hi again

Well, I was finally able to get some pictures on the blog. I had to go to a internet cafe to do it, though. I'm not sure what is up with our internet connection at home. At least I got some on. These pictures are still from the time that William and Jan were here. These pictures are from when went north to Otavalo/Laguna Yahuarcocha/Chota. The first one is of them at a lookout point with Imbabura volcano in the background (an extinct volcano). The next one is of them on a boat ride at Lake Yahuarcocha. This lake has an interesting history. Yahuarcocha means 'blood lake' in an indigenous language and is named so because there was a huge battle there between the Incas and a pre-Inca group. The pre-Inca group lost and were buried in the lake by the thousands. The rest of the pictures are from Chota, which is an area where a lot of Afro-Ecuadorians live. They grow a lot of sugar cane in this area and the Afro-Ecuaoorians were originally brought in as slaves to work the sugar plantations. This is also where a lot of the great soccer players come from. I put a story about one of them a while back in a blog. That was the one where one of the players playing in England came back to do various projects in his home area. Ecuador has about a 10% level of Afro-Ecuadorians. There's another group that lives up on the northern coast in and around Esmeraldas/San Lorenzo. These are mostly descended from slaves that got there via shipwreck and then were free. They have quite an interesting culture and have kept quite a bit of their African traditions. Anyways, here are some pictures from the Chota area. They are mostly of people I saw there. One of them was taken of the people washing and drying clothes down at the river. The others are of some boys that I saw there. They were quite boisterous and really wanted their picture taken. I now ask that you would pray for the Afro-Ecuadorians and that the light of the gospel would shine among them. There's been some evangelical work in the past, I think more in the San Lorenzo area but not much in the Chota area, as far as I know.
The last bit I will write here is a small update and prayer request. It is that we will be travelling to Santo Domingo for 3 weeks. I'm not sure what kind of email/computer access we might have so I may not be able to do much with the blog/email. Please pray that we will have a good time there and will be able to do some good work there-mostly, that we'll point people to Jesus.
Ephesians 3:20-21-'Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.'
This is just a prayer request for us and our work...that God would be at work in our lives more than we could ask or imagine...