"Bendecidas para Bendecir" is Off the Ground!!

There is so much I could say about how this morning went, but I think for this post, I'm going to just let the photos tell the story... What a blessing to be here serving the Lord, and to be used by God to be his hands and feet.  To have the privilege to share the love of Christ with others.  Thank you to EVERYONE who supports and/or prays for the ministry here in Manta, Ecuador!!  God is working in this place!

Friday morning we filled boxes and bags, ready to hand out on Saturday morning. 

Each household represented would receive a box full of food, 

and a bag of fresh veggies.

Praying together before people arrived. 

Waiting for their turn to be "checked-in"

We had the opportunity to talk with and pray with each person.

These need no explanation...

Happy Mother's Day!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!   We had a great day here.  I enjoyed breakfast in bed, and some sweet presents from my kiddos.  Also had the special treat of talking with all 3 of my big girls, and my Mom.

We had a great turnout at church for our Mother's Day Breakfast.  70 ladies attended, and we had several visitors.   Those taking care of the food, did a wonderful job.   Ceci and Melanie did an awesome job with the program.  Viviana and Alexander, were two women from the Bible who visited to share their testimony and how their encounter with Christ changed their lives.   Ceci pulled it together with a very clear salvation message.   They did all that, along with singing all together, and 1 game in the 30 minutes we had for the program!  :)  We also enjoyed giving roses to all the ladies present.  (Moms or not)   We had 188 in our worship service, with several visitors.  It was a great day of planting the seed!

After church, I took photos of 42 different family groups.  This has been a Mother's Day tradition since we came to Ecuador, and other missionary friends introduced us to the idea.  We take photos off all the Mom's present with their families, and then have them printed up and hand them out the following Sunday.

Here's our family's photo from this year...

After church, we came home, and my sweetie, fixed a wonderful dinner for us.  Grilled steaks, baked potatoes, salad and fruit.   It was all delicious.   In the evening we went out to visit our friends Mirian and Fernando and enjoyed chicken and patacones at their restaurant.  Wonderful ending to a great day!

Here are some photos from the Ladies Breakfast at church...

serving breakfast, this was about 9:55am...

Because of the expected turnout we had to change our plan and have it in the auditorium.  So we used the back corner, and the ladies decorated the walls with fans and verses.  

Cristobal, (standing by the keyboard) played soft music for the first 30 minutes, while we served and had breakfast.  Joselyn led us in a song at the start of our program.  

These are our two "visiting" speakers.   Alexandra (in black) played the woman caught in adultery and Viviana the woman who touched the hem of his garment.  (probably not the 2 characters from the Bible that I would have chosen right off, BUT, their "testimonies" were POWERFUL!  I am so thankful for the time and effort they put into to doing this.)

Here is the breakfast that was served.  "Torta de choclo", grapes and a chocolate. It was very yummy! ;)

Ceci, pulling together the testimonies and sharing a very clear Salvation message.

playing a short game... the prize was the "fan" Melanie is holding.

getting ready to end the program.  All the ladies seemed to have a wonderful time.  Everyone got a beautiful rose, to celebrate the day. ;)

Family Photo Album for November, 2012

Here are a few pictures of some of the things that have been happening in our life this past month...

Nov. 2, we celebrated the Ecuadorian Holiday, "Día de los muertos".

Carla and Matthew made pyramids out of blocks when we studied about ancient Egypt.

 Nov. 10, we celebrated my birthday.

That afternoon, some of the sweet people from our church hosted a surprise party for me!

At the close of his New Zealand unit, Teddy, made Pavlova, and wrote a short report about it's origins. 

 We hosted a get together with new attendees from church so we could get to know them better.

Matthew celebrated his 8th birthday.

Our Thanksgiving Celebration.

What's been happening...

The last couple weeks of October have been really busy.  We enjoyed great services at church.  185 two weeks ago and 162 last Sunday.  God is working and moving in hearts.

Our daughter, Carla, celebrated her 9th birthday on Oct. 22.  Here is a link to some pictures from that special day.

Carla's Birthday

The Ladies Conference we had planned for the 26th and 27th was wonderful!  We had 58 ladies participate that is only short 2 of those who had signed up.  I don't think we have ever had that kind of turn out before.  The ladies did a great job of helping with the planning and carrying through with their commitments.  By taking on the responsibility of so much of the conference it allowed me to focus the bulk of my attention on the lessons.  What a blessing!

If you would like to see photos from that event, please visit the link below:

Manzanas de Oro

It is also that time of year, when we need to re-new our visas.  Tony started working early in the month, to get together all the necessary paperwork.  It has always been a fairly simple, straight forward thing, (well as simple and straight forward as you can get when the government is involved! ;-)  Anyway, the first time he went they told him he was going to need some extra papers this year.  They also told him the name that he was to address all the letters to, (the coordinator of visas for this area).  Well, when he went back about 5 days later to turn in all the paperwork...he was told that the coordinator had changed and that the letters now needed to be addressed to a different person.  Also was told that one of our papers we had received from the National Mission here was out dated.  It needed to be less than 2 years old.  So we again, talked to the Mission leaders in Quito, and they re-wrote the letters, (these have to be written, signed by the president of the Mission and notarized, all of which takes time).  They also found a more current document on file and had it copied and notarized.  All was done and sent to us, within a couple days, (which was really amazing in itself)!  When Tony, went last Friday, to again turn in our folder of documents, he was told that they were unacceptable, because the paper, that we had been told needed to be less than 2 years old, now, had to be dated this year!  We found out all of this on Friday morning, and I was preparing for the Ladies Conference starting that evening!  Can you see Satan at work?!   Well, despite all of that we had Wonderful conference and God blessed!   On Monday we headed up to Quito.  We were going to try applying for our visa there, and if that didn't work we would head across the border on Wednesday, to return to Ecuador with a 90 day tourist visa.  Well, we found grace in the eyes of the officials there.  Our documents were accepted, entered in to the computer and our photos taken.  We have an appointment to return on Nov. 9.  At this point it looks like everything is on track.  Appreciate your prayers that we would be granted our visa with no more problems.

Today is Día de los Difuntos.  It is traditional to eat Guaguas de pan, (bread babies) and drink Colada Morada, it is a thick drink made from blueberries, blackberries, lots of spices with chopped up fruit in it.
if you would like a recipe for it, you will find a great one here .  We enjoyed the traditional treats and spent some time talking to the children about the history and meaning behind it.  Here are some pics from our own family celebration.

Day of the Dead, celebration

Thank you for your prayers for our family and the ministry here in  Manta!
Blessings to you!
Joy

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hi Friends!  I hope that you had wonderful Mother's Day.  My family did an extra special job of making sure I knew how much the loved me!  It started out with breakfast in bed, and just got better from there! :-)

At church this morning, we had 52 ladies attend our ladies breakfast at 9:30.  It was great to see how many people made the effort to get out just a little bit early.  We also had several visitors, and we are thankful for the opportunity to share the gospel with them.  Everyone had a great time, and I am so thankful for the effort made by the leader's wives.  Without their help, this would have never happened!

Here are a few pictures from our day.  I hope you enjoy them!

Blessings to you!

Joy                      
                                                                   


These first 3 pictures were taken at the start of our breakfast. By the end all those empty chairs were filled!  We had fresh fruit, rolls, and little pastry shells with something kind of like chicken salad... might not sound like "breakfast food" to you, but the ladies loved it!!

                              Joselyn and Crisnal, sang a song for the offertory.  They did a great job!

              Here's some of the crowd this morning...Yes, that's Tony and our 3 kids on the front row.

                                              Tony cooked dinner for us!  It was wonderful!!!

What's Been Happening?

I wanted to share a few photos with you.  Enjoy!

February 20-21, was Carnival Vacation here.  It is traditional to throw water on  random, unsuspecting people, during these days.  Our family doesn't participate in that, but we do enjoy our own "Water Fight."  These first 2 pictures are from our big Carnival Water Fight.  

March 18th, in the afternoon, we had a bridal shower for Mercedes.  Here are some pictures from it.

Mercedes and her sister

Wilda introducing the first game. They were divided in to 2 teams.  Each team was given a small cake, an egg, a little bit of white sugar, a little bit of powdered sugar, a lemon, some sprinkles, food coloring, a bowl, a fork and little wooden spatula.  They had to make some frosting, and decorate their cake...

Libertad was a "pro"...She had her egg white wiped up in no time! :-)

Diana, Carla and Libertad with their cake

Consuelo, Giomara, and Jessenia with their cake

Mercedes, right before refreshments.  We had a great turn out and a good time together.  Please pray for Mercedes and Maximo as they start their Christian Home.

Since Cristobal has taken over organizing and preparing the music for Sunday morning, we have had "special music" for the offering time, every Sunday.  This is a group that sang this morning and did a great job!

Tony, with Luis, Melaniea and Javier this morning.  The 3 of them received Study Bibles for completing the 12 classes that make up the first part of our Leadership Training Program.  

Tony with the two children that were baptized this morning.  This is Nicolas and Carla. 

We are so excited to see what God is doing here!  Thank you so much for your prayers for our family and for the ministry here in Manta.  This week we are gearing up for VBS.  We would appreciate your prayers for the teachers and workers as they prepare.  Also pray that we would see boys and girls accept Christ as their Savior.   We will be starting Wednesday evening and going through Sunday morning. 

Blessings to each of you, as you serve the Lord where he has placed you this week!

Joy