Friday, October 31, 2008

hello

Well, it was 3 years ago today that we left for training in Virginia before we went to Ecuador. Time flies. I have some pics today for you all; some recent ones from the Texas trip and some others from Ecuador.
These first five pics are from a day we went out to Chumillos to do the agricultural project. It was the last day that we worked with Brother Gabriel (look for him and his story on the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering promo video). Here's some kids up in the mountains.

They grow quite a bit of onions up there and these ladies were busy with the harvest.
This used to be the house (with mud walls and straw roof) but now they use it as the kitchen/storage.
Here's the team vaccinating a sheep. We had a joke that we would vaccinate anything that would move or had four legs.
This last one is of a fuzzy pig with her litter. I still need to put some more Ecuador pics on. I'm running out of them but I still have some more to post.
I won't write too much about these but here are some more from our recent trip to Texas.


Here's Evan with Papa Haley and the cows.

This was taken at the McDade Heritage Day, where they reenacted a gun fight based on true McDade History...a good time was had by all.
Poor Matt's a little outnumbered and his Aggies aren't doing too well but at least they beat Iowa St. last week. I got some love for the Ags (especially if they are playing the Sooners) but the Horns are my favorite.
Only in Texas... part 1
part 2
part 3


Well, I guess this is all for now. We really had a nice day today. I will have to post pics later on. The fall is so beautiful here. We were able to go to a park and then a hiking trail in the country. I'm liking the community where we live and we are moved in now. I'll also have to post some pics of the house and neighborhood. Take care and God bless.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

recent pics

Sorry it's been a while since our last post. We've been on the move and in a lot of transition. Since leaving McDade over a week ago, we have been to two missions conferences and have travelled quite a few miles. We first went to Little River, which is just outside of Belton to visit a college friend and speak at his church there. We were then in Belton at a missions conference for a few days. Then, we came up Kansas for one night and then here to Missouri, where we had a missions conference over the weekend. We are now busy moving into our house and should spend our first night there tomorrow. Here are a few recent pics... Here's one of Christine and Evan that I took at Lake Belton, at one of my hold hangouts. We had many a campfire out there and did quite a bit of swimming there. Here's one with Charlie Robinson who taught my favorite class at MHB. The class was Discipleship & Evangelism. We were able to visit his class and speak there. That was a special blessing. Back at Mary Hardin-Baylor...it was hard to believe and kind of surreal, especially having Evan there. It was good to see the student's passion for missions and most of all, for God. We had some opportunities to speak to the students about missions. We were able to stay at a home on the Lake there and this picture was taken there in the yard. I took this one of Evan today. He turned 5 months old the other day.
Here's a video of Evan eating rice cereal for the first time. He seemed to like it. Not a whole lot of it stayed in but he seemed to like it. Guess this is all for now. I have some more recent pics and some more Ecuador pics to put on but will do that later on.

Friday, October 17, 2008

more recent/Ecuador pics and a sports update

I have some recent pics and a few others from Ecuador. I am also putting a sports update. These first two are of Grammie and Papa with little baby Evan. We have had a good time here and will be sad to go. We've been here for not quite two weeks but will be leaving to be in the Little River/Belton area for a few days before heading up to Missouri.


These next three or so are from our last day trip with some good friends and neighbors Angel and family out to Puerto Quito and Mindo. These were special friends and we were glad to get out with them one last time.
Here's Evan 'talking' to Vanessa.
We went swimming in this river that is behind the girls and Evan.
Here's us after we walked through the forest a bit.
Here's the group again, near a waterfall we walked to see.
We won't be seeing much of this in Missouri or Texas, for that matter...a last picture in the jungles/forests of Ecuador.
Christine and Evan with an orchid.
Now, in sports news...I was glad to see Texas beat Oklahoma. Let's see if they can finish out the rest of the season well. Colt has a shot at the Heisman and the team has a shot at the nat'l championship. Let's see what happens... By the way, Colt McCoy is a Christian and you can check out an article about a mission trip he took to Peru if you click on (or type in) the following link- http://www.coltmccoyfans.org/off-season-goal.php
Now, in baseball news...I'm kind of bummed about the Cubs. I don't know if you remember my bold prediction made at the beginning of the season that this was their year. Well, it wasn't. I think the pressure got to them. Well, they aren't in it but the Rays are and that is quite exciting. I guess I'll pull for them now in the playoffs. They're a decent young team. Also,they've got the whole worst to first gig going and best of all, they have a player named Evan (and like our Evan, his middle name is Michael) and no, Evan Longoria is not Eva's brother! Again, we'll see what happens. They should have finished Boston off the other night but hopefully they'll do it tomorrow.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Greetings from the Promised Land (aka Texas)

These first two are not pics from the promised land, as these were taken in Oklahoma. It was pretty country, though. These were taken on the prarie and I thought this wind-swept tree looked kind of interesting.
Here's one of Evan and Christine on the prarie at a roadstop, where we stopped to feed Evan.
We have made it to the promised land/God's country! This is me kissing the ground upon arrival in the Lone Star State.
Here's us up at Southwestern Seminary, where I studied before we went to Ecuador. It was nice to walk around campus.
He's a natural talent. He was able to lift up this ball with his legs and then hold it. Go ahead and call Scott Boras, let's see if we can get a big contract worked out.
Here's our Cuban friends in Ft. Worth with Evan. It was good to see them and other friends there in Ft Worth. This is Juan and Tania and their kids.
Here's Evan with Aunt Becca and Uncle Matt. They live in a house divided, as she is a Longhorn and Matt is an Aggie.
This is why I say that Texas is God's country.
Here's my parents, Evan and Christine taking a walk on the road in front of my parent's house.
Here's 4 generations- my granny, mom, me and Evan. I'm very glad that Evan has gotten to know 2 of his great-grandparents. All of mine passed before I was even born. I guess this is all for now. We'll keep the pics coming and I know I need to put some more on from Ecuador.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

pics from Missouri and Oklahoma & an update

Here's some recent pics...
These first three are from a car show that was held at Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church in St. Joe, Missouri. This is where my in-laws go and this is the church that we'll be working with. I'll have details of that in the update below. This first car is a '52 Chevy, the same year my dad was born.
Here's Evan and I with a early 60s Corvette.
This is a '77 Stingray Corvette. We had a good time at the car show and it was a good outreach to the community. They also had a NASCAR and a Christian driver shared his testimony...sorry I can't recall his name but I think his last name was Sheppard. I'm not into NASCAR too much but I loved the old cars and trucks.
Here's a cute one of Evan taken on his 4 month birthday.
Here's Grandma Jan with Evan and Audrey.
This was taken of a corn field up in Missouri. It's amazing to see such large corn fields. In Ecuador we would see a lot of corn but we wouldn't see large fields of it like this.
Here's some swimming cows.
The good old Star-Spangled Banner...
Here's Evan getting us going on our trip.
This last one was taken at Emmanuel Baptist in Weatherford, Oklahoma with my friend, Scott Hume. Emmanuel and Scott had been down a couple of times to work with us in Ecuador. We stopped there on the way down to Texas to visit and speak at their Wednesday night service, and their youth and then college service.
I guess this is all for now but I'll have more recent pics to put on as well. I hope to do that in the next few days. As for the update, we left Missouri last week where we had been staying with my in-laws. We spent a few days in Ft. Worth catching up with some friends there. We came to McDade a few days ago to stay with my parents and visit family and friends here. We'll be here for a little over a week, when we'll head to UMHB in Belton to go to a missions conference. We'll be updating you all as we go along.
As I close, I want to share big news and a big prayer request. It is that we've been called and voted on by Frederick Boulevard Baptist Church of St. Joseph, Missouri to open and pastor their Hispanic Campus. This is such an exciting opportunity and really a God-thing. I'll have to share the details of all this later on but want to ask you all to pray for us and the Hispanic community as we get started. More pics from Ecuador and some new ones from Texas will be here next time!

more pics from Ecuador

Well, I'm sorry it's been a while since our last post. We've been quite busy travelling, etc. I will make up for it by posting quite a few pics this evening. Here are some to start off with. I'll have quite a variety of some last pics from Ecuador and some more recent pics as well. Here's some last ones from Ecuador to start off with.
This was at a goodbye for some of our friends from the Southern part of the valley. Samuel and his wife, along with Jose and his wife will look familiar. We had a goodbye lunch with them and had quite a nice time.
This one and the next three are from the last service we went to at Las Palmeras church. This was a church that we worked with throughout our time in Ecuador. They had a goodbye service for us and it was quite nice. I ask you to pray for this church as they grow and try to reach the community of Santa Rosa.
First, is Pastor Albert and his wife. They did a special for us.
Next, are the kids of the church doing a special. Here is Francisco and his wife Nadya, along with their boy, Brian. They were good friends.
Here is Francisco's mom with Brian. This is how they carry babies most of the time.
Here's a cute one of Evan and Christine.
Here's Evan at VBS over at La Fuente (Dave and Ana's).
This is when we said goodbye to Samuel and his family. I ask you all to pray for them as well. They really helped us a lot in our ministry and time in Ecuador.
These last two were from the Baptist Church in Conocoto. We were able to do some trainings there for about three weeks related to evangelism and starting new home Bible studies/house churches. The training went quite well and I ask you to pray for this group as they seek to reach out. They already have a mission church, one cell group but have a desire to expand.
Here's Pastors Gabriel and Gonzalo.
As I close this post I wanted to share a prayer request related to Ramon and the community of Iguinaro. This is a community where Ramon and I had worked quite a bit. The good thing and the prayer request is that Ramon is still working there. He is actually planning on going there with some youth from the church to try to start a church there. He is hoping to go this Saturday, the 11th to have a service there. They'll go through the day doing the ag project and invite folks and try to have the service in the afternoon at 5 pm (central). I know all this because I spoke to him by phone this evening. I just ask you to pray for this special event.
I'll have more goodbye pics from Ecuador next time and I'll be putting those on as we go along.