An Amazing Week!!!

June 16th-
Things are going great here. Things are very busy and the days are full but I LOVE IT! The team from SeaBreeze Church in Florida and Julie (who came by herself from Oklahoma just because she read about REAP online) have been such a huge blessing to me. Their joy, excitement, and dedication to the people and to the community of Tupigachi (which they adopted through REAP) has renewed my excitement and passion to be here. It is so hard to believe that we are in our last 4 days here in this community. We have tilled the soil for 3 weeks in these communities through prayerwalking, elementary schools, daycares, talking to people on the roads and the leaders in the communities, etc, and NOW with a team of 12 (including us) we are setting up Bible studies left and right!!! We are showing the Jesus film in two communities this week at night and have at least 2 Bible studies everyday!!! On Saturday, we head back to Quito for our big reunion with all 6 of us summer m's!
God is teaching me SO much every single day! Based on some of your replies, I believe that the last e-mail I sent implied alot of discouragement. Please let me clarify...the reason for that message was to show how incredible God's provision was in my life in teaching me that Jesus is working in the dark even when we feel like nothing in happening in the lives of the people which we are ministering to. Let me praise God once more for such a lesson!
All the girls from the team and us three summer Ms studied with Cristina today after school. Elizabeth, the pastor's daughter, which has become a great friend of ours, has worked with us and been with us for the last two days. Her heart and her friendship has been such a great blessing to me. From the first day that I met her, God has put it on my heart for her to get together with Cristina in hopes of continuing the studying of the Bible! Today she was there for the study, so that was exciting. Then all the girls went out to eat together. It was a great day together!
Please continue to pray for Cristina and for her salvation. Today we told her good-bye. After 3 1/2 weeks of knowing her it has brought me to tears several times in the last 2 days because I SO LONG FOR HER TO GET IT!!! For her to understand and to KNOW the Lord and to serve him! She & her family are moving to Quito in August. She will begin University there. Please pray that God will send someone else into her life to continue teaching her the truth and that she will remember and dwell on the things that we have taught her. We also gave her a Bible today. God's word will NOT return void!!!
Okay let me share one more praise with you. The HIGHLIGHT of yesterday...we were sitting on the cancha (concrete slab) at the escuela (elementary school) in Santa Monica with Elizabeth. Several kids came up and the group grew and grew as we sang Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord, in spanish and in english as well as Testify to Love and a song that Elizabeth wrote and we translated into English. But specifically singing Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord was SUCH a worshipful experience as I looked into the dark eyes of these children. As I sang, I cried out the words of this song to the LORD that He would open their hearts to see and know the truth. After we ate our bag lunches just an hour later I was reading, once again in Life As a Vapor by John Piper and it quoted Acts 26:18 which says, "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'' How much more perfect could God's timing to be!?!?! This is my prayer for these children and for Cristina and for the people of Ecuador and for the people which you will come in contact with today!! That the eyes of their hearts will be opened and turn from darkness and the power of Satan to LIGHT and the power of GOD! THE HARVEST IS HERE!!! THE KINGDOM IS NEAR!!!

June 12th
Today began as a struggle for me from the moment I woke up. But I write to you because of the incredible things that God taught me through that before the day was over! I woke up exhausted and missing my family. I sought something to help me push through and bring renewal. I had all the things around me that SHOULD do that for me, part of the team had already arrived, I'm only 8 days from heading back to reunite with the rest of the group, going hiking up a volcano tomorrow to play in the snow...plenty of things that should make me wake up excited and ready to go. But throughout the day as I continued to faced discouragement in my heart and as it increased through our plans falling through. After we left the empty home of the lady who had told us she wanted to study the Bible with us, we just walked around a bit and talked to a few people. One lady was stand-offish of studying the Bible with us, some kids from the school we teach at barely acted like they knew us, and another couple of boys from the school just laughed at us. My attempted ministry today even seemed pointless and wasted, at least from my discouraged, weary, human eyes. BUT God had a HUGE lesson in store for me when I got back to the hosteria and began to spend some more time with Him. I read that "It often appears that Jesus is defeated." That's how I felt today even in my own life and my desire to finish strong seeming to only be driven by the physical things around me. I didn't want that to be what drove me. So even my desire for Christ seemed defeated. BUT as I continued to read, Piper said that's the way it looked on Good Friday yet Jesus was in contol the WHOLE time. John 10:18 says, "No one takes His life from Him." God worked for 30 years in China, from "inside the grave" just like on Good Friday, before He even revealed His work to us and let believers be in on it. "When it looks as through He is buried for goodk Jusus is doing something awesome in the dark." I felt like today His Wrod was buried & His (and our) plans failed. But He does work in the dark! It's like the grain of wheat in John 12:24...He lets His word and Himself fall and die & then come out in power when and where He desires with hands full of FRUIT from the harvest! The world can NOT hold him, bury him, silence him, or limit him!!! They've tried for 2000 years but it's impossible!!! He is supreme and powerful over ALL things! Through Him and his authority all things were created! Remember Hebrews, He is superior to All Things!!! "He upholds the universe by word of his power!" Hebrew 1:3 How can I not worship when I even begin to grasp such an incredible truth?!?! How can tha tnot just utterly fill me with a smile and excitement to carry me through every moment of every day!!! So though "he has made all his plans hang on the success of His Word proclaimed by frail and sinful men and women (and ME!!!); nevertheless, his purposes CANNOT fail!" He said ask and I'll vie you the nations...The HARVEST is HERE the KINGDOM is NEAR! Greater things are sill to be done in the city. (Much of this came from Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper pages 65-66. I did not come up with all this...God used this book greatly in my life today...just what I needed to hear!)

June 11th
The past couple days have been very encouraging! Donnie, Kenny, & Fletcher are here with us! And as Aunt Ruby promised they brought with them a load of encouragement and renewed vision. First let me follow up on the last e-mail about Cristina. When we left the Internet cabinas on Monday after I wrote that e-mail, we stopped by a couple of stores briefly on the way to the bus. While standing outside one of the stores guess who walked up to me?!?!? CRISTINA!!! Praise the Lord for the non-coincidence...but for his sovereignty. We were able to set up a time to study which was today! It went so well!!! We studied the Parable of the Prodigal son. Brittany and I both shared parts of our testimony and how God has rescued us from times of rebellion and sin in our own lives. It was very exciting! We have an exciting day planned for next Tuesday with Cristina and another christian, Elizabeth (the pastor's daughter in San Pablito). I pray that Elizabeth will continue the studies with Cristina after we leave.