Kenny's Israel Report

At last, the long awaited report from Kenny on his Israel trip! Here is an exerpt:

"Day 2

I don’t think very many people slept. This day began in the vicinity of the British Isles. Dawn wasn’t until just past Rome, and as we passed Greece, I had a conversation with a weird old lady to my left… it seems she liked reading classics and watching war movies, and had never been out of the country before. We landed at Tel-Aviv.

The airport was near the beach. Getting out was easy… just getting your passport stamped, and collecting bags. Then it was outside. The temperature was about 75-80 days: perfect. The three busses were right there; big red and white things that said, oddly enough, “Maya Tours” on the side. Our bags had tags that said “Canaan Tours” on them… and as we got on the bus, we were handed blue hats that said “Diesenhaus Unitours” on them… that was one puzzle I never figured out. But there were more interesting things going on.

Our guide, Amnon, introduced himself and carefully explained that even though our internal clocks probably though it was 1AM, we shouldn’t go to sleep because then we would stay up all night and be just as sleepy the next day. So I accepted the slightly dizzy feeling I’ve come to associate with exhaustion and ignored it."

If you want to read the rest of it check it out here: FULL ISRAEL REPORT

Beware it is 7 pages long! ;-)

TTFN

Kevin

Big hike

Here are a few pictures from Kenny's and my 12 hour hike to Buenos Aires with Paulino and a group of the Awa from Palmira. J

http://picasaweb.google.com/brucekev/BuenosAiresTrip

May Bruce Brief - The Wall

Greetings! Here’s the new front view of the Awa Center in Lita….thanks to a group from our home church that joined us from March 31^st to April 8^th! This cement block fence replaced the older chainlink fence that was none too sturdy. Security in Lita has become much more of an issue in the last couple of years, and we are glad to have this front fence now in place. The team can testify to the hard work that also went into putting the large concrete tubes for the new culvert under this main entranceway to the property. With the heavy rains that we’ve been receiving, the culvert has been put right to work. Much thanks to the team for putting their muscles and backs at risk(!!!), and to our home church for raising the finances to make it all happen!

We are back at the Outpost now, digging back into the work of the ministry and homeschool. It is a blessing to have Kenny back with us---he returned from his time in the USA and Israel with the work team. He continues to talk through his experiences, and we are amazed to see all that God is doing in his heart in these days, especially in preparing him to soon step out on his own (he will turn 17 next month and will be a senior in the fall.) He is finishing up a report on his Israel tour, for those who would like to hear his perspective on the trip!

Kevin has his hands full with some added responsibilities for the next five months as our Liebenzell Area Director, Edgar Luz, is on a short furlough with his family in Germany and Hungary. We’d appreciate your prayers as Kevin tries to balance these responsibilities with the Awa ministry, a task that seems to be more than a little overwhelming at times. During the next months, we will be spending a week each month in Ibarra, working to coordinate the ministry there, as well as part of another week at the Lita property, preparing for the busy summer months coming up. Our goals for the rest of each month spent at the Outpost in AwaLand include continued Bible and literacy teaching, hiking to visit homes, as well as a new project we have undertaken—back-translating the OT portions that our co-worker Doug Williams has been translating. Doing this back-translation into English will facilitate the checking that needs to be done in order to insure a good translation. It’s been exciting to jump into this project, as we have seen the importance of getting more Scripture portions into the hands of the Awa that can read.

Thanks for your friendship, prayers, and backing in so many ways--our hearts are continually blessed by your encouragement!

Kevin and Kathy Bruce

Kenny, Keilah, and Kimberly

Kevin & Kathy Bruce

Liebenzell Mission

Casilla 10-01-692

Ibarra, Imbabura

ECUADOR

+593 9 478-7811

http://brucekev.blogspot.com

pictures

Hi All, Here's a link to some pictures of us and our ministry :-)

http://picasaweb.google.com/brucekev/BruceFamilyMinistry

TTFN
Kevin

Bruce Brief---Believers' Conference

Hi, folks!!! Thanks to the many of you that have commented on our last update and assured us of your prayers for everything from the weather to Milton and his horse to our Believers’ Conference last week. We just wanted to take a minute to update you on how God has answered some of your prayers:

 

·         We just finished up our annual Awa Believers’  Conference on Sunday. Seventy-four Awa showed up, perhaps half of them believers and the other half their relatives and children. Meregildo blessed us with his generous heart in inviting his many unsaved brothers and even his mom and step-dad! We have tried to emphasize for years that the Conference teaching is mainly geared for believers, but Meregildo’s burning desire continues to be for his family to listen to God’s word…so there they were. Our coworker Doug Williams was able to clearly share the Gospel on several occasions, and it seemed that the folks listened. Now is their time to accept or reject….you can pray specifically for Pablo and Francisco (2 of Meregildo’s brothers) and his mom and stepdad, Rosa and Sebastian.

·         God has been working in Milton’s heart during his recent trials. Slowly, Milton is beginning to feel better from the weeks of sickness. (The dr.  suspected amebic liver disease and prescribed a strong medicine and Milton does seem to be slowly recovering.) Kevin had asked Milton to teach the story of Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt during Conference. Milton carefully prepared and taught three different sessions. I never knew someone could preach on each plague for 10 minutes or more…but that’s what he did! God really enabled Milton, and he did an excellent job teaching. Everyone seemed to listen carefully, and several other Awa thanked him afterwards for helping to teach. The last afternoon, Milton also taught the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace to everyone (it had been the key story of the kids’ class). Many of the folks had never heard the story, and were anxious to hear how God worked that situation out. We realized that by the end of Conference, Milton had taught more hours than either Kevin or Doug. Wow! We truly see how God is beginning to raise up leaders among the Awa!

·         Doug and Dorcas Williams joined us from Virginia for the Conference, and were a great help, as well as the Shaub family and our Lita coworkers, the Millan and Rosales families. Yesterday we ran into trouble trying to get the Williams back to the Quito airport to fly home….there was a regional strike among the Quichua Indians (over a local health program), and the roads were blocked. Kevin was able to follow some back roads to get them partway, and then turned them over to one of the Liebenzell pastors to finish the journey, and they did make it safely to Quito. The road-blocking strike was a short one, and roads were clearing up by the time Kevin headed home. We again thank the Lord for opening roads before us!

·         The weather seems to have taken a turn for the better! We had prayed for weeks for drier weather for Conference…and we had excellent weather with only light rain at night! Thank the Lord! We don’t know if this is just a few dry days or if we are truly heading into dry season…but we are amazed to see how God controls even those black clouds for His glory.

 

Our next project is receiving Kenny and a work group from our church on March 31^st. We will be working with the group to re-build the front fence on the Lita Awa Center property during the following week. We are now busy making preparations for the group. Yesterday our first delivery of materials (1,500 cement blocks) was delayed by the road strike, as roads between Ibarra and Lita were also closed due to the same demonstrations. We are told the strike is now over, but we would appreciate your prayers that the roads stay open for all the travel needed over the next 10 days.

 

Only because He is able,

Kevin and Kathy

 

Kevin & Kathy Bruce

Liebenzell Mission

Casilla 10-01-692

Ibarra, Imbabura

ECUADOR

+593 9 478-7811

http://brucekev.blogspot.com

 

Kenny & Mammie in NH

Here is Kenny with the snow that greeted him in NH after leaving Ecuador! :-)

Bruce Brief---March

Happy Spring to all! From the news, it sounds like many of you would be quite happy to see an end to the snow and cold…as we are also looking forward to a lessening in our rainy season. This is one year that we are extra grateful to God that He has ordained the seasons…that the earth keeps faithfully on its path around the sun…and that we can trust Him to keep it all going as He wills! So yes…Happy Spring!...I’m sure it’s on the way!

 

TRIAL OF FAITH

About 10 days ago Milton arrived here at our Outpost in tears. He quickly explained that his heavily loaded horse had fallen off the side of the trail just below our house, and a stump had punctured its lungs as it rolled about 15 yards down the steep bank. He cried, telling us…”I’m so sad for my horse, she’s a good little mare and I really care for her. She will surely die now. It’s really my fault since I over-loaded her with naranjilla fruit, so her load was too heavy. I don’t know why God allowed it to happen and I’m really sad. But even though this happened, I’m still wanting to trust in God!” I put my arm around Milton, thinking that he has been through so many trials since the beginning of this year! The weather has been difficult, the rivers hard to cross and the trails deep with mud. He has been sick, suffering from diarrhea, weakness, and dizzy spells that have made it hard to plant and harvest his crops. Several trips to the doctor hadn’t done much to help. His family has put pressure on him to have a traditional Awa ‘curer’ try to help him. But what a blessing it has been to our hearts to see Milton standing firm in these trials. “God knows best and I’m trusting in Him,” we have heard from him many times during these difficult times.

 

It’s been a joy to us to be able to help…a little…but really, to just mostly step back and see God work on Milton’s behalf. I was able to take Milton twice to a good doctor in Ibarra, who did many tests and prescribed some medicine which Milton is taking now. (The tests mostly just showed lots of amoebas.) We pray that the medicine will help, and we’ve tried to help Milton understand the importance of having clean drinking water. He has been gradually feeling a little better and is thankfully giving the Lord the credit. Milton’s horse is still hanging in there as well. The day she fell, Kathy and I hiked down a few hours later, and it seemed that if her lung had been truly punctured, it must have closed itself up. We did a lot of praying, cleaned and sewed the wound, and rounded up the medicine for Milton to inject her with antibiotics and vitamins. (We’re no experts, and while missionaries are supposed to be ready for anything, throwing a horse and sewing it up was a first for us! We weren’t really sure she would recover with our quite dubious efforts.) Eleven days later she is still alive, and Milton says she is eating well and seems to be recovering. That, we surmise, must be God’s hand working on Milton’s behalf! Thanks for your prayers, especially that Milton’s faith will be strengthened and that he will be a good testimony to his family.

 

WISDOM TEETH and TREASURER DUTIES

February 11^th Kathy went to the dentist’s office to get her wisdom teeth out, only to find that our dentist had forgotten to make the necessary arrangements with the surgeon. So…we waited another day and finally got it done late on the 12^th. Thank the Lord that all went well, despite the lack of organization and the surgeon looking like he was too young to know what he was doing! We were thankful for Kenny and Keilah and the Shaubs holding down the fort at the Outpost while we were in Ibarra for almost two weeks, waiting to get the stitches out. Kathy is recovering well, and is quite glad to be able to really eat again!

 

Closing the books for Liebenzell Ecuador for 2007 has taken me quite a bit of time these last two months as well. Fighting with a lack of sunshine…which becomes a lack of electricity and computer time at the Outpost…has tried my patience more than once! I’d appreciate your prayers for wisdom as I try to get that book closed…(it keeps re-opening on me!) and as we iron out the budget for 2008. I am grateful that many of the financial duties have been turned over to a certified Ecuadorian accountant. I am thankful for Gisela’s help as she does much of the work of keeping track of the four Liebenzell churches’ finances, as well as our financial responsibilities before the government.

 

KENNY’S TRAVELS, BELIEVERS’ CONFERENCE, and WORK GROUP

 

Kenny flew to Boston February 27^th, on his way to join a group from our church taking a Friends of Israel tour in Israel this week (March 3-13). He was quite calm about all the travelling…(while his parents were a little less so.) It’s hard to ‘release’ this young man who was (it seems!) a baby just a few years ago!! He’s almost 17 years old, and this trip to Israel is a dream come true for him. We pray that the Lord will do much in his heart this week as he tours the Holy Land.

 

Next on the agenda is the annual Awa believers’ conference, coming up March 20^th to 23^rd. Our theme verse this year is “Studying the Word of God”. Our desire is to see the believers studying and taking God’s Word to heart. We’ll do an overview of the New Testament with some interactive Bible drills, memorize 2 Timothy 2:15, and study some portions from Ephesians among other activities during the conference. We are thankful for much help and participation this year in the form of our new coworkers the Shaub family, the Rosales and Millan families at Lita, Doug and Dorcas Williams flying in from Virginia, and several of the believers who will be taking a part in the teaching!

 

March 31^st will find us meeting a group from our home church (Grace Community E Free Church in New Hampshire) who are coming to help out with a fencing project at the Awa Center in Lita.  We are excitedly making plans to receive them and put them right to work! It’s a blessing to us to have such whole-hearted support—in prayer, finances, and even workload!—from our churches.

 

In Christ,

Kevin & Kathy Bruce

Liebenzell Mission

Casilla 10-01-692

Ibarra, Imbabura

ECUADOR

+593 9 478-7811

http://brucekev.blogspot.com