Recently reading 1, 2, 3 John, I appreciated the part of the greeting in 2 John that says, “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.” Grace. Mercy. Peace. Three very beautiful things we can only truly have through God and His only Son, Jesus.

Our calendar was very full these past three months, so we will start with sharing the highlights. First, the annual Homeschool Teen Fellowship Retreat went very well! We had around 40 in attendance and we enjoyed our time in Tabacundo, Ecuador, at Bellevue Camp. Our theme was “Fellowship with the King” and Ron’s brother Rick, who has been a long-time youth leader at his church, came to give the Bible lessons. We had a wonderful time! Thank you for your prayers.

In May, Ron headed up a men’s retreat from our church. They also used the camp in Tabacundo and were blessed with a great group of about 30 men who met together for teaching and fellowship.

In June, we were able to send our Cofan Bible translation team to a special workshop for further training through SIL/Wycliffe. I borrowed photos for this one as Ron didn’t attend. A couple language groups were represented at this course. Please continue prayer for our translation team – Wilson, Martin and Osmar (Leoncio not pictured). The workshop did give them a much needed boost of encouragement and they said they learned some new things. Our funding is also starting to pick up a little and we are in process of putting in an application for the Seed Company – an organization that helps with funding for Bible translation projects.

Besides the annual retreat for the teens, we continued our meetings every other Friday for Homeschool Teen Fellowship. We finished mid-May with our annual Ping-Pong Tournament! We plan to start up our meetings again September 6th and already have a full calendar of activities planned for the next season!

On the family front, our family keeps growing!!! In May, Ron was able to make a quick trip to Pensacola to celebrate Isaac’s graduation from Pensacola Theological Seminary with his Master of Divinity. Ron was also able to meet for the first time our precious youngest granddaughter, Esther Vanda!

Next, our youngest son Aaron announced his engagement to a lovely young woman, Heather Clark! They are hoping to have a wedding in early November. They presently both work at the Ark Encounter – Aaron in Attraction Operations and Heather as the R.A. for the women’s short-term workers dorm. We appreciate prayer as they move in the direction to join their lives. We are so happy for them!

Then, Esther had a wonderful opportunity to make a short trip to Kentucky to visit with her west coast family and those working at the Ark (this now included Lydia and Sarah who work there every summer in the zoo). Our cousins from Ohio were able to join us as well as long time family friend Nikki (Ranalli) Barker and her husband Derek. We had such a great time exploring the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter together, laughing, taking photos, holding babies, eating meals together…truly a wonderful time!

And to top it all off, our son Ethan and his wife announced they are expecting baby #3 in late November/early December!!! We are SO happy for them and looking forward to grandbaby #7.

Prayer requests:

• Please continue to pray for the Cofan Old Testament project, for the guys to be encouraged and press forward, for health and protection, and for God’s provision.
• Pray that in the change in routine over the summer, we will use our time wisely in service to Him. We have already had some fun surprises and opportunities.
• For the health and protection of the Cofan church leaders in the villages of Sinangue, Dureno and Zabalo.
• Ron will be taking his brother Rick’s team to Sinangue for a short trip in early July. Pray for safe travels and good health for everyone going. May they bless and be blessed with their time with the Cofan people.
• Pray for the Father/Son Campout Ron is heading up the end of August. Still working on the details for this much anticipated event.
• For a possible new summer project Ron is working on with one of our Christian Venezuelan fathers that attend our church. It is a sort of summer activity time in the mornings for pre-teens and teens. Our friend said they would do it at their church for 10 mornings (two weeks) and invite friends from their church to help host the activity – anything from sports activities, to learning how to change the oil in a car, a cooking lesson, etc., including a time to study the Bible together. His concern is for his two teens that find themselves at loose ends once school is out for the summer. We have wanted to have VBS at our church and have been praying about it and we have a team planning on coming down next summer (2025) to help us with that. This project would be different and for older kids. We appreciate your prayers as we consider this and possibly have at least a “five-day” test doing this later this summer.

Thank you for your prayers, notes of encouragement and gifts of support. We are so thankful for our “team” of supporters!