Isaiah 26:3 – 4 “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.”

Thank you for your prayers these past busy months! Once again, time has flown since our last update, so we will try to give you a general rundown of what these last months have looked like.

July

On our summer months schedule, our routine shifts a bit and so we took advantage to practice hospitality and had a number of friends over for a meal this month or put them up for a couple nights as they were traveling to or from the airport or other personal business that needed taken care of here in the city. Ron had a work team he hosted down in Sinangue and we managed to take a few days of rest down at the coast of Ecuador for several days. Both of us were able to spend a few days in Dureno in our house, hosting the translation team and treating them to lunch during a busy day of working on the project. Esther met with her Bible study ladies one day for a time of fellowship and Ron had a number of meetings pertaining to the Cofan OT Bible translation work.

Above is the current enlarged Sinangue church building after much work this past year

August

This month opened with a meeting with The Seed Company https://seedcompany.com/ an organization that helps with funding for Bible translation projects worldwide. We also ran a Teen Five-Day Club at our church August 12th – 16th that was a big success. This idea was brought to us by a Venezuelan couple that attends our church here – something they would do at their church. We picked up the idea and with their help had a week of mornings where we met with teens ages 12 – 17 for a time of mixed activities and then having a time of Questions and Answers with the Bible on such subjects as relationships, the Gospel, social media, etc.

Some other things this month was more meetings pertaining to the Bible translation work, hospitality with more friends, and the Annual Father/Son Campout. The month ended with us flying up to Kentucky to get ready for our son Aaron’s wedding!

September

The first week of September was filled with wedding preparations for Aaron and Heather, who were joined in marriage September 6th. It was a beautiful, simple ceremony and reception held in a little church near the Ark Encounter. We rejoiced along with them and their friends during this week! All of Aaron’s siblings were able to attend as well as some aunts and uncles and cousins. God provided!

We hit the ground running returning to Ecuador on the 8th with ladies Bible study starting up Tuesday afternoons, our regular weekly meetings, a jungle trip, and Sarah returning for the school year to work along with us with the youth. We had a lovely visit with Jim and Sharon Fleming from our mission and then the following week started up Homeschool Teen Fellowship again for our thirteenth year!!

Sarah started right in with the planning of youth activities for both the Homeschool group and church group. She and Ron were able to start back up their Teen Bible Studies on Monday evenings. This year she is helping two homeschool moms, by taking their kids once or twice a week to work on studies and extracurricular activities. She is also a HUGE blessing to the young moms in my Tuesday afternoon Bible study taking charge of childcare when we meet.

October

It’s so hard to believe we are already almost halfway through this month! Ron’s already taken a jungle trip and shared at the monthly Men’s Breakfast at our church the first Saturday of the month.

Soon coming events are: sharing at Spiritual Emphasis Week at Alliance Academy International on Wednesday the 16th, the local church gathering conference at IBME the weekend of October 19-20, Ron’s brother Rick and a work-team coming down that Ron will host in the jungle October 25th – 28th – those are the extra things besides our normal routine! Our lives are full of things that God has put before us to do, to share His message of life and love with others.

Prayer Requests –

• For Dovuno and the changes we have been observing these past few months. A young couple, Rober and Estefania, seeking baptism and hungry for God’s Word. The strong desire and start of a church building in this community that has never had one before. Ron has been visiting this community for over twenty years, working with the children and teaching them God’s Word; visiting with the few professing Christians in their homes and having Bible studies. This year, the church leaders in Dureno made the commitment to come to this community once-a-month to hold a service in the community meeting area. These things as well as your prayers over the years are finally showing a difference.
• Pray for the Cofan OT translation project. Funding is still a challenge as we were not able to get on The Seed Company list this year. However, we have a mighty God that will continue to provide for this work – so we are trusting in Him.
• Continue praying for our youth groups – for these young people to come with their questions concerning eternity and find the answers in God’s Word.
• For health, stamina, strength and creativity with the power outages we have been experiencing here in Ecuador. We continue to push forward with the work, but sometimes it is more challenging with electricity shortages. We remind ourselves that the eleven years living in the jungle we only had three hours a day of generator power, and we managed just fine!