Saturday, May 31, 2008

mas fotos de Evan

This title translates to 'more photos of Evan. Here's a picture of Evan in his carseat on the way to town to go to his doctor. We had a nice visit with the doctor and it was a big day. Everything is still looking good. There are a couple of things to keep an eye on but nothing major. Just keep praying for the little guy.
Here's Evan in his crib and a rare picture with his eyes open.
Here's Evan with his buddy Matthew that was born last February. He is another missionary kid (mk). He and his parents came over this afternoon to visit.
This last picture is the 1st photo of all of us. You might see I'm wearing a Royals t-shirt. Don't worry, I haven't defected-the Rangers are still my favorite. I like the Royals ok and it looks like I'll be rooting for them some more as we move that way. The Evans brought this for me, along with Royals onesies for Evan (from Christine's brother and sister-in-law). Well, I guess this is all for now.
Proverbs 14:26- "In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge."

Thursday, May 29, 2008

The newest member of Team Pray Daily for the Haleys

Here he is checking himself out in the mirror. Watch out all you little baby girls! This is another favorite picture.
Well, Grandma and Grandpa Evans made it in last night. We are glad they are here to meet Evan and spend time with us. We are especially thankful for their help. They will be here for the next couple of weeks.

I took this one this morning of him in his little crib. The night ended fairly smoothly but started out pretty rough. He's generally a calm baby but was screaming quite a bit last night. I'm hoping tonight and the nights that follow will go better.
Psalm 127:3b- 'Behold, children are a gift from the Lord...'

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Evan, part 3

Here are some more pictures from yesterday and today. I will close with a scripture/dedication for Evan.
I'm not sure if he's trying to walk like an Egyptian but this was a neat picture.
This is his first soccer game to watch. Too bad Ecuador lost to France 2-0. He was crying and I picked him up and brought him to the TV and said, 'look, soccer' and he quit crying. This is a true story.
This one was taken this morning.
One of the few pictures of him where he is awake. He doesn't seem to want to stay awake very much at all. He's kind of a lazy bum. It's been a struggle but he is starting to breastfeed some. I ask you to pray that he will continue to do so and improve. A lot of times it is hard for him to stay awake to feed.
Here is Dr. Jijon (on the right), Dr. Aguinaga (on the left) and Evan. They are both neo-natologists. We went to meet them before Evan's birth and they have helped out a lot. Dr. Jijon was there at the birth as well and was a great coach for Christine. These Doctors helped Evan become a member of the tribe of Israel yesterday. It was on the 3rd day instead of the 8th but we're under the new covenant. I was joking with Dr. Jijon before the circumcision and asked him if he had a tremble.
These next two were taken just after we arrived home this afternoon. Here is Evan in his carseat that was given thanks to other missionaries. This carseat is a combo that goes in a stroller.
Here's Evan and Dad.
1 Samuel 1:11, 27-28-"I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life...For this boy I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there."
This is a scripture that we found and prayed during the pregnancy. We related to the story of Hannah, Elkanah and Samuel in some ways and really want to dedicate our child to God.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

more photos of Evan

Here are some more pictures of Evan.
This first one is of me and Ramon. This was one of the only pics I got of any of the visitors that came and saw us. I kind of feel bad for that. I guess we were kind of busy and forgot. We had quite a few visitors yesterday and on Sunday.
Get to know the name Evan Haley well. It might be a while but the Texas Rangers need some pitching help and it's on the way. He likes stretching his arms out, so I think he's getting ready.
If the pitching thing doesn't work out, he can play soccer as well. Here he is with a scarf of our favorite team- Liverpool.
This next one is a view from our room. It's quite a nice view of Quito and below the clouds is our valley.
Just another pic of Evan. I guess this is all for now. Thanks again for your prayers and communication. As you know, keep posted- we'll have more pictures tomorrow.
Psalm 61:5b- "You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name." This is something I read yesterday and it made me think of family and friends that have passed this heritage of faith on to Evan. I pray that he comes to love the Lord as those before him. In the long run, this is more important than pitching help for the Rangers!

Evan Michael Haley, part 2

Here are some more pictures of Evan, as promised. There's more where this came from.

Here's Evan, Christine and Dr. Graciela Duque. She is Christine's OB/GYN and is a real Godsend. She has helped us out so much and has been a big blessing. She's been there all the way and she was the one that delivered Evan and is continuing to help Christine. As we mentioned in the newsletter, the care here at the hospital has been excellent. It looks like we're going to stay here until tomorrow.
Here's Evan and Christine.
Me and Evan...one of the first pictures of just us.
This is one of my favorite pictures of him. Isn't he so cute! All these pictures were taken yesterday.
I guess I'll tell about his name now and birth later on (maybe I can have Christine write about that another day). I will say that it was not a c-section, it was natural with the help of an epidural and it was pretty quick (we got to the hospital by 2:00 am and she delivered at 8:04 am.)
Evan is the Welsh version of John. We can remember John the Baptist and John the disciple in the New Testament. It has various meanings but some of the main ones (that are related to us) are 'gift of God' or 'God is gracious.' It is also close to Christine's maiden name- Evans.
Michael is my dad's name, it is my middle name and it means 'Who is like God' or 'who resembles God.' The name is from the Archangel Michael that the Bible mentions.
As I close I want to put some scriptures related to these names. They are also prayers for our child.
Luke 1:13-17-"But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Psalm 113:4-6-"The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?"
Well, I guess this is all for now. I will try to put on some more pictures later on. Thanks for praying for us and thinking of us.

Meet Evan Michael Haley, part 1

I really don't even know how to start this blog, there is so much to say. I guess I'll just start out introducing our son. Hello everyone, here is Evan Michael Haley. He was born at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 19 and a half inches long. He is doing quite well. He was born at 8:04 a.m. on Sunday, May 25, 2008. Here are some pictures of him, mom and dad. I will be sure to put more pics on later, describe the events of his birth and share the special meaning of his name. As I close, I ask you all to pray for some complications that have come up with Christine. This is nothing major but we wanted to ask you all to pray about this.


Isaiah 63:7- "I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us- yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses."
This is a special and relevant verse that we read yesterday. There's a David Crowder song that says, Come and listen to what he's done. That's what we can say right now. God has been so faithful. Thank you for all your prayers. I will be writing and posting some more later on.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Christine's bday pics




Well, here are some pictures from Christine's birthday yesterday. We had a nice time, other than her not being real comfortable because of a little baby in her belly. I appreciate those that sent emails and called her. It was a special day. There are pictures here, I'm not sure of the order, but there is one from lunch, one of us when we went on a short walk on a trail here in town, and there is one of her with some flowers that I got her for her birthday. We're still waiting for Junior. He could come any time. The due date is tomorrow...so we're ready to go or ready to wait. Please continue to pray for us, especially for Christine and baby.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Joint service in Ascazubi

Hello everyone. Well, we're still waiting the arrival of the baby. It could be any time this week, so we're kind of hanging out and waiting. We ask you to pray for us as we wait for baby and especially pray for his birth- that there would be no complications and everything would go smoothly.
Yesterday, I went out to Ascazubi (Ramon's home church) for a special joint service. A group came from Chumillos, which is up in the mountains, up from El Quinche. These people are Quichuas (the main indigenous group in Ecuador). It was a special time of celebration and fellowship. The music was just amazing. It was traditional Ecuadorian music with words from different Psalms and Christian songs. Following are a couple of verses that deal with praising and singing to God.
Psalm 92:1-4-"It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning, and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of your hands."
Colossians 3:16-"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."

Here's the ladies choir from the Chumillos church. You can see that they are wearing their traditional dress.
Here's a group of young men from the Chumillos church that sang a couple of songs. They had a guitar and a couple of charangos. I guess I could describe a charango as similar to a mandolin. It has a high-pitched sound and is a traditional instrument. I really like the sound of it. It is quite common in traditional Andean music.
This is part of the group from Ramon's church. There is Ramon, Noe, Pastor Jaime and Roberto. Roberto visits from Quito every now and then. He plays guitar really well. I took some short videos of the service with my digital camera. I may try to put them on but it probably will not work, as I have tried it before without working.
This picture was taken after the service was over and we were waiting for lunch. I had noticed after service that everyone put their hats on and I wanted to get this picture. Christine said she especially liked it, with the way that the young girl was looking back.
As I close, I want you to know that tomorrow (May 21) is Christine's birthday, so pray for her on her special day and send her an email if you can. I guess this is all for now. We'll let you know when anything happens. Thanks for praying.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

a belated happy mother's day and chimborazo, part 3

Hello everyone. We want to wish you a belated happy mother's day, especially for our mothers. We know it's late but mother's day is a big deal here and they celebrate it all month here. Well, here's the last of the pics from Chimborazo. As I close, I want to put in a prayer request related to the Chimborazo area. It is that the gospel would be given to the next generation there. I won't write too much about this but there was a revival in the Chimb. area over 30 years ago and whole villages and areas became Christian. It is really an amazing story but you see many youth that haven't believed in the gospel for themselves and this has become a problem. I ask that you would pray that the youth would know Christ personally and follow Him. A lot of this is happening in an indigenous culture that is changing rapidly, especially as the indigenous folks are moving to the cities. Pray God's blessing on the indigenous people of Ecuador, especially the Quichuas of Chimborazo.
Here are a couple of pastoral scenes. The folks there are wearing typical dress.
shepherds
Here's a picture of the Tungurahua Volcano. This is the same one I have pics of from when we were at the conference. This was taken from the main road and was farther away.
This and the next few pics are of Mt. Chimborazo. Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador. It's not quite 21,000 feet, if I remember correctly. These are the clearest pics I have of it. These really don't do it justice but I was glad to see Chimbo like this and get these pics. Every other time I drove by, it was always covered in clouds.

I'm sure I've put the following scripture on here before but I think it fits well with these pictures. Psalm 8:1, 3-4-"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! When I consider our heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"
Well, I guess this is all for now. Thanks for keeping up with us and thanks for praying. Please continue to do so. Take care and God bless.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

conference pics, part 2

Well, here's some more pictures from Chimborazo and the 2nd round of pictures from the conference. The pictures from Chimborazo are the first two that are on here. I also have a prayer request at the end.
This was taken inside the church. We went there for a while for their Wednesday night service. I had an opportunity to speak and so did Miguel.
This was taken of Miguel, Agustina (the older couple) and a couple of church members. That same day I ended up getting a poncho like the one the guy is wearing here and I got a shawl for Christine like the one Agustina is wearing (only Christine's is red). I think I have one more round of pictures from Chimborazo and that will be it.
This and the following pictures were taken at the conference. Here's another one of the volcano that was taken on the 2nd day.
Here's Carlos, Carmen and their baby. They are a couple I got to know at the conference. He is a pastor of a church in a town called Chunchi. They are some neat folks and I ask you to pray for them.
This is a picture of a sign that says 'detour.' There are two signs, one that is close by on the left side and one that is farther away. I'm putting this picture up to a tell a story of a sign that was left up that should be taken down. I had passed this way before a few days earlier on the trip to Chimborazo and we were returning at night. Well, I was driving on this divided highway and then saw this sign that said detour. This meant I had to get over in my left hand lane, which was supposed to be two-way, instead of just one-way. The only problem is that they had left the sign up. I guess all the locals know that but I didn't! So I started driving along and there wasn't much traffic right where I turned but then people started flashing their lights and honking at us. We started seeing more and more traffic and I was looking for a place to cross back over but there wasn't a place to get back in the right lane. We eventually turned around and got back in the right lane. I don't tell this to you so you will worry but so will you pray that God will continue to protect us as we travel (especially pray for us on the way to the hospital!) Thanks to God we got through that ok.
This last picture is of a banner that is on the way in to one of the towns we have worked in. It says, 'Attention- A thief caught is a thief burned- the community decrees.' I have heard they have had some recent crime going on there and want to put a stop to it using mob justice. Mob justice isn't real common but is heard of now and then. It's probably more of a threat but who knows. A lot of this crime is blamed on Colombians and there's even an expression that says 'All Colombians are thieves and all thieves are Colombians.' I kind of question that but many people like to blame their problems on others.
Well, I guess this is all for now. I wanted to update you on the situation with Magdalena in San Carlos. The rain has stopped for now and her crops are ok. The crops still need to recover a bit but she said more rain would have killed them. Jose Rueda and I went to visit her and her extended family last night and we had a really good visit. We had a chance to share a bit, introduce ourselves and we also prayed. I ask you to continue to pray for the family of Jose Rosalino and his wife Magdalena and the neighborhood of San Carlos. We are hoping to go back and visit next Fri. Pray that we would have an open door to share with this family and the community. Also pray that we will gain favor there and that God's word would become known in this area.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Conference pics

Here's some pictures of the conference (mainly of the volcano and the guys that went). I wrote about the conference in one of the previous posts. It was a good time of fellowship and training.
Here's a picture of Volcano Tungurahua (which means 'throat of fire' in the local indigenous language) on the way to the camp. We helped out with a feeding project in an area that was affected by this volcano in the fall of 2006.
Here's a close-up picture of Volcano Tungurahua taken from the camp. It looks quite close and we were fairly close to it but not too close.
Here's a picture of Jose, Mario and Efrain, along with Volcano Tungurahua.
Here's a picture of me, Pastor Mario and Efrain (both from the church in Guangopolo) and of course, the volcano.
Here's a picture of Christine that was taken last week. Isn't she beautiful? We went to the doctor yesterday and everything is still looking good. The doctor adjusted the due date a bit and said it will be May 23. She said she if Christine doesn't have the baby by the 26th then she would induce labor. Please continue praying for her and the baby.
As I close, I have a prayer request. This prayer request is that we wouldn't get so much rain. Jose's neighbor (Magdalena) who lives in an area that we are beginning to work in (San Carlos) has asked that I would pray that the rain would slow down. We got a ton of rain this weekend but it has been dry and sunny today and yesterday. If they get too much rain, it will destroy their crops they recently planted. I'm guessing they will need some rain but not too much, so please join us in prayer for this and for general prayer for Magdalena's family and the neighborhood of San Carlos. Guess this is all till next time. I still have a few more pictures from the conference and some more from my trip to Chimborazo.