We are thankful!

Thanksgiving
We had a great Thanksgiving celebration last month. Of course we miss getting together with family at times like this, but what makes our celebration really special is to focus on the rich friendships we have here.

Discipleship
I (Scott) have been spending some time lately in discipling a young man who is young in his faith. It's a real joy to see his hunger for truth from God's Word and growth in his life. Please pray for growth for Cristian.

Pastors' Conference
I will be teaching from God's Word next Tuesday at a nationwide conference for Quichua pastors. The theme will be “Shared Ministry.” Pray that what I prepare will be helpful for those who need to hear it.

Kristi's Students
One of Kristi's students in sixth grade this year is a new girl from China. She began school without knowing English, which has caused an extra challenge for Kristi. However, along with that comes the reward of seeing her grow by leaps and bounds. She is very intelligent and is started to communicate a lot more. Her family doesn't even own a Bible, but Kristi found a Mandarin Bible in the school library. This girl was excited to be able to read from it for the first time ever in her own language. She is now learning the basics of the Christmas story. Pray for Kristi as she takes advantage of  the amazing opportunities to influence this girl's spiritual life and that of the other students in her classroom at Alliance Academy.

Macuma
Our colleague in ministry, Jim Hedlund, has been working really hard on some property issues in Macuma. The mission has owned some property in this jungle village for several years, but we are donating it to nationals in the area who will be able to make better use of it as we move forward. It looks like the legal documents are close to being ready for signing. Our hope is that later this month things will be ready for our legal representative and me to travel to Macas, the capital of the province, to do the signing.

David
David is in his final year of civil engineering studies at Wheaton College and Illinois Institute of Technology. He will be coming to visit us for almost a month over Christmas. During that time he will also be making a presentation at a conference here in Quito called International Perspectives on Water Resources & the Environment. He has had a lot of opportunities to learn about water treatment and is seeing his interest grow in that area. Pray for guidance for him as he considers the next step after he graduates this spring.

Financial Need
Our support account at the mission dipped quite low this fall as a result of expenses for home ministry in the summer. Some of you have done some extra giving to help meet this need and we really appreciate that. Nevertheless, this month we weren't able to receive our full salary because of a lack of funds to cover it. Things will be really tight this month, but we think we will be okay. Nevertheless, if you are able to send an extra donation to Avant Ministries this month, it will be really significant in helping us start the new year with a good financial margin. You can make an online donation by clicking here, or print this donation form for mailing in with a check.

God Is Working

Kristi's Class
I am teaching sixth grade Math and Science for the first time this year—the same classroom I've worked in for the last two years as an aide. These first weeks of school have definitely been a time of being stretched, but I know that it is the place God has for me to serve right now. I have 39 students I work with through the day from around the world, not only from Ecuador and the US but also from Korea and China. It is an amazing opportunity to share Christ with not only my students but also with their families.

For instance, I have twin boys from China in my class. Their family owns a Chinese restaurant here in Quito. They invited us for a meal. Their mother is a Buddhist and father is an atheist. But the boys became Christians through Alliance Academy. The boys pray that at some point their parents will believe as well.

One of the biggest challenges this year is having students for whom English is a second language. I have 4 students who are new to the school this year and came in knowing very little English. That has definitely been a challenge—especially the 2 new Chinese students who don't know Spanish either. The fun part is these 2 are both really good at math.

Finances
We are still in need of additional support to cover the expenses we had this summer. We really appreciate the extra support that we received last month; but it didn't keep us from significantly going into the red in our account with Avant Ministries. If you are able to make a special gift, please consider helping us take care of this need. You can make an online donation by clicking here, or print this donation form for mailing in with a check.

Property
The sale of our property in Quito is finally coming to an end. We signed a contract this summer and have been working out bureaucratic details since then. We think we have the last issue taken care of now, and are expecting to hear confirmation that the buyers are satisfied and able to pay us the final amount they have been withholding.

Now that the Quito property has been taken care of, there is a potential for moving ahead more quickly on other mission properties in other parts of the country. Pray for God's direction and timing as we are waiting on the next step in a few different locations.

Scott's Involvement at EFC
During the past few years we have been attending an English church close to our home in Quito. It has been a joy to see how God is transforming the church into a place with potential to minister to people from all over the globe. It is increasingly attracting not only Spanish speakers who want to improve their English skills, but also people from many other countries for whom English is either their first language or their preference over Spanish.

During this time that I (Scott) have been involved more deeply in administration, I have found English Fellowship Church to be a place where I can maintain an involvement in direct Biblical ministry as well—serving as an elder, teaching God's Word and discipling other believers.

Exciting opportunities have been abounding here lately, you can pray for an ever increasing impact through this avenue of ministry. Pray especially for one young man who has been attending the church. He recently asked to be baptized, but I'm not confident that he is actually saved. He is very open to learning more, and we are making plans to study together what God's Word teaches about salvation.

Thankful!

I like to think about the goodness of the Lord.

He gives me everything I need and so much more,

So I just wanna lift my hands and say that I love him!

I just wanna lift my heart in praise!

I wanna be thankful!

I wanna be grateful!

I wanna remember everything that the Lord has done!

I wanna be thankful!

I wanna be grateful!

I wanna be! I wanna be! I wanna be!

As I look back over the past month, the word “thankful” is what comes to mind. One month ago I was in the hospital following my hip replacement. Today I am walking with less of a limp than I have since before Christmas. The surgery was successful and I’m doing physical therapy to regain complete strength to my leg. I still have a ways to go but am very thankful for how far I have come. And I’ll be going back to work starting tomorrow as well.

While I was in the US for surgery, Scott held things together at home. On top of being both dad and mom, he had additional responsibilites. We had some major plumbing leaks in the house we rent, so the plumber was working on fixing it all for about 3 weeks. Also 2 of our computers crashed and Scott had to replace the hard drives in both of them. It wasn't fun to be separated for a month, and the stresses of life on top of surgery made it worse, but we felt the Lord's comfort through it all; and we are very glad to be back together again now.

As far as the mission property goes, Scott signed a contract with a realtor to sell the property. There is still a lot of work to be done before a sale could be completed, but the realtor is committing to doing a lot of the legwork for us so it can move along faster.

We also are excited to let you know David’s plans for his summer. He has accepted an internship working with HCJB here in Ecuador. He’ll be working in Shell, which is about 5 hours from where we live and on the edge of the jungle. He’ll be using his engineering skills and working in villages providing clean drinking water. We're glad that he’ll be coming a week early to spend some time with us.

The rest of us will be spending our summer in the US. We hope to see many of you during July and August.

Praise the Lord for a good surgery.
Pray for continued healing for Kristi.
Praise the Lord for being our strength during a potentially difficult month.
Pray for progress on the property.
Praise the Lord for opportunities for David.
Pray for a good learning experience for him.
Pray for our upcoming home assignment.

Keep Praying

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever. --Joshua 4:4-7

We are so thankful that we can be part of God's story here in Ecuador. Many days it is easy to feel discouraged with all of the day to day and family issues that we have to deal with. But we want to choose to remember just like the Lord asked the Israelites to—remember all the amazing things God has done for us. Please pray that we not become discouraged but continue to be faithful to God and what he has asked us to do.

From Scott

I continue with the administrative role of trying to sell mission property here in Ecuador. I'm hoping to travel out to the jungle this week along with our legal representative to sign some papers for a couple of properties out there. Please pray that things can move forward in this area. It's amazing to me how many details need to be waded through to make the slightest bit of progress, and how often it feels like I'm making no progress at all!

From Kristi

As you know I have been working as the 6th grade teachers aide the past 2 years. I am excited to let you know that I have been hired as 6th grade teacher for the coming school year. I will be teaching Math and Science as well as Bible to my homeroom students. This whole process has been quite amazing and definitely designed by God. I am in the middle of taking a class "The Truth Project" along with several others at Alliance. After I finish this class I'll be able to apply for my ACSI teacher certification.

The other news is that I'm scheduled to have my 2^nd hip replacement next month. I've had a lot of pain in my second hip since a year ago April and since Christmas it has gotten worse. I'll be having the surgery in Wichita again and will be gone from home for about a month.

Family News

We really enjoyed having David at home for a month around Christmas. He is looking at doing an internship this summer in his field of civil engineering.

Joel could use some extra prayers as he finishes up his senior year. It has been a difficult year for him. He has decided he wants to take a year off before going to college but we still don't know what that is going to look like.

Luke is now a teenager and has passed Kristi up in height. He finished his basketball season and really loved it. His team finished 1st in the tournament. Now we actually have him home after school.

Lindsey turned 8 back in December. She loved playing soccer. She keeps us all smiling with her love and energy for life.

Pray for encouragement in our responsibilities.
Pray for advancement in paperwork for mission properties.
Praise the Lord for Kristi's new teaching position.
Pray for Kristi's upcoming hip replacement.
Pray for David's upcoming internship.
Pray for Joel during his senior year at school.
Praise the Lord for Luke and Lindsey's growth.