Update 11/12/07 - Visit to Southern Ecuador

This past week, I attended our Field Committee Meeting at the OMS Camp in Pallatanga. The Committee and I also helped BJ and Andi Williamson get settled, as they will be living and caring for the Camp over the next year while they continue with their regular ministries. While we were there, we also had the opportunity to help work through 9 pages of inventory, which were all written in Spanish. A bit challenging.

After the Field Committee meeting, Mike Shrode, Tom Stiles, and I then traveled to the other side of the mountains, to the jungle, to visit the towns of Cuenca, Saraguro, Yantzaza, Yacuambi, and Catamayo. This was a great opportunity for me to visit southern Ecuador, and to gain a better understanding of the OMS ministries that exist in those areas. This is especially helpful as I serve on the Field Committee and have to make decisions regarding these ministries. I had the opportunity to visit OMS' ministry property - Camp Carboncillo, as well visit Bill and Ilene Douce at the OMS Clinic, and Buen Pastor radio station located in Saraguro.

While in Yantzaza, I had the opportunity to visit one of the guinea pig micro-finance operations. This is part of a small business ministry where about 7 Saraguro church leaders received a loan to develop a Guinea Pig (Cuy) raising business. The Cuys are used as food, and they would like to eventual export their Cuys internationally. It has been a struggle for them to stay motivated, as it required them to take out loan and they don't have experience in raising Cuy commercially. The project requires maintaining 200 reproducing females, and it is taking longer than expected to reach this number. It could be another 6 months before they reach this number, and they are expensive to feed and care for.

At the end of the week, we met with the newly appointed ACIS Church Board (Association of Indigenous Saraguro Christians). They discussed their project of using the camp at Carboncillo and discussed the direction of the Buen Pastor radio station. The meeting went quite well, and from what I understand, they have had some less unified meetings over the past couple of years. So, it was great to see how well they seemed to get along. The new president is a young lady, who has matured spiritually and has taken on a lot of responsibility at the Good Shepherd church with music and teaching children.

We also had a chance to look at a couple of properties that were donated for the church in Yacuambi. Both properties are on steep hillsides, and it will take a good deal of engineering to determine how best to construct a building. However, this is nothing they are not used to. On the last day, we had the opportunity to visit a pastor in Catamayo. He has been working with this church for about three years, and it was a medical team that originally helped to get his church going. He has asked for prayer to get four cell groups started in outlying areas of the town, and to start small groups for new believers. Please pray for this pastor, as he has had some health problems and his lungs are only back to about 80% capacity. Please pray for his complete recovery and for his family.

Blessings to You!
Doug

Update 11/05/07

Dear Prayer Warriors,

¡MI CASA ES SU CASA! (My House is your House)

We understand this phrase all to well as the month of October was filled with guests, guests, & more guests. It's been a wonderful opportunity to meet all kinds of people doing what God is calling them to do. From medical doctors, to former missionaries, to rock stars, we've had quite a variety of guests serving the Lord. An OMS medical team that recently stayed with us, treated over 700 people in four days, with 302 of them making a decision for Christ. The OMS guest house is available to those doing ministry for the Lord here in Ecuador. We can house up to 24 people. If your group has a desire to minister in the Quito area of Ecuador, please know that our doors are open to you.

Cindy and the boys have completed their first quarter of the school year. David is having a great time playing varsity soccer (3 games a week is a little much). He's also a Sparky leader for AWANA once a week. Jonathan has received some help with his workload. He has had to sacrifice his Spanish class in order to get a guided study hall, but it has helped in the amount of homework that he is bringing home and he continues to use his Spanish daily. Thank you for your prayers concerning our boys.

Cindy's Bible study is meeting on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She continues to lead 5 ladies through the book of Acts. She is also providing a good deal of mentoring with women at school. Please pray for Cindy as she leads these women in God's Word and His Ways. Thank you for rejoicing with her for the 11 students in her class that accepted Christ last week. The chapel story was a blessed time. Seeds were planted and we pray that God's Word will not return void. Parent/Teacher conferences will be on November 9th. Please pray for her, as she desires to minister to the parents as well as to the children.

Doug will leave on Tuesday morning, traveling over a large portion of southern Ecuador, including Cuenca, Saraguro, Yantzaza, and Loja, returning on Sunday. He will be meeting as a part of the OMS Ecuador Field Committee at Camp Pallatanga, and they are still dealing with a situation regarding one of our church associations and one of the churches in Guayaquil. Please pray for a peaceful and mutually agreed settlement to some long standing issues with a church association. Afterwards, he and some of the other committee members will travel further south to meet with the ACIS church association (Association of Indigenous Saraguro Christians) to discuss the use of property located in Carboncillo. Pray for good discussion and the future use of this important property. Also, please pray for safe traveling mercies for Doug and the other committee members.

Our OMS Quito Team continues to get smaller. The Williamsons have left the Quito area to work 6 hours south in Pallatanga where the OMS camp is located. Please pray for BJ, Andi, and Eli as they adjust to living at the Camp where there is a great deal of work needed to be completed.

We are very excited about having Doug's sister Lynn and her family join us for Thanksgiving this year. Please pray for them while they are here. The altitude, food and germs have a way of affecting people in the most unpleasant ways. We only have 5 days with them, so pray for our time together to be blessed.

Blessings to You!

Doug & Cindy