La Gasca Mudslide

 It hasn't been long since we wrote, but we want to give you another quick update.

As we were writing our last email, a disaster was underway in Quito. Ecuador always has heavy rains this time of year, but the last few days in the capital have been the wettest since 2003. A reservoir above part of the city overflowed resulting in a large mudflow in La Comuna and La Gasca, two heavily populated communities about two miles from our home. For those who are familiar with the city, they are located roughly below and slightly to the north of the TeleferiQo.

Sadly, at least 24 people lost their lives, 48 were wounded and others are still missing. The destruction of property was also very costly.

You can read a couple of articles here:

Here is a special report from Quito's newspaper with several images:

This is a collage of videos from the disaster. If you watch, please be aware that there will be some disturbing images.

• Please pray for the people who have been affected by the mudslide.
• Pray for our church in Quito as they are taking steps to help with the relief work.
• Pray for all of God's people to reflect his love at a difficult moment.
• Pray for God's Spirit to work at a time when people might be asking some big questions.

Collaborating Globally

One of the activities Scott asks of his Hebrew students is to read small portions of the Hebrew Bible together during their class time. His most advanced class is currently working through chapter 1 of the book of Jonah. They recently had an especially rewarding conversation when they noticed a play on words that shows up in the early verses of the book. They also found a word in Hebrew that seems to contribute toward a comparison between Jonah and Jesus. It is so rewarding to have their weeks of study begin to pay off in the way they read scripture!

Some of Scott's students have recently experienced difficult life circumstances that are threatening their ability to continue study, including a mugging and a stroke. Please pray for these students to be able to overcome the challenges in their lives. Pray that God will also keep all of the Hebrew students committed for as long as he would have them advance.

The Aleph with Beth material is being developed partially by a team of volunteers who want to see the Hebrew language available for the entire world. At the same time that Scott uses it for his students, he is able to invest in parts of it that are shared with others as well. He has already contributed to online quizzes in a couple of different formats. More recently, he is helping to translate the grammar lessons from English to Spanish. These written versions of the lessons accompany the videos that are available on YouTube. Scott has been collaborating with a young lady in Spain to do these translations, each contributing a different set of strengths. It's amazing to see how God is pairing together just the right people, and how it can happen from different corners of the globe! Pray that these tools can make a difference for the global church.

If you're curious you can see some of the resources here:

Video playlist

Grammar lessons in English

Grammar lessons in Spanish

Quizzes in Hebrew

Quizzes in Spanish

List of more ways to volunteer

Kristi continues meeting with eight 4th graders every morning. They are nearing the end of the 1st semester next week. January has been a rough month for some of them. Four of them and/or their families have had Covid. Thankfully this week everyone is well or nearly recovered. 

Please pray for one student who is really struggling with his family life. His parents are divorced and he is facing some really dark days. Pray that he as well as his family come to know Jesus.

We enjoyed our Christmas break with family. Luke was able to spend about 3 weeks with us, David, Shelby and Evelyn were with us about 10 days and Joel and Jaden just for a couple of days. We loved the time with each one of them, but especially the time to get to know our granddaughter. 

Wonderful Deeds!

 I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;

I will tell of all your WONDERFUL DEEDS.

Psalm 9:1

We want to give thanks to the Lord and tell you some of the WONDERFUL DEEDS he has done for us.

God has put you into our lives! We are so thankful for each of you and your faithful prayers, support, love and encouragement through the past year. Through you, God has provided above and beyond financially, the provision of a second car, and the gift of your prayers and friendship. Thank you so much!

God in his unique way has allowed Scott to continue teaching Ecuadorians from the United States. Scott continues teaching Biblical Hebrew three evenings a week and totally loves what he is doing. His classes on Monday and Wednesday nights are small groups but they are making some good progress in being able to read and understand. 

He started a new class a month ago on Thursday nights and has 29 students. These students come from Ecuador, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Peru and Mexico.

God has also allowed me (Kristi) to continue teaching for EduKasa, a homeschool group from Ecuador. The pandemic has made the economic situation in Ecuador very difficult for many families. A year ago a group of families who were not able to afford keeping their children at Alliance Academy formed EduKasa. This year we have about 45 students. The parents chose the Abeka curriculum, a Christian curriculum in English. The children know English but most of their parents do not, so that is where I fit in. Abeka provides videos for each subject each day. This year I am working with nine 4th graders throughout the morning. I meet with the entire group for two 30-minute sessions each morning. We practice what they are learning and I make sure they are understanding, we review for tests or quizzes, read outloud, and just come together as a class. I also meet with each student individually twice a week. I also grade their work, answer lots of questions, and just make sure they are doing what they need to do. I miss the in-person classroom, but love my nine students and the chance to meet with them daily.

We are so thankful for all God has provided for Lindsey. We are thankful for her Christian school and her teachers. She is so glad to be back in person this year. God has provided her an amazing group of friends who even kept up with her while she was back in Ecuador. Now she is looking forward to finally playing basketball again. She was only able to play part of the season her freshman year and none her sophomore year. 

We are so thankful for how God has provided for Joel and Jaden in their first months of marriage. God provided Joel a job as a coffee machine technician. He works at fixing and maintaining coffee machines in coffee shops. It has been so good to have Joel and Jaden close by these past months but this last weekend we helped them move to Rogers, Arkansas. His company needed a technician in that area and Jaden continues working her same job online. They are looking forward to finding a new home church and making new friends.

These are just some of the wonderful deeds God has done for us. What wonderful deeds has God done for you? Write to us and let us know. 

Creative Tools for Remote Learning

 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.

WhatsApp

A Move and Hitting the Road

 A few days ago we moved to Elbing! This is the town where Berean Academy is and where Lindsey will be attending classes in the fall. The school recently renovated a house on their property and is offering it to missionary families. We are so thankful for this opportunity to live close to the school! It is strange but wonderful to connect with people all over Ecuador from a small town of about 300 people in the heart of the American plains. We feel like we get to enjoy the best of two worlds all at once!

Kristi finished her school year last week and is happy for a summer break. In September she will resume her teaching ministry from our home in Elbing. Scott is still teaching Hebrew three times a week. Some of his students have dropped out, but most of those who remain are committed to work hard to learn the material. That's enough to encourage the heart of any teacher! Lindsey has her first official summer job working as a carhop at Sonic. We are proud of her and how she is learning responsibility and commitment.

Thank you for praying for someone to stay in our home in Quito. One of our friends there became aware of the opportunity, and she will be living in our home and paying for part of our rent. She is also willing to share the apartment with others, so please continue to remember this request in your prayers.

We will be traveling to Colorado and California for the next 3 weeks, spending some time to visit family and ministry partners. Pray for a good time and safety on the road.

Pray for Ecuador to continue to move toward recovery from the realities of the pandemic, and pray for God's timing regarding our return to do our ministry in person.

Growing Family and Shifting Plans

On May 23rd we welcomed a new daughter into our family! We are thankful for the way God brought Joel and Jaden together and for being able to celebrate along with them. Just as they shared their vows to each other in a gentle rain, we pray for God’s kind blessings to fall on their new marriage together.

That same weekend, Luke graduated from John Brown University with a major in Outdoor Leadership. He has taken a full time job working at Meramec Adventure Ranch in Missouri. They work with foster children, most of whom come from really tough backgrounds. Pray that Luke has many opportunities to love on these kids and share God’s love with them.

We are thankful we had the wedding weekend with all of our family. We enjoyed seeing our sweet granddaughter again. She is 10 months old and full of smiles and laughs.

Currently Scott is teaching 3 Hebrew classes: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The Thursday evening class has been studying with him for 6 months now and these students are making some good progress. The other 2 classes just started in May.  One of his more advanced students asked Scott whether he might be ready to begin teaching Hebrew to others. As it turns out, Segundo has joined Scott as an assistant teacher in one of his new classes. He has become so convinced about the importance of Hebrew that he recruited several additional students to begin the study. It is great to see people like him catch the vision and help multiply our ministry!

Kristi and Lindsey are getting close to finishing up their school years. Lindsey will have very little left after this week and Kristi will finish classes on June 16. They have both been completely online since March of 2020.

April and May were difficult months for Ecuador as the hospitals were full of Covid patients and many people were put on waiting lists, not being able to get the help they needed. Vaccines have been slow to arrive in Ecuador. For several weekends in April and May, there were more restrictions again, forcing everyone to remain at home in the evenings and for the entire weekend. You can read more from these articles in English:

Reuters

Xinhuanet

or this article in Spanish:

El Universo

Beginning in the fall, Alliance Academy is expected to continue online with only a possibility of having 2 days a week in school. Because of this we have made the decision to enroll Lindsey in school in Kansas for the coming fall. Scott and I will continue teaching our classes online from Kansas, something that wasn’t possible before the pandemic. Lindsey has done amazing with online school, but she is going to be a junior and we feel it is best for her to be back in school in person and able to participate in extracurricular activities again.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation in Ecuador and seek God’s timing for our return date. Meanwhile we would like to find someone who could occupy our apartment in Quito and pay at least some of our cost for the rent. Please pray with us for wisdom and provision.

A New President and a New Setting

Yesterday we had the privilege of participating in a nationwide election in Ecuador. Guillermo Lasso was chosen as our new president.

Mabel Velástegui, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

You can read a good article from BBC News about the political context of the election:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56713570

This morning Andres Carrera, pastor of a Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Guayaquil, had an opportunity to pray with the president-elect.

See the Facebook post here:

https://www.facebook.com/iglesia.samborondon/photos/a.1100958670005483/3369043176530343/

President-elect Lasso will take office at a time characterized by many difficult issues; please pray with us that God would use this man for his purposes in Ecuador.

Ecuador is advancing very slowly with its Covid vaccination program. According to Quito's primary newspaper, only an average of 2 doses of the vaccine have been administered for every 100 people in Ecuador. That ranks Ecuador in 36th place out of 49 countries in the Americas. Read the article from El Comercio:

https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/ecuador-dosis-vacuna-vacunacion-covid.html

We will be traveling to the US on May 1. Pray for our preparations in the next couple of weeks. We'll be getting our apartment ready for some friends to temporarily occupy it, and there are many other little details to take care of.

We're looking forward to celebrating Joel and Jaden's wedding on May 23. Pray for them as they plan the event and prepare to start their new life together.