Visitors!

Wow! We've just finished up several busy (but very good!) weeks, and are thankful for a few days to catch up with all that we've let 'slide'. We apologize for the emails that we haven't answered...please rest assured that you are not forgotten. :-) I suppose many of you may feel the same, with the school year closing up and the advent of summer!

Over the last few weeks we have so much to be thankful for:

•    Kimberly finished up her senior year, took her SAT test in Quito, and applied to study at New Tribes Bible Institute (Wisconsin).  She also packed, said her farewells, and headed out to Missouri to work at Whispering Winds Bible Camp over the summer. She'll be back for a quick 3 weeks at the end of the summer. We are proud of Kimberly for finishing up well and pray that God will be her Strength as she faces all of the adjustments that lie ahead.

•    Four students from Liberty University (our son Kenny, his girlfriend Sophia, Ben, and Reid) joined us for a 10-day adventure. I'm not sure it's legal to pack so much into a short-term trip :-) but somehow we managed to fit an outreach day at each of two local schools; much hard work receiving loads of sand and gravel; a project of mixing and pouring cement to replace some of our rotting-out house support posts; two more house-shaking earthquakes;  many hearty meals together; and much fun and laughter! Adding four college students to our five resident young people equaled many willing hands to help. We are thankful for God's safety over us in all that we did (especially for His hand in holding up our house as the two earthquakes hit just after we had knocked out our three end house pillars, and had the house temporarily up on wooden blocks as we poured the new cement pillars.)

•    And God's amazing grace in having the privilege to continue ministering to the Awa even in the midst of the busy days. 

This was a month of farewells! Along with Kimberly, we said goodbye to Eli Nelson, the young fellow from our church who stayed with us for the last ten months. We sent Eli off hobbling with eight stitches on the back of his leg, from an accident with a big rock! Another farewell was to Noelle Wagner, our niece who visited the Shaubs over the last two months. Noelle loves birds and enjoyed checking out our great variety of tropical wildlife.

Now our house feels rather empty, with just Kathy and I here. We are thankful for the confidence we have that God is with our kids in the USA, and also for the opportunity we have to take part in their lives through prayer. What a blessing it has been to have our kids with us over the last twenty-plus years--homeschooling here with us, and serving the Lord together as a family! Now we are entering a new phase of life--we pray that God will use us in new ways as parents from afar, and as His servants in the lives of the Awa!

Please pray for the many challenges facing the country of Ecuador. After the earthquake, there have now been over 1,500 aftershocks. The two earthquakes on May 18th were felt across the whole country. Reconstruction is very difficult, and some of the coastal towns will probably not be rebuilt. Many of the coastal inhabitants are living with great fear, as geologists are predicting that the aftershocks will continue.  Many fear that an even bigger earthquake is imminent. Ecuador is also in a time of economic recession; and, like the USA, Ecuador has upcoming elections in 2017, adding some political chaos to the burden the country is facing.

Thanks for your prayers!
In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

 <FOR A PRINTABLE VERSION CLICK HERE>

April Earthquakes

The ground has been shaking here over the last two weeks! Saturday evening, April 16th, a major earthquake hit the western coast of Ecuador, flattening the little town of Pedernales and damaging several neighboring areas. Here at our mountain home, about 120 miles away, we felt the quake quite strongly, and our house was a mess by the end of the shaking as things fell off our shelves and water sloshed everywhere! But we were fine; we spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and looking for news about where the quake was centered. It's sobering to think (as you try to save a few glass dishes from breaking), that somewhere houses are likely falling and people are perhaps trapped and dying. It wasn't until the next morning that we began to hear about the extent of the damage to little towns such as Pedernales. There have been many (over 1000) aftershocks since, many of which we have felt here.

The Liebenzell church in Ibarra has joined other evangelical churches here in the country to send a relief team, taking groceries and other supplies to share and helping to build temporary shelters for the people to live in. Many other organizations have arrived to help, and the Ecuadorian government is coordinating efforts to help the folks rebuild. It's neat to see the Ecuadorian churches pull together in compassion, sharing supplies, finances, work teams, and even those who just go to stand beside those who are suffering. Our friend Pancho told us, "As soon as I heard about the damage, I knew I just had to go and do whatever I could." Pancho helped to dig through the rubble, looking for survivors, a job made difficult by the continuing aftershocks. "Some folks said we were really brave, but I don't think any of us felt brave...we were all afraid to go into the fallen buildings. We just had to believe that God was in control and keep working without worrying too much."

If you would personally like to make a donation to the relief effort, Liebenzell USA has set up an account to channel funds this way. You can find out more at this link:

http://liebenzellmission.org/give/the-bread-fund/

Meanwhile here in our area, the Awa are all fine, although wondering what God is up to..."Is He perhaps punishing our country?" one Awa asked us. These are moments for good conversations! God continues to work in the hearts of the people here. We've had many rainy Sundays, and the roads have been muddy, but the people keep coming Sunday mornings...the other day we realized that attendance has been rising as we have averaged close to 50 each Sunday. But numbers are just...numbers. What makes our hearts rejoice is hearing how God is working in individual hearts. A week ago Gloria shared with us that her brother Milton had asked for her forgiveness for the wrong he had done, and she told him that she was forgiving him, because she knew that God had forgiven him, and she wanted to do likewise. (This in contrast to a year ago, when Gloria and Paulino said they would never forgive their brother for the sin he had committed.) How grateful we are to our amazing God, the great changer of hearts!

We recently shared about Paulino's daughter Sandra and husband Jaime and their wedding. Sandra and Jaime were just told that their daughter Liseth, 8 months old, will possibly need a surgery to correct a skull problem (because of her soft-spot fusing together too early). Liseth also has trouble focusing her eyes and seems to be developing slowly. She will have to be taken to Quito for an appointment with a specialist, in order to begin the process; this is a very scary scenario for Sandra and Jaime. We have promised to help as much as we can. They would appreciate your prayers as they face this trial.


In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

*Photo of Earthquake damage from our co-worker Rainer Kroger's trip to Pedernales

<for a printable copy of this letter click here>