We don’t know where the time has gone, so apologize for not making our regular monthly post these past months. We do make weekly posts on our Borman Broadcast Facebook page, so if you would like to receive more frequent updates and prayer requests, let us know.

Since we last wrote in August, Ron has made four jungle trips to the Cofan villages. They all went well and he had some good conversations with people, good turnouts for the children’s programs in each village and was able to get some more Bibles – both written and audio – into the hands of the people. A small church’s VBS in eastern Washington took on a chair project for the new church building in Dureno and went above and beyond in earning funds for new chairs for the church. Such a blessing!

Tuesday afternoon ladies Bible study has been going strong. We are using a David Jeremiah study on being Overcomers. We have been thoroughly enjoying this study into God’s Word and will be finishing up in the next few weeks. In November we plan on doing an Advent study to prepare our hearts for the season.

All of us, Ron, Esther and Sarah, have continued our involvement in our children’s program at church on Sunday. Esther has moved up and is helping teach the 1st & 2nd grade class this year and is helping with the nursery schedule coordinating. Ron and Sarah are teaching the 3rd and 4th grade classes. These are during the 1st hour at church. During the 2nd hour, we all help out with the youth class. This class has been growing, both in number and in learning more about God in His Word.

Our Friday Homeschool Teen Fellowship meetings started up the last Friday in August. Wow! Our group has grown from an average of 25 attending last year to an average of 35 attending this year! More Ecuadorian families are choosing to homeschool their kids, and we are seeing the results. Our group is so talented and we love seeing their growth in every way imaginable. This coming Friday is our next meeting and we are having a Talent Show. Here are a few photos of one of our meetings so far this year – Cowboy Night:

On Thursday October 3rd, the country was surprised as overnight the president of Ecuador took off the long-term (30+years) of fuel subsidies this country has had. Gasoline prices went from $1.85 a gallon to $2.39 a gallon. Diesel went up from about $1 to $2 a gallon. First the transportation people went on strike. There was not a bus or taxi to be seen. Ron was returning from the jungle that day, unaware that anything had happened. Esther finally got hold of him and gave him a “heads-up” that many of the roads were blocked with angry transportation people, burning tires and not allowing traffic to pass. He didn’t hit any problems until he came to Pifo, the town to the valley east of Quito. He had to take back roads and wait behind road blocks, making a 6 hour trip into 11 hours! He made it safely home, but we weren’t sure what was happening to our lovely peaceful country. The transportation people seemed to come to some sort of agreement with the president, but by this time, the indigenous groups of Ecuador gathered here in Quito and went to the streets, protesting and blocking the roads. During all this, we had a work-team from Oregon arrive!

On the night of Tuesday October 8th, our team arrived near midnight at the Quito airport. Ron managed to get out there to pick them up, taking a different route than normal and getting them safely to our house. We had made sure to stock up on food and the building supplies when the strike first started happening, as we had no idea how long or hard it would go. We are glad we did the planning ahead and our team was able to work safely and efficiently here on our property on the projects they and we had planned. Some of these photos are taken of projects before and after.

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Saturday October 12th, we took a break from work. We really wanted the group to be able to see some of this beautiful country of Ecuador, so we decided a day trip to Mindo would work. It wasn’t far from us and the road out that direction had had very few problems since the strikes had begun. The day before, Friday the 11th, things had been fairly calm, especially in the north end where we live. We decided to chance a trip down there. We enjoyed the view from the rim on Pululahua Crater, just 10 minutes down the road from us and one of the largest inhabited volcanic craters in the world. We had a lovely drive to our friends near Mindo that have a myriad of hummingbirds and other birds visit their yard. Next we got to Mindo and ate lunch. This is when we started noticing some problems. A march was starting in the main street of Mindo to rouse up the inhabitants to join in a protest. To make a long story short, we ended up being roadblocked in at Mindo and were not able to leave until after 5 p.m. Sunday afternoon! Even Sunday night we weren’t able to get back to our house in San Antonio de Pichincha, but had to stay with some friends in Calacali 15 minutes away from our home because of major road blocks. Through it all, God kept all seven of us safe during this time – and even blessed us with wonderful places to have to unexpectedly stay over. Right now, the president and the protesters have come to a temporary agreement where the subsidy fuel prices are back in place but new measures have to be drawn up. Things are quiet at the moment, but we believe that this problem could possibly flare up once again as changes do have to be made, but getting everyone to agree on the changes will be the challenge. Please keep Ecuador in your prayers.

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Prayer items:

• We had mentioned in our last letter that Martin in Dureno had told us his wife Sondra was needing gallbladder surgery. It took them weeks to collect the funds and with some personal sacrifices they were able to get her surgery done in early October. She is doing well. Thank you for praying.
• Pray for Ramon (church leader in Sinangue) and Dora. They have had their legal marriage, and hope to have their church wedding soon in November.
• Pray for Ecuador.
• Praise that all went well with our work team from Oregon. No one was sick or injured with all the construction work and adventures we were on.
• Thank you for praying for us these past weeks/months. We have felt those prayers and God has continued to show Himself faithful.