Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Speaking lists for this weekend

Quevedo  27 de noviembre
Domingo  10:00-12:00 Kenion (Brett), Youngae (Ookyoung), Juan 
             1:00-3:00 Robbin, Brett, Eli, Dani 
Quito  25-27 de noviembre
Viernes 7:00-8:15pm Duane, MarshaAlbertoSábado 10:00-12:00 Ricardo, Lorraine (Karen), Kamela
          2:00-3:30 Duane, Henry
          4:30-5:30  Lee, 
Linda, Ingrid
Domingo 9:30-ll:30  Duane, Lorraine (Kamela), Karen
            1:00-3:00  Ricardo, Lois, Luz, Damaris

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

El Cristal convention (18-20 noviembre 2016)

So you can be thinking of us...

viernes 7:30 - 8:30
Brett Hammett, Juan León, Alberto Basurto

sábado 10:00 - 12:00
Duane Hopkins, Karen Morton, Eli Reque, Damaris Baez

sábado 2:00 - 3:30
Kenion Coleman (LeRoy), Lorraine Lerwick (Kamela), Marsha Kiser

sábado 4:30 - 5:30
Ricardo Harbur, Youngae Koo (Ookyoung), Kamela LiaBraaten

domingo 9:30 - 11:30
Kenion Coleman (LeRoy), Lorraine Lerwick (Kamela), Lois Pelchen, Robbin Peterson

domingo 1:00 - 3:00
Duane Hopkins, Youngae Koo (Ookyoung), Henry Arias


We also have our workers' meetings on Thursday.  

Monday, November 14, 2016

A few thoughts from Las Mercedes


  • Heb. 1:1-4 Jesus is God's last message to the world.  We don't read much in these verses about what Jesus said; we read about what He was.
  • We're thankful that our salvation doesn't depend on our natural capabilities.
  • When we make decisions in order to please God, we can count on His help.
  • In Jesus' day, the Passover had become nothing more than a Jewish festival.
  • We speak often about the perfect example of Jesus.  Do we take advantage of every possible opportunity to follow His example?
  • I am the only one that can give my life over to God.
  • The shepherd's voice is sufficient for the sheep.
  • We don't mean anything to the devil; he just wants to mess up God's work.
  • You don't find bread in the wheat field nor wine in the vineyard.  You have to be willing for the mill and for the winepress.
  • If we can keep ourselves on the side of the intercessor, we'll be safe.
  • Our spirit of gratitude lifts Jesus up in this world.
  • We have no right to ask others to live in a way that we are not willing to live ourselves.
  • Spiritual independence never has a good outcome.
  • We'll never have to be ashamed if we've bowed our will to the King.  Everything He's ever said is true.
  • Sometimes, when the truth wins out, all we can do is say, "I'm sorry."

Las Mercedes convention (11-13 noviembre 2016)

viernes 5:00 - 6:00
Ricardo Harbur, Henry Arias

sábado 10:00 - 12:00
Kenion Coleman (LeRoy), Lorraine Lerwick (Kamela), Robbin Peterson, Dani Robert

sábado 2:00 - 3:30
Duane Hopkins, Youngae Koo (Ookyoung), Juan León

sábado 4:30 - 5:30
LeRoy Lerwick, Kamela LiaBraaten, Luz González

domingo 9:30 - 11:30
Duane Hopkins, Lorraine Lerwick (Karen), Ookyoung Jung

domingo 1:00 - 3:00
Kenion Coleman (LeRoy), Youngae Koo (Ookyoung), Marsha Kiser, Lois Pelchen



This was the first time I had served as the "third translator".  Youngae, the Korean sister who labors in Vietnam, spoke in Korean in the meetings.  Ookyoung translated into Spanish from the front, and I translated from Spanish into English using the whisper mic.  I would be interested in knowing how close what our English speakers heard was to what Youngae actually said!  Glad for the Spirit who is the very best interpreter.

Visitors!

Andrea Vail, Jenimae Klepzig and Karena Carroll arrived at the convention grounds on Friday morning.  It was wonderful to see them!  I will be depending on their pictures to tell the story of our adventures together, but since I don't have any of them yet, I will have to plead for your patience.  Rest assured that we are enjoying our time, and we'll have a few things to tell at the end of it all. 😀

A morning's walk

I don't take my camera out as often as I used to somehow, but on our Thursday morning walk from Carlos and Nátaly's home to the main road where we were to catch the bus back into Las Mercedes, I snapped away just like it was my first time down that road.


















Toucans

I didn't know that there were any toucans residing in the Las Mercedes area, but we saw three while we were waiting for the bus on Wednesday afternoon.  I think Luz got some better pictures on her phone, but I'll have to get those from her later.  This is what I managed to capture.



En route to Las Mercedes

We left Portoviejo on Wednesday morning to travel on to Las Mercedes in time for lunch.  It seems that they're thinking to asphalt the road between Santa Ana and Olmedo, so that stretch was quite horrendous with everything all torn up and under construction.  It wasn't too noticeable on the bus, but it definitely wouldn't be the ideal route for a smaller vehicle.  (Just ask Karena, Jenimae and Andrea; they made the same trip in a taxi on Friday.)  

Things are pretty dry as we near the end of summer here.


Back in Portoviejo

On Tuesday, Luz, Sra. Silvia from Tarapoa and I traveled from Jipijapa to Portoviejo.  Upon arrival, I headed for the bach to leave off my things and do a little laundry.  

Looks familiar! 


Back to washing clothes the "handy" way!  

At lunchtime, I headed to La Carreta, a popular restaurant across from the bus terminal to have lunch with don Augusto, one of our elderly friends in town.  This was the first time I had been back through the center of Portoviejo since the earthquake back in April.  I'm very sorry that I didn't take any pictures.  Life continues as "normal" but parts of the downtown area look rather like a war zone.  There are still streets blocked off due to piles of rubble, and many buildings are at least damaged, if not completely destroyed.  When I arrived at the restaurant, I found don Augusto, Luz and Sra. Silvia waiting for me.  We went through the buffet line, since that's much faster than ordering off the menu. There were three choices of soup.  I wasn't keen on one of the options.  The second option looked okay, and the third option was a soup I had never heard of.  I opted for that one.  Since I do speak the language, I suppose I should have paid a bit more "conscious attention" to the name of the soup, written out above the serving tureen.  Its translation is "hose soup."  So, possibly you can imagine which animal part(s) this soup contained.  I actually found the broth to be quite tasty but didn't manage to consume the entire bowl of soup.  

After lunch, I paid a visit to two of my little friends on the other side of town, Zulema and Sheila.  Their mommy informed me that she had been given strict orders not to bother us.  "She's coming to play with us!"

In addition to most of our Portoviejo friends, we had LeRoy, Kenion Coleman, Lorraine Lerwick, Marsha and Damaris in the midweek Bible study at don Ignacio and Sra. Livia's that evening.


Feeling ducky in Jipijapa




Saturday, November 5, 2016

Thinking of those in Ipiales

Here's the speaking list for Ipiales.  Our thoughts are there though we aren't physically present.


sábado 
2:00-3:30pm  Munro MacAngus, Isabel Fica, Damaris Baez                  
4:00-6:00pm Duane Hopkins, Lorraine Lerwick (Lee), Ookyoung Jung
 7:00-8:00pm  Kenion Coleman (Munro), Youngae Koo (Valentina)

domingo
10:00-12:00 Duane, Lorraine (Salena), Marsha Kiser, Karen Cleveland
  1:00-3:00pm  Kenion (Lee), Youngae (Ookyoung), Valentina de la Fuente, Salena Nash

Ardillas

These pictures are pretty awful due to the lighting at the time they were taken.  However, perhaps you can somewhat grasp the ugliness of these creatures who were living in the kitchen when we arrived at preps.  Fortunately, the son of the home took pity on us and removed the cage before too much time passed by.  




Happy birthday, Katia!

Seems like these were just taken yesterday!



Happy (belated) 27th, Kaysa!  



Firecracker casserole


Things always seem to taste a bit different here than they do at home, in part because we often have to make substitutions due to a lack of all the necessary ingredients.  I don't know what I would do without internet in the kitchen as I tend to "cook by google" here!  (How do you make cream of chicken soup when you can't just pour it out of a can?  What is taco seasoning made of?  What do you substitute for cream cheese?)  So far, most of my efforts have been at least moderately successful.  (No one has died immediately after eating a meal that I've prepared.)  So we'll just keep at it and do what we can when our turn to cook comes around!  

More doings in the White House





Homemade deliciousness

Preparing pizza for supper on Saturday





Just another day at preps

Washing

Cleaning

Organizing

Preparing meals

Valentina, the pet deer


Cuy for supper


Suspiros by Estefanía