December 2022

Year 2022

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The year 2022

My highlight was developing a course on Introduction to the Bible.
It began when an Indigenous Church in Quito asked me, with a two day notice, to teach a course on an overview of the Bible. I’ve had the idea for decades in my head. This was an opportunity to put it all together.
I would call the result my thesis of the Bible: God creating, redeeming, and ruling His people. I didn’t write it all out, instead, in my style, created a 67 page PowerPoint. This is now my material for our Bible studies.

This year marks a turning point in our ministry and our lives: Faby’s health. After several specialists, exams, emergencies, medicines, etc the best treatment so far for headaches is a good cup of coffee at night. Still, after a few trial trips, we made the decision that Faby can no longer make the trips to Riobamba and to the Quichua communities in the mountains. So we are planning to use our home in Quito (El-Tingo) for new ministry. We still keep in touch with several Quichua pastors.

God surprised us, and out of the blue sent us a couple with a five year old to live with us and help us around the house with cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc. We met them at a nearby church, and soon became friends. We learned that they had lost their jobs in the Pandemic and were surviving doing odd jobs now and then. So we invited them to live with us in the first floor apartment. The arrangement is a blessing to both families.

We have now vacated our apartment in Riobamba, and have begun Bible studies in our home. We begin a new year looking forward to God’s direction. May He surprise us!

Prov 16:9
Psalm 37:4

Christmas time

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One advantage of no longer traveling is that we'll be at home for this Christmas. We haven't decorated our house for Christmas for over a decade, but we found all the necessary elements without going out. Our backyard holds cypress trees, so all we had to do was cut a few branches to make a tree. Then we dug out a few dusty boxes a Christmas ornaments. Lo and behold, we now have a Christmas tree!

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Home Bible Study

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Wednesday night Bible study at our home in El-Tingo. I'm trying to "read the group" and see what kind of Bible study will work best. Hernan has been a Christian for years, but his wife Nataly for only a few. Luis and Sonia have been with us before in Bible studies and conferences, but they're only here in Ecuador for a few months before returning to the US where their children reside and where they're seeking citizenship. Jorge lives with us and is a young Christian. We'll take it one week at a time.

New Ministry Site

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We finally made the big move: bringing all our furniture from our apartment in Riobamba to our house in Quito. I made the 3-hour trip with Jorge, who lives with us, in a rented truck (comes with driver). Thankfully we had seven others to help us load the furniture. The apartment lies on the fifth floor. No elevator. In one hour we had everything loaded, and headed back for Quito.

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This is our living room set in Riobamba …

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… which is now installed at our home in El-Tingo, in it's original site. We are planning to have bible studies here, Lord willing.

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Small world

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I keep wondering if we'll continue to have a ministry with the Quichua now that we're not able to visit their communities. God gave me a surprise on Monday. Just down the road from us a Quichua woman runs a small business of fruit and vegetables. Wherever I see a woman wearing the dress only those in Chimborazo use, I have to ask where they're from. She told me, "From Riobamba." I know enough that they're not really from Riobamba. So I pressed the question: "Where are you from?" She replied, "From Guamote." Again, I know that she's not from Guamote, a 45 minute drive South of Riobamba, but from some nearby community. I repeated the question: "Where exactly are you from?" "From Sablog." Sablog is a collection of communities on the mountain behind Guamote. I've been there, so I asked, "From Santa Rosa, San Isidro, San Francisco, or another of the nine communities of Sablog." Now I had her attention. She responded, "From San Isidro." I've been to San Isidro many times and know the pastor there, Luis Ortiz. We connected. Now we have a good relationship and stop by often. Our ministry to the Quichua continues.