Hi all,
Just a note to let you know that we are back in the states this summer. It will be a quick trip as we have to be back in Ecuador in time for school to start. We have already touched base with several of you, but we look forward to seeing even more. We head off next week for a short trip out to the east coast and to visit some of our supporting churches in Ontario and Virgina. Most of our weekends are filled up now with church engagements. We are free during the week most times though, and hope to fill in some other meetings along the way. If you have some place that you would like us to present our ministry, we would be happy to try to fit that into our schedule.
One of our activities already this summer was to get Rachel through Registration Weekend so she can attend University next year. She is excited about doing that. She also has a driver's permit now, and is taking driver's lessons. I was out with her just last night and she is learning fast and getting more comfortable behind the wheel.
More later.....
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Update
Wow! Has it really been 2 months since the last time I posted an update? Where does the time go...??? Well lots of things have been happening which is why I have not had time to update the blog. Let me see if I can give you a bit of an update without writing a novel.
Thursday before Easter, we arrived home to find that the front door to our house had been forced open and we had been robbed. Our bedroom was the most disturbed. That is where we kept most of my "boy toys" - several radios, GPS, etc. It is the first time we have been robbed in this country. We knew we were way overdue for a robbery. Rumor has it that they have caught the guys that did it. They have been robbing houses in the surrounding communities for a couple of years. We didn't recover anything though. We are just grateful that no one was home at the time of the robbery and that we are all safe.
ALTECO - ALTECO is a consortium of mission organizations that get together once a year to network on how best to cooperate to reach the remaining "unreached" tribal groups in the Amazon Basin. Numbers range from 150 to 350 tribes that exist in the Amazon that have not been reached with the Gospel. In fact, CNN.com had an article just this last week about a new tribe that has just been found in the Amazon. It is believed that this group has had no contact whatsoever with the outside world. Hard to believe that those groups still exist, doesn't it? HCJB hopes to cooperate with other mission organizations to get radio programs in native languages on the air as a means of reaching into some of these remote areas.
In April, Daniel's class at Alliance Academy Int'l performed the play "No Strings Attached". It is the story of Pinochio, but not the Disney version. Daniel was "String Bean", Pinochio's wayward friend who eventually helps Pinochio earn his donkey ears and tail. Dan did a great job. Dad was asked to video tape the performances and make a DVD of the show for the kids and parents. I had never done that before, but we have the software, so I gave it a shot. The kids did a great job! The DVD came out OK too. The high school drama teachers told us they have their eye on Daniel already. I guess he impressed the critics even at this early age.
Becca decided that she wanted to celebrate her 16th birthday this year by inviting a bunch of her friends on a overnight camping trip. So we found several more adults to help us out, loaded up about 20 teenagers into several cars, and headed out to HCJB's antenna site. It was a great time. The kids stayed up half the night and went on a hike into the canyon the next day. Mom made lots of special food for the occasion. The rain held off until the very last minute when everyone had to scramble to get the tents down and stay dry. Everyone had fun! The trip was the talk of the school for several days so I guess everyone had fun. Several of the kids had never been camping before.
Most of the month of May, we have been working on budgets for the radio station. That is about all I have done this month. I have a lot of budgets to review, check, correct (read "cut expenses") for radio, even though I have a number of people helping to prepare the budgets. It is quite the process. We hopefully will have them all done by the time we leave to furlough this summer.
David got a unique opportunity to drive a "tractor" recently. Some of the workers were demolishing an old building on the HCJB Quito property. Since we know the workers, they invited David and Caleb, a friend of his, to help them out. David actually had his hands on the controls by himself for a bit. He had a great time even though he didn't probably help a lot in the destruction and clean-up of the building. You can see David sitting on the operators lap in the picture.
Well that is probably enough for now. Thanks for praying for us! We hope to see many of you this summer when we are in Indiana and on the east coast.
Doug
Thursday before Easter, we arrived home to find that the front door to our house had been forced open and we had been robbed. Our bedroom was the most disturbed. That is where we kept most of my "boy toys" - several radios, GPS, etc. It is the first time we have been robbed in this country. We knew we were way overdue for a robbery. Rumor has it that they have caught the guys that did it. They have been robbing houses in the surrounding communities for a couple of years. We didn't recover anything though. We are just grateful that no one was home at the time of the robbery and that we are all safe.ALTECO - ALTECO is a consortium of mission organizations that get together once a year to network on how best to cooperate to reach the remaining "unreached" tribal groups in the Amazon Basin. Numbers range from 150 to 350 tribes that exist in the Amazon that have not been reached with the Gospel. In fact, CNN.com had an article just this last week about a new tribe that has just been found in the Amazon. It is believed that this group has had no contact whatsoever with the outside world. Hard to believe that those groups still exist, doesn't it? HCJB hopes to cooperate with other mission organizations to get radio programs in native languages on the air as a means of reaching into some of these remote areas.
In April, Daniel's class at Alliance Academy Int'l performed the play "No Strings Attached". It is the story of Pinochio, but not the Disney version. Daniel was "String Bean", Pinochio's wayward friend who eventually helps Pinochio earn his donkey ears and tail. Dan did a great job. Dad was asked to video tape the performances and make a DVD of the show for the kids and parents. I had never done that before, but we have the software, so I gave it a shot. The kids did a great job! The DVD came out OK too. The high school drama teachers told us they have their eye on Daniel already. I guess he impressed the critics even at this early age.
Becca decided that she wanted to celebrate her 16th birthday this year by inviting a bunch of her friends on a overnight camping trip. So we found several more adults to help us out, loaded up about 20 teenagers into several cars, and headed out to HCJB's antenna site. It was a great time. The kids stayed up half the night and went on a hike into the canyon the next day. Mom made lots of special food for the occasion. The rain held off until the very last minute when everyone had to scramble to get the tents down and stay dry. Everyone had fun! The trip was the talk of the school for several days so I guess everyone had fun. Several of the kids had never been camping before.Most of the month of May, we have been working on budgets for the radio station. That is about all I have done this month. I have a lot of budgets to review, check, correct (read "cut expenses") for radio, even though I have a number of people helping to prepare the budgets. It is quite the process. We hopefully will have them all done by the time we leave to furlough this summer.
David got a unique opportunity to drive a "tractor" recently. Some of the workers were demolishing an old building on the HCJB Quito property. Since we know the workers, they invited David and Caleb, a friend of his, to help them out. David actually had his hands on the controls by himself for a bit. He had a great time even though he didn't probably help a lot in the destruction and clean-up of the building. You can see David sitting on the operators lap in the picture.Well that is probably enough for now. Thanks for praying for us! We hope to see many of you this summer when we are in Indiana and on the east coast.
Doug
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