Visit to Ibarra and the North District of Ecuador

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Joel & Kim

We returned on Wednesday late at night from a couple day visit to the North District of Ecuador.  This visit included trips to San Gabriel (close to the Colombian border), Ibarra, and 2 indigenous churches in Zuleta and Pungo Huayco.  It was a great time of visiting with pastor’s and lay leaders who are passionate about children’s ministries.  We had a meeting on Monday night with all but 2 churches in the district to talk about our future ministry with the center for at-risk children and medical clinic.  Joel went to San Gabriel on Tuesday morning and then the whole family went to visit Zuleta.  It has been wonderful getting to know these areas that are only 2-3 hours from Quito.  There is a lot of excitement about the possibilities in the North District.  One plus in thinking about this area is that there are many Compassion International Centers in these areas.  It’s a fairly poor area of Ecuador, and although there are not obvious problems of abandonment of children, there are definitely a lot of at-risk children.

Please continue to pray for us as we gather information for the field study and wisdom for those who will be making decisions about where future ministries will be.

Members of the indigenous church of Pungo Huayco. There are ladies wearing the traditional dress of the community.

Another angle during the meeting

Joel with the Compassion International director and Swedish missionary Ulla

Report This Post

Categories: Field Study, Travel | Tags: | Leave a comment

Happy Easter!!!

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

 

He has risen!!  He has risen indeed!!!  Happy Easter from Ecuador!

Report This Post

Categories: Reflections | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Field Study Traveling — The North District

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

We’ll be leaving on Monday for the Ibarra area (up North) we’re we’ll be doing our second visit in the Field Study for the Center for At Risk Children and Medical Clinic.  We should be returning late on Thursday.  Please pray for safe travel and for God’s leading in our meetings.

Report This Post

Categories: Field Study, Ministry, Prayer Requests, Travel, Updates | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Quito’s Good Friday Procession

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

We had an amazing cultural experience yesterday, Good Friday, going to Quito’s Good Friday Procession.  We didn’t have the chance to go last year and we had heard so much about it that we decided that we couldn’t pass it up this year since we were here in Quito.

To explain, Quito’s Good Friday Procession is a Catholic Church tradition of following the footsteps of Jesus on his walk to the cross.  But more than that, it is the opportunity for many Catholics to engage in the Catholic sacrament of penance where they suffer (literally) for their sins in the past year as a way of seeking forgiveness.  These ways to suffer in this procession include carrying a huge wooden cross, wearing a crown of thorns or barbwire and/or chains on their feet and also not wearing shoes on the blistering hot asphalt as they walk the 5 miles of the procession.  Some penitents took it a step further by wearing crosses made from cacti strapped to their back, wrapping barbwire around their body or lashing themselves with some kind of cord or chain.

Though we aren’t quite on the same page theologically speaking, we did very much appreciate the cultural experience and understand that many of the people were very sincere in the faith.

With the pictures below, unfortunately the clothes that the penitents (purple robes with pointed hoods) wore has a different meaning in the States.  No, these are not Ku Klux Klan members; rather they are Catholics acting out their Christian faith in a way that is very important for them.

Depiction of Jesus being lead by the Roman guards.

No not Ku Klux Klan members. Penitents walking the path of the cross of Jesus.

Penitents carrying the cross.

Penitent who wrapped himself in barbwire.

The mourners.

Simeon had the best seat in the house.

Report This Post

Categories: Family Fun, Reflections, Updates | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Thank You Knollbrook Covenant Church

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

Friends from Knollbrook Covenant Church in Fargo,ND

We received quite the wonderful little blessing from Knollbrook Covenant Church in Fargo, ND, their Missions Commission and the Burrows family.  The Burrows, pictured left, came down to Quito over Easter break to visit their daughter, Katie, who works at the Alliance Academy (a Christian school that is right next to us).  The Missions Commission Chairperson, Diana Knecht, had emailed us previously to see if there was anything that we needed that the Burrows could bring down.  We had thought of a couple of little things and emailed her back.  Well, much to our surprise and as churches often do, they brought down 30 lbs worth of goodies!!!  They brought us a ton of the Gerber snack foods for Simeon (which are great on all of our road trips), peanut butter (which is really expensive here), cake mixes and icings (also really hard to come by), chocolate chips (impossible to get her), and brownie mixes.  And they even brought down one of the giant books that Kim needs to read for her classes over the summer so we don’t have to buy it and have it sent down.

We just felt incredibly blessed by their love of us through these wonderful gifts.  The most special part of it for us is that we know that a church, which we’ve never had prior contact, was thinking about us and praying for us and wanting to bless us in this way.  The things are wonderful of course, but it’s the fact that people we didn’t even know were thinking about us and praying for us.  At times, we can feel a little bit distant from all of you in the States but when blessings like this occur, we feel a ton closer.  THANK YOU KNOLLBROOK COVENANT CHURCH!!!

Report This Post

Categories: Prayer, Reflections | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Update on Simeon

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

Simeon with Friends in Tena

We just want to say a big THANK-YOU for all of you who have been praying for Simeon and his slow growth.  We went to the Pediatrician this week and we got the report that his growth has improved quite a bit.  HE’S NOW ON THE GROWTH CURVE!!!!  Yeah, it may be the lowest 5% but at least he’s on the curve.  It helps us to feel a little bit better that he’s at least a little bit closer to normal in terms of his growth.  In reality, we haven’t been overly concerned because we know that there was nothing really wrong with him and all kids grow at different rates, but it’s just one of those things that you hope he can be a little bit closer to normal.  THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS FOR SIMEON!!!!

You can, of course, continue to pray for Simeon and his growth but maybe now you can focus your prayers a little bit more on Ruthie, Joel’s mom.  It’s getting close to being a year since she had her major surgery on the back of her neck and she still has not regained her swallowing 100%.  She still has to puree most all of her food.  We all just want her swallowing to recover 100% so that we she can enjoy eating again.  Thank you all so much for your prayers for Simeon and Ruthie!!!

Report This Post

Categories: Prayer, Prayer Requests, Simeon, Updates | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Dedication of Kyler

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Joel & Kim

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to be a part of our babysitter’s, Valeria, and her husband’s, Holger, baby dedication of their new baby Kyler.  This was already very special moment for us but they also asked us to be the “consejeros” (literally “advisors” or “counselors”) for Kyler.  This is kind of like God parents where we are to pray for little Kyler as he grows up and be available for advice and Spiritual counseling.  We are to look after him as he grows up as Spiritual mentors.

This was a very neat service and we were honored to be a part of it.  Here are some pictures so you can get an idea:

Little Kyler and his three "consejeros".

The dedication service itself.

Holger and Valeria with Kyler and Kim and Joel behind.

The Dedication prayer.

The presentation after the Dedication.

The post-Dedication photo: Holger's mother, Kim, Kyler, Joel, Valeria & Holger

Kyler was wiped out after all the action.

Caleb and his "girlfriend" Mandy.

For the Hoskins, Henry does preach at Santiago; We have the photo to prove it.

Report This Post

Categories: Family Fun, Ministry, Prayer, Updates | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Upcoming (CRAZY!) Schedule

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Joel & Kim

Here is our upcoming (CRAZY!) schedule and how you can be praying for us in the coming weeks:

  • April 9th-12 th = In the North District (Ibarra area) for the Field Study

  • April 10th = Meeting with the Leaders of the North District, IPEE and FACE for the Field Study

  • April 13th = Meeting in Quito with the Leaders of IPEE and the new members of the Camp Committee

  • April 14th = Meeting with the Central District

  • April 16th-19th = In the Northern Coast District (Manta-Monticristi area) for the Field Study

  • April 20th = FACE Meeting in the morning and in the afternoon a Meeting with the Leaders of the Northern Coast District, IPEE and FACE for the Field Study

  • April 20th-22nd = Meetings in Monticristi with IPEE Leadership

  • April 23rd-27th = In the Quechua District (the Cayambe area) for the Field Study

  • April 29th = Skyping with Ceresco Covenant Church in Ceresco, NE

  • April 30th-May 4th = In the Central District (Quito and Ambato areas) for the Field Study & David and Wendy Mark (Regional Coordinators) will be visiting

  • May 8th = Kim leading the IPEE Devotions and Joel in FACE Meeting

  • May 11th = 10 Year Anniversary!!!!!!

  • May 14th-18th = In the Southern Coast District (Quayaquil area) for the Field Study

  • May 23rd-27th = In Santo Domingo to visit the churches in the Santo Domingo area for the Field Study

  • May 27th = Joel preaching at “Dios Es Amor” church in Santo Domingo

  • May 28th-June 1st = Renewal of Visas to extend our time this year in Ecuador

  • June 2nd-June 9th = Kim traveling to Chicago for a Covenant History class that is needed for applying for Long Term Missionary status

Your prayers for all this crazy travel is very much appreciated.  Also, we are asking for prayer as we have all of these meetings for the Field Study.  We just want God to lead and open and close doors as He sees fit.  Finally, we want to especially ask for prayer for the first week of June when we need to renew our Visas.

Report This Post

Categories: Field Study, Ministry, Prayer, Santo Domingo, Travel, Updates | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blessed Holy Week

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Joel & Kim

We just wanted to wish you a blessed Holy Week as you worship in your communities this week.  This is a very meaningful time for us and we know that is the case for you also.  We have tried to not schedule a lot for this week so that way we could reflect on the significance of this week.  We are taking Spanish though because this is just about our only free week that we are going to have for quite some time.

Report This Post

Categories: Family Fun, Language Study, Ministry, Reflections, Updates | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Field Study: Amazon District

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Joel & Kim

After Kim’s last HIV/AIDS workshop in Tena, we took advantage of the fact that we were in the Amazon to begin our Field Study by visiting churches in the Amazon District.  First off, the Amazon District is the “Conference” of Covenant Churches that can be found in the Amazonian (“jungle”) region of the country.  There are around 10 in that area in total.  Second of all, if you remember, the Field Study is where we are going to be visiting all of the churches that have ministries with children to see if there will be a good place for our future ministries of a Center for At Risk Children and a Medical Clinic to fit in.  The idea is that we don’t have to recreate the wheel if we can find a place that would just be a new extension of a current ministry, rather than starting everything from scratch.  So, we’ll basically be going through this process of visiting all 6 districts (or “conferences”) of Covenant Churches and their ministries with children.  So, the Amazon District was our first.

Things started off well the first day by having a meeting with the president and coordinator of the district as well as several key representatives of churches and ministries found throughout the district.  As well as we had invited the Director of FACE to have a FACE representative on hand.  We had a meeting of over an hour and a half and talked about all of the ministries with children in the district as well as we planned out the rest of our time there.

The picture above is from the Scouts in the jungle town of Baeza.  I had hear about the Scouting ministry in Ecuador but this was my first opportunity to be a part of it.  The Scouts in Ecuador are a combination of the Scouts as we know and the ministries of the church.  It’s basically the Scouts with God and the church added in.  It was really neat to see and experience this first hand as it is a great ministry that they have in Baeza.

Please pray a lot as we go through this process of the Field Study.  We just want God to lead and for Him to open and close doors where he sees fit.

Report This Post

Categories: Field Study, HIV/AIDS, Ministry, Prayer, Prayer Requests, Tena, Travel, Updates | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment