What's happening at church/

Here we are at the beginning of the last week in July! The summer is just flying by. I know for many, school will be starting early next month. My daughter Mandie has mentioned that teacher inservice starts for them on the 9th. Of course here on the coast of Ecuador the school year is different. For our students here "summer vacation" begins in January and they are all back in school by the end of March.

Sunday morning, the church had a special fellowship time after the morning service to celebrate Tony's birthday. It was very nice to see how they had worked together to organize everything. Everyone was treated to Birthday cake and pop. Teddy was thrilled! :-)

We had good services Sunday. There were 92 in church! We were thrilled to see our older children's class up to 17! This week I am working on getting the Sunday School material all together for the next quarter, which will start the 2nd Sunday in August. We will be having a special teacher's meeting this Sunday evening and then again next week. There are several new people who will be working in these ministries during the next months. I know that they would appreciate your prayers for them.

This Saturday we are having our first "Membership seminar." These seminars are very important for our church. Tony is going to have the seminar at 2 different times, so that people can fit it into their schedule. Please be praying with us that we will have a good turnout. So far in the life of our church, we haven't had deacons, members, etc. We have now grown to the point that it is time to put these processes into motion. The seminars will be a time to explain in detail what it means to be a "member" of our church, etc.

Tony and I continue to meet with different people for discipleship classes throughout the week. Also the Ladies Bible Study on Friday is going well. We are getting ready to start a new round of small group meetings this week. These meetings run on a 6 week cycle with 2 weeks off. Please pray for the leaders of these groups. They are all men who are very young in their Christian faith, but who are growing.

The Bible Institute Students had their final exam last week, so are getting ready to start a new course this week. Pray for those who have made the committment to study.

Starting on August 5 we will being having Youth Group again in the afternoons. Luis and Melanie have committed to work with Tony and the youth.