Home Sweet Home!

We arrived back home to Manta, Friday evening. The week at camp went great. Tony's messages came together, and he felt that he got a good response from the teens. One boy that we know of accepted Christ and that was certianly exciting! The camp was outside of Cuenca in the mountians. It was a beautiful setting and for these 3 "manabitas" extremely cold! We are sure that the temps got down in the low 40s at night, and we just don't own the kind of clothes to wear for that kind of weather! LOL Fortunately, Sarah had brought extra blankets for us and we were able to keep warm, at night, wearing multiple layers and huddling under 2 wool blankets!

It was a nice time to fellowship and get to know Yuri and Sarah Alfaro along with their two boys, Samuel and Jared.

Yesterday afternoon, 15 ladies attended the monthly ladies meeting. They all had a great time of fellowship and encouraging one another.

Last night was our 3rd session of the teacher training classes. It has been encouraging to me to see the interest and work that everyone is putting into these classes. Thank you for your prayers for me. It was very exciting today, to see the teachers putting into practice what they have been learning!

This morning we had 81 in church. After Sunday School, Janneth, one of the children's teachers came up to me, along with one of her students and told me that he had accepted Christ this morning in class! Later on when Maria Jose came upstairs she was excited and wanted to make sure that I knew that one of their boys had been saved. What a blessing to see them so excited about know that they are putting into practice the lessons we have had about how to lead child to Christ!

The ladies at church are very excited about the upcoming retreat in Santo Domingo. At this time we have 13 ladies signed up to go. There is a possiblity of 2 more, and I should know for sure by tomorrow.

We also heard today that the Proaño's will be returning to Manta on Tuesday. The news at this time, is that the treatments in Quito went really well. Please continue to keep this precious family in your prayers.

Please keep the ministry here in Manta in your prayers. We are excited to see God working in so many people's lives. It is also a great blessing to see so many people getting involved in the work. We now have 3 ladies working with me in our ladies minstry here. They each have a group of ladies that they are keeping track of... calling when they absent, praying for them, etc. Also Wilda and Lupe are working with me, taking turns teaching the ladies Sunday School class.

We just started our 3rd quarter in our Children's Sunday School. Cecila and Javier are teaching our younger children's class... 3 years old through 1st grade, and Mariá Jose and Janneth are teaching the older children's class... 2nd through 6th grade. It will certianly be nice when we have the room to divide the classes up more, but we are thankful at this time, that we can at least have 2 classes and not try to put all the children 3 to 12 in one class! (that was the case at one time!)

There is much going on this week! Our building plans and permits were approved last week! That means we can start work on the building soon. Tony has various appointments for discipleship classes this week. Also Bible Institute class is Thursday evening. Teddy and I will get back into school. We will be starting week 4. I also will be meeting with a couple ladies this week, along with preparing this coming weeks lessons for the traing class on Saturday.

Thank you for your prayers. God bless you as you serve Him this week!
Joy