Saturday, June 29, 2013

June 2013 - The end of our full time missions-in-Ecuador journey...

Wow.  It's our last Glenn and Susie On The Equator blog entry.  It's been a wonderful journey - God has been faithful and good as always.  Thanks for walking this path with us!  Here's how we ended out our last month as full time missionaries...at least for the foreseeable future! (We move to being Associate Members of Crossworld on July 1 - still mobilizing for missions and still taking short-term missons trips on our vacation time!)


We started off the month IN Ecuador.  SUCH an emotional trip - it was SO wonderful to be with our friends and church family again...but we all knew we were there to say goodbye.  So, it was bittersweet, but what a joy to see all that God continues to do in Cayambe and all the changes in the past 6 months!
We were greeted at the airport by our dear friends, Brenda, Dayana andPatty - and Cayambe roses!
For those of you who have been to the church, you know the white portion of the church is new - the completed classroom and kitchen!

This is the inside of the new classroom and one of the new Bible Institute classes that David Meyer and, here, Gissela Simbaña teach!  Susie was honored to attend this class on Women in the Bible!
The new kitchen is SUCH a blessing!  No more carrying cups and plates back and forth to someone's house for one person to wash and store them...and there's ample room for food preparation!

Sadly, the church was robbed a few month ago, so the inside of the church looks new, because the window that backed up to the street was filled in, cutting off the easy entrance.
The women's leadership Bible study has grown and now has a new location - Giss's house!
We had the joy of spending half of our time in the Meyer's wonderful home and the other half of the time in the Vivas' new home!
Most of our time was spent with the people we love...here with Dayana and Gissela...
with Vicente, Fanny and their girls in front of their home and store...
with the Guapi family who received a new-to-them computer from an anonymous USA donor..
with Estefany and her new-to-us son...
with Fernando, Zulema and Susan at Zulema's new job...
and, among MANY other visits, with Pastor Darwin and Nelly from the Chaupimolino church.
We were able to attend the opening parade for the Cayambe June Festival with friends from the Cayambe Bible studies...
and our last day we visited the newly renovated Cayambe park!
What a great way to end our time in Cayambe...at the park with great friends!
This summarizes our time in Ecuador - the mixed blessing of our visit... Salvador sang a beautiful goodbye song to us - Salvador, along with many of the youth and adults in the Primero de Mayo church, are growing in their faith and in their leadership abilities!  What a joy to be connected to them - though now, from a distance!
We came back on June 10 and quickly changed gears to finalize our preparations for Plant City Baptist Church's Hispanic Ministry's first Women's Retreat...
we traveled to St. Pete's Beach for a few fun days to build unity...
and to study God's Word together, the 11 of us!  Susie taught the Bible study that the women in Ecuador did together - The Power of a Praying Woman, Wife and Mother - and God touched lives! 
Our month ended with a SUPER fun visit at Clearwater Beach with the Vallette family,  DR missionaries whom we ministered with there years ago!  We spent more time running from the rain and lightening than we did on the beach, but it's a day we'll never forget!
We want to end this blog by saying THANK YOU for your prayers over the years...for us and for our family!
Your prayers are being heard as Rachel has safely traveled to 5 countries in 8 months!  This is Rachel while caring for orphaned howler monkeys in Bolivia - the one on her shoulder is practicing his howl!  

Your prayers are also being heard in Philadelphia as Josh serves as a summer missionary with The Philadelphia Project!

SOOOOO....thank you!  May God bless you for your part in our ministries, in the DR, in PA, and most recently, in Ecuador and in Florida!  We will continue to serve God, but this blog has come to an end!  We love you!!!