I trust that each one of you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with Family and Friends. We had a great time here at our house. We enjoyed having Stacey Smith visit us from Tuesday-Friday and Joe and Sylvia Wells arrived Thursday about 11:30 and just left this afternoon.

Yesterday was our special Ladies day here at the church. Because where we meet right now, doesn't have a space big enough to host something like this now, we were able to have it in a local restaurant. Our theme this year was "The gifts of Christmas" and we started at 10:00 and went until 3:00.

The morning started out with a couple games, (a word search and a word scramble) and moved on to our speaker who was Sylvia Wells this year. We enjoyed a short time of refreshments in between our lessons, and then we had Ladies choir that sang some Christmas carols with some verses in between. They have been practicing for about 8 weeks after our Friday Bible Study and really enjoyed it. They did a great job!

After the choir we had another game time...3 groups had to "dress up" someone like a snowman using 2 rolls of toilet paper, a piece of black poster board, tape and scissors. Then there were another 3 groups that had to "dress up" someone like a Christmas tree. They were given a pack of green crepe paper, a few sheets of colored paper, scissors and tape. Everyone was so creative and it was so funny.

After the game, we had lunch, then a demonstration of a simple floral arrangement, and after that, we had a craft time. We ended the day, with a few door prizes, and "thank you" gifts for some special ladies. It was a wonderful day, and such a blessing to have people who shared the work load with me!

This morning we had a great service. There were over 80 in the Sunday School hour and 98 for the worship service. The young people lead the music and did a great job. Joe Wells preached this morning. We had a family visit for the first time. The husband talked to Tony after church and indicated that he had accepted Christ recently. Another lady talked to us about being baptized.

This evening we met with about 20 people who are going to be working to put together our Children's Christmas party on Dec. 19. It is so neat to have a great group of people willing to share the work load and everyone seems really excited about the plans we are putting into action.

This week, I will be meeting with our Ladies Ministry Team to "debrief" about our day Saturday...and make a few plans for the future.

Thank you for praying for our family and for our ministry here in Manta. Please be praying for our kids as they travel back to their homes in the US. Lexi and her fiancee Jonathan will be traveling back to Kansas from Springfield, Mo. where they enjoyed Thanksgiving with Ashley and Shane. Mandie, Mike and Ioan will be traveling back to their home in Ohio from VA. where they enjoyed Thanksgiving with Mike's family.

Please continue to pray for the building program here in Manta...work continues to move forward. We are excited to see how God is providing our needs in this area.

God Bless you as you serve Him this week!
Joy

Thanksgiving is coming!

Since last I posted, I celebrated my birthday...it was very nice. 26 ladies from the church, came to the house and "surprised" me with a party. It was very nice. A special treat was that Zonia came too! That was an extra special blessing to me. We had a great time singing and and visiting together.

We have made progress on the building...well, the big machines have showed up and started leveling things...we had a surveyor come and start his work. Next we need to get some fill added, but things are moving along. We need to have something that we can meet in, by the end of June, as our lease at our present apartment is up and the owner has told us that he will want the house back.

Last Friday was our last Ladies Bible Study in the series were were doing. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and talked about what a blessing the time had been to them. The ladies are now working on preparations for our "Ladies Day" the 29th. Please be praying with us as we work on the final plans. We have about 60 ladies signed up to attend. Please pray that those who have committed to come will follow through.

Sunday we had 87 in church. That was down from the week before, but many people were sick or out of town. Please pray for the growth and faithfulness of these new Christians.

We are getting excited here in the Anzalone house about Thanksgiving. I have to say that it is one of our favorite holidays. We have decorated the house. Bought all the "extra" goodies to cook and bake the traditional feast. We are cleaning out and sprucing up the house for company. In the middle of all this "busyness" we are taking some extra time to talk about what the holiday means, and think of things that we are thankful for. This year, we added a paper turkey to the door between our kitchen and dining room and are adding "thankful feathers" to it. We have even enlisted our daughters and son-in-laws in the the US to participate with us, by sending us things they are thankful for so we can add feathers for them. Teddy is getting into the whole thing!

I pray that you have a wonderful holiday, whether you are near or far away from your family...may you find many reasons to count your blessings and give thanks to the Lord!

God bless you!
Joy

Plans, Plans and more Plans

Life is running along non-stop these days. The ladies are getting very excited about our special day the end of the month. On Wednesday I met with the 3 leaders of our Ladies Groups and everything is going forward. We have about 50 ladies already signed up to participate! Of course all of those aren't "paid" yet, so the actual attendance could be less, but it is encouraging to see so many excited about this event.

The Friday Bible Studies have continued to be well attended. This past Friday, I was sick, so Tony went and taught the class. That was a unique experience for both him and the ladies! :-) This Friday will be our last study in this series.

There is a group of ladies that continue to take turns teaching the Ladies Sunday School Class. They are doing a great job and I have enjoyed seeing them "try their wings".

The Children's classes continue to go well. We are excited to be getting ready to start our 4th quarter for this year. The Lord has given us a great group of teachers for this ministry and I am very thankful for that.

This month we need to make plans for the Children's Christmas Party. Please pray as we work on planning the program for this special event. The groups that go to Travesia to minister are also in the midst of planning their Christmas program. It is also time to start collecting cookies and candy to make the "navidad" bags, (goodie bags) to hand out the children at the parties.

After seeing how well the groups have worked in the Ladies ministry, the men have decided this is something they should put into practice. So they are in the process of getting this ministry strated too. Also they have decided that the women are having too much fun, with all their Bible Studies and "special days", so they are planning an activity for Saturday the 22nd. Please keep these ministries in your prayers.

This morning we had 115 in church! I have to tell you the place was packed! There were 99 uspstairs on the teraza! I honestly don't know where we would have put many more. We had about 10 first time visitors! What an exciting sight to see. Tonight was our last class on Child Discipline. We also had a meeting with the Leadership team afterwards.

This coming week, we have much to do. Please continue to pray for Zonia and her family in these days, as she continues to battle cancer. Please pray for Maria Jose and I as we finish up the next quarter of Sunday School material and get it copied and ready to hand out Sunday. Pray for Tony as he works with the different areas of ministry...pray for progress with the building. Pray for Teddy and I as we do school.

Thank you for your interest in our family and the ministry here in Manta. We appreciate your prayers for us!

God bless you as you serve him this week!
Joy

November is here!

Good Morning! This is vacation time here in Ecuador. November 2nd is "Day of the Dead" here. This is a time for families to get together. Many go to the cemeteries and decorate the graves of family members. In the mountains they make a drink called "colada morada" and also bread in the shape of little dolls. I was able to bring back some of the igredients needed for the drink when I returned from Quito on Wednesday and on of the ladies made it for our Friday Bible Study. It was a big hit! :-)

Because of the Holiday our attendance of course was down Sunday, but it was such a blessing to see that we still had 70! Also many people that were out of town, had made sure that their responsibilities were covered. We are excited to see this growth in the people here.

The Ladies Bible Studies on Friday continue to go well. They are well attended, and many of the ladies have expressed what a blessing they have been. We have 2 more weeks for this series. Pray for me as I teach these classes.

Our sweet sister, Zonia Marriot, is in the final days of her cancer. She is at home, and her daughter, Melanie and son-in-law Luis are her main care givers. Her daughter Dina and her husband Marco live in Quito and have been making the trip down, whenever possible. Please keep this sweet family in your prayers. Melanie is expecting their first child the end of December, and she so wanted her mother to live to see the baby.

Melanie shared with us on Friday, that her mother had been talking to her about her funeral. She told her that she wanted lots and lots of singing and praising God. She didn't want anyone crying, because she would be in heaven, and that certianly wasn't anything to be crying about!

Please pray for our son Teddy. He started running a temp yesterday afternoon and complaining of a headache. Because the temp was pretty high, we decided to take him to a nearby clinic and get checked out. The doctor told us that he is in the first stages of getting something...but she couldn't tell what yet. We needed to wait about 48 hours, and it should manifest itself. In the meantime she gave us medicine to help control the fever. She told us that there are 3 things going around right now...one is a virus that is just a high fever and headache and after about 48 hours, goes away. The other two both start out with high fever and headache, but then turn into either a bad cold, or stomach problems...so we are in the "waiting process" right now.

We thank you so much for your prayers for our family and the ministry here in Manta!
God Bless you as you serve him this week!
Joy