A fine start to April

Hi!

Sounds like spring is arriving in Ontario - finally!!!

Just an FYI on a couple of events in our lives.

First, Stacey is recovering from having her wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Yuck. She is doing well. The Alliance Academy is on Easter break until Tuesday, so hopefully she will be back to almost normal (whatever that is for a teenaged girl!) by then.

We are working on our summer plans - but nothing is clear yet . . . there are huge administrative issues here that will need addressing this summer. This is mostly due to changes in law and our need to quickly adjust. So we aren't sure when/if/for how long we'll be able to make it home, but we are working on some ideas. It sure would be a lot more convenient if someone would open a Tim Horton's down here!

Finally, please rejoice with us as God has provided a new Director of Finance for the ministry here. This has been a need that we have filled in a piece-meal style for the last year. God graciously provided some wonderful people to help us out, but it was not a long term solution. Finally we have been able to find an experienced woman who is familiar with both US and Ecuadorian tax and charity laws - a very rare combination! Graham think his stress level went down 50 points just by hiring her!!! She starts in May (we can't share her name because her current employer doesn't know she is leaving).

Have a great day, enjoy the spring! Have a Tims for us. We are kinda guessing the Leafs won't make the playoffs this year - would that be a correct assessment? But alas, it wouldn't be spring if the Leafs were in the playoffs!

Thanks so much for your love, support, encouragement and prayers. We appreciate you so very, very much.

Graham, Sharon, Toothless-Stacey and Erin

(We can truly say her bark IS worse than her bite now!)

Great day hike!

One thing Ecuador has in abundance is natural beauty. Yesterday, Sharon and I went to Quilotoa - a volcanic crater lake guesstimated to have been formed 800 years ago. Along with some friends we hiked down the 300m to the lake, and back up again. Doesn't sound like much, but the altitude is almost 4000 m (almost 13000 feet!).

The scenery is stunning. You can click here for pictures. I also recommend you click here for more photos from others. Words do not do it justice.

The lake is 2 miles across - so that gives you some sense of scale.

Just like home . . .

Yup, we get those little irritants too. In this case, a leak in a hot water pipe. We arranged for some guys to come and hammer through the concrete floor to find the leak, but then they got into a discussion with the landlord on the best way to fix it. So it won't be fixed until tomorrow. We can turn the hot water on for showers in the AM, but it is off for now to try and allow the hole and surrounding floor to dry.

Fun, eh?

Mision Compartida

Every year our radio station has a "share-a-thon" to help raise money, make listeners more aware of our ministries, and to offer spiritual counsel and prayer to those who want to come and visit with us. Today is the last day of the four day event.

Donations don't always come in the form of money: check this out:

Also, we've had a sheep and rabbits donated (yes, those are guinea pigs . . . and not intended to be pets :-)).

Believe it or not, these are hot items, sold quickly and the proceeds donated to the ministry.

Fun!

UPDATE:

We can now include 3 ducks and 3 puppies in the "live" donation category :-)

Further UPDATE:

We had several people accept Christ over these last few days. We also had a visit from a young boy, probably 11, named "Israel." Both his parents live in Spain and he lives in the city with his grandmother. He wandered into Mision Compartida out of boredom, just wandering the streets. He asked that we pray for him because he is looking for something to help him with his life. So we did!

I don't know how the rest of the conversation with him went, but as you think of it, please pray for Israel.

Success!

Yup, we were finally successful obtaining our censos yesterday. We got there shortly after the office opened after its lunch break, and there were only a couple of families in line in front of us. After about 15 minutes it was our turn, and 10 minutes later we had the censos.

I gave the official who served us all the extra paperwork we did not have the day before, and he replied - "You don't need that." So, go figure. Just one of those goofy things you run into from time to time.

And today - today's challenge is to go to the beach for US Thanksgiving (any excuse for a holiday).

Sometimes it is the little things

Hi

Every two years (used to be every year) we have to renew our Censos (ID cards that are connected to our Visas). It seems like everytime we need to do this we run into some kind of snafu. This time is no exception. We went last week and Graham forgot one of the documents we needed to have, so we were unsuccessful. We went again yesterday and they had changed the list of documents we need to have. So we were unsuccessful. We are trying again today, hopefully with EVERYTHING we need.

Sometimes the hard part of doing ministry is the little things - the little pricks that like a swarm of mosquitos, irritate you with the incessant sound and pricks, even though for the most part they are harmless, just annoying.

So, pray that our responses will be appropriate and reflect our faith. Sharon has had to get a sub teacher (this has to be done during business hours), we have to pull the kids from class and Graham has to clear his calendar. So this can be an annoyance - the challenge is keeping in the right perspective.

We hope you are having a great week! We've had a few rains, but things are still really dry, and there is NO rain where the hydro electric generation plants are. So rationing continues, but down to two hours a day.

Rain!

We awoke this morning to the gentle sound of rain - wow. As you know, it is incredibly dry here and we have had electricity rationed (4-6 hours a day without, on a rotating basis; sometimes in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, sometimes the evening). So this first hint of a rainy season is a beautiful thing.

Ecuador's main hydro electric generation plant in Paute has had to reduce it's operations due to the dry conditions, with only 2 of 10 generators working. Water levels in the resevoir above the dam are down 20m. Power has been purchased from Peru and Colombia to offset the short fall.