So today Mark nearly got a baby named after him. That came about as I was with another sister in the mountains this afternoon at the study she has in the native language - Quechua. The daughter of the lady (who looks no more than 15 at the most) has a baby boy, 2 months old and they haven't given him a name yet. They were very interested in my family - who I had showed them a photo of - and then asked me what name I liked. Of course I said "Marcos" (they would never have understood Ryan or Aaron), which they mulled over but then the other sister said she liked Timoteo. It will be interesting to see if they have made a decision next week. Felt so sorry for this young girl as it sounds like the baby is a result of rape and the mother said that is why she left the area they lived in so it did not happen to the other little girl. Who by the way is another cutie and we got on like a house on fire. Anyone back home that knows me - knows I seem to acquire numerous surrogate grandchildren, especially little girls, and it is no different here. I now have lots of little friends running up to me to say hello and give me a hug at the meetings - so it's beginning to feel like home. This little cutey is Dominica and she is adorable. Michele studies with her Mum (she is a reactivated witness, so is at the meetings and out witnessing) and I get to go with her to keep Dominica occupied. Of course I still love my little friends back home - "Hola Tasha, Emily, Molly and Madison - and of course Flynn, Ava, Miller and Tyson, Max, Ethan and Lincoln (legitimate nephews and neices) - hope you haven't forgotten me!"

Hanging out

Now that we live with young people again - we get to hang out with the "it" crowd. It's pretty cool getting invited along on outings such as this one to the kebab place (by the way - it was a first to see whole chicken legs on the kebab stick)Or when they come over and we can play cards, dominoes etc with them. Sometimes we think they don't have homes to go to cause we almost have to push them out the door.

So it is not so great for our sleep patterns - as you can see Mark catches up wherever he can!

For Amanda and Tania

Amanda and Tania

My baby (oops I mean my very grown up daughter) is heading off to Taiwan with her friend Tania, on the 11th of June. They are going for 5 & 1/2 months to further their learning the Chinese language with the view to aiding Chinese people in NZ to hear the truth. I am so glad we came here first as no doubt if I had not experienced serving in a foreign land, I would be terrified of them going. However now I know firsthand that wherever you go in this world, there will always be the loving brotherhood of Jehovah's organization and you will be just fine.
Anyway I hear Aaron is putting on a party for you tonight (NZ time) and no doubt you will have a blast. Sorry we couldn't be with you to dance the night away but here is a little something from us to send you on your way......Big kisses from Mum and Dad, Amanda and Big Hugs from your surrogate Mum and Dad, Tania!

Thinking about you in NZ

I hear you have had some bad weather lately and I just thought you might like to think of us - here we are at 5pm last Monday enjoying a delicious ice cream and a sit in the park. The weather here is changeable as I have told you many times. Today while I was doing the grocery shop - the thermometer said it was 24 degrees. Of course it has rained off and on throughout the day but at least it is still warm. So hope I haven't rubbed it in your noses too much NZers - keep warm won't you!

It's about time...

It's about time I told you what's going on in our ministry here:

To begin with I have to tell you that living with 2 pioneering "dynamos" (Michele will hate me for saying that, but it is true) is a great encouragement. Chad and Michele's commitment to finding deserving ones and keeping them motivated is amazing. I really enjoy going with Michele on her studies because I learn alot. Having said that I have been praying that I could find someone myself, but I wasn't sure if I was totally ready to go it alone. Well this morning I worked with Fanny, a lovely pioneer sister but a little simple and when I went with her to her return visit, I kind of had to take over to start the study off for her. It felt good to be able to do it all without too much hiccup. Then when we made it back to the group (3/4 of an hours walk back, through mud and up lots of hills), we found they had finished the territory. Thankfully I was feeling very motivated and as we were passing a house that I recalled Bekky M had placed a book at (she is not in our congo, so I wasn't stealing her call) Mark and I called in. The girl is very interested and so we started a study right there and then with her. A good morning all round, even though I am now exhausted from all the walking.

There is good things happening in the English group as well. The brothers witness to anyone that looks like they speak the lingo - usually they are tourists of course and not here for long. However at the last English meeting a couple from America accepted the invitation to attend. She had been praying to understand the bible. Of course they received the BT book and when someone said to her that she could ask the witnesses when they next called at her door, she said she had never been contacted before as her house is very difficult to find. How cool that while on vacation here in Ecuador, Jehovah made it possible for her to find the truth. At the same meeting there was a family from Pakistan although they got an urgent phone call that meant they could not stay.

Someone that has been on my mind is Nery (our neighbor from the old apartment). Because I had been sick we haven't caught up with her for awhile but this afternoon my conscience would not let up any longer so we trudged over to see her. She was so excited to see us and did she have some hard questions for us to answer. One thing for sure is when you don't have a spanish speaker with you it really makes you work hard. But we answered her questions about the soul and also the real doozy that she threw at us - "what do I do about the bad spirits that are affecting my sleep?". Hopefully we gave her some good advice but the best thing was that thankfully I remembered the article in the May mags about such things.

We have great excitment happening soon with the remodelation of our Salon del Reino starting the the 11th of June. We will be very busy for 4 to 6 weeks. I will fill you in on that soon.

Another interesting sight

Couldn't help myself - I had to take this lady's photo. Why would she be wearing 2 hats?? Any thoughts?

A smile on my dial again

Well what a good day today is. As you know I have not been well for a couple of weeks and when that happens a strange phenomenon occurs ( not just with me but with lots of other needgreaters I have spoken to) - you get extremely homesick! I don't know whether it is because you want to be surrounded by your loved ones or what but you just get to be wondering why on earth you are doing this to yourself. So I get better from my flu on Wednesday but poor Mark had a terrible night with tooth pain so off we had to go to the dentist. He ended up having to be sent to an oral surgeon for a root canal - ouch! Even more ouch is he got through the whole thing without anesetic! (We now know you have to actually ask for the stuff). Thursday came around and to make my week even better - I woke up with a migraine. So by now I am really wanting to get on the next plane out of here!

Finally though today I seem to be over everything and back on deck. It only takes one morning out in the field to be thankful again that we have this opportunity. We were due up in the mountains for Marks study at 7.30 am and usually it is quite cool that time of the morning but today the sun was shining (and has been all day) so as I have said before - you can't beat Cuenca on a good day, it really is beautiful. Life is good again!