Good Morning, Everyone! We are in Quito this week-end. Last night we were able to attend a banquet in honor of our co-workers, Jim and Sharon Smith. Tonight there will be a special service to say "good-bye" to them.
Our trip up the mountain went fine. We enjoyed a couple days in Santo Domingo. We missed visiting with Joe and Sylvia Wells as they are in the US right now, because of some medical problems. Please keep Joe in your prayers as he has a heart catherization on Monday and for the doctors to have wisdom to decide the best course of action. Tony enjoyed the Pastors and Leaders retreat. 3 of the leaders from Manta were also able to attend, and they had a great time!
This morning we will be driving over to Sangolqui for the morning service. It will be nice to see many of the people that we worked with while here in Quito.
Thank you for your prayers for our safety as we traveled, and for the ministry in Manta. Please pray for us as we travel back to Manta on Tuesday.
God Bless you!
Joy
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Fall is here!
Teddy and I found our fall decorations and dragged them all out yesterday. We have fake pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns all around the house now. So even though it might not "feel" like fall down here on the equator, it certainly looks like fall in our house!
We are staying busy here. Friday we had 23 ladies who attended the Bible Studies. Everyone sees to be enjoying the study and the time of fellowship together. This morning we had over 90 in church. It is exciting to see the growth taking place in people's lives. This evening I met with the Sunday School teachers to start planning our Christmas Program. The child discipline class was well attended tonight. Please pray for many of our new christian parents, who are trying to learn to put into practice Christian principles of parenting.
After the Child Discipline class, we had a meeting with the Leadership Team.
This coming week we will be traveling to Santo Domingo. Tony will be involved in a Pastor's and Leader's retreat, Thursday-Saturday. Then Saturday we will travel on up to Quito to be there for a Farewell dinner and service for the Smith's.
Thank you for your prayers for our family and the ministry here in Manta.
God Bless you as you serve him this week.
Joy
We are staying busy here. Friday we had 23 ladies who attended the Bible Studies. Everyone sees to be enjoying the study and the time of fellowship together. This morning we had over 90 in church. It is exciting to see the growth taking place in people's lives. This evening I met with the Sunday School teachers to start planning our Christmas Program. The child discipline class was well attended tonight. Please pray for many of our new christian parents, who are trying to learn to put into practice Christian principles of parenting.
After the Child Discipline class, we had a meeting with the Leadership Team.
This coming week we will be traveling to Santo Domingo. Tony will be involved in a Pastor's and Leader's retreat, Thursday-Saturday. Then Saturday we will travel on up to Quito to be there for a Farewell dinner and service for the Smith's.
Thank you for your prayers for our family and the ministry here in Manta.
God Bless you as you serve him this week.
Joy
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Pumpkins...
Well, it is officially "Fall" in the Anzalone house. You may ask, "How do you know?" Since we live on the equator and there is hardly any seasonal changes that you could notice. Well, I can tell you it "Fall" because we have cooked pumpkin, and baked pumpkin bread...Also had our traditional "Apple Cake", that we only make in the fall! This week, it will be time to get out all the decorations...there are "fake pumpkins" and "fake leaves"...some little scare crows. Yes, Fall has definitely arrived! :-)
Last week was "vacation" time for Teddy, as we had finished the 1st quarter. He even received a report card, and I can tell you that over all he did very well. We are looking forward to getting back at school tomorrow.
Wednesday afternoon, I met again with the 3 leaders of our Ladies Groups. We had a very good meeting, and our plans for this new Bible Study session we have started and for our special "Ladies Day" the end of November are coming along very well. We are excited to see how everything is falling into place. Thank you for your prayers.
Friday we held our first Ladies Bible Studies in this 6 week session. We were thrilled that 23 of the 33 Ladies that had signed up attended. Today we even had a few more let us know that they were interested in coming. On Friday we had 10 ladies in the 3-5 session and 13 in the 7-9 session. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I appreciate so much Tony and Teddy going along and being there to have a "class" for any of the children that show up. It was a long day, but also an encouraging one. I appreciate your prayers, especially for me, on Fridays, that I would be well rested and have the energy needed to complete this task. I know that many were praying for me this last Friday, as Spanish is always a challenge for me, but even more so when I am tired, and I was concerned that I would have a hard time in the 7-9 session, but God was so good, and I have to say that the 2nd class seemed to go even smoother than the first!
We had 95 in church this morning. The church continues to grow and we continue to have 1st time visitors. It was thrilling this morning, to be able to let people know that we had received Bibles this week, that we could give away! One of the ladies that has been attending now for awhile, but who I don't think has accepted Christ yet, asked me today, if she could have a Bible! Please keep Monica in your prayers.
Thank you for your prayers for the ministry here in Manta! Thank you for your prayers for our family. God has been so good to us!
God bless you as you serve Him this week!
Joy
Last week was "vacation" time for Teddy, as we had finished the 1st quarter. He even received a report card, and I can tell you that over all he did very well. We are looking forward to getting back at school tomorrow.
Wednesday afternoon, I met again with the 3 leaders of our Ladies Groups. We had a very good meeting, and our plans for this new Bible Study session we have started and for our special "Ladies Day" the end of November are coming along very well. We are excited to see how everything is falling into place. Thank you for your prayers.
Friday we held our first Ladies Bible Studies in this 6 week session. We were thrilled that 23 of the 33 Ladies that had signed up attended. Today we even had a few more let us know that they were interested in coming. On Friday we had 10 ladies in the 3-5 session and 13 in the 7-9 session. Everyone seemed to have a great time. I appreciate so much Tony and Teddy going along and being there to have a "class" for any of the children that show up. It was a long day, but also an encouraging one. I appreciate your prayers, especially for me, on Fridays, that I would be well rested and have the energy needed to complete this task. I know that many were praying for me this last Friday, as Spanish is always a challenge for me, but even more so when I am tired, and I was concerned that I would have a hard time in the 7-9 session, but God was so good, and I have to say that the 2nd class seemed to go even smoother than the first!
We had 95 in church this morning. The church continues to grow and we continue to have 1st time visitors. It was thrilling this morning, to be able to let people know that we had received Bibles this week, that we could give away! One of the ladies that has been attending now for awhile, but who I don't think has accepted Christ yet, asked me today, if she could have a Bible! Please keep Monica in your prayers.
Thank you for your prayers for the ministry here in Manta! Thank you for your prayers for our family. God has been so good to us!
God bless you as you serve Him this week!
Joy
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Special blessings!
This morning after church we were happy to hear that 2 of the children in our younger children's class prayed to accept Christ. Also we have some special news of our own...After lunch this afternoon, Teddy was talking we us, and he prayed and asked the Lord to be his Savior too! He said, he wanted to do it to make sure. Please rejoice with us!
We had a great week. God has been working and blessing here. Yesterday was our monthly ladies meeting, and I had the opportunity of hosting it. 27 ladies showed up! I was very thankful that I had decided to make 2 cakes. A few ladies had told me that 1 cake should be plenty as they usually only had around 10 or 15. We were thrilled to have several new ladies, that have just been attending the church a short time, join us. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
Today is the vote to accept or reject the new constitution, In Ecuador voting is mandatory, and always on a Sunday, so we cut back on our services, and only had our 10:30 service. We still had a little over 60 and were thrilled with that! We also had 3 first time visitors.
This coming Friday we will be starting our first Ladies Bible Study Session. We are planning to have 3 different sessions during the year, with each session lasting 6 to 10 weeks. This first one, will be a 6 week study. I am doing something different this time too, as we have decided to offer it at 2 different times, to try and make it more available to the ladies. It has been exciting to see the response. 33 ladies have signed up, 17 for the evening session, and 16 for the afternoon session. Please be praying for this Bible Studies. We are also working on planning our "Ladies Day" the last Saturday in November. We were excited that we found a restaurant with a large meeting room, that was willing to give us the room for the whole day! They are only charging us $6 per person, and that includes the lunch. We are planning to start around 10:00am and go until 3:00pm. Everyone is very excited about the whole thing.
Pray with us, that we would have the energy and strength to keep up with all the opportunities the Lord opens for us. It is easy to get so "busy" doing the work, that you neglect the important things. God has been so very good to us. We are thankful for each blessing and each new door that he has opened before us. We are thankful too, for the great attitude of unity in our church and for the brothers and sisters in Christ who are growing and stepping up to take some of the load. Thank you for your prayers!
Praying God blesses each of you this week, as you walk with Him!
Joy
We had a great week. God has been working and blessing here. Yesterday was our monthly ladies meeting, and I had the opportunity of hosting it. 27 ladies showed up! I was very thankful that I had decided to make 2 cakes. A few ladies had told me that 1 cake should be plenty as they usually only had around 10 or 15. We were thrilled to have several new ladies, that have just been attending the church a short time, join us. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
Today is the vote to accept or reject the new constitution, In Ecuador voting is mandatory, and always on a Sunday, so we cut back on our services, and only had our 10:30 service. We still had a little over 60 and were thrilled with that! We also had 3 first time visitors.
This coming Friday we will be starting our first Ladies Bible Study Session. We are planning to have 3 different sessions during the year, with each session lasting 6 to 10 weeks. This first one, will be a 6 week study. I am doing something different this time too, as we have decided to offer it at 2 different times, to try and make it more available to the ladies. It has been exciting to see the response. 33 ladies have signed up, 17 for the evening session, and 16 for the afternoon session. Please be praying for this Bible Studies. We are also working on planning our "Ladies Day" the last Saturday in November. We were excited that we found a restaurant with a large meeting room, that was willing to give us the room for the whole day! They are only charging us $6 per person, and that includes the lunch. We are planning to start around 10:00am and go until 3:00pm. Everyone is very excited about the whole thing.
Pray with us, that we would have the energy and strength to keep up with all the opportunities the Lord opens for us. It is easy to get so "busy" doing the work, that you neglect the important things. God has been so very good to us. We are thankful for each blessing and each new door that he has opened before us. We are thankful too, for the great attitude of unity in our church and for the brothers and sisters in Christ who are growing and stepping up to take some of the load. Thank you for your prayers!
Praying God blesses each of you this week, as you walk with Him!
Joy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
