thank you for your prayers!

(Here's a photo of my shattered car window - read the story below!)

Today, I was reminded once again in a big way of how important our prayer team is to us! We are so grateful for the many people who are committed to praying for us individually, for our family and for our ministries! God is hearing your prayers!!!!

This morning, I was driving my usual 20 - 30 minute drive towards the offices of HCJB and Extreme Response. I planned to drop Nathan and Isa off at the little day care they go to and then go on to the HCJB offices for their first day of spiritual emphasis time with Jim Allen.

I was waiting at a stop light, minding my own business when all of a sudden the front passenger side window shattered! I couldn't figure out what happened as I hadn't seen anything (I actually thought that a rock hit it somehow) . . . but looking in my rearview mirror I saw a man dressed in a black gym suit running away! And it didn't take long for me to realize that someone had attempted to rob us! And there I was sitting in my car, with Nathan and Isa in the back seat in their car seats and my purse and computer sitting in the front seat where I always put it! (you can bet that I will now be putting those items on the floor in the least visible place!)

But God protected us in a big way! Many things to be grateful for:

1) the original owner of my car had put protective laminate sheets on all the windows for just this very thing. this is actually a pretty common occurrence in Quito - in fact, I know of at least three missionary ladies that this has happened to and their purses were snatched right through the window!

2) Praise God for that protective laminate!!!!

3) Praise God that none of us were hurt. I was actually quite shaken up once I realized what had and what could have happened. I've been kind of nervous all week long anyways as Santi is on the coast with a team from PA, working on a project there and I don't really like being home with the kids by myself! But I praise God for His protection (and for all your prayers!)

4) The window was shattered but not broken in so I didn't have to worry about having an open window while driving the rest of the way to the office.

5) ER staff members, Dan Maloy and Nick Carnill, helped me get my stuff (i.e. kids stuff, car seats, etc.) transferred to Santi's car (which was conveniently sitting at ER while Santi is out of town this week). And helped me get my car to the shop so that we can get the window replaced.

6) And I'm grateful that we do indeed have another car that I can use while mine gets fixed.

This is actually the second time within a month that a robbery attempt has been made on my car (which my car really is not a very nice car, but somehow it must be attractive to thieves). About a month ago, someone tried to steal the $3,500 computer that runs my car, but only got away with a $900 sensor! Again, God protected us from any harm!

So . . . the window is being replaced as I type this and you can bet that I asked for them to put another piece of laminate on the window! Turns out the laminate costs just as much as the window - but that doesn't matter - the security is worth it!

So to sum things up - we are blessed by your faithfulness in prayer for us! Please keep it up!!! We need your prayers!

1) Pray for us as Santi doesn't return home until Friday evening with the team.

2) Pray for safety for the team as they work in hot conditions on the coast (check out Santi's Facebook page for some photos of what they are doing!)

3) Pray for traveling mercies for the team as they travel to Quito on Friday

4) Pray for Nathan as he has been talking quite a bit about the "malo" (bad guy) who hit our window and mommy's broken car. Pray that I will transmit God's peace to him so that he's not upset any more!

Again - thank you!