Mucho Gracias (Weekly Update 03/27/05)

Dear Prayer Warriors,

If a picture is worth a 1000 words, then an experience is worth 1000 pictures. I apologize in advance for the lengthy email but there is no other way...

Your prayers were answered!! God showed His faithfulness over and over again while we were in Quito, Ecuador. He kept us safe and healthy. He watched over our children and the children of our team members. He bound our team with unity. We all arrived home with a deeper dedication for praying.

Our week was richly scheduled…We met with 4 of the 13 pastors that Doug will be working with. We attended two church services and visited the school where Cindy will teach. We met with the national director of Ecuador for OMS as well as the national director of ECC (Every Community for Christ). We met with 3 of 7 eXtreme Walkers. eXtreme Walkers is a pilot program through OMS for young men (20-30 yrs). After listening to each person/group share about God's faithfulness in their ministry as well as the vision they have, we prayed for their specifics requests.

What a privilege is was to partner with these people in prayer!!! Our culminating prayer opportunity was when we were asked to stand in front of a congregation of about 100. The pastor asked for different groups to come for prayer. First, he asked for those who needed healing, then for those that needed work and physical things, then he asked for those desiring to serve in the church and finally he asked for the leadership of the church. We anointed each individual with oil and prayed for them individually. The entire congregation formed a circle around the interior of the church and prayed for us. We were then greeted by each member. They love to hug and kiss!!! There aren't enough words to adequately describe this experience.

God prevailed over satan's attacks:
*Saturday - Our plane was hit by lightening during take off from Indy.
*Tuesday - Visited a church in a very dangerous area of Quito. We had to be locked inside the church
*Wednesday - Cindy accidentally drank some of the local water.
*Friday - 1 hour of extreme turbulence
*Daily - Many meals were local cuisine.

We celebrated our 18th anniversary in Quito - our team presented us with an Ecuadorian "staple" - 24 roses. This team was and will continue to be a huge support to us as we are on the field. We are so thankful for them and our prayer warriors. Your prayers were very evident this past week.

As you can see, we have many reasons to be thankful and rejoice in the goodness of our Lord and Savior.

This week, we will begin making contacts with those that may be interested in partnering with us in ministry. Our prayer request is that the Lord will go before us preparing the hearts of those He is calling. We see support raising as opportunities to share how the Lord changed our hearts and share of the mighty work that the Lord is doing in our lives. Please pray that we all we say and do would be pleasing to HIM.

Have a great week!

Blessings to you,
Doug and Cindy

Cindy and Kerrie enjoy Fresh fish

OMS Missionaries - Mike and Bonnie Shrode

Merry Christmas 2004

Here's a copy of our recent Christmas letter that many of you received:

Greetings Family and Friends,

This seems to be a Christmas letter year for the Tankersleys! It’s been a year full of blessings and we would like to share some of them with you! Our biggest and most challenging blessing came in March when we answered the call to serve as full-time missionaries. After much prayer and evaluations, we have been accepted by OMS International (www.omsinternational.org) to serve on the field in Quito, Ecuador. Doug will be serving as a District Liaison ministering to local pastors and Cindy will be teaching at the Alliance Academy (www.alliance.k12.ec), which is an international K-12 missionary school. Our journey will continue as we begin our Friend Raising after the holidays. You will be hearing from us again, in the very near future.!!

We did some traveling in 2004. Our first trip was to Panama City Beach during our Spring Break to visit Doug’s mom and dad. Doug was also able to complete his certification for scuba diving. In June, our travels continued as we went to Indiana Beach to celebrate the boy’s birthdays. This has been a great alternative to the typical parties!! We weren’t home long, and David was off to Camp Good News in Washington, IL. At the same time, Doug and Cindy were off to Guatemala to visit our missionary friends (John & Rita Pappa) and the village where Doug had been the previous year. In August we headed back to Camp Highlands in Sayner, Wisconsin for our 5th and likely final year of family camp.

The boys are doing great and continue to be our most precious blessings. David turned 12 years old in May and entered 7th grade. He continues to love the sport of soccer and is now on the basketball team. He works hard at school and received all A’s and one B+ on his report card. He’s hoping to learn some new soccer moves from the Ecuadorians. Jonathan turned 9 years old in June and entered 3rd grade. He played soccer but his passion is for fishing and the outdoors. He’s looking forward to all the new bugs and reptiles in Ecuador. Both boys will attend the Alliance Academy in Quito.

In April, Doug moved to the MSRF – a printing division of State Farm. He now supervises 16 folks. He found out a few weeks ago, that his division and job will be dissolving in 14 months as they begin to outsource their printing needs to external vendors. The Lord’s timing is always perfect. Cindy began her 5th year of teaching first grade at GCMS and also hit the big 40 this year. We celebrated with an overnight visit to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL where we first met. Pagliai's Pizza and Lake Charleston was a perfect way to celebrate.

We pray that this letter finds you feeling blessed this holiday season and always. Only the Lord knows how long we will remain here in the states, but we’d love an opportunity to see you before we head to Quito. Please let us hear from you!

Blessings to you & Merry Christmas!

The Tankersleys - Summer 2004