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.

November progress

– sometimes missionary life includes plain old-fashioned work! 😊

 

During the first half of November we were thankful to get a few projects done! I cut down a tree that had grown over part of the roof, and have been working to get it all cut up. Paulino’s two teenagers Abraham and Rómulo also joined us one day helping to dig a new garbage pit and do some yardwork.

God sent beautiful weather and a fine team of volunteers to help us get the roof changed on one side of the house here. Friends Pancho and Jimmy brought three young fellows and did a great job climbing around on the rafters, finishing up much quicker than we’d anticipated! The same weekend our Quichua friend Angel visited with his wife and two youngest daughters, not only helping with the roof project and helping Kathy cook lunch, but also sharing in song and testimony in both church services on Sunday. Angel was one of the cement workers who helped to build the church in Palmira, and the Awa greatly enjoy his visits and listen closely to his Bible teaching.

And the tractor has begun making the road that will go past Palmira to the Toctemí river, pushing through the muddy path that winds up the hill right beside the church there. With the tractor’s work, as well as several weeks of dry weather, this last Sunday we were able to drive right up to the church there! The tractor also leveled the church yard and made a flat spot behind the church for a future construction of a kitchen.

Church services, baby dedications, and baptisms….

Back in March, because of the pandemic, we had cancelled not only church services, but also our annual Awa Conference and the baby dedications and baptisms we had planned to do during the conference. Thankfully we were able to resume in-person church services in September with a good number of folks attending. Recently the schools have started up classes, so we also were able to start up children’s Sunday School. Kathy already has her hands full with over 50 kids coming—about 30 in Rio Verde and 20-25 in Palmira! We are working toward having a special Sunday in December for a time of baby dedications and the baptism service--there are 8 young folks who have expressed a desire to be baptized. We thank the Lord for being able to get back on track with each of these events in His good timing!

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you! We are thankful that even amidst the difficulties and trials of 2020 we can still be confident that God is in control.

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy Bruce
 

Picture of the month This picture shows Grandpa José with granddaughter Grace, whose name is fitting since she was born under difficult circumstances in the back seat of our truck! Grace’s mother Andrea has not chosen to follow God, but José brings Grace to church almost every Sunday, along with her big brothers Jeison (13 yrs) and José Freddy (11). How we pray that these three, along with many more children who attend on Sunday without their parents, will clearly understand the good news of the gospel and accept God’s gift of grace. Many have listened intently to the last few Sundays as we went through the last few chapters in Matthew, teaching about Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Happy October!

 

We joined Keilah & Jeremy and big brother Ronin in welcoming baby Amaris Ember into the world on September 17th. We may be a little prejudiced, but she’s a cutie! What a joy to be there and see each of our children as well as my family there in New Hampshire. :-) Our three-week visit was quite full with two weeks of quarantining (and welcoming baby Amaris the end of the first week) and then trying to squeeze everything else into that last week. We thank God for helping us through the complications of the last few days as returning to Ecuador required having negative corona-virus test results in hand and Kevin’s results were delayed in getting to us. Our flight was also canceled, then re-scheduled for a day later….but God worked out the details and we arrived safely in Ecuador early Saturday morning October 3rd and still were able to have church services Sunday October 4th in Rio Verde and Palmira. A bit of a whirlwind! but we were thankful for God’s strength for each moment. Thanks for your prayers!

Back in AwaLand…

Gloria and Guillermo joyfully received us, with everything in good order here at the Outpost. Guillermo caught us up on the local happenings, including the fact that he was again made president of the Palmira community. He shared with us the exciting news that work will soon begin on the new road heading past Palmira to the Toctemí River, which means the tractor will be working on the presently very muddy trail that passes by the church in Palmira. Guillermo also helped us with the delivery of new roofing for the houses here in Rio Verde, so we’ve got some work to do in the next few weeks. We thank the Lord for this couple who have cheerfully come alongside to be such a help to us!

A few special blessings as we returned: different Awa visiting us with words of welcome and with gifts of bananas, plantains, sugarcane syrup, and milk; the president of Rio Verde community, Pablo, coming by for some paperwork help but also asking us if his daughters could please attend church; and Paulino’s son Abraham greeting us Sunday with a big smile: “I cleaned the church so it would be ready for the ‘culto’ (service) this morning!”

Thanks again for your prayers as we settle back into ministry here in AwaLand! Please pray also for both of our daughters as they are struggling with some health concerns—Keilah after Amaris’ birth, and Kimberly with some type of infection (we are suspicious that she may have Lyme’s disease or perhaps some Ecuadorian equivalent, she was able to go to the doctor yesterday for some preliminary tests.) It was difficult to return knowing they were both struggling health-wise; we are thankful for an omnipresent Father who is with them!

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

 

Many are the plans...

 

September 2020

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21 (ESV)

I read the above verse just the other day in a devotional that I was reading, and a day later shared it in an interview as being a verse that has been meaningful over these many years of ministry. Yet I did not foresee the change in plans coming our way this week!

To start with the plans that haven’t changed: We are excited to be able to fly back the USA for a short 3-week trip in just a few days for the birth of our second grandchild! Our daughter Keilah and her husband Jeremy are currently in New Hampshire in partnership development as they move toward serving as full-time missionaries in the country of Paraguay. They are awaiting the imminent arrival of a little sister for their son Ronin. 😊 We have been looking forward to this trip for some time and are so glad that international travel has begun to open up again making this trip possible. For the first part of our visit, we’ll be staying put (baby-arrival waiting AND quarantining.) 😊

What we were not expecting is that our coworkers the Shaubs would also have to make a sudden trip back to the USA at the same time, thus we have had to shift gears in how we left things here at the Rio Verde Outpost. So, this last week has left our minds in a bit of a whirlwind as we adjust. We are thankful for how God is helping to work it all out. We shared this Sunday about our need of someone to watch the Outpost and Gloria and Guillermo cheerfully volunteered. We greatly appreciate their willingness to help out during our absence. Please pray for the Lord’s blessing to be upon them. We are so glad that we can trust in a Sovereign God, and that in all the ups and downs, and twists and turns, His purpose in both our lives and the lives of the Awa believers will STAND!

On a lighter note: Last week we were able to make a fun trip hiking up from Palmira to a waterfall. Andy Shaub, along with four of Paulino & Manuela’s kids, and two other MKs, Joel and Amelia Farnsworth, came along. The Lord blessed us with a lovely day and gave our hiking muscles a good workout. (We have been a bit out of practice lately!) The beauty of God’s handywork is spectacular.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

In HIS grip,
Kevin & Kathy

The August sun is out in full force!

 

The sunny, windy days of dry season are finally upon us! We enjoy the annual drying up of the mud, making it so much easier to get around. We have noticed the raised beds in our garden, which work so well during the rainy season, are needing constant watering, though! We are thankful for such a beautiful world God has graciously allowed us to live in. :-)

Church services begin

We are preparing for beginning church services again on Sunday--“curso pashpa” (baby ser-vices), as we are telling the Awa. We’ve received permission to begin short (40 minute) services with small groups, as long as we remember proper social distancing etiquette along with hand and shoe (in our case, boot!) washing. We are thankful for our mostly open-air chapels! So far children’s classes are not permitted, but we are excited to at least be able to gather even with the restrictions. Thanks for praying with us for the Lord’s guidance as we make preparations: The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps (Pro 16:9 ESV).

On being where God wants us…

As we’ve been able to interact with the Awa during the pandemic, with our regular schedule def-initely thrown out of whack!, we’ve had to rely on God to have us exactly where He wants us each day. On many different occasions God has put someone in our path at just that specific needed moment in time. Last Sunday Kathy and I went to check on a sick friend in a different community, only to disappointedly find an empty house. Across the road a voice called to us, “Hey, come on over and sit and rest!” We turned to see Fermin and his wife Ana smiling at us from their front porch. As we sat down on their wooden bench, Fermin asked if we could help him with some questions he had about a book. He went into their house and came back with an old Spanish Bible, saying that Paulino had given it to him many years ago. “Could you explain about this Book, what it’s about and what the different parts of it are?” he asked. Boy, could we!! :-) And thus followed a lovely time going over the big picture of God’s story found in that beautiful Book, and answering several other questions that Fermin had. An hour later we walked away, awed at God’s ability to direct our steps (even in our ignorance of His bigger plan.) That’s the truth of Proverbs 16:9 again!

In His grip,
Kevin & Kathy

P.S. Just a note: Ecuador’s postal system officially closed as of mid-July, so thus our post office box is no longer viable. At this point we don’t have any other mailing options (a couple of private companies do deliver here but the cost is prohibitive). So please send any mail to our USA address for the time being.

P.P.S.Our home office has been working hard to upgrade and update the mission web site. Please check it out and let us know what you think: https://www.liebenzellmission.org. Or for those who might be interested, just jump straight to our personal page there and check out the different projects that help our ministry: https://www.liebenzellmission.org/kevin-and-kathy-bruce

 

Picture of the Month The Department of Education is still deciding whether rural schools will be able to gather in the fall, or if teachers will continue to give out school-at-home assignments. If the schools aren’t in session, we will find it hard to have children’s Sunday classes. We pray for a wise decision to be made, so children like happy little Logan (Paulino’s youngest child, pictured here) can not only continue to learn not only school subjects but also increase in their knowledge of God.