God-given Unity

 

We’ve been thinking about unity a lot lately, related to both ministry life as well as family activities. In March we made a quick trip to Chicago for the wedding of our son, Luke, and Chase Trautwein. Chase is also a missionary kid from the Dominican Republic, has a heart for people and loves adventure. The wedding was beautiful and we had some great highlights: having the entire family together including several extended family members, time with our 2 granddaughters and even getting to be present when Lissie first started walking.

We had an amazing time celebrating Luke and Chase! We are thankful to God for another daughter-in-law added to our family. Luke and Chase are living in New Hampshire. Luke is working at a facility for foster children and gets to take small groups out on fun adventures. Chase is working as an ER nurse.

Please pray for them as they begin their new unified adventure together!

Scott stays busy teaching 3 classes of Hebrew a week. In one class he has students united from three separate continents! They are connecting for class from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Italy, and Ecuador each week. Learning Hebrew seems to be the new thing to do. Unfortunately, we have seen people in Ecuador who use Hebrew to make the Bible say what they want it to say, so we believe it is important for some faithful Christians to learn Hebrew and be able to defend true doctrine. Scott’s most advanced group has been studying for around 3 years and are able to understand many things as they read in their Hebrew Bibles.

Working with the Ecuadorian Quichua church continues to be another of Scott’s responsibilities. Through the years we have often seen a lack of unity among the many groups of Quichua churches. One of these groups recently received papers from the government recognizing them as an approved organization of churches. Thankfully, they are a group which is biblically sound. Please pray with us that others will join this organization and that God would produce supernatural unity between them.

We recently met a man named David at our church. He is a Jew who is learning to know Jesus. He and Scott have begun to meet together as he wants to learn more about Jesus. They have been talking together about how the two testaments fit together with one important and unified message. Pray for Scott and David to have productive conversations. The war in Ecuador against organized crime continues, but it doesn’t affect our daily lives very much. There are parts of the country where we should not go, so we are being a little more careful than normal in that respect. It seems like just about every day new criminals are being captured. Sadly, sometimes they are also freed later when the judicial branch of the government says there is not enough evidence to hold them. This happens even when there is general consensus that they are guilty. And yet, we recognize that is the price to be paid for living in a country that cares about protecting the innocent, which we all know is important. Please pray that law abiding citizens and honest government officials will band together in unity to defeat the rampant evil forces in this nation. Here's one brief article among many options you could read if you want more information:

Thanks for uniting with us to help make a difference in Ecuador and even beyond!

Violence in Ecuador

Over recent months, and even for the last few years, tensions in Ecuador have been rising. We keep reaching new levels of violence, and last week was another unfortunate intensification in that regard. Maybe you heard something on the news. There were prison escapees, an attack on a television station that was broadcast live, doctors held hostage in a hospital, policemen killed, and more. We are concerned of course, but we are not in any immediate danger.   Although the tensions are high all over the country, Guayaquil remains the center of the conflict. To resolve the problem the president declared an "internal armed conflict", which basically means Ecuador has declared war on the dangerous elements within its borders. He named 22 different terrorist groups (read: gangs / organized crime / mafia / drug cartels) that are enemies of the state. The military has free reign to "neutralize" them.   The root of the problem centers around the drug cartels who are competing for territory in Ecuador and seeking to maintain drug routes from Colombia and Peru through this country to the US and Europe. Instead of serving as correctional facilities, the prisons are simply the center of the cartels' activity. About a fourth of Ecuador's 36 prisons are controlled by the inmates. That means they have the keys to their own cells, organize nationwide crime, conduct businesses, pay rent for better cells, or for having a bed, etc. The government is seeking to solve these problems, and that produces a backlash on the part of the drug cartels. Because the delinquents have the full backing of the international narcotics "industry" the solutions are not quick fixes. Ecuador will be struggling with this problem for months and potentially years to come. So far it has been slowly escalating and we don't know when the tide will begin to change. Thankfully, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and the United States are all increasing their support for the situation. Please pray for wisdom for all those who are involved in working to restore Ecuador to a land of peace and justice.

Read from the BBC How Ecuador Descended into Gang Violence

All schools have been closed due to the violence, so Kristi has been teaching online for over a week. This will continue at least until the end of this week. Beyond that, everything is uncertain. Please pray for Kristi and her students to adjust to the realities they are faced with. It’s kind of like living through Pandemic 2.0 and not too many of them are excited about it. As you know, online education sometimes decreases the posibility for truly positive learning opportunities. Pray for a soon return to the classroom. Also, pray for creativity and providential resourcefulness for Kristi with the challenging learning environment.

Scott’s dad is adjusting well to his new living arrangements. He really enjoys his assisted living apartment and is glad for having made the change. He is also making good progress with his health. Please pray for continued adjustment in these areas.

We had a great time with family over Christmas vacation. We gathered for a week in Arkansas with all our kids and grandkids!

We are now full of anticipation for Luke and Chase’s wedding coming up in March. Our next trip will be to celebrate their marriage in Chicago!