Happy New Year! We apologize for not writing in January! I’m not sure it’s a very good excuse, but we tackled a long-overdue maintenance project here at the Outpost during January which turned our anything-but-regular schedule into something even less regular. :-)
There are times when the ministry sails along under blue skies, we rejoice in the Lord’s blessings, and we soak up the joyful sunshine. (Both Milton’s, picture on left, and Porfidio’s babies were born safely and without complications, and are thriving!)
And then there are more difficult times of trial, rain, fog, and mud. (Yep, even in the literal sense!) January dumped over a meter of rain (40 inches) on us, making travel either by car or foot more challenging than usual. We were thankful that the government has three tractors working full-time on our road right now, cleaning up the almost daily landslides and putting in drainage culverts at each creek.
Along with the (literal) rain, there are several issues that have come up over the last few weeks that have been difficult. Here’s just a quick summary:
• Mercedes, the wife of our Ecuadorian Liebenzell Mission president Diego Galarza, was diagnosed with a cancerous growth in her stomach on February 2nd, and underwent surgery just five days later. We were able to visit them in Quito last week, and Mercedes was still in much pain. Her stomach was completely removed and re-constructed. While she is doing as well as can be expected, her situation is still very delicate. The Galarza family is hanging on to the Lord and His promise in Isaiah 41:10.• Awa believer Meregildo’s wife Clemencia gave birth to a little boy at noon on Saturday in their home, with just her two teenage daughters helping. There were many complications and she lost a lot of blood, and was carried out by stretcher that afternoon. Kevin immediately drove her out to the city hospital. Clemencia has been in poor health for some time, and apparently won’t be able to nurse the baby. Humanly speaking, life is going to be very difficult for this new little life.
• A new Catholic priest has begun to make regular trips to Palm community, where we have recently begun to teach the Bible lessons. This priest seems to be of the old school with a dislike for anything evangelical. This is a very complicated situation, especially for Paulino and the other believers in this community. The priest is actually there this week, with a group of nuns, teaching catechism in the school. At the same time we were recently asked to begin again to teach English in the school, not just to the older kids but to all 100 kids. We hope to include the Bible teaching as we did before. We’ll be going next week for the first time teaching in all five different classrooms, but we aren’t sure how the Bible teaching will be accepted with this new development.
• There is another situation that we are dealing with at this time as well, with a couple that has been spreading some divisive gossip. Yesterday we met with the elders for about four hours, talking thru this very difficult situation in which it is hard for the Awa to discern between truth and lie. Please pray for us to have Godly and Bible-based wisdom to share both with them and the Awa believers.
Laura Story’s song “Blessings” says “What if Your blessings come thru raindrops…?” Even the rain serves His purposes. We do rejoice in His daily presence, help, and guidance---what a blessing it is to bask in His grace and mercy! We are so thankful for your prayers as you join in this work of planting a church among the Awa people.
In Christ,
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