Happy Thanksgiving!

One of our favorite past-times is working in our garden. How fun it is to watch the plants grow! The abundant wet season rains cause the papaya trees, yucca plants, banana trees, and sweet potato vines to grow so quickly. The Awa, who are born with a love of farming, love to come and take a tour of our little garden...although they do wonder why anyone would like to eat radishes! They are much more appreciative of Kevin's many varieties of hot peppers. :-) Miguel and Digna have been our friends for many years. We remember the two of them hanging out as teenagers, in love, coming riding in on horseback to the literacy class in Lita.  Now God has blessed them with four very active boys--Alejandro, Mateo, Alexander, and Alex. Both Miguel and Digna are believers, although family issues have kept them on the outskirts of the church family for the last years. Recently Miguel has struggled with a strange skin disease, something that neither the Awa home remedies, nor the local doctors, have been able to cure. For the last few weeks we've been seeking to help Miguel find some answers, taking him first to a dermatologist who was able to rule out both leishmaniasis and skin tuberculosis. Now we are waiting on results from a culture being done in a lab in Quito. As we have chances to spend time with Miguel, we pray that God would pull him back into the church family. Miguel is gifted with a calm spirit of helpfulness and encouragement, and the days he comes to church are always brightened by his interaction with the group. As we come to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, our hearts are grateful to our Lord: -For the great encouragement each of you has been in our lives! Sharing our joys and our struggles with you has taught us anew about the comfort that it is to be a part of the family of God. -The land issue is settled for the minute, awaiting the next steps of officially dividing up the property. -We are seeing God at work in restoring to us a friendship with Milton again; he has been coming by each week to help Kevin work on lessons from the book of Ruth. His desire to spend time together has been a great encouragement, although he has not yet returned to Sunday services. And...we wish each of you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING! May God grace your hearts with an appreciation for Who He is, as well as a thankfulness for the many blessings He has graciously provided. In HIS grip, Kevin & Kathy <For a printable version click here>