We had a wonderful summer and enjoyed some vacation time in California with David, Shelby and Evelyn. We especially enjoyed celebrating Evelyn’s 1st birthday with her.
We also were able to stand beneath the tall, majestic sequoia trees...
and look out over the Grand Canyon.
We arrived back home tired of driving but in awe of God’s amazing creation.
Lindsey is back to school and glad to be back in person instead of online. She is starting her junior year. We all are adjusting to having her gone during the day again. Kristi is looking forward to the Ecuador homeschool group beginning on September 7th. She will be moving up with her students to 4th grade.
Scott continues teaching online from Kansas to Ecuador. He just adjusted his classes, combining some so he will be able to start a new class. Pray for details to come together soon regarding the new class. Pray also for his students to remain faithful in their studies. In the advanced group, one of the students, Maria, volunteered to lead a practice time of reading the Hebrew text with the class.
One of the questions Scott gets is how it is possible to teach from Kansas to Ecuador. In the past Scott has tried to teach a Greek class packed into a couple of weekends. Since it was outside of the city of Quito, Scott had to travel several hours to get there. Well, anyone who has studied a new language knows that cramming a bunch of hours into a weekend is not an effective way to learn it. So when Covid began some of the tools for remote learning proved to be valuable. For example, Scott was able to begin meeting once a week with his classes via Zoom.
Yes, the internet availability and the learning curve of new technology has been a challenge for some of his students who live outside of the city and in rural areas or in small villages. But with help, they have been able to learn how to join class on Zoom and how to hand in their homework on Google Classroom.
Another app that has been a huge help is WhatsApp. This app is completely free and everyone living in Ecuador uses it. Scott is able to communicate with his students by phone, video chat or enhanced messaging to help them with questions. The face to face contact is missing but in many other ways it is a great way for Scott to teach.
