Carnival...

This is Carnival week-end in Ecuador. That means that most people are off work today and tomorrow. Manta is filled to overflowing with touriest from the "mountians". Carnival is kind of like "Mardi Gras" in the States, except that the big thing to do here, is throw water, or water balloons at people. When we lived in Quito I just hated this time of year, because they would start about a month or so ahead of time. Walking down the street became a hazardous activity. I remember seeing young ladies in suits, probably bank tellers walking down the street on their lunch hour and getting a bucket of water thrown at them.

In Manta, the water play pretty much is reserved for this week-end, also for the most part it is reserved for the beach too. Although you will see kids with buckets full of water, and small plastic containers on the side walks waiting for that pick up truck full of people to drive by so they can throw water at them. We "celebrated" the holiday today, by having a big water fight at home. Just Tony, Teddy and I! Teddy thought it was great fun, and that we should do it once a month! :-)

Yesterday was our churches 3rd anniversary. We had a great day. We had 80 in attendance, which is a little lower than what we have been averaging, but then for a holiday week-end we were pretty happy with it. There were some visitors, and we all enjoyed cake after the service.

In the evening we participated in an evangelistic outreach in the park near the church. There were about 200 people that watched a movie, and listened to a clear presentation of the gospel during a short intermission. About 60 people accepted Gospels of John, and participated in a short Bible study time. Pray with us that there will be fruit from this event. Many of our church people came and participated, handing out tracks, and talking with people.

Please be praying with our family as we continue to make preparations for a short furlough this Spring.

God Bless!
Joy