We are excited to have a group visiting us from Capitol City Baptist Church in Lansing, MI.
We had great services this morning, with 111 attending the worship service. 4 people raised their hands that they had prayed to accept Christ. After talking with them, Tony is sure that 3 of them were more for assurance, but still we are excited to see the Lord working in the hearts of those that he has brought our way. We have 4 young people who are planning on being baptized next Sunday.
I would appreciate your prayers for me as I prepare this week for the Teacher's workshops I will be presenting starting next Saturday. There is much to prepare for, and I will also be working the visiting group, so I just need to find the time to get everything done. I'm excited to see what the Lord is going to do this week, through this special team visiting us.
God bless you this week as you serve Him!
Joy
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Another week...
Hi Everyone! I pray that you had a great day in God's House today. We had great services. The attendance was down a little bit. We had about 70 in the worship service. I think there were some activities at some of the schools today. They usually have their programs and things on Sunday.
We had 12 people sign up today to participate in a teacher training workshop. It will be about 5, 1 hour meetings, starting Aug. 2. Everyone who participates and finishes the course, will receive a certificate. (that is a big deal here! :-) I appreicate your prayers for me as I work on pulling the material together and teach these classes.
Please be praying for Wilda, Aday and Mirian as they have comitted to work with me in our Ladies Ministry. We are planning to try and meet together once a month or so and pray for the ladies, and also plan activities, etc. It is very important at this stage in our ministry that we start to divide the work up among others. God has blessed us with some very dear people and we appreciate your prayers as we work with them and get them involved in the work here.
Another special request is for Zonia. I have requsted prayer for her a different times. She is a very dear Christian lady who has been battling cancer for several years. It seems that she is nearing the end of this battle. We know that God is able to do anything and selfishly we would ask him to raise her up, but more than anything we know that Zonia wants the Lord to be glorified in her life. She has been such a blessing and testimony for him. I can't tell you how many doctors, nurses and other patients she has met during this struggle that have had the opportunity to come to Christ because of her testimony. Please be praying for her, that the Lord would relieve her pain, that he would give her the grace and strength she needs to run this race. Pray too, for her daughters, Melania and Dina. Pray for her extended family and for our church family during this time.
God bless you as you serve him this week!
Joy
We had 12 people sign up today to participate in a teacher training workshop. It will be about 5, 1 hour meetings, starting Aug. 2. Everyone who participates and finishes the course, will receive a certificate. (that is a big deal here! :-) I appreicate your prayers for me as I work on pulling the material together and teach these classes.
Please be praying for Wilda, Aday and Mirian as they have comitted to work with me in our Ladies Ministry. We are planning to try and meet together once a month or so and pray for the ladies, and also plan activities, etc. It is very important at this stage in our ministry that we start to divide the work up among others. God has blessed us with some very dear people and we appreciate your prayers as we work with them and get them involved in the work here.
Another special request is for Zonia. I have requsted prayer for her a different times. She is a very dear Christian lady who has been battling cancer for several years. It seems that she is nearing the end of this battle. We know that God is able to do anything and selfishly we would ask him to raise her up, but more than anything we know that Zonia wants the Lord to be glorified in her life. She has been such a blessing and testimony for him. I can't tell you how many doctors, nurses and other patients she has met during this struggle that have had the opportunity to come to Christ because of her testimony. Please be praying for her, that the Lord would relieve her pain, that he would give her the grace and strength she needs to run this race. Pray too, for her daughters, Melania and Dina. Pray for her extended family and for our church family during this time.
God bless you as you serve him this week!
Joy
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Home at Last...
Sorry for the delay in posting on here. We arrived back in Ecuador on Tuesday night, July 8. Our flights were all on time and everything went very smoothly. All of our luggage arrived with us, and that is a first in several trips, so we were very thankful!
On Wednesday we took the mid-day flight to from Quito to Manta, and arrived here about 1:30. There was a small group waiting to greet us from our church and that was a blessing. We arrived at our house a little after 2:00pm.
The next couple days were spent unpacking and getting things organized here at home. Saturday we went to have lunch with Alfredo and Wilda and had a good visit with them. We also had the opportunity to visit with Zonia, who many of you know has been battling cancer. She is very frail and has not had the opportunity to be out at church from some time, but she was praising the Lord and was such a blessing to be able to spend a little time with her. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.
Sunday was a great day for us at church! Tony and I enjoyed teaching our classes again. It was such a blessing to hear the testimonies from different people of how the Lord had been working in their lives. It was also very humbling to feel so appreciated and missed. Tony did a great job of preaching. After the service they had a meal. So everyone stayed and had a great time of fellowship. There were 4 first time visitors Sunday and at total of 112 in the church service.
Tony will start meeting with a young man this Tuesday evening to have discipleship classes. Please pray for him. Also pray as I work on preparing some material to present a 4 or 5 week teacher training seminar.
Today was the first day of 1st grade for Teddy! I had planned to wait and start next week, but he was very excited about starting and so we went ahead today. I had thought to take it slow this first week, but he pretty much breezed through everything, so I guess we are just diving in! I know it probably sounds really early to most of you, but with the trip back in December/January for Lexi and Jonathan's wedding, it will work out better if we have a head start with school. :-)
Our life is full and we are excited about all the Lord is doing here! Thank you for your prayers for us, for our family and for the ministry the Lord has given us here in Manta.
God Bless you!
Joy
On Wednesday we took the mid-day flight to from Quito to Manta, and arrived here about 1:30. There was a small group waiting to greet us from our church and that was a blessing. We arrived at our house a little after 2:00pm.
The next couple days were spent unpacking and getting things organized here at home. Saturday we went to have lunch with Alfredo and Wilda and had a good visit with them. We also had the opportunity to visit with Zonia, who many of you know has been battling cancer. She is very frail and has not had the opportunity to be out at church from some time, but she was praising the Lord and was such a blessing to be able to spend a little time with her. Please keep her and her family in your prayers.
Sunday was a great day for us at church! Tony and I enjoyed teaching our classes again. It was such a blessing to hear the testimonies from different people of how the Lord had been working in their lives. It was also very humbling to feel so appreciated and missed. Tony did a great job of preaching. After the service they had a meal. So everyone stayed and had a great time of fellowship. There were 4 first time visitors Sunday and at total of 112 in the church service.
Tony will start meeting with a young man this Tuesday evening to have discipleship classes. Please pray for him. Also pray as I work on preparing some material to present a 4 or 5 week teacher training seminar.
Today was the first day of 1st grade for Teddy! I had planned to wait and start next week, but he was very excited about starting and so we went ahead today. I had thought to take it slow this first week, but he pretty much breezed through everything, so I guess we are just diving in! I know it probably sounds really early to most of you, but with the trip back in December/January for Lexi and Jonathan's wedding, it will work out better if we have a head start with school. :-)
Our life is full and we are excited about all the Lord is doing here! Thank you for your prayers for us, for our family and for the ministry the Lord has given us here in Manta.
God Bless you!
Joy
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Time to pack up...
Here we are all on the porch of the cabin we got to stay in last week! In case you don't recognize everyone, here's the order left to right... Shane, Ashley, Lexi, Tony, Joy, Teddy(down front), Jonathan, Mike, Ioan(on the rail), and Mandie.
Ashley's wedding was beautiful, and I will try and post some pictures as soon as I have some!
It is hard to believe that our time in the US is almost over. Ashley's wedding was beautiful. We had a wonderful time having our family all together. It was also a great time to visit with friends and family too.
Last Sunday we went to a church in Asbury, TN. Lexi and Jonathan were here and went with us. We really enjoyed having a few extra days to visit with them after the wedding.
Monday night, we stayed in Pigeon Forge with Tony's Mom, and his sisters and their families. That was a lot of fun too. We drove back to Crossville on Tuesday and met Shane and Ashley here, packing up the van. After lunch they headed back to Springfield.
Now we are just trying to pack up our stuff. You always end up with way more stuff than you can ever take with you, and right now is the normal summer embargo on flights going into Quito, so we are only allowed to take 2 suitcases each at 50 pounds. You can't even pay for overweight or an extra bag... so we are packing, repacking, and packing again. :-)
We really appreciate your prayers for our family, as we are once again, spread out... also thank you for prayers for the work in Manta.
God bless you as you serve him!
Joy
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