Exciting News!

Dear Friends,
Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I am very thankful for each of you. Thank you for your support, love, and encouragement to me. I spent Thanksgiving with Pablo, my old roommate Laura and her husband, plus 30 other people. We had a delicious lunch together. On Friday I spent the day at Santos Pamba Christian School with the kids. It was a wonderful day. See the pictures!

Before I write more, I have exciting news…I’M ENGAGED! November 21st Pablo proposed in a very romantic way. We are very excited! We have decided to get married here in Quito on July 10, 2010. We will be coming to Seattle for Christmas on Dec. 19th- and are excited to see everyone.
Well, It’s about time that I did an update on what has been going on here in Quito.

SANTA MARIA CHURCH INAUGURATION

In October a team from Canada came, as well as Jon Sousley and Cy from Gig Harbor, came for Santa Maria Quichua Alliance Church's inauguration. For the past 2 years, the members of the church have been building their new church building, and other missionaries have been helping raise funds for the construction. It is a beautiful building and our prayer is that it will be filled with new members from the community. The inauguration celebration lasted 3 days. Pablo helped with the music. Pablo and I enjoyed spending time with the team from Canada, Jon, and Cy. It was very encouraging and refreshing to be with them.


SANTOS PAMBA FIELD TRIP

The first Santos Pamba Christian School Mission Trip with our 3rd graders went very well. Thank you for praying for us. We had 35 third graders and 55 students from Santos Pamba! Our third graders each got assigned two buddies who they spent the whole day with. I was very proud of this group. They didn’t complain or make faces because of different smells or sights for the first time. They loved their buddies just like they were their own little brothers and sisters. We sang songs with them, and then read them the story of “The Pumpkin Parable”. Afterwards the kids did a pumpkin art project with their buddies and played outside. We then all had lunch together and said our goodbyes. The day went by very fast! We had 8 mothers go with us on this trip. When we returned back to the Alliance Academy to talk about their experience. Many of the kids wrote in their journal about the new things that they saw (people making bricks, pigs and sheep everywhere, many kids without socks, how some dressed in indigenous clothing, etc. They begged for us to take them back again. That’s my desire. We are going to Santos Pamba on December 11th to have a Christmas party with our buddies! They students are going to act out the Nativity story and we are going to decorate Christmas cookies with them!

ELECTRICITY RATIONIONING AND GRADUATE CLASSES

I am almost finished with my first two graduate classes. They have been very difficult and time consuming, more than I thought it would be. It has been hard to balance school, working full time, ministry, and have a life. On top of finding time to do work, the government has been rationing the electricity for the past month. There has been no rain for a long time; therefore the hydroelectric plants can’t produce the electricity for the country. The government turns off the electricity for a period of time everyday in different parts of the city. My school has a generator, but it has been hard to do homework at home when there is no light. Many farmer’s crops and livestock have died due to this drought. Please pray for more rain for Ecuador!

I wanted to share with you that I do not have a roommate now. It did not work out with Hannah. I have decided to live on my own until I get married in July. Please pray that Lord will continue to provide what I need to pay bills, etc. He has been faithful and I know he will continue to be.

I look forward to seeing many of you SOON! Love you all and hope you are doing well. God bless you!