Sunday Evening...

Well, I just noticed that it's been over a month since I posted on here!  I just can't seem to keep up with everything.   It seems that the older I get the faster time flies by! ;)

We had expected that we would be heading to the US, this month...well actually when we started the whole visa process for Carla and Matthew, we expected to be heading to the US in May or June, but that was not God's plan! We are learning every day through this process, that God's timing is not our timing and that His ways are not ours!  He is NEVER late, and his plans are ALWAYS perfect!  We have received news that our visa process has passed all the steps needed in the US.  The next step is to be assigned a date for our interview at the consulate here.  We have been told that we should be assigned a date in August.  So we are prayerful that we will be heading to the US by the end of August/first of September.  We would really appreciate your prayers about this, as our first scheduled meeting is at a church in VA. Sept. 21-22.  This is a new church for us, and it is really important for us to add to our support base.

This month we have enjoyed celebrating the 4th together as a family.  We "officially" finished up our school year, the first week in July and the kids have been enjoying their vacation.  I have been working on organizing our school plans for the coming year, and figuring out what we will need to take with us to the States.  I have also been working on compiling a reading program that will meet Matthew's needs.  I think that is just about finished, and I'm quite happy with how it has turned out.  It is always neat, when you can "re-cycle" and re-use things that you already own! ;)

Friday, we celebrated Tony's birthday.  The kids and I enjoyed taking him out for supper and trying to spoil him a little bit.

Our church is doing well.  The leaders are doing a great job, stepping in and getting ready to carry the work during our furlough.  This week-end we enjoyed having our Missionaries, David and Monica Proano here, with a group from the US.  They did an "Evangelistic Seminar" Saturday morning, and then Saturday afternoon, people went out passing out tracks and invitations to a program this coming Saturday evening at the church.  This morning we had a guest speaker from the group, and it was a great challenge to our church. This afternoon, we went with this group and several people from our church to the Malecon here at the beach, and shared the gospel through a couple dramas and painting.   We know that 1 young lady accepted Christ, and several people took the gospel of John that was passed out and followed along attentively has David showed how to do the little Bible Study in the front of the book.  People from our church took time to talk with those that stayed around til the end of the presentation, and lots of invitations and tracts were handed out.  Please pray with us, that there will be fruit from this outreach.  

This morning as Tony and I were sitting on the front row, getting ready for the morning service to start, a man that had accepted Christ 2 weeks ago, came up with a huge smile on his face to shake our hands!  He was so happy to be there.  It is so neat to see the joy now radiating from him!

Thank you so much for your prayers for our family and for the ministry here in Manta!  God is working and we are so excited to be a part of his work!

Blessings,
Joy