Meetings, Meetings and More Meetings…

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Joel & Kim

Well, we got back safely from our most recent trip to Santo Domingo later on Wednesday.  It was a good and productive trip for Joel and his work at the camp.  Kim and Simeon enjoyed themselves also besides the moment when Simeon threw up on our way there in the midst of all of the windy curves.  It was quite the sight trying to get him all cleaned up on the side of the road in a small rural town outside of the Santo Domingo area.  We ended up having quite a few curious observers.

For this weekend, Joel and his friend Jonathan will be returning to Santo Domingo, but this time on bus.  They’ll be leaving late in the afternoon on Friday and will be returning late at night on Sunday.  Joel has an important Camp Committee meeting on Saturday which we would appreciate your prayers for as there will be some difficult decisions to make.  And then on Sunday, Joel will be meeting with the community next to the Camp to discuss the options they have for the Agua Potable (“Fresh Water”) project.  Meanwhile, at home, Kim will be beginning her responsibilities at one of our churches in childcare.  Please pray for her as she takes on this new endeavor.

God bless you all in your activities and in church this weekend.

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Off to Santo Domingo

Posted on September 10, 2011 by Joel & Kim

The family will be traveling to Santo Domingo from Sunday, September 11th until Thursday, September 15th.  We will have limited email access during this time.  If you need to get a hold of us, we will respond as soon as we return.  Your prayers for safety in travel are always appreciated.

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Update on Pacto Sumaco

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Joel & Kim

A while back, I wrote about a visit Chris Hoskins and I made to Pacto Sumaco.   Pacto Sumaco is a small Covenant community of farmers whole have been struggling for some time financially.  The community was named “Pacto” Sumaco because the Covenant Church (“Pacto” means “Covenant” in Spanish) has done so much for the community over the years.  Recently, Covenant World Relief has gotten involved in helping the community develop new farming techniques which can better the health and prosperity of the families there.  The main part of the project is implementing an edible mushroom that the farmers can grow to eat and sell, which has the potential to be a great cash crop for them.  In turn, the mushroom production is much more sustainable and better for the environment because it is not as damaging to the soil as its predecessor crop, naranjilla.  The naranjilla, a small citrus fruit, eats away at the nutrients in the soil in that after only three years, the plant makes the soil unable to be cultivated in the future and so more rain forest is cut down to make room for new land to be tilled.  In addition, the naranjilla requires harsh pesticides which is harmful to the health of those in the community.

Finally, in addition to the mushroom production, the Covenant World Relief project is also helping teach the farmers how to do their own organic farming.  Currently, those in the community do not have a very healthy diet, but with implementation of these greenhouses and organic gardens, this will hopefully change.

You can read more about the Covenant World Relief project here and feel free to provide some support for it:

http://www.covchurch.org/relief/projects/cd/ecuador-agriculture/

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Agua Potable Update

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Joel & Kim

Thank you so much for your prayers yesterday for the meeting over the Fresh Water project.  Things went well, though maybe not in the way that we had wanted.  Let me explain what happened.

First of all, two members of the community that is located next to the camp traveled by bus from Santo Doming and arrived in the big bus terminal in the south of Quito at 8 am yesterday morning (they had to leave at 3:30 from their homes!).  I picked them up from the bus terminal and drove them up north where the meeting was going to be.  Once we got there and met Santiago, the FACE coordinator for this project, we found out the location for the meeting had changed so we had to drive to another part of town.  We ended up being about an hour late but the engineer that we were meeting with was kind and understanding.

In the course of the discussion, this is what we found out.  That the office we were at actually could NOT authorize the Fresh Water project for the community that we had hoped; that authorization is given by the local authorities there in Santo Domingo.  But, what we did find out is that this division of the government was in fact planning a huge fresh water project for a very large area that encompasses much of the area south of Santo Domingo, in which this community and the camp would be included.  This is very good news!  It means that the community will not have to pay to do the project themselves.  However, there is still one difficulty in that this is a very large project being completed by a very large division of the government and even though the engineer explained that the project should be completed within two years, we have many suspicions that it will take much longer.  So, at this point, the community and the camp have a decision to make as to whether they are going to wait and have the project complete by this division of the government or if they are going to try to do it themselves at a much quicker pace.

The day concluded by me dropping the two gentlemen from Santo Domingo back off at the bus station in the south of Quito.  Santiago and myself are planning on being in Santo Domingo on September 18th to attend a town hall meeting to discuss these two options and what was presented by the engineer.

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Agua Potable Prayer Request

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Joel & Kim

We just wanted to let everyone know of a prayer request so you can be praying.  Tomorrow, September 8th, at 9:00 a.m. (CST) we will be having an important meeting over the “Fresh Water” project in Santo Domingo,  so your prayers are definitely cherished.  We will actually be meeting with a large organization here in Quito.  There is a small team of people coming from the community next to the Camp in Santo Domingo that will be traveling to Quito early in the morning.  I (Joel) will be going with them and Santiago from FACE to meet with this large organization here in Quito to try to get permission to do the water project on our own.  At this point, the community can’t wait any longer for the government to act; they want to act on their own, which is fantastic.  It’s only that they need permission before proceeding.  We are hoping to receive this permission tomorrow.  Again, your prayers are greatly, greatly appreciated!!!

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Evergreen Covenant Vision Team

Posted on September 1, 2011 by Joel & Kim

We just finished hosting the Vision Team from Evergreen Covenant Church in Sanford, ME.  We had a great time with them.  In the end we visited 7 different possible locations that they could partner with for future ministry.  Six of the seven locations were indigenous churches who held their services in their native tongue (Quichua) as well as in Spanish.  The good thing was that all of the churches were located near or around the Volcano Cayambe, so the traveling wasn’t too, too extensive.  The team, Joel and Henry Burbano were treated very well by all of the churches we visited.  The team even got the opportunity to really experience culture when they were fed Cuy (Guinea pig) a couple of times.  They probably won’t be cooking it up when they get home.

This was a bit of stepping out of my comfort zone (Joel).  I was the translator for the team so while we were out and about I was the one responsible for translating in both directions.  It was definitely good that most everyone spoke Spanish in addition to their native Quichua.  In the end, everything went just fine.  My translations were not always perfect but the main point was always understood.

Now, that they have headed back.  They are going to take all of the information that they have collected and share it with their congregation.  Then from there, as a church body, they are going to pray about the Lord’s leading in which direction to go to form a partnership.  It will be pretty difficult in that so many of the locations were filled with such wonderful people and vision for future ministry.

We finished up our time with them by taking them to historic sites in Quito as well as to the Equator.  We had a great time with a lot of laughs.  One of our highlights is pictured below when one of the churches we visited took us on a horse ride up to the top of a mountain.  It was a pretty cool!

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Vision Team from Maine

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Joel & Kim

Starting today, August 22nd, we’ll be hosting a Vision Team from Evergreen Covenant Church from Sanford, ME including the pastor and three members of the congregation.  What is a Vision Team you ask?  Well, a vision team is a group of people who desire to come to a country where there are Covenant Ministries and learn more about those ministries with the end that they can begin a relationship for future  partnership in ministry.  We are excited that Evergreen Covenant Church chose Ecuador to visit!

We have been happy to set up a trip for them that will last about a week and will include meetings with national church officials, visits to 7 different ministry locations, and, of course, visiting some of the fun/historical sites in Ecuador.  Joel will be traveling with them to many of the different sites but we’ll both hosting them while they are here in Quito.  We are excited to get to meet them later on tonight when they arrive and are really excited to see how the week turns out and what ideas come about.  Please pray that their visit is fruitful and much can be accomplished.

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Update on Ruth and Earl

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Joel & Kim

Ruth and Earl holding Simeon as a newborn.

We were just talking about it and realized that we hadn’t given you all an update on Ruth and Earl (Joel’s parents) and their medical situations as of late.  As you probably know, Earl had a successful hip replacement back in the beginning of July.  The surgery went well and his recovery has gone extremely well!  All of the reports are fantastic!!!  He is basically back to life as normal with walking, riding a bike, driving the car and gardening.  He is only waiting the approval to begin playing sports again and then he’ll be out on the tennis court in no time!

For Ruthie, things have not gone quite as smoothly.  She has had a few more ups and downs lately.  As you remember, she had a large tumor removed from the back of neck back in May.  From that point, she has been wearing a large neck brace to protect her spinal cord and has had to use a feeding tube as her ability to swallow did not return after the surgery.  Well, the good thing to report is that she has been able to get her neck brace off and she is enjoying the comfort of a bed and normal life with no huge neck brace.  And she has made progress with her swallowing.  In July, they started an electric stimulus treatment that retrains her throat muscles to begin working again.  This treatment has been successful in that she has been progressing, though slowly, in her ability to swallow.

The main prayer request is for the length of time it is taking for her to fully regain this ability.  You can only imagine how difficult it would be to not be able to swallow and to have to receive nourishment through a feeding tube.  It is very discouraging at times.  We pray with Ruthie that God will fully heal her neck and that one day she will be able to swallow fully again.

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Meeting in Santo Domingo

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Joel & Kim

The family and I (Joel) just got back from a successful trip to Santo Domingo and the Covenant Church campgrounds there.  I had a meeting on Saturday which lasted around 5 hours and things seemingly went very well.  We were able to make a number of decisions that will greatly help and enhance the camp; many things that have been needing to be done for years.  In the end, a lot of these decisions will mean more work for me, but I am ok with that because it means the camp will improve in the end and we will make progress and in the end God will be glorified!

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Off to Santo Domingo

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Joel & Kim

Well, we are off to Santo Domingo again tomorrow, Thursday, August 17th and will be there through Sunday, August 21st.  We’ll, as always, have limited internet access and communication in general.  Your prayers for safe travel are always appreciated.

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