Conference with P. Ray & P. Sheff: Quito

P. Ray, P. Mike, P. Sheff

Boys 'splaining the Sunday School lesson to Mike

"The boys" from Guayaquil.

Smile!

The Quito worship team treated us to folkloric dances

Conference with P. Ray & P. Sheff: Guayaquil

This year's conference with Pastor Ray started in Guayaquil. Seven members of his church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania came with him. We were also joined by P. Sheff, his wife, Kim, and Jim Seaver from Maine as well as Rachel Wileczek and Jamie from Peru.

We had a leadership and pizza night at our house, a beach day, and an amazing conference with the pastors. In addition, Jim Seaver taught a class on music ministry to about 20 people and Rachel taught a class on teaching children to our Bible Club and Sunday School teachers. All were well-received.

Conference with P. Ray & P. Sheff: Otavalo

The trip to Otavalo was for shopping, relaxing, and visiting our indigenous family, who guided the group to the nearby waterfall Here's Alberto (back to the camera, P. Mike, and P. Juan.)

Fairy and Shane walking toward the waterfall.

Mike greeting Michelle (one of our god-children)

Graciala, Mike, and P. Ray greeting the fam

Alice enjoying the shopping

Conference with P. Ray & P. Sheff: Baños

These photos are from Banos where the group evangelized by day and studied by night.

Stephanie's Graduation

Mike attended Stephanie Barriga's graduation this week. We still don't get the educational system here . . . this is the first of three graduations that Steph will have this year leading to her bachelor's degree.

Church Anniversary/Valentine's Supper

Alfredo worked through his vacation and many nights and weekends to oversee the remodeling and painting of the church.
Maria, the blonde in the center, oversees the hospitality committee. We don't even have to think about events anymore. Maria does the thinking for us.
We can fit about 10 more chairs with the remodeling and the praise team has more room too.

Fall Semester Bible Institute

Here are the students (A cheerful bunch, aren't they? Ecuadorians have a tendency not to smile in photographs.) who finished one or two courses: Mike's Biblical Perspectives and Olimpia's Victory Over Iniquity.
There was a special 5-week course between semesters on evangelism taught by Enrique Plaza. These students earned study Bibles by completing all the course requirements.
Jeffrey and Joel presented a skit on evangelism for the church. Joel's objections and questions had Jeffrey really searching for answers!