Ten on Tuesday

1) It's rainy and cloudy and chilly today in Quito. I even noticed some fog this morning when we got up. It seems like it rained all night too (but I was sleeping, so I'm not sure).

2) It's good to have Santi back from the coast! Ten days is way too long to not have our husband and daddy around!

3) The two german shepherd dogs (actually puppies still - they will be one in May) on our property do some funny things - including trying to dig up grub worms (strange grubby looking bugs that live under the ground). They also wrestle with each other and growl at each other a lot - I guess that's normal for brothers, right?

4) HCJB recently had it's "spiritual emphasis" days - Jim Allen spoke on grace . . . .I was reminded to show lots of grace to those around me (cars who cut me off, cashiers who make errors, my kids, etc.) . . . .after all, I have been given a huge measure of grace by Jesus!

5) Santi is in the midst of a major change-over in the computer system at HCJB . . . . they are changing everything from Novell to something else (but I can't remember what is it). . . . he's working long hours - pray for him and the whole ISD team.

6) Extreme Response has hosted four teams this month. One team of high school students from Hawaii went to the Philippines to work with a ministry for street people. Santi was just with a team from PA who helped build a school in Pedernales - a coastal town here. And we have a team here in Quito from Omaha, Nebraska, who is helping build classrooms for a local school/church. And finally, we had a team from Canada working on another school project in a very poor neighborhood (Trujillo) near Lima, Peru. We love seeing God do amazing things through these teams!

7) Nathan and Isa actually played together quite nicely this morning. Yesterday, they fought like cats and dogs. Maybe it's all the good sleep they got last night? Maybe they just decided to like each other for a change. Who knows? Hard to read the minds of toddlers! I do wonder how they learn to be so awful sometimes though!

8) I need to do a post on my time in Pacoche, a coastal town where we did the 4-day ministry trip with our high school group. In the meantime, check out my photos on Facebook as I posted a ton of photos. I also need to share about Santi's time in Pedernales with the team from Calvary Church, PA.

9) Lots of cool events coming up in the next few weeks - our good friends, the Wendels, will be coming for a visit. Leader Mundial will host a leadership summit here in Quito for businessmen and ministry partners from around the world! We'll get to see people we haven't seen in a long time!

10) Nathan is pretty much obsessed with Buzz Lightyear right now.

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!

Five on Friday!

I've decided to do a "Five on Friday" series - hopefully this will help me remember to post on our blog at least once a week! So here's my first installment!

1. As you can see in the above photos, Nathan and Isa are working on their skills for playing Ticket to Ride - one of our favorite games! They will be experts by the time they are old enough to play with mommy and daddy!

2. Ruth will be leaving tomorrow morning with our high school group to fly to the coastal city of Manta. . . .from there we have an hour bus ride to a small fishing village called Pacoche. There our group of 25 people (students and leaders) will provide a Kids Bible Club over the long weekend (it's Carnaval weekend here - Monday and Tuesday are holidays). We are expecting around 150 children and moms to show up to the four clubs we will be giving. We're doing a series on The Whole Armor of God and the children will be memorizing the passage from Ephesians 6:10 - 18. Our high school students are very excited about the trip and have done a great job preparing the Bible verses, songs and crafts. They even made a more-than-life-sized soldier for the various pieces of armor. Lots of fun! Santi will be staying home with Nathan and Isabella (his mom is going to come and help too!).

3. Ruth returns from the coast on Tuesday and Santi leaves the following day to drive to the coastal town of Pedernales, where he will spend 10 days with a team from Calvary Church (PA) working on a school construction project with a local church there. Pray that God will stretch the $3,000 in project funds a long way as they try to get as much done as possible! Please pray for this team from March 9 - 19!

4. It's been raining a lot here in Quito - almost every night, all night long, in fact! We're enjoying the cooler temperatures and green grass and our outside plants are growing! And we certainly can't complain - it's not the snow that everyone up north has been experiencing this winter!

5. We are grateful that a robbery attempt on Ruth's car wasn't 100% successful last week! We were at our missionary small group meeting at another friend's home and our car was parked out front along with several others. The robbers were trying to rob that "computer" that basically runs the car - something that is worth at least $3,500 here. They somehow unwired the car alarm (which is why we didn't notice anything going on), and managed to get under the hood and were working on cutting away all the electronics when something (or someone) must have interrupted them. They did get away with a sensor/wires which came out to be a $900 job, but thankfully they left the more expensive items! We are grateful for several things (trying to find the positive in this!): we weren't hurt in the robbery, our car was functional enough to drive down to the HCJB parking lot and then drive to the Chevy dealer down the street the next morning, and that they didn't damage any other things in the car (i.e. windows, alarm system, hood, wiring, etc.).

HCJB Radio Ministry in Action!

God uses radio ministry around the world to reach people for Him! We are more and more aware of this as Santi continues providing technical support for the HCJB Global radio staff in Quito.

To read more about HCJB Global Voice and what God is doing in radio ministry, please click HERE!

Mid - February Update

We are grateful to all of you for praying for us this year! We certainly need it with all the activities and life happenings going on . . . . here's a little update for you today!

Santi is home sick in bed today - we figured it was better that he didn't spread his germs around at the office and perhaps a day of rest will help his body recover more quickly.

Ruth is enjoying getting into the office about four times a week - just two hours or so each time, but it feels good to be more involved. Mostly she has been working on monthly calendars and updates for our staff around the world. And coordinating the crafts for the weekly Kids Club at the dump.

And then we are working on details and preparations for the annual ministry trip with our high school group. This year, our trip will be March 5 - 8. We will travel to a small coastal down called Pacoche (near Manta) and do a Kids Club for approximately 150 children in this community. This is our fourth year going to this village and it's amazing to see how the local church has grown as a result of this Kids Club which is now running on a regular basis every Tuesday afternoon . . . . and another one on Sunday morning with 100 regular attendees! Can you believe that? I'm looking forward to sharing photos after the trip. Santi will be staying home to take care of Nathan & Isabella while I go with the group.

Santi continues to stay busy with technical support for HCJB's radio staff. He enjoys his work as he is able to use his computer skills while also helping people out! He has joined me this year on Wednesday afternoon at the Kids Club at the dump and we have enjoyed doing that ministry together.

Nathan and Isabella are growing up! Nathan is now three and talks all the time. He likes to report to daddy all the things that mommy did during the day! He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure! Isabella is a happy little girl - usually waking up with a smile and she's happiest doing whatever her brother is doing at the time. (that is, if he lets her!). Our normal activities include going to play group at another missionary's house on Wednesday mornings, using water color paints (Nathan does well with this, Isa is still trying to figure it out), playing with PlayDoh, and watching Veggie Tales. They sure keep mommy busy!

We continue to go to the Hogar Betania on Sunday. One dear lady, Rosa, recently passed away. She suffered for a long time after a stroke that she had a couple of years ago. We know that she loved Jesus and is in heaven enjoying seeing Him face to face.

Well, Isa is awake now, so I must close. Thank you for all your prayers, love, concern, words of encouragement and faithful monthly support! We are very grateful!

If you want to see more family photos, be sure to befriend us on Facebook!

Changing Lives - Extreme Response Christmas

We have talked often about how exciting it is in December when we participate in Extreme Response's Christmas Outreach in Ecuador! It's a huge privilege. Many of you pray, give and even come! We want to thank you for being a part of changing lives, one by one.

Here is a glimpse of what it's like . . . .

Another Changed Life

One of our Extreme Response board members, Tim Fausch, is writing a series about Changed Lives . . . how lives around the world are being changed through Extreme Response. Sometimes it's our own lives, those of us who come to serve and minister, that are being changed. And other times, it's the lives of those we want to help.

Here is a photo from our recent Dump Christmas party in December of Santi and a man by the name of John Mason, who lives here in Quito with his family. He is works in a very demanding job but he still wanted his family to be involved in reaching out and their lives have been changed because of it . . . . . to read more of his story, please click HERE!

January is gone!

well, January is basically behind us! We spent most of the month trying to get back into our regular schedules after the busy month of December.

In December, we helped with the Extreme Response Christmas parties. Santi stayed busy for a week with the HCJB Global Radio Sharathon (Misión Compartida - Shared Mission). Then there are the usual Christmas parties - at home, at the office, with our high school group, with the Kids Club at the dump. Then some time with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Jesus. And don't forget that December 25 is also our son's birthday - which was a fun day of celebration too! And then, of course, there was the ringing in of the New Year on December 31!

So January often turns out to be a time to recuperate and settle back into some kind of routine. And it seems like we battled a lot of viruses this month. One weekend had all four of us down with fevers, aching bodies and runny noses. Then recently Nathan was sick for almost a week with a stomach virus. This included a 24 hour stay in the hospital with an IV due to dehydration. NOT FUN! But we are grateful for everyone's prayers and he's now back to his usual (busy and active) three-year old self!

Ruth even had a visit to a dentist for a toothache one week. Santi visited the eye doctor due to red and irritated eyes. And we took a trip to the coastal city of Guayaquil for an appointment at the US consulate there to work on Santi's US visa! (which he was granted - Praise the Lord!)

And, Santi continued with his work at HCJB Global Hands - providing technical support for the radio staff. Ruth returned to the Extreme Response office on a more regular basis - about two hours a day while Nathan and Isabella spend some time at a nearby day care. The Kids Club started up again (after the holiday break) at the dump. And we were able to provide Sunday services for the elderly at the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly).

Keep checking back for updates - I hope to post some photos from recent days and share more about what God is doing here in Quito through HCJB Global and Extreme Response! We appreciate your prayers, giving and words of encouragement. Without them, we would be unable to continue here, doing what God has called us to do!

Nathan is now 3!!!

Where did the time go!?!? Our little boy is now three years old! We had tons of fun celebrating his birthday on Saturday, December 25! Our little Christmas baby is now a boy. I just took a little trip down memory lane - looking at older photos of Nathan! God really did work a miracle in our lives and I'm reminded of it every year at Christmas! Thank you, Jesus! So . . . . here's Nathan! To see more photos from his birthday party, please click HERE!

Censo Sunday

And then right after Ruth's birthday, we had "Censo Sunday" - a once in every 10 years day here in Ecuador. This year, the unique thing was that everyone in the whole country (yes, everyone!) had to stay put from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wherever you were at 7 a.m. (hopefully at home), you had to stay there until the census was over at 5 p.m. So churches didn't have services, stores were closed, buses weren't run, there weren't any taxes.

Only those employed in places like hospitals were able to move about. And the census takers were thousands of young people from all over the country who were required to go to several homes and do a long survey!

So what does one do on a census Sunday? Well, first of all, our three guests (Ana, Julie and Nanette - see previous post) were actually glad to have a "down day" to just hang out and do basically nothing - but oh yes, we did have a few things on our list:

1) sleep in

2) eat "locro de papas" - an ecuadorian dish - potato soup

3) watch movies and eat popcorn

4) somehow keep the kids entertained

5) make 4 batches of sugar cookies for the ER Christmas Outreach at the Hogar Betania on the following Wednesday

6) make chili for other guests arriving the next day

7) play games

8) have a fire in the fireplace

9) talk and chat and catch up as only us women know to do

10) and wait for the census taker to show up (which he finally did right around 4:45 p.m.)!

And the picture above is of Santi with the census taker, answering a bunch of questions (and apparently Isa thought it was pretty funny - can you see her big smile!?). I'm so glad my husband was here to take care of it! I probably wouldn't have had the patience for all the questions!

Celebrating Ruth's Birthday - Nov 27

The day after Thanksgiving brought special guests from the US - Ana, Julie and Nanette - good friends from the Indianapolis area. They came down a few days early to hang out with us before participating in the week-long Extreme Response Christmas Outreach

On Saturday, November 27, we celebrated Ruth's birthday in a big way - starting with a little service at the Hogar Betania (Bethany Home for the Elderly - see photo below) due to the fact that we could not go on Sunday as we normally do (more on that in another post).

Then we had empanadas (turnovers) and fruit for lunch (see photos of the girls waiting for the empanadas),

After lunch we headed to the art park to see some beautiful ecuadorian art and made some special purchases for all of us (forgot to take photos though)

And for supper, it was on to our favorite restaurant - Crepes and Waffles. We finished out the day with a two hour ride on a "chiva bus" - a special holiday/event bus that is open on all sides and has music (see photos below). We enjoyed driving through down town colonial Quito and seeing all the old churches and buildings lit up at night! What a great way to celebrate!

To see more photos of our special chiva bus ride, click HERE.

us girls on the chiva bus!

Looking good on the chiva bus in downtown Quito!

Standing in front of the San Francisco Church - oldest church in Quito!

The girls waiting for our empanadas for lunch!

The service at the Hogar Betania, with Ana sharing, earlier in the day!

An International Thanksgiving!

It seems like our lives go in waves and we seem to be in one of them right now! The events over the past few weeks have kept us busy, but overwhelmed with God's goodness! I hope to add a series of posts these next few days that will help you get caught up on our lives!

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving Dinner at our home with several other friends in our home. The guest list included an Ecuadorian couple - Sandy & Edi (expecting their first baby any day now), a Swiss family (missionaries with HCJB with three children, Tomas works with Santi in the computer department) and a family from the US (the Dawsons - also missionaries with HCJB with three children too). It was definitely an international occasion. We were so busy with the turkey that we forgot to take photos, but fun was had by all with 8 children in the house busily playing and all of us enjoying some pumpkin pie!

Fun with the kids

Last Saturday was a busy day with a visit to a park in the center of Quito - El Ejido - we often call it the "Art Park" because on the weekends there are a lot of artists who display their work for sale. We had a guest from the states with us, so we thought it would be fun to take her there so that she could do some shopping. Little did we know that the park now has lots of fun things for kids to do - Nathan and Isa had a great time playing on the playground equipment (which was the perfect distraction wile our friend Christy did her souvenir shopping!). Later in the day, we went to the Harvest Festival at the school and Nathan played a few games, but his favorite was racing cars! He loved it! And Nathan's hair now looks a lot better since his bad haircut two weeks ago and he no longer is sporting a band-aid on his chin!

Drawer Fun!

I couldn't resist taking these photos of Isabella the other day while she was having fun playing in one of the kitchen drawers . . . it's usually full of games and toys for her and Nathan to play with, but she found it more fun to take everything out and try to get in herself!

Papallacta Hot Pools

Some gracious friends came and stayed with Nathan and Isabella for a night so that Santi and I could get away for our anniversary. We had a wonderful time (and both of us thought we should do it more often!).

We stayed one night up at the Termas de Papallacta - a beautiful resort high up in the Andes Mountains that features natural hot springs. We enjoyed our own private pool right outside our cabin. The views of Antisana - a snow-capped volcano - were spectacular as we relaxed in the hot pools. And it was fun to take a hike up the mountain side to see some of God's creation. Here are a few photos of our time away.

Here was the view outside our cabin door at dusk.

Can you see the snow-capped mountain in the background?

Mt. Antisana still showing it's snowy glory in the morning.

We found some llamas during our morning hike.

This was a fun organic garden - featuring mint among many other things.

Everything grows up in the mountains - even beautiful flowers!

There is no such thing as a tree line here at the equator

(even though we were at 10,000 feet altitude).

We stopped into a little museum along the way and

saw this big huge feather from Ecuador's national bird - the condor.

Celebrating Four Years!

Today we celebrate our 4th anniversary. I thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane and see how our lives have changed!

Here we are on our wedding day, October 28, 2006! We were blessed to get married at a hosteria just outside of Quito that had such a gorgeous setting! And it helps that roses are super cheap in Ecuador - we had lots of roses!

Our first anniversary, October 2007 - waiting for Nathan to arrive (he was born Dec 25, 2007)

Our family keeps growing - here we are in October of 2008!

And then along came little Isabella. This is October 2009!

And here we are today! October 28, 2010! We have been truly blessed during these four years. God has been good to us. We look forward to many more years together!

Tidbits

Our life seems to be full of tidbits lately! Here are a few of them:

1) We are still waiting to hear from the US Consulate in Guayaquil (a coastal city here) about Santi's next appointment for his US visa which will allow him to travel freely between the US and Ecuador (his current visa expires in February).

2) we still have some paperwork and appointments to get done before the above appointment - pray that we will get it all done. Santi will need to get a copy of his police record (or lack thereof - LOL) from the police headquarters here in Quito. He also needs to do a medical exam with a doctor appointed by the US embassy for these visas. We are also waiting for some paperwork from the US.

3) Ruth has been spending lots of time at the dentist lately - as in about two appointments a week for the past two months. Lots to get fixed after not going for about 3 years (yes, I know, this is shameful! chalk it up to never having time between being pregnant and having babies the last three years! I promise I will never wait that long again!).

4) Tomorrow, we celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary! Lots of great memories and hopefully many more to come. God has been good to us!

5) The Kids Club at the dump on Wednesday afternoons has been going well. We seem to be having lower attendance this year (but it will surely pick up by Christmas time). But those who come are doing great - learning the Bible stories and the memory verses.

6) Santi and I just attended a two-night marriage seminar hosted by HCJB. It was great to get some good tips and ideas for us as a couple! And it was great to have a couple of evenings out.

7) This coming weekend begins a three-day holiday - which including the weekend is actually five days long! Yahoo! So Santi has off of work on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Sunday, after the service at the Bethany Home for the Elderly, we hope to take a little mini-vacation to Shell - the jungle where HCJB has a hospital and visit the sites there. We plan to return to Quito on Tuesday. We are hoping for some good family fun.

8) Santi is busy at work getting ready for HCJB's Annual Radio Sharathon, coming up in December! There is much to prepare and less people to help due to staff cut-backs at HCJB. Please pray for wisdom and time to get everything ready.

9) and the Extreme Response office is busy getting things ready for the upcoming annual Christmas Outreach to various poor communities in and around Quito. We look forward to working with the 50 volunteers coming from the US and Canada! We are so blessed to be a part of this outreach every year - such a wonderful way to start off the holiday season!

10) Isabella is now walking everywhere and Nathan seems to think it's his duty to pick on his little sister all the time! This keeps mom very busy (some days I feel like a referee). Nathan has great conversations now too - it's fun to hear him talk more and more.

Thanks for all your prayers for us! God is so good to us and we are reminded daily to be THANKFUL! We can't wait for the month of November to celebrate THANKFULNESS!

Soccer 2010

The computer department at HCJB in Quito was invited to participate in a soccer tournament with other communications businesses in Quito. They were invited by the communications area of the Ecuadorian military.

So this past Saturday was the inauguration ceremony on one of the military bases here in Quito. It was interesting to be there and see all the formality and watch the various teams gather together. Various communications companies were represented including Porta (cell phone), TV Cable (cable company), Telconet (internet), among others. The ceremony was very formal with all the teams marching in.

It was fun to be there - Nathan enjoyed playing a little soccer with daddy too! :-) (somehow I didn't get any photos of Isa!).

The HCJB team lost their first game (against the hosts - the military team!). But they are still in it - so we'll have soccer games to attend the next few weekends!

To see more photos, please click HERE!

Appointment at the US Embassy - Quito

Please pray for us today as we have our appointment at the US embassy today to apply for a US visa for Santi. From what we understand, we will be turning in most of our paperwork along with proof that we are married and a family. After today's appointment, our paperwork will be analyzed by a special department in the US and then hopefully we will have another appointment soon with the US consulate in Guayaquil (a city on the coast of Ecuador).

Please pray that all our paperwork in order (we have spent two months trying to gather it all) and that all will go smoothly. Needless to say, it's important for us and our family.

Thank you!

Family Photo

We were all dressed up today for church so we thought a family photo might be nice. Becky, the Extreme Response short-term worker living with us for a few months, was kind enough to help us out - which is truly no small task with two little children!