Welcome

I would love to invite you into my home to have a cup of tea with me. We could sit in my sunny kitchen and talk about all the things that are going on in our lives. I could share with you the news I hear from my grown daughters. How my grandkids are growing. We could laugh together over the funny things that they have said. It would be fun to share the ins and outs of our family life, and talk about our latest creative projects. We could share what God has been teaching us, in our personal lives, and encourage each other on this walk of faith. We could pray together, laugh together, and even cry together. Since most of us will never be able to sit down together face to face, I would like to invite you to join me here. So come on in and have a cup of tea with me.

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Joy

Joy

About Me

Crossville, Tennessee, United States
I am a 61 year old, wife, married to my best friend for 40 years. We have been blessed with 6 children, & 13 grandchildren. I love mentoring women in their spritual walk & in the everyday. I have a diverse background, having spent over 30 years living and ministering in a small South American country. Now my family resides in a small town in the lovely state of Tennessee. We have experienced the blessing of adoption, but also the hard of dealing with a child with RAD and other mental health issues. You can live life with the cup half full or half empty the choice is yours. I choose half full.

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Monday, March 23, 2009

March 23rd

"Happy Monday!" Hope you are each doing well. We have had a couple busy weeks. Things at the church are going great. The building is underway and we are excited to see how the Lord is providing each step of the way. Please keep this in your prayers.

Last week we made a run to Guayaquil. We had to start to process to get Teddy's passport renewed, and we were able to get tickets using our Airline Miles for this summer, so we will be able to see our new grand babies and visit some of you!

Yesterday evening we had a double baby shower for two precious ladies in the church. Monica and Viviana are due to deliver this coming month. Please keep them both in your prayers.
37 ladies attended to show their love and support. It was a very special time.

I have a special prayer request for you...This morning we got a phone call from one of the ladies. Her mother had passed away in her sleep last night. Please pray for Wilda. Her mother was in good health and this has been a very hard blow for her. She knows that her Mom is with the Lord and we are thankful for that! Wilda and Alfredo have headed to Quito to be with the rest of their family. Please pray for them during these difficult days.

God Bless you as you serve Him this week!
Joy

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Sunday afternoon...

Good afternoon everyone! Hope your Sunday is going well. We had good services this morning, even if our attendance was down. The "official" count was 64. Our kids classes were down and we had many regulars out for various reasons...Even with that, we had 1 first time visitor and several returning for the 2nd time, so we were thankful for that.

Yesterday 5 of the younger women came over to our house for a time of fellowship. We had a great time together. Each of them are struggling with different areas in their lives. Two of them have unsaved husbands. Please pray for Paola and Janneth as they witness to their husbands. Pray for Javier and Edwin to accept Christ as their Savior.

We just got back from the service in Portoviejo. There were 17 present there. Please pray for this struggling work. Pray that God would bring the Ecuadorian Pastor that He has for this church.

Tomorrow we believe they are actually going to get down to work at the property! We are very excited about this. We have very limited funds and we are trusting the Lord to supply what is needed for each step of the way. Please be praying with us about this.

I have to share a little blessing...I think it is just amazing how the Lord uses children to encourage and bless us...

Tony has Teddy on an "envelope system" with his allowance. He has an envelope for his offering, another for "spending money", one for "long-term savings" and one for "short-term savings". I don't know if he has figured out the difference in "long-term" and "short-term" savings but over all he is doing really well with it. He totally understands the idea of savings as he saved quite a bit of money to take to the US when we went at Christmas, and used it to buy Christmas presents and then had some left over to do some "shopping of his own".

A few minutes ago, I noticed he had all his money out and he was counting it. I asked him what he was doing, but he was a little vague in his answer. Then he brought Tony an envelope full of money and on the outside, he had written as best he could..."money to help buy Bibles for the people at church". Tony told him that was really nice, but that we had some Bibles and we would be getting more so he didn't have to us his savings for that, but Teddy insisted that he wanted to add his money to the fund. He put in all the money he had, except what was in his "offering envelope" because that was for the church and the missionaries. What a blessing to me to see him growing in generosity and tenderness, toward the things of the Lord. To hear us talking about a need that many of the people have for a Bible, and then decide on his own, that he wanted to do something about it, more than he wanted to buy a new toy.

I pray God's blessings on your week, your family and your ministry!
Joy

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Some VBS pictures...


The Intermediate class this morning getting ready to share a song they learned this week.


The preschool and primary classes receiving their certificates this morning.


The Intermediate class met on the terrazzo Friday and Saturday nights.


The primary class, Saturday night.


The preschool class working on their activity, Saturday night.

We had a great week here in Manta! VBS went really well. We had over 50 kids every night. A great turnout of workers. Everyone had a great time. This morning for the closing program with had 134 in church. We had a great turn out in each of the children's classes and a few parents visiting to see their kids receive their certificate.

There were 20 at the service in Portoviejo, so that was good. 4 visitors. Please keep this work in your prayers. Pray that God would send a permanent pastor to take over.

This evening Tony had his Bible Study and then at 7:00 we had an "Annual Meeting". It went really well. It is exciting to see how the Lord has blessed this work over the last year.

We are hoping to get the construction started this week...looks like it might not start until next week. Pray for that. We need a "general contractor" and that still isn't settled. Everything else is ready to go.

We appreciate your prayers for the ministry here in Manta. God bless you as you serve Him this week!

In Christ,
Joy