October already

Dear friends and family,

It is amazing to me that Doug and I have been here in Ecuador for nearly two months already! I checked the date today and had to look at it twice to be sure that I was reading it right. What a great reminder to me that we need to be good stewards of our time here because the next seven months will likely fly by even faster than the first two!

In our last blog post, Doug wrote about out upcoming kids' club. It turned out to be quite a success! Doug and I put our creative skills to work designing sheep masks for the kids to put together, and to be “safe,” we made a few extra, for a total of 15, plus the model. We'd had 10 kids come to the previous club, so we thought we'd be safe. As it turns out, exactly 16 kids showed up! The lesson was on Psalm 23 and how the Lord is our shepherd and cares for us as His sheep. This coming weekend we'll be teaching on David and Goliath, so we need to brainstorm another craft or activity.

Kids Club with the sheep masks, Gabi, and Kim

We have officially taken on the Wednesday night English club, and tonight will be our second time teaching. We start by playing a recording and passing out scripts for people to follow along. Then we go over questions on vocabulary and pronunciation. The best part comes next, when we break into small groups, usually about 3-4 Ecuadorians per native English speaker. We spend some time going over the program and then close by discussing a spiritual application of the lesson. This is where the good discussion begins!

It's amazing to see how open and willing people are to discuss the Bible and ask questions. In a recent Sunday night English group, a university student named Daniel asked some wonderful questions about the difference between Catholics and Evangelical Christians and the second coming of Christ, among other things. At our last Wednesday night English group, after concluding our discussion of the spiritual application of the lesson, one of the ladies in my group expressed an interest in joining a Bible study through one of the local Christian churches. Doug also had a great discussion with a student in his group about salvation by grace, not by works, and was able to meet with him earlier this week for a one-on-one Bible study on the topic of grace. My impression is that a lot of people here have been deceived into believing that they have to work for salvation. The idea of salvation by grace just doesn't seem to be widely believed here.

In other news, Doug and I have been putting in some extra time brainstorming ideas to help the cafe out of a tough financial spot. The current management is leaving at the end of the week, so we are currently working with the mission to help figure out what should be done. It is likely that, after this week, we will be increasing our hours and may possibly be taking on some managerial responsibilities. We don't know what will happen yet, but it is in the Lord's hands, and we'd appreciate your prayers that He will work things out in the best way as only He can.

Finally, on a personal note, things are going well for both of us. We're learning more Spanish with each passing day, especially Doug. We spent last Saturday in Vilcabamba again with our family. They have finished the construction of their house there and seem to be ready to spend more time there relaxing! We've also been able to spend more time with other missionaries on the team, getting together for meals, coffee, and games. Doug turned 25 32!!  The weather has been a little crazy lately- most days, it either rains in the morning with sun in the afternoon, or vice versa. Please pray for the Lord's wisdom for us with regard to El Sendero and that he would continue to open doors for us to minister through the English & children's ministries. We miss you all and love hearing from you!

Lots of love from Ecuador, Kim & Doug

Casa de cuis, checking out the baby guinea pig

Doug's Birthday cookies.