Did you know?

Did you know that every Friday, Sherri writes and emails a prayer mailing for the North Andean Field (which includes prayer requests for the missionaries and the ministries in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela).  If you would like to receive this weekly prayer mailing, please click on the "Email Us" link on the right of this screen, and let us know.

Living Abroad and Politics

Recently Ecuador had a political situation that was splashed all over the news, Facebook, etc.  We requested prayer for safety of our family, and we received a lot of emails and calls asking about the situation.  Some people wanted more information than we were willing to give.

Why?  North Americans living abroad, and especially missionaries, are visitors and we must respect the political situation of our host country no matter our personal opinion.  In fact, we are to be careful NOT to express our personal opinion or to be involved in anything political.  We also have to carefully choose our words especially avoiding certain trigger words.

Today the political climate in the US encourages its citizens to voice your opinion openly, firmly and sometimes loudly!  So some people don't understand our "neutrality."  However, if we want to live peacefully as a resident visitor in another land, we must keep our personal biases to ourselves.

Now you know the rest of the story!

God has performed a miracle!

For many months, we have been praying for God to work a miracle for the Carcelen School Project.  This weekend, He did!  Because of political issues in Ecuador we almost decided not to do the garage sale.   However, things were calm on Friday, and this Saturday had been set aside on many calendars for a long time, so we went ahead with the event.  A large part of the church helped, bringing clothes, furniture, food and other items.  Missionary families, professors of NILI, and others donated.  We were also able to sell items from the school which we currently do not need.

Two donations particularly impacted me.  We have a very poor, older lady in the church that everyone simply calls ‘grandma.’  She bought some new children’s undergarments and gave them to the church to sell.  Very humbly she said, “This is all I have.  Would it be okay to donate this?”  “Of course,” we said.  We all thought of the parable of the gift of the widow’s mite.

On Friday night I got a call from a Haitian Nazarene minister who came to Ecuador after the earthquake.  He’s been attending our church since January with his wife and two small children.  The roof fell and destroyed their house during the earthquake.  All of their neighbors were killed, but the Lord spared him and his family.  He is starting over here in Ecuador because “there is nothing left in Haiti.  Everything is destroyed.”  We’ve offered them free Spanish classes through NILI to help with their adjustment.  We’re hoping that he will be able to start a new Haitian Church with a considerable Haitian population in the north part of Quito.  Anyway, Frantz called me Friday night around nine.  He was on his way to work as a security guard—the only work he can find.  It takes him an hour and a half one way by bus to get to work to make $14 a night.  He told me that he went to the church that night and donated an oil based painting that he had brought from Haiti.  I didn’t understand until I saw it the next morning.  It’s quite nice and in a beautiful frame.  I’ve been in their apartment.  They sleep on mattresses on a concrete floor and have one small table and two plastic chairs.  Yet, they gave the church the one item of value they had so that the church could sell it.  A price of $50 was put on the picture, so I quickly bought it.  I don’t really know what to do with it other than be amazed and reminded of their sacrifice.

Pastor Salomon, assistant pastor, preached Sunday morning.  In a truly inspiring sermon, he challenged the church that what we need today more than ever is strong, sacrificial Christian leadership, both in Ecuador and in the Carcelen Church.   On Saturday we were able to pay the first half of the liquidation to the professors from the school.  That amount was close to $17,000.  He mentioned that we were half way there, and that we only needed to work hard 90 more days in order to put the school debt behind us.  Then he announced that beyond anyone’s expectation, the garage sale raised more than $2,000.  A spontaneous applause broke out with many people saying, “How did we do that?  How did that happen?”  More than this, he told us that there was a whole room full of stuff that didn’t sell so that we’re going to do this again in December before our other big payment.   Everyone is saying that our church is like the boy with five small loves and two fish.  We’re giving what we can and the Lord is providing the rest with food left over, or in our case, resources left over to sell.

I want to thank you for your prayers and help with the Carcelen School Project.  I’ll continue to keep you informed of all that the Lord is doing to help us.
Amazed,
Stan