Joy in July and August Adventures

 

12 August 2021

 

In a moment when Jesus’ disciples thought the crowds were bothering Him too much, bringing their little ones to be blessed, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” These words were on our minds in July as we held two VBS programs, one in Palmira and one in Rio Verde. Each day in both communities more children came, totaling about 70 in Palmira and almost 100 in Rio Verde. We are so thankful for Jesus’ example to follow, as well as the strength and help God provided daily for these days!
 

Some highlights:

• Having fun teaching a few English words each day.
• The kids actually listening quite well to the Bible lessons!
• Working with our awesome helpers: Maria, Meredith, Aaron, Hanna, and Tanja
• God providing moments to just love on the kids
• Feeding all those hungry bellies a good lunch each day
• Giving the Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes and seeing the joy on each face!
• And….working with the twenty-one youth returning each Sunday to complete the lessons in the Bible lesson workbooks.

Thanks for praying for these busy days! We felt God helping us with strength and patience each day, especially dealing with those crazy moments that like to show up in the midst of such a time. 😊
 
For a few more pictures of July happenings, see here: VBS 2021 Palmira then Rio Verde
 
The weather has finally turned to dry season, which means beautiful sunny skies, great swimming in the river, and….we are finally able to order the materials for the construction of the church kitchen in Palmira! The first loads of rock and gravel have arrived, and we’ve had some fun workdays after church on Sundays getting the loads of rock moved closer to the church. (The flat tire on the truck wasn’t quite as fun…!) We’ll keep you updated on the progress!

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

Highlighting our helpers!

With our coworkers on a 3-month trip to the USA, things can get a bit crazy! But God has been faithful to provide helping hands when we have needed them.

 
Here’s a few of those faithful folk that have been a blessing to us in the last few weeks:

Gloria Gloria has a big heart for teaching the Bible to the Awa children! She told Kathy recently, “Many of the people are asking me if I’m afraid to teach God’s word, because I might die (like my brother Paulino did). But I tell them all that I’m not afraid, if I die, then I die and I’ll be with Jesus. It’s so important for the kids to learn about God!” Each week Gloria helps to prepare and then teach the Bible lesson to the children in Palmira.

Ángel Ángel is our Kichwa cement ‘maestro’ friend from Chirihuasi community, near Ibarra. He recently spent two weeks with us helping to finish up a project that has been on the 'back burner' for awhile. Ángel knows and loves God, and demonstrates this in his interaction with the Awa--while here he just loves to visit and encourage the believers. In a few more weeks Ángel will join us again for working on the Palmira church kitchen project—which we are looking forward to!

Prisca & Aaron                                         Maria & Meredith Each year Liebenzell Germany sends us a group of German youth, the annual ‘Impact’ team. From the nine young folks on the Impact team this year, two—Aaron and Prisca---come our way to help teach the Awa children and youth. They certainly have more energy than we do to play an hour of soccer with the kids! 😊 Liebenzell USA has also sent two interns to Ecuador for the summer! Maria and Meredith have spent several weeks in Atuntaqui with the Friess family, and will be spending half of July with us here in AwaLand. We are thankful that all four of these energetic young people will be helping us with two VBS programs for the Awa children and youth. Thank you for joining us in prayer for the VBS in Palmira July 8-10 and in Rio Verde July 13-15. As a special bonus, we have Samaritan’s Christmas shoeboxes to hand out at the end of each program. Meredith says she is happy after so many years of making the boxes to be giving them! 😊

And we thank the Lord for another Helper He has sent 'to guide us into all truth' (John 15:26) Our prayer these days is that we would have ears poised to hear His prompting, and a heart seeking His guidance in all we do. And that His strength would carry us through in our weakness. We pray that our Faithful Father will do the same for you.

Thanks for being a part of the team God is using to reach the Awa!

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

May Lockdowns

With hospitals filled to capacity, Ecuador is in the midst of a 4-week lockdown, with 8 p.m. curfews each evening and a complete lockdown from Friday evening to Monday morning. Even here in the mountains, Saturdays and Sundays have been pretty quiet! Since Sunday church gatherings weren’t allowed, we changed to Mondays, a creative alternative that has worked out quite well. Kevin is also enjoying spending his Thursdays in Palmira, teaching guitar lessons to Rómulo and Abraham, and working on literacy with Guillermo. Our days continue to be full with neighbors stopping in for help with a myriad of needs, giving good opportunities to share and disciple and talk together.

A special blessing has been having our young neighbors Christian & Ana Patricia stop by quite often with open hearts for spiritual conversations. Since Ana Patricia had drunk poison back in February (we mentioned them in our March Bruce Brief), they have had a hunger for hearing God’s word, and from what we can see, are taking what they hear and applying it to their lives.  This last weekend Christian told us he was sad that they had to work on Monday and would miss church, so he asked if it was possible for them to come up Sunday and hear the teaching then. He said, “When we can’t make it to church, I really miss the Bible teaching, I feel like I begin to forget and I don’t want to forget!” Amen! 😊
 

Exciting news in the Bruce family!

We woke up May 4th to the wonderful news that Kenny & Sophia’s little one, Miles Robert, had made his arrival in the night! Miles has already charmed the whole family with his cute expressions! 😊 We thank God that he seems to be adapting well to life in the big outside world. Kenny & Sophia have kept the airwaves busy with many pictures, but we do look forward to seeing little Miles in person perhaps later this year.

Sophia, Miles & Kenny

Keilah & Jeremy continue to live in New Hampshire, help out at church, and work on support-raising as they look toward heading to Paraguay sometime in 2022. We greatly enjoy watching Ronin (now almost 3 years old!) and Amaris (8 months) grow and learn and develop. Keilah was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder (Hashimoto’s) in February, and has been working through a treatment plan to address the Hashimoto’s as well as an underlying infection. We are thankful that she is doing better and gaining strength. For those who are interested in Keilah & Jeremy’s news, here is a link to their last prayer letter and their website: https://jkwindler.com/

Keilah, Amaris, Ronin & Jeremy

Kimberly & Zach both celebrated their 23rd birthdays in March. They continue to live and work in Camdenton, Missouri, and are thankful for the shorter Missouri winters! Kimberly is also taking a treatment for an infection, and slowly has been gaining strength and feeling much better. We are thankful for Dr. Moriah from Rolla who has been a great help to both Kimberly and Keilah.

Kimberly & Zach

Thanks for praying for God’s help and strength for us as we face a few months without our coworkers Andy & Chrissy, who are on a short furlough in the USA. We are thankful for His presence here with us, and for His faithful provision for us through your gifts and prayers!

In His grip,
Kevin & Kathy

Check out the video below our mission made about our ministry!

Kevin & Kathy Bruce — Missionaries to Ecuador

April Awa Conference

 A heart-felt ‘thank you’ to each of you who were praying for the Easter conference with the Awa! Despite the doubts that kept coming to mind beforehand, God allowed us to enjoy three beautiful days with a good group of Awa. Friday we had a special kids’ program with about 60 children; Saturday the men killed a pig and the ladies prepared a feast for about 130 people, and five of the believers were baptized; Easter Sunday about 90 attended as we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection together.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“From darkness to light” was the theme this year, with our memory verse being Colossians 1:13–14 He (God our Father) delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. How thankful we are to our Father who provided the opportunity to share again with many this message of redemption during these days together!

Some encouraging highlights for us were:
•    Having both Ema’s and María’s folks cheerfully join us for Conference, and both fathers helped with the pig butchering on Saturday.
•    Two young men, Fermin and brother Wilo, joining us for all three days of meetings and also expressing interest in joining in our Bible memory pro-gram to win a children’s Bible story book; Wilo has already memorized the first two verses!
•    The five who had the courage, despite some laughter from the crowd, to give public testimony of their faith and their desire to follow God by being baptized. Among the several I had talked with beforehand, Paulino’s son Rómulo was the first to have the courage to step forward.
•    Lorena (Gloria’s daughter and mother of four little ones) also chose to be baptized. “Walking with God is the best way to live,” she told Kathy on the way down to the river.
•    Kathy has been praying for Segunda, a woman who we’ve been told has of-ten been threatening suicide…we were thrilled when Segunda joined us for all three days!

We continue to appreciate your prayers for strength and courage and creativity for the ministry. Also pray for our coworkers, Andy & Chrissy Shaub, as they take a short mini-furlough over the next few months. Andy’s brother Scott has recently been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, and Andy & Chrissy also want to help their daughter Liana with some health challenges she is facing.

Because of our risen Savior,
Kevin & Kathy

February faded…and March is here!

 In February we enjoyed a visit from Dr. Chris Matthews, Liebenzell USA’s new general director, and Mike Branch, the overseas director. We enjoyed getting to know them better, as well as being able to hear firsthand their vision for expanding and growing the USA branch of Liebenzell Mission. Thanks to Renatto Abrego, the videographer Chris and Mike brought along, we now have an abundance of pictures and even some short videos to share!

Here is a link to hear about their trip from their perspective: On Location in Ecuador.pdf

The months of January through March we often have our heaviest rainfall. This year Rainy Season is living up to its name! Muddy boots lined up on the porch tell the story of muddy roads and trails. The cicadas are out in full force, with their shrill voices making a constant background buzzing along with the sound of raindrops on the roof. Washouts and landslides in our area have brought the need for community ‘mingas’ (workdays), shoveling out obstructions, cleaning out ditches, and throwing rocks into the crevices carved out by running water. All that rain has also made transportation challenging as you can see in the picture! As you can imagine, the bus has temporarily suspended its route up our way.  At the same time the bananas, papaya, coffee, and yucca plants as well as the squash growing in our yard all love soaking up that moisture! And the mountains are vibrantly green around us--God has truly blessed us with a beautiful place to live even in the midst of all that moisture!

For the Awa children, March brings the excitement of finding the ‘ittal’ ants….many of the children arrive at Sunday School with their pockets full of these tasty treats! Little Mindy and big brother Deyvid were excited to show us their ‘find’ this last Sunday. 😊

Awa Conference planning time….

March is our month for planning for the annual Awa Conference (this year April 2-4). Last year’s conference and baptism were cancelled due to covid restrictions, but happily, this year it seems quite feasible! Thanks for praying with us as we prepare for this time together with the Awa church. Ten or eleven of the believers are considering baptism, although for most of them taking this public step of faith seems quite intimidating. During this last year we have seen many of these young believers going through a testing of their faith through many difficult situations that have come up. Pray with us that God would uphold each of them in their faith and give them the boldness needed to keep taking each step forward. We pray for these young believers as Paul prayed for the Corinthians: “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:8-9 NIV)

Will you pray with us specifically for two of these young believers, our close neighbors Christian and Ana Patricia? They have been suffering through a hard time of trial and testing. (If you’d like to know more of their story, here is a link: the longer version)

Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership with us in the work here! May God bless each of you as celebrate the renewal of spring in the coming weeks, along with the joy of remembering Jesus’ resurrection.

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

Wisdom for a new year!

 Asking for God’s wisdom and discernment has been our daily prayer as we begin 2021. Many needs and challenges lie before us! We imagine you may be feeling the same. 😊
 
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5, ESV) Now that’s a wonderful promise as we face our annual planning for the new year!
 
Having just finished teaching through the life of Jesus (going through the book of Matthew), I am teaching a few lessons from a little book called “God’s Servant Satan,” by Gordon Wohlgemut. The demonic world is a topic that is pertinent to the Awa and the context they live in.  Although I’ve been planning to teach these lessons for some time now, recently two situations have arisen that have prompted many perplexing questions among the Awa church family.
 
José, Paulino’s elderly father and one of the believers, was chopping firewood one day with his wife Senovia carrying the wood pieces in a basket back to their kitchen to use for their cooking fire. As she had just filled her basket, she left to carry it to their house. While she was gone, José saw two small black big-headed creatures coming rapidly at him. As he tells the story, these demon-creatures hit him, knocking him to the ground, one grabbing his leg just above the knee in an attempt to drag him into the jungle to eat him. But they were unsuccessful, and minutes later Senovia returned, only to find José lying unconscious on the ground. She and grandson Jeison were able to get José up and into the house. On his leg where José said the demon had grabbed him, he has a big painful burn mark that blistered up and is taking quite a few weeks to heal.

 

José’s testimony has been that God protected him from the demons, because they were not able to drag him away as they wanted. He has been quite anxious to return to church, and seems to appreciate the moments when we can visit and pray with him.

 

Another Awa family, Joseph and Mary, have been experiencing a time of suffering as well. Mary gave birth to their 11^th child in March, and has been sick off and on since then. During the summer, Joseph approached us, asking if we would teach them God’s word, as one of the believers had told them that listening to God’s word can really help in a time of sickness. We were able to teach them on a few occasions, and loaned them an audio New Testament. When we started church services in their community I hiked to their home and was able to invite them to come on Sundays. In September and October several of the family’s teens joined us for church services and seemed to listen intently to the lessons about Jesus. Daughter Jovanna told us that her mom was listening every evening to the audio Bible and that she was doing much better. Then the family seemed to disappear for two months. Recently we heard that Mary is quite sick again and that she has seen the beautiful demon man calling her into the jungle. The family recently held a demon-curing ceremony, inviting many families from the Palmira community for a day and night of drinking and dancing that accompany these ceremonies.
 
As a result of these events, we’ve been asked many questions. This is the life and the reality the Awa live in. And yes, we need much wisdom from God to walk beside this people and faithfully teach them God’s truth. As situations such as these arise, and as questions are asked, we thank God for His faithful guidance and direction in knowing how to respond. (Write and ask if you’d like to know more.) Yes, we greatly appreciate your prayers!
 
In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

Out for morning exercise during our recent trip to Ibarra

December - Celebrating Jesus’ Birth

 “But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son…”

Galatians 4:4 NIV

“…the Gospels are set in a real world of needs: wine running out at a wedding; hungry crowds with not enough food; fruitless fishing trips; and no money for the tax bill. Into this world quietly breaks the mi-raculous, which seems as ordinary as the hassles. In myth, extraordinary people in an extraordinary world do extraordinary things. In the Gospels, the extraordinary love and compassion of a remarkable man radiates and illuminates an ordinary world.” (Love Walked Among Us, by Paul Miller, from the In-troduction)

During this last year of pandemic, God allowed us to BE here with the Awa….right in the midst of the ordinary-ness of daily life. Opportunities to rub shoulders have often been overwhelming to us as we live among the many needy moments of our Awa friends and neighbors.

Coming home tired from an extra busy Sunday, dirty with mud and even sensing the presence of a few extra creepy crawlies, I was reminded that Jesus probably ended his days muddy and tired, too, having spent Himself for the people. Maybe He got those fleas and creepy crawlies, too! That’s what His love looked like---He was right there in daily life among the masses, seeing and touching and sharing in their pain, pointing them to His Heavenly Father.

How Kathy and I desire to follow His calling and be like Jesus here among the Awa! Please pray that God will show His love and compassion through us, as well as speak His word of truth into the darkness in which many of our neighbors live.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

A special day!   December 13th was a special day at the church in Palmira…twenty-eight Kichwa believers from the church in Chirihuasi joined us for a special program celebrating Paulino’s youngest son Logan. Before he died, Paulino had asked our Kichwa believer friend Angel to be Logan’s godfather. His wish was that Logan have the extra influence of a God-following man in his life. With Paulino’s death and then the arrival of the pandemic, this was put on hold until this last Sunday. What a joyful day as we celebrated with the visiting Kichwa believers, a group from the believers here in Rio Verde as well as the church in Palmira along with many friends and neighbors from that community. In good Awa and Kichwa style, food was plentiful and many went home with bags of leftover mote (boiled white corn kernels) and fritada (fried pork).

Picture of the month

Many children are again participating in our Sunday services! (Picture pre-covid 😊) In this area, the children are attending school one day a week, which leaves many hours of boredom during the rest of the week. Our Sunday worksheets (using Bible texts with fill-in-the-blanks and questions) are happily received and then delivered the next Sunday for checking. We pray that these children will clearly un-derstand as we teach them about God’s love sent to us in the form of His Son, Jesus. Please pray also for Christmas celebrations this coming Sunday (20th) and again on the 21st.