March 2025 - A month in

 

A month in – March 2025

Greetings from Ecuador. As I write this the rain is pounding on our tin roof, which makes it almost impossible to carry on a conversation. In spite of that, it is really good to be home. 😊 (for a video clip of the rain, click here) It is amazing as I reflect on all that has happened since our February Bruce Brief. Thanks to all of you who prayed for our return to Ecuador!
 
Here are a just a few highlights from the last few weeks:

We arrived in Ecuador with all our luggage intact! (A bonus blessing, we even got seats with extra leg room on the flight!) Thank you to all who made our home assignment time a blessing and thank you for all of you who prayed for our travels.
Our first Sunday in AwaLand we enjoyed a joint service and lunch with both communities present! Pray as we consider different options to help improve interaction each Sunday.
Good friends from Ibarra came to help us beat back the jungle around our house in Rio Verde (we killed two venomous snakes that weekend!) Praise the Lord for safety as we worked and for good fellowship.
The Andersons are off to a good start getting settled here in Ecuador. They joined us in AwaLand for a recent weekend, and it was good to have our whole team together! Pray for them to find His grace sufficient as cultural and language transitions are not easy.
We already have had the opportunity to join in on a couple of Old Testament translation sessions going over verses in Joshua – please pray for this important work!

A Massive Invasion!

We do need to report to you an invasion of sorts here in Rio Verde. (‘Of sorts’ because this does happen here every year!) Overnight our yard was filled with little holes in the ground. A little digging uncovers the culprit, a new queen leaf-cutter ant. The Awa call the ant an ittal or kukim. These are prized tasty treats to the so-inclined. I dug up some, but I’m not very skilled at it, nor am I so thrilled to eat them. (Although I have before!) So we invited our neighbor boys to come help us get rid of them. When the boys were done their treasure hunt, we offered them as many as they wanted to snack on. Jhonatan said, “Oh, I have plenty!” as he showed us a pocketful. As you can imagine, a large colony of leaf-cutter ants is quite unneighborly to our garden…. snipping off the leaves of all our treasured plants! Thus, it is advantageous to get rid of them, even if you don’t find them particularly tasty. 😉  (BTW our chickens love them!)

We pray that the gospel message will become as invasive and highly prized among the Awa around us as the leaf-cutter queen ants are! Thank you for your support and prayers!

In His grip,

Kevin & Kathy

Feb 2025 - Ready or not

 

“Are you ready?”  February 2025

There is a question that we have been asked often over the last few weeks as we prepare for returning to Ecuador. That question is “Are you ready to go back?” Over and over our answer has been a resounding YES. And no, it is not because we want to flee the cold weather….we actually enjoyed the winter! 😊
 

 

Many commented to us as we shared with them our ‘Home Assignment’ schedule and the many miles we were traveling to see people, churches, and family, that they thought we came home to the USA to rest. And yes, rest was part of the equation as we planned our days here, but not the primary reason. Paul in Romans chapter one, when sharing of his desire to go to Rome and share with the believers living there, says this in verse 12: “that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.”  As we sought to share with you how God’s grace is reaching into our lives personally and into the lives of the people in Ecuador, we also received much encouragement from your faith as well! That is how Kathy and I view our time of home assignment: as a time of mutual encouragement. As we rub shoulders with each of you, hearing and seeing firsthand how God is at work in your lives, we are re-energized and strengthened. That’s why we can say ‘Yes’--we are ready to return.

So this week we packed our suitcases, dusted off the car, and said goodbye to our bungalow in snowy New Hampshire!
 

We are looking forward to many good things. Our new coworkers the Andersons arrived safely last week in Ecuador. They are settling in and ready to embark on learning Spanish and adapting to the Ecuadorian culture.  Our Awa brothers and sisters are planning a welcome feast for our arrival. We heard the news that there were 13 chickens promised for the meal! We feel super blessed by their generosity towards us! Coworkers Andy and Chrissy are also looking forward to us being there to help carry the ministry load. 😊 It will be exciting to dig into the Old Testament translation project, as we seek to incorporate a discipleship component to our group work sessions with our Awa brothers and sisters.

Lord willing, our next update will come to you all the way from the equator! A big thank you to all of you who hosted us, fed us, and blessed us by your generosity. We pray that we have in some small way also been an encouragement to the many of you we were able to see over the last six months

In His grip,

Kevin & Kathy