"Hope is patience with the lamp lit." That has been on my desk top for the month of June. The idea of having the "lamp lit"...gives me the picture of someone waiting expectantly. I thought about the times when I have waited for Tony to return from a trip. How I would maybe bake his favorite cookies, and have things cleaned up and just making sure that everything said, "Welcome Home, we missed you!"

As we go through these months, we are waiting patiently, for the Lord to work and open doors. At the same time we aren't being idle. We are working on getting things organized around here...I have spent time cleaning out, closets and storage rooms. throwing away tons of stuff, and getting ready for a "garage sale". This morning was the first day for that, and it went amazingly well. I really was blown away, at how well we did, and I know it is just the Lord blessing us! :-)

We needed to get a bed made for Teddy's room, to make room for 2 boys in there. That is being done now and should be finished sometime this coming week. We also got the "guest room" painted, and are in the process of turning it into a little girl's room. That is fun! It has been quite a while since we had a little girl's room around here. So that is exciting, too! :-)

I have been working on figuring out what and how we are going to do school next year, and have ordered the curriculum we will use. Have just about got that figured out as much as possible, at this time. Tony is going to build 3 new small tables for our school room.

So that is a little of what has been going on around our house. We got all the Sunday School material packed into some trunks and taken to the church. So the ladies that help me with the Children's ministry is working on getting it organized and ready to go. We are using material that I organized in a 3 year cycle. That is all good, but for the 1st two years, we only had 2 classes and now we have 3, so I am working on getting material for ready for our "primary class", so that it will follow the plan also.

Besides working on Children's ministry stuff, I am also teaching the Ladies Sunday School class. We are presently using Elizabeth George's study, "A Woman After God's Own Heart". The women are really enjoying the study. We have had a good turn out for the first 4 weeks of this study...averaging about 30 ladies.

I appreciate your prayers for Tony, Teddy and I as we have our home study, this coming Thursday. (hopefully, that is when it is scheduled to be, but they haven't confirmed that.) Pray with us, that we actually have it, as there isn't a lot of wiggle room in the schedule. Also pray that the meeting goes well.

Please be praying for a team from West Park Baptist Church that will be visiting us from July 5-12. They will be in our services on Wednesday night, and we are having an outreach on Thursday in a new neighborhood, where we would like to start a new work. The plan now is to hand out fliers and show a movie. Then on Friday and Saturday we are having our first Family Retreat. Pray we have a good turn out and for the team as they work with us. Teaching classes for the children, teens, and adults.

Please be praying for me as I work on getting the material together for the primary class and also as I prepare the lessons for the Ladies Sunday School class.

God Bless you as you serve him wherever he has placed you!
Joy

June is here...

I am so thankful for the service and sacrifice that so many have given to make and keep America free. What a blessing that we have to be part of such a wonderful country. I know that there are many problems, but it is still the greatest country in the world.

God Bless America!

Things are going well here in Manta, Ecuador. We are working on getting things organized for a Family Retreat in July. We have a group of 5 from West Park Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN coming to help us with this and we are very excited about it!

Last week the Tuesday night Bible Institute Class had their exam. It was extra long, so they will be finishing it this week. The Thursday night class started their new course, Life of Paul 3.

Friday I hosted the Young Ladies from the church for their monthly meeting. It was a great time together. 7 ladies were able to attend.

Sunday morning we started a new study, using Elizabeth George's book, "A Woman After God's Own Heart". We have been having a great attendance for this class. So many of the women are new Christians. Please be praying that the Lord will use this as they learn what it means to be a Christian woman, wife, mother...

Last week we received the last document we need for our adoption folder. We heard from our lawyer today, that we need to call the office in Guayaquil and make an appointment, so Tony was able to do that. We will be traveling to Guayaquil Wednesday afternoon, for a meeting Thursday morning. Thank you for your prayers as we travel there and please be praying that our meeting goes well.

Praying each of you experience the blessings of the Lord on your life this week.
Joy

Hi Everyone! Hope you are enjoying the blessings of the Lord in your life this week!

We had a good week-end here in Manta! Sunday morning we had a great attendance again, with 124 present. A great blessing was that Mirian's husband, Fernando came to church. Fernando accepted the Lord many years ago, and was instrumental in bringing his whole family to Christ, but then he got away from the Lord, and has been out of church and not interested in the things of the Lord. We understand that the Lord still has a lot to do in his heart to bring him back, but we were thrilled with the victory of seeing him in God's house!!!

I enjoyed a couple days away last week. I had the opportunity to make a trip to Guayaquil with my friend, Mirian. We enjoyed shopping, visiting, and just the fun of having a couple "girl days". :-)

Sunday evening we had a Teacher's meeting. There was a good attendance, and we feel that we were able to address a few things. Please keep our Sunday School ministry in your prayers. We are really a young church, and the majority of our workers are very young in Christ. We are trying to figure out how to have the best ministry for our children, and at the same time give everyone an opportunity to continue to grow in Christ.

Our nursery is working out really well. I was very "hands on" the first couple of weeks. I had spent so much time and energy, to get it set up, and it was hard to just turn it over, but the last couple weeks, I have stayed out of the way, and let the ladies in charge, do their job, and they are doing a great job, getting it all figured out! :-)

This week, I have been working on trying to sort out and organize the school room and the office. I have made quite a bit of progress and that is a great feeling!!!

We are awaiting the last document to arrive from the US, so that our adoption file is complete and we can take it to Guayaquil. It is suppose to arrive this week! Thank you for your prayers with us about this. The last time we checked, it had arrived in Quito and been released from customs!

Friday afternoon, the young women, (35 and under) are suppose to meet at my house. I appreciate your prayers for me, as I work on the devotion to share with them. This is a great group of ladies. All are new wives and young mothers. Most of the are very young in the Lord. There are about 6 of them that have been very faithful to get together once a month, and they are forming great friendships.

I pray that you have a wonderful week and that you sense the presence of the Lord in your ministry and work.

God Bless,
Joy

Good Morning!!!

Good Morning, Friends! I have lost track of time, and keep thinking about posting on here, but then things happen, and it just hasn't gotten done! So sorry about that!

I will try to catch you up with our life, without writing a book, which I know no one has time to read, or even that much interest! :-)

My trip to the US with Teddy was wonderful! I got great reports from my doctors, and we were able to see all 3 girls and the 3 wonderful grandchildren!!! Spending time with my Mom and Dad was a treat too. Teddy also got to celebrate his birthday a week early, on the Monday before we returned, and had a great time at the "Bounce House" with his cousins Evan and Estella Jane.

While we were gone, Tony continued with the work here. The Youth Retreat was a great blessing. One young person accepted Christ and many other decisions were made. VBS went well too, with many children attending, and hearing the gospel.

Since we returned we have made a trip to Quito, which had 2 purposes. 1st we went to pick up some things donated for our church nursery. These are things that Stacey Smith had stored, since closing her home for abandoned babies. I can't even begin to express how grateful we are to have all of this wonderful stuff! We would have never been able to afford to purchase all of this, or even this quality of furniture and toys! The 2nd reason that brought us to Quito, was to meet with the director of "For His Children" and with our lawyer, (and theirs) about adopting 2 precious children. We returned home to Manta, with the news...

We are adopting Carla, age 6 and Mateo, age 5. They should be joining our family around September 1st!!!! We are very excited about this news, and praising the Lord, for the way he has led and guided each step in this process.

Here in Manta, we have been working at church. We got they Nursery set up and running. Sunday was our 3rd week to have it operating and it is going great!!! We have also had a Mini Missions Conference, where our church was challenged, and hearts were touched. Please pray for those who feel that the Lord is calling them into full time ministry.

On May 8th, we had a special Ladies event, in honor of Mother's Day. 28 ladies attended and had a wonderful time! Sunday, May 9th, we had a great service with over 30 mothers in attendance.

Last week, we had 124!!!! There were no first time visitors, which was sad, BUT to have 124 without visitors, WOW!!!!

Please be praying as we get the next part of the building underway. Pray for the different ministries in our church. Pray for workers, we are desperately in need of someone to come along side of Tony, full time to take on some of the pastoral responsibilities of the church. We know that God is in control and he has to right plan and the perfect family picked out already!

On a personal note, our good friends, Jim and Sharon Smith, have suffered a great blow, in the lost of their son Zac to cancer. Zac was only 33 years old, but God used him to touch many lives. He had an amazing testimony. I would ask you to please lift up Jim, Sharon and Stacey Smith in your prayers, along with Zac's wife Mandy, and their 3 precious children, Lizzy, Jake and Luke.

Thank you for your support and prayers for our family and the ministry here in Manta, Ecuador!
God Bless,
Joy