Hi all,
I have a couple of things to share with you quickly. One is a new video on YouTube about the 50th anniversary of the Hospital Vozandes del Oriente. This will show you some of the history of the hospital. You will have to open your web browser and then copy and paste the following link into your browser. The video can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUpUBODssBw&sdig=1
Second, we often get questions about the HCJB Global Technology center in Elkhart, IN. Well this week an article came out in Radio World, an industry newspaper, which I thought some of you might want to read. You can click on the following link to read that article....
Finally, please be praying for the people of Ecuador as they go to the polls on Sunday (Sept 28) to decide on whether they want to adopt a new constitution for the country or not. This is an important decision that will influence the direction that the country will take in to the future. Obviously everyone wants the best for the country, but it is difficult to know how decisions made today will affect our lives years down the road.
Thanks,
Doug
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
HVO 50th Anniversary
Hi all,Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 50th Anniversary of our Hospital (Hospital Vozandes del Oriente) in Shell, Ecuador. We arrived on Friday afternoon just in time for an official civic celebration called a "Ceremonio Solemne". Dignitaries from surrounding towns were in attendance including a Mayor and several councilmen and councilwomen. In the evening we also attended a dinner nearby in honor of the hospital. In attendance were some of the Hospital's very first patients, including patient with chart #10.
Hospital Vozandes del Oriente started in the small town of Shell as a simple clinic. It was the dream of Nate Saint, missionary pilot at the time, to have a clinic where habitants of the jungle could come and receive medical care. That small clinic eventually grew to be a hospital that was built right across the road from the airstrip used to bring the sick in from the jungle. Both Nate Saint and Roger Youderian helped in the construction of the hospital before they were killed in the Ecuadorian jungle.
Later, through a gift from the Swedish government, a new hospital was built within walking distance of the first building. The new facilities were larger, more spacious, and modern. It even included a tuberculosis lab, one of the first in the jungle region. The old hospital became a guest house for the many tourists who visited the region until it had to be torn down a year or so ago, having lost its battle against the jungle termites.We praise the Lord for the many years of service the hospital has enjoyed in the region. Many people have come to the Lord as a reuslt of this important ministry to both the physical and spiritual needs of Ecuador's jungle dwellers.
Doug
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Summer HMA!
Hi all,
We have had quite a summer! Lots of traveling and visiting with many of you. We have had a great time, but we are feeling a little exhausted as well. We only have a couple of weeks left before we head back to Ecuador.
We had a great time on our "East Coast" trip visiting folks in Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio. We also spoke in two churches along the way and had a great time with the folks of Northern Neck Baptist church in Virginia. What a great bunch of people out there.
Becca went along with us only as far as the first day. She stopped off in Ohio, stayed for a couple of days with a friend, then took the bus back home to Grandma's house. What an adventure she had on the bus! You have to get her to tell you about the people she found on the bus. Sounds like something right out of a TV sit-com.
The boys were pretty content on the journey. We had a TV in the car so they watched videos on most of the trip. We did get to do some fireworks on the 4th of July at the house we were staying at. They thought they were going to miss fireworks this year.
We have also been in northern Illinois, speaking at a camp there. It was a good time meeting those folks from the United Brethren In Christ churches in that area. We have also been all the way up to Traverse City Michigan to re-connect with one of the work teams that helped us build the El Tablon church building. Last weekend we spoke at College Park UB church. I also had a reunion of my High School youth group. The youth group had quite an impact in the 70s on the lives of those in the group and it was good to reconnect with many friends that I have not seen in many years.
Rachel is is getting ready to start College. Soccer practice starts in a week or so. She has been working out for more than a week already. We checked out her room today so she can start thinking about how she might want it set up. She also just received here new computer and has been getting it set up just the way she wants it.
Well, that is about it for this time.
Doug
We have had quite a summer! Lots of traveling and visiting with many of you. We have had a great time, but we are feeling a little exhausted as well. We only have a couple of weeks left before we head back to Ecuador.
We had a great time on our "East Coast" trip visiting folks in Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio. We also spoke in two churches along the way and had a great time with the folks of Northern Neck Baptist church in Virginia. What a great bunch of people out there.Becca went along with us only as far as the first day. She stopped off in Ohio, stayed for a couple of days with a friend, then took the bus back home to Grandma's house. What an adventure she had on the bus! You have to get her to tell you about the people she found on the bus. Sounds like something right out of a TV sit-com.
The boys were pretty content on the journey. We had a TV in the car so they watched videos on most of the trip. We did get to do some fireworks on the 4th of July at the house we were staying at. They thought they were going to miss fireworks this year.
We have also been in northern Illinois, speaking at a camp there. It was a good time meeting those folks from the United Brethren In Christ churches in that area. We have also been all the way up to Traverse City Michigan to re-connect with one of the work teams that helped us build the El Tablon church building. Last weekend we spoke at College Park UB church. I also had a reunion of my High School youth group. The youth group had quite an impact in the 70s on the lives of those in the group and it was good to reconnect with many friends that I have not seen in many years.Rachel is is getting ready to start College. Soccer practice starts in a week or so. She has been working out for more than a week already. We checked out her room today so she can start thinking about how she might want it set up. She also just received here new computer and has been getting it set up just the way she wants it.
Well, that is about it for this time.
Doug
Saturday, June 28, 2008
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.....
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.....
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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