Final day of ministry and Thank you for your prayers!

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Day off in Otavalo

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Adios Manta, back safe in Quito, Atlanta here we come

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Thanks again for all your prayers.  Updating the post has been an uphill fight.  We’ve been able to do it by seeking and finding opportunities, but the bandwidth, unexplained computer problems, lack of connection to the internet, etc, has made this difficult.  Several times I’ve walked away from the computer and said God, if this is going to happen You will have to make it happen.  Every time, I’ve done that instead of babysitting the computer while it malfunctions, it has miraculously worked. So, though dense I’ve learned to trust that God can do all things and I can decrease my effort.

We will travel home later tonight arriving early on the 3rd.  We are praying for the Africa team which is heading out later on the 3rd.  We love you guys and hope you have an amazing time as God’s sent ones.  Our flight Delta 680 (departing July 2, arriving July 3) can be literally tracked in real time at http://www.flightview.com.    We are excited to come home, but will have that bittersweet feeling in our stomachs as we do.  WE DON’T WANT TO RETURN NORMAL, but will have to find what I call the NEW NORMAL.  God will use us this morning one last time at the Plaza de Santa Domingo.  We will pour out His love on the people of Quito.  May He continue to call on us in the same ways to be bold in Atlanta.  May He place His calling upon the lives of members of our team as we are emboldened to live wrecked by His amazing love.

• Please pray for Cheryl to find her cell phone.  We are seeking God for the same kind of miracle He did with “giving us back” the cameras for the Rawlings.
• Pray for boldness as we finish out the day.
• We still need some quality team time to speak encouragement over each other today.  Pray for this opportunity amongst a busy schedule.
• Pray for a safe flight and for sleep on the plane.  Remember that we will be very sleep deprived upon arrival.  We got good rest tonight (at least the rest of the team did) but will hit it hard on our last day before flying through the night.
• Praise that Seth was well enough to be able to enjoy the day yesterday as we went to Otavalo.  It was a beautiful and wonderful trip, capped off by an amazing dinner at Crepes and Waffles in Quito.
• Prayer for re-entry as we come home.  May we view coming home as change agents for the culture we’ve lived in rather than as sitting ducks for the culture to whip us back into normalcy.

We thank all our prayer warriors who are an amazing part of the trip.  We also thank all our financial supporters.  We don’t publicize how each person got there money in and did with raising financial support, but let me suffice it to say that it was nothing short of an amazing miracle to watch our every need be met in the final week before the trip.  Praise God for the generosity of all the people who contributed during lean times.  He is Worthy!  You have invested well!  Someday you will meet the beautiful people we’ve met here in heaven and they will thank you personally for your sacrifice.  We love you and are so grateful for your kind generosity.

Keith for the team.

The Motherload of Video. Hector!!!!!

We are back safely in Quito after our evening flight from Manta.  Its an 8 hour drive and the flight took us about 29 minutes.  Seth is not feeling great  Libby is back in action at 100%.  We have more bandwidth here and don’t have to be so creative in getting opportunities to update the internet.  So anyway, here is a backlog of video from the past few days.  We love you all and thank you for your prayers.  After 31 meetings of ministry, hundreds have come to Christ and we aren’t done yet.  Tomorrow we have a day off and will do some shopping in Otavalo.  Thursday we will finish out ministering in the Plaza de Santa Domingo where we started our trip.done

Another great day in Manta!

On Sunday night we joined together with a new church of believers and met out on a street right in front of some businesses.  We showed the movie, ¨My brother´s KeeperÑ which we have seen about 5 nights in a row ‘ HECTOR!´ We did redeemer, sketchboard and testimony.  We then prayed with the church.  We prayed for their youth and their pastors and our heart to see the youth rise up and be discipled in their faith in Christ.  We cast vision for their youth to be on fire for God.  We met a volunteer youth worker and his wife at this church who was an awesome guy.

We also are so excited to see our bus driver come to Christ this week.  He was a goner from the beginning.  He came to Christ like the second day we were here.  He has been bringing his whole family wife and three kids with us throughout the weekend.  Very cool to see God work with those who have become like brothers to us.  Also, three Navy Conscriptos have served our team wonderfully this week.  Tonight we gave them their own redeemer presentation and presented them with gifts of appreciation.  Rafael who is a missionary who is staying with us then led them in a prayer to receive Christ when we were done.  It was totally awesome.  Our kids can hardly believe that people here respond so quickly to the Gospel.  

Here they have not heard the news that God loves them.  In the US it´s like old news and so we don´t get excited about telling people.  They have their reasons why they don´t care or believe in the US.  Here they just haven´t thought of God as loving and caring so deeply.  Pray for the local churches we´ve partnered with here in Manta.  We have left them a good number of people who have professed faith in Christ to follow up with.  God has done the work marvelously.  

Tuesday we will finish up our school ministry in the morning and then have some team time with David and Monica presenting gifts and loving on them.  If you don´t have a missionary that you support or even if you do please consider supporting them.  They are wonderful and take time to care for the needs of so many.  Yesterday, we stopped for a roadside accident we came upon.  We cared for the needs of both families in the accident as they both had young children.  Monica knew one of the ladies and prayed with her right there.  This couple is anointed and God uses them mightily. We will fly back to Quito tomorrow evening and then finish out the next few days in the Quito area. 

 The church service on Sunday was great and God used me to bring encouragement to the people of Biblical Baptist Church.  It was great to be with the family of God.  Pray for Seth who isn´t feeling good right now.  Stomach problems.  Libby also is a little unsettled in her stomach as is a few others.  Our team has been cranking out the meetings.  Praise God for the opportunity to share the truth with so many.  Today we shared at three meetings in schools.  We shared with over 600 at one of the meetings and while many of the students were not listening well there were a few who really responded to the Gospel.  We then went to a school of 40 students and almost everyone there responded to the Gospel.  Likely prayer plays a role in this.  Prayer of teacher who work at the school and others who are lifting up our team.   Thanks so much for your prayers.

Praying with church in Manta

All, we stopped in a mall to eat some icecreeam goodies.  (there is no backspace and i have 10 minutes) so we just finished a meeting in a neighborhood working with a local church in Manta.  We then had a quick dinner with the church.  We prayed over the church and their youth.  We had our students gather around their youth and we gave them a blessing and a calling to follow God in the adventure He is raising up amongst the youth in the world today.   It was really awesome to see the family of God at work with people who are believers.

Tonight we are doing our meeting with David and Monica´s church in Manta.  We are going to be sharing a film, redeemer and sketchboard.  Tomorrow we will do the Redeemer at the church and Keith will be delivering the message.  We then have some afternoon meetings.  Thanks so much for the comments and encouragements.  We barely have time to post new updates, but are excited when we get a chance to read the comments. 

Pray for our team unity!  Pray for us to come together as one family seeking the direction of the Lord.  Pray for continued good health.  Kristina is fine as is everyone else.  We got to go, it´s time to leave the mall.

Thanks for your prayers.

Keith and Susan for the team.

God rocks in Santa Ana

 

 

Tonight we are in another plaza.  This one is in Santa Ana.  Baker is prepping the sketchboard and will be delivering the Joe message.  There will be many people present, more than one hundred likely.  This morning we made the trip to Santa Ana and went directly to a school.  We did two assemblies –one elementary and one high school.  Our team took a much needed break today and went to an entertainment place with swimming pool and slides and basketball courts.  There were hammocks all over this place filled with some weary ministers.  Tonight we are doing our 21^st meeting in 5 ministry days.  It is a pretty good pace we have been running being up early and ministering late.  We are getting some good team time too at the beach or like today at the pool.

Everyone has been fairly healthy.  Kristina had a little stomach problem today, but seems well since dinner tonight.  Some of our boys have been goofing around and got some bruises and bumps they are nursing but all in all the team is doing well.  Our hearts are melting and we saw Seth getting rocked by God last night as he poured out love onto the people.  Our team is really starting to break through the layer that prevents needing and caring deeply for one another.  Pray for this to continue to happen and to progress.  We are so excited that we are where we are and still have a week to do ministry here.  We know it will go fast but are confident that God has much left to do both in us and through us.   I´m typing this as I upload some pictures from the past several days.  Enjoy.  You can really see the passion in which our students are ministering in the expressions on their faces. 

Pray for David and Monica Proano.  They are the missionaries we are working with.  They have seen many doors opened this week.  For example, the military facilities in and near Manta have welcomed David.  This is a great win for his ministry in the future.  Also, a friend of Monica´s from their neighborhood came to watch the presentation at a local school.  She said she can´t get the image of Christ dying for her out of her mind.  Pray for Monica to be able to finish leading her to the Lord. 

I have to get back across the street, cuz God is about to rock Santa Ana.  Pray.  Pray.  Pray.  We definitely can see the results when you do!  Blessings and thanks for joining us on the journey.

Keith for the team.

Sights and Ministry from Jaramijo near Manta

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The team is loading up and heading out for a movie meeting.  We were warmly received today by the Ecuadorian Air Force officers and later the Ecuadorian Navy officers.  They responded amazingly to the Gospel.  David Proano presented the sketchboard after our team did the Redeemer drama.  People everywhere are sensing the Love of God in our team.  We truly want to do more than just present and God is using that desire for us to demonstrate His love in very short spurts. 

Our team had a chance to have a much needed team relational meeting.  More than just here is what we are doing tomorrow, but answering questions like why did God bring us to Ecuador and what is He teaching us?   Our team took some time to love on one another.  We spend a lot of time giving on this trip, it is equally important for us each to take some time to receive as well.

Pray for our team to learn and discern clearly what God is teaching us.  There is some people on the edge of some really big revelations in our life.  Pray specifically for several team members to learn to live in a constant state of surrender.  I liken this to swimming verses not swimming.  Relaxing and letting the water hold you up is like exercising faith in God´s presence, His enduring love.  We are so close for a number of team members to explode in the overwhelming joy of God´s love.  Pray for safe travel and continued endurance and focus as a team.  We love you all. 

Sadly, we lost the opportunity to go to the dump today to minister.  We could not reach the people there to secure permission to come.  There are children who live in the dump of Manta eating-living from the refuse that comes there.  Just hearing about it broke our hearts.  We want you to pray for them.  Just because we weren´t able to go doesn´t mean that our ministry to them through prayer should go overlooked.  Join us in lifting up these children and pray for a breakthrough for their lives.  I must go.  Blessings on you all!

Thanks for joining us in the journey! or is it ¡   ?¿?

Out of options – Wed. short update

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Tuesday Ministry clips and some laughter

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