughter Julia get ready for her wedding to Paul Ridgeway. We arrived in Albany, OR to spring and Esther’s mom’s garden filled with crocuses and other spring blooms

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Esther thinks it’s been 17 years since she last spent spring in the states! Which means, it was that long since she had celebrated her birthday in March with her family. Needless to say, we were blessed to celebrate together.

Next, we headed up to the Spokane area, Cheney to be precise, and entered the winter zone! We got to go sledding with Julia, Paul, Ethan, Leanne, Aaron and Sarah! It has been years since we have had that adventure as well.

The next days were a flurry of activity as we made the final preparations for Julia and Paul’s wedding. Marrying into the same family has her older brother Ethan (our kids married siblings from the Ridgeway family), the support and help we had from their family was tremendous and a wonderful blessing. It was a beautiful springlike day by the time March 30th rolled around, and our families were joined once again at a lovely ceremony at a little country church in Sprague, WA.

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April ended up being a time of jungle visits, Bible studies and getting back into our routine after being away for three weeks. It was amazing how quickly that month went by. This month our daughter Sarah, who has been down here helping us with ministry, decided to go to Mexico to help her older sister Lydia with her school teaching. Sarah will be staying there with Lydia until they finish school with their students June 12th and then they both head up to Kentucky to work again for the summer at the Ark Encounter.

May we are calling conference month. It also involved a special surprise visit that Ron got to make to our youngest son Aaron as he received his Bible certificate on May 3rd from his year of studies at Ecola Bible College. We didn’t think we would be able to manage financially another trip to the States after the wedding, but God provided some miles gifted from some longtime friends and he had the pleasure of surprising Aaron, Julia and Paul!

Did I mention conferences? Esther was privileged to be able to attend Pure Joy International, specially geared for missionary women, that was held this year in Quito, Ecuador May 1-4. It was a refreshing time to hear teaching, receive encouragement from many women who had been praying for each of the 50 attendees months before, and have sweet conversations with other missionary women who work in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and even Costa Rica!

Then, we were called in to help serve at a Third Culture Kid/Family Day out at El Refugio, a nearby retreat center, on May 11th. Esther helped to put together materials for children ages 3-10 and Ron shared at a workshop his TCK experience from his childhood, raising six TCK’s, and took it from a Biblical viewpoint with the adults. The retreat was all day and well attended and just might become an annual event.

The next retreat on the May calendar is a retreat we are planning with our Sunday youth class from our church. We will be having an overnight retreat May 24th -25th at the Campamento Palabra de Vida outside of Quito. Please pray for God to prepare the hearts of the young people attending and as Ron brings the message that He’s laid on his heart. Right now we have 16 registered to attend.

Also coming up: in June Ron hopes to get some work done on either our old jungle house in Dureno or our house here near Quito. Both have some needed upkeep work and repairs needing to be done on them , so he is lining up some guys to start some of the work that month. Esther will finish up her homeschool year with her student Carolyn Rogers in June and will be taking a few months break from the Tuesday women’s Bible study – both should resume the end of August/beginning of September.

In July we will be partly hosting and gathering with some of the Borman family for a small reunion of sorts, and Lord willing, laying Bub and Bobbie’s ashes (Ron’s parents) in the Cofan cemetery in Dureno. Our son Ethan and his wife Leanne plan to be with us during that time and staying over a few weeks to enjoy a visit and help with ministry.

We appreciate your prayers in the coming weeks and months.