It is somewhat disorienting, when it is cloudy and 48
degrees, for lawn mowers to be running outside on the tiny ten-foot square
plots of grass in our neighborhood. Because there is no real change of season,
or actually when you have 4 seasons in one day, it just seems odd to hear the
small engine clacking when it feels like November outside…
Isn’t it supposed to be warm, and humid, with the smell of
grass being so thick that you can almost feel it before you crank a lawn mower?
Or at least that is probably how it is where you are now, back in Alabama, or
somewhere in the other hemisphere, but not so here in Quito…
Lots of things, lots of things... have transpired in the last 30 days. Some we'll mention here and some we won't. Kole and
Kory have been doing a great job of JV soccer at the school, and it has been
fun to watch one of our house church members coach them from a cross-cultural and
gospel perspective. Vickie has been leading the JV basketball to multiple wins,
and teaching them about the character of Christ in winning or losing.
We concluded a Young Men’s “Man-Up” discipleship retreat a
few weekends ago, where teachers and coaches and dads taught and demonstrated
the gospel to 37 young men in grades 9-12 for two days straight thru. It was
exhausting but powerful, and we want to be able to make this an annual event!
We enjoyed a brief visit from Bob and Suzy from BH, but it was not exactly the
relaxing ministry visit you would expect due to a smack-down stomach bug that
descended on Bob while they were here at our apartment for a few days.
Weekend before last, our family and another family from our
house church made the trip just outside Quito on Sunday morning to see our
brothers and sisters in Christ in Calderon, a small town north of the city. I
had the chance to share from Ephesians 5 about… yes- you guessed it, marriage!
God used His word to speak to the group in some powerful ways, prompting a
couple of people to stand up and publicly repent in tears at the end of our
time together for not obeying the commands of His word in how they treated each
other in their marriage relationship. We were humbled by the response, and
encouraged by God to see His work through His word!
This morning I shared at our secondary chapel time about
Adoption and the picture it gives of the Gospel, or maybe it would be better if
I said the Gospel, and the picture it gives to adoption… then, back to back I
had the chance to share a message with middle school students in the afternoon
about God’s Word and our vital need for it.
On a personal note… please continue to pray for us. We
desperately want His Spirit to be at work through us, and in and through our
family, and in our surrounding community. Parenting is a tall order. Parenting
is an incredibly tall order when there are 9 kids. Parenting is, well,
borderline insanity with 9 kids across three continents. Also, pray for my Mom
and Dad in the US (Chris’s parents). They have been through a real struggle in
health needs and so we would ask for grace in that situation.
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