We are very happy with Amanda and John's news however it has been a rather emotional week - due to visa and financial issues, they will not be able to come back to Ecuador to get married, so will be tying the knot in either Beijing or Hong Kong very soon. This means that neither us nor any of John's family will be able to attend. Heartbreaking! I know though that they are being very sensible and of course, want to carry on serving over there so it makes all the sense in the world to just stay there. My daughter is not one for fuss so she is not worried about having a big wedding. Not something she has dreamed of all her life - hehe. Of course me being wired the way I am (nothing better than being the hostess with the most-est) it's a bit gutting not to be able to even throw a kitchen tea!

It's a good job we are super busy as always. Here is some pictures of  my first turn on one of the

 carts. What an awesome privilege.

You can never tell who are the ones to be interested and what impressed me is the amount of young people who stopped. One young couple asked if we had anything to help them study the bible - "aah yeah!" And another asked for directions to where we have our meetings. A lot of success!

 

Surprisingly - these ladies just looked away

Another first coming up this week - my first Chinese talk. Really don't think I am ready for this but with the lack of other speakers, I have had to step up.

Of course we are getting super excited about our trip to the International Convention in 3 weeks time - can't believe it is nearly here!

Big News

Zamora

Wendy and Alison

We've just spent an awesome few days in another part of Ecuador that we had not visited before: Zamora - it's about 6 hours by bus away from Cuenca and is situated in the Oriente (or Jungle), so consequently it is a lot warmer, greener and buggier (is that a word? What I am trying to say there are heaps more insects that bite down there). Alison (she lived with us last year) and Wendy, both previously in the Chinese group here in Cuenca, now serve down there. There are a lot of Chinese people in that area as they are building Hydroelectric dams etc,   so it a field ripe for harvesting and they are doing a great job.                                                   

While there, we went for a walk through the jungle to a beautiful waterfall - the scenery is just breathtaking (something else that was breathtaking was the uphill slogs)

Glorious flowers along the way

Fascinating butterflys

This photo I stole off  the internet cause there was no way we could capture them - they were really cool but really fast. 

Finally made it to the waterfall - only for brave souls - rather chilly!

The Williams Family

 We've had an awesome time this last week with a lovely family from England - here spying out the land. As you can see they are a lot of fun so I reckon they would fit right in here. It's really nice to show people around Cuenca and explain why we love living here. Gives us such a lot of encouragement too to see ones like them taking on the task. So thanks for coming guys!                                                                                                        

Of course it's been Memorial Season and it was really exciting to go to one in Spanish and one in Chinese. At the Spanish sessions we had 305 in attendance - double the amount of publishers in our congregation. In the Chinese - we had 5 Chinos come which was cool - so there was a real buzz going on at both.

Aaron and Mark did an awesome job playing the songs at the memorial - was a nice surprise for everyone cause they have never had that before.

My one and only study that turned up - must have touched her heart because she said to me after "we need to be talk about me coming to the meeting" - p.s. that doesn't mean that I haven't been encouraging her at every study to come along

Hey hey - yes I am back, I know it's been awhile since my last entry, sorry about that, but as I mentioned in the last post, our life has been a bit hectic. Things are certainly a lot quieter with only 3 of us in the house - it does mean though that we have a spare bedroom with attached bathroom, should anyone be requiring accommodation - long term or short term. The room has a double bed and single bed so room for 3 and at the moment with Amanda gone, we have more space available if needed. You can contact us via the email contact request on the sidebar.

One thing that has been taking up my time too lately is I a,m now a working woman. I got a job teaching English online for a German company - Lingoda. It was a bit nerve racking to start off with but having had years of training talking to all and sundry, it hasn't taken me long to get into the swing of things. It's nice to be bringing some money in for a change - now I can keep Mark in the style he is accustomed to!

Laundry day - brrrrh!

Reporting on our little Chinese group - for awhile there, with everyone leaving - it was looking very sad! But Damaris found a lovely couple from Taiwan that have started studying and they are coming to meetings regularly along with their daughter and last night another girl. The couple met this family from Hong Kong and so told them about the meetings, so they brought the daughter with them to show them where the KH was - so we may even have that family attending. So exciting for us and gives me more motivation to learn this difficult language (gives me hope too the experience in last weeks WT about the 65 year olds learning it).

Talk about airing your dirty(or in this case clean) laundry

So yesterday when I was coming home from the dentist and the bus whizzed past the stop without picking me up (this happens a lot - the driver just looks the other way if he doesn't feel like stopping) - I decided I had better walk a little way to the next stop and it was actually really nice. Sometimes with the busy life we lead and everything becomes part of every day life - you forget to look around and enjoy the different culture here. So these are just a few photos from my amble along the river bank. Enjoy!

Obligatory drunk guy

Selling their wares

Gotta say - you have to be
 really strong to be able to wheelbarrow a load of fruit around all day! Take my hat off to them!

Busy old time in our household

Family Reunion (miss living with these guys)

 For some reason, we have been exceptionally busy in the last few weeks so time is flying by. A lovely treat was the English Circuit Assembly that was held here this last weekend. We caught up with Chad and Michele and others from various congregations we've been in, so it was very cool. Of course listening to the program in our own language was super encouraging too. It was kind of surreal when quite a few Brothers ans Sisters stopped me and said they were followers of this blog - funny to think there are  people that actually read my ramblings.

Stephanie from Puerto Cayo

 Also big changes happening in our house, as I have mentioned. We had a little despedida for Alison, off to Zamora (a town in the Oriente, where there is a need for Chinese speakers), Amanda, off to China for 2 and 1/2 months and Jessica, who is going to Taiwan for a couple of months too. Turns out our lovely Chinese sister is leaving this weekend too - going to Guayaquil to live, so our little Chinese group is decimated at the moment - anyone feel like joining us??

I have also been busy training for my new job - teaching English online - really happy to have finally got a source of income for us as there is only so long one can live on savings. I teach my first class next week so hopefully I will do ok. I guess I have been teaching the bible long enough to know something about teaching aye?

With Alison and Amanda leaving, I have been handed over a few more studies to take care of and so I think now I am at my limit. It is not so much the studies themselves but the prep time becomes mind boggling. It is a joyful work though so very happy to have the privilege.

Well that's about it from me. Chao for now!

Business witnessing

Well for someone that doesn't really enjoy business preaching, seems that where the best "fishing" is. I have a study at a hairdressers , one in a paint shop, another in a car parts store, one in a juice shop and of course the one in the headstone store (you will remember that story about me breaking Jesus)! Also I have regular calls among others in a Medical Center, a flooring store and car battery place. Of course one of the very good reasons for being successful in those places is the fact that you will always find people working whereas in their house it is a different story. 

This week we are having a very encouraging week with the CO - our assigned brother couldn't come so we have a substitute and lo and behold it is a chappy who was our CO on the other side of town, so we are excited to see him and his wife again. 

This weekend the country is having their elections so on Sunday, pretty much everything gets closed down. People have to go back to the towns and cities they are registered in to vote, so the bus stations will be busy and the brothers will  still man the Stand at the terminal, but there will be no other forms of preaching. Mark is assigned for the whole day to supply literature if needed. Bound to need more, the last time he and Amanda were there - they placed 39 books in just 1/2 hour. People are especially interested in getting bibles. Very cool.

Settling back down from our trip to Galapagos - although there will be a lot of coming and going in our house over the next few months. 1st Amanda is going to China for a couple of months, Westley will be going back to NZ in April, Alison to the States and excitedly for a trip to Australia and NZ and then finally it's our turn again in June to New York. Phew - hard to keep up with it all!