On May 19th, Kimberly graduated with honors from Ethnos 360 Bible Institute! We were sad not to be with her that day, but glad that both Kevin's parents and Kenny & Sophia were there! Just after graduation, Kimberly got engaged to Zach Burt, a fellow MK and Ethnos 360 graduating student whose parents are missionaries in Thailand. :-) For the two years Kimberly has been at the Bible Institute, one of our prayers for her was for God's guidance for her future. She considered many options over the last few months, and has decided to take a job offered to her working in childcare at the Missionary Training Center of Ethnos 360 in Missouri. It seems like a good fit for her---she will be close to Keilah & Jeremy (who will be students there this coming year), as well as somewhat close to Zach (studying in Springfield, MO). We are thankful to see God's faithfulness in guiding her each step at a time!
Back in November we asked you to pray for our coworkers, Jorge and Mercedes Vera, and their daughter Angie who had been diagnosed with cancer. Over these last months, the Veras have maintained a steady testimony of a strong faith in God as Angie went thru six chemotherapy treatments. Jorge and Mercedes juggled their work with the small church in the village of San Pedro with helping Angie with her treatments in Quito. Angie's testimony remained cheerful and strong: "I believe this cancer is God's answer to my prayer that He would give me more opportunities to share about Him.” And she did share: in front of youth groups, with doctors and nurses, at her college. When Mercedes and Angie travelled to Quito recently for Angie's first radiation treatment, the doctor in charge was taken by surprise as she reviewed Angie's latest test results. "There is no cancer showing up here at all!" was the doctor's amazed pronouncement. "Well, Angie, just go and enjoy life!"
[ Jorge & Mercedes sharing at our Awa conference earlier this year ]
Mercedes shared a few days later in one of our Mission meetings: "We used to go to a church where we claimed miracles from God. But when God brought us to Puente de Amor (the Liebenzell church in Ibarra) we learned a new way of learning to trust and submit to God, not demanding of Him what we thought would be good, but bringing our troubles to Him and learning to trust in His provision. Some people said to us that Angie would be cured if we just had enough faith. And yes, we did pray for her healing, but mostly we just prayed that God would uphold us during the trial and supply the tools that we needed to stay strong in following Him through the trial. We trusted that He knew what was best for Angie, and we submitted ourselves to Him. So it really surprised us that God healed her in this way! When Angie first heard that her cancer was gone, her prayer in tears to God was: 'God, thank You. I never even asked you to heal me; I just asked that You would help me to faithfully trust You and to bear testimony of You to many people.'”
We are blessed to be able to work alongside Jorge and Mercedes and Angie and other Ecuadorians who have caught the vision of Who our God is, and desire to share His love with others!
Kathy and I are super excited to be making a trip to the USA June 19th - July 17th to welcome our first grandchild into our family! Keilah and husband Jeremy are expecting their first child (due June 25th) and then will be transitioning to study at the Missionary Training Center (Ethnos 360) in Missouri for the next two years. While there in New England, we will also be with Kimberly, before she also takes off for Missouri, and Kenny & Sophia hope to travel up from Virginia to see us for a few days as well. We feel quite blessed! Being a continent away from our kids is not always where we would like to be, but God has been faithful to answer our prayer that we could see them at least once a year! We are thankful!
In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy
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