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