What's been the haps?

 While out in service the other day, Amanda and I were waiting on one side of the street while some serious Chinese preaching was going on with a Taiwanese lady. Then we spotted on the opposite corner two sisters talking  with another person, of course in Spanish. Amanda and I could have completed the Trifecta if only an English speaking person had walked by! I am sure this doesn't only happen in Ecuador but it was very cool to see.

 These little cuties joined our busy household last week but only as temporary residents. Blue and Dingo belonged to an Australian couple (hence the names) who are leaving to go home soon so we are looking after them until they find somewhere more permanent. Actually Dingo has been placed and is going to her new home tonight. I would have loved to have kept them but as we have no garden, it's not really that conducive to have pets. The week we have had them here has made me appreciate how big a problem Noah must have had - I'm sure you get the picture!

We were invited to have lunch at a sisters house the other day, which was lovely, but one custom that I will never get used to is that they feed you restaurant style - in other words, they don't sit down and eat with you! It's just so awkward! What a meal though - some of these ladies sure can cook!

I have my first Spanish talk in about 3 years coming up this Thursday - eek! At least now though I know what I am saying, which is more than can be said for my Chinese. Slow progress there!

Another first time at something

Sound quality is terrible but that's actually a good thing - you can't hear all the mistakes I made. Mind you I suppose you wouldn't know I had made them anyway unless you spoke chinese - hehe!

This little piggy should have stayed home!

All work and no play makes makes for a boring life so happily here we can have lots of fun too. The congregation "Paseo" that we went to on Sunday was an excellent example. Lots of delicious food (mostly in the form of whole roasted pig), music, dancing, mixed in with everyone happily  making fools of themselves. It has taken me a day to get over it but a nice time was had by all.

You may wonder what these guys are making funny faces for - its a game called rubber band racing - hilarious!

One thing about having visitors - it makes us do the touristy things we have never done. We went on the tour bus ride of the city with Westley the other day - learned quite a few new things about Cuenca. 

Love this view

Westley takes in the view of Cuenca

Our remodeled KH

 We also had the privilege of going to the Kingdom Hall dedication. It was such a nice day, with a Bethel speaker giving the dedication talk. I can't remember the last time I went to a dedication so it was a nice reminder.

Any New Yorkers out there?

So the latest is - WE ARE BOTH GOING TO HOUSTON - Yay!!! The convention date is 20th to the 23rd June 2014

As I mentioned in the last post - we are planning on getting up to New York after the convention to check out Bethel. So my question is - where is the best place to stay so that we are quite central??? Need some help folks, so would appreciate any comments or you can  send me an email via the email contact form.

Thank you in advance!

Oh oh and something else exciting - we got cheap tickets the other day to go to the Galapagos Islands in February. We are going with the lovely Lopez family, Alison (our adopted daughter), Westley (our adopted son) and Aaron (our ... oh you know who he is). Such fun to look forward to and I can't wait to see all the wildlife there. 

Houston - we have a problem!

 Well I wanted something exciting to tell you this week and I sure got it. We have been accepted to be delegates at the Houston, Texas International Convention next year. Well when I say "we" - at this stage I mean "I". With all our too-ing and fro-ing, Mark doesn't seem to belong to the correct congregation so we need to find out where his letter of acceptance went to. Otherwise I might just be going on my own (yeah, right). OK so latest news is - yes Mark is accepted, but to Atlanta!!!

It will be really cool to go and hopefully we will also be able to fulfill my dream of going to New York, of course to see Wallkill and Patterson. I have always wanted to go and being quite close (well alot closer than if we were in NZ), you would have thought we would have achieved it by now. Money of course has always been the biggest issue - but this time all those trips back to New Zealand are finally paying off - we have air points!!! So USA here we come!

A nice thing about writing this blog is that we get lots of contacts from people wanting to visit Ecuador either for a quick visit or fact finding trips with the purpose of serving here eventually.Today we spent a lovely day with these two couples, from Illinois, Kevin and Dawn and Jules and Gloria. We were able to spend the morning out in service with them and then show them a little bit of our beloved Cuenca, including the $2 lunch. Actually as a side point - these guys had been to New Zealand in January for the special convention. Kevin and Dawn came to our congregation there and ended up going out in service with Mark. In their conversation, Kevin said they were thinking about serving somewhere where the need was great. Mark asked him if he had ever thought of Ecuador. He had and had been reading our blog so he was excited to meet the crazy New Zealander he had read about.

The preaching had to have impressed them - Mark called on one place and over the intercom a little voice asked what he was talking about. He said "happy families" and the little girl said "ok I will get my Mum". The Mum came on and asked what religion he was and when he said Jehovah's Witnesses she asked them to come in. About an hour later they came away with a really strong feeling she and her daughter will come to meeting on Sunday - we will see if that happens, but for sure Mark and I will go back on Monday. My experience was while I was talking at a door to a gentleman, explaining why there is so many problems in the world, another man walking by, stopped to listen. The two brothers working with us, pulled him aside and started talking with him and they were able to give him a good witness. One other experience that those brothers had was in their first door - a young man said he knew he had to change his life and he had just been waiting for God's messengers (his words, not mine)  to help him, so a study was arranged for tomorrow. So 3 potential studies in that one block, not counting all the literature we placed.  Awesome awesomeness!

Sadly not to much to report this week - been a bit slow on interesting tidbits to share but we are still here doing our thing. Mark, Amanda and Aaron have all been manning the stand down at the Bus Station this time and report exceptional success with people sometimes taking two or three books for themselves and for family members. It's exciting work!

I had an experience I am not keen to repeat but will have to - visiting an acupuncturist - scary stuff but hopefully it will help with my health issues. What I can't understand is how the other patients didn't look like me after the treatment - while I was a mess, they all seemed content and happy. Then again I am a big scaredy-cat when it comes to needles. 

So that's from me - hopefully I will have something exciting to tell you next time.

Metropolitan Preaching

Metropolitan witnessing has just hit Cuenca and Amanda and Mark were privileged to be part of the team on the first day! They were stationed at one of the parks in Cuenca, which was extraordinarily busy because this weekend was Fiestas de Cuenca - a big festival they have here each year celebrating the city's independence from Spain. They had an awesome time in their 3 hours on duty - placing 5 Bibles, 10 BT books and 4 magazines. They also were able to fill out 3 please follow up slips which was success in itself! There was another stand at the park too and we have been told, although not been able to confirm as yet, that 50 books were placed in total!  Remember that the instructions are not to approach people - they are to come up to the stand if they are interested, so what an awesome outcome and a shout of praise to Jehovah!

In other news - we have Westley Bennett here from New Zealand, visiting for 6 months - he's been suitably impressed by the food prices and all else that Cuenca has to offer. It's very cool seeing the place again through a visitors eyes - sometimes after being in a place for awhile, you tend to accept things as normal. Believe me - this place is not normal\- but it is very cool!