Tuesday 11 August 2009

praise and prayers august





Dear friends,

July was both a productive and relaxing month!

Alfredo was able to get two project contracts signed from Taisha Municipio and then we had to rush to get all the other requirements in Quito and return the documents before the mayors and counselors all changed at the end of July. God was obviously helping us as we were able to get the mission’s lawyer to sign the contracts, get all the notarized paperwork and 2 insurance policies in just over a week… something that could normally take months.

Adeline finished up on the project in Mutints and left Ecuador at the end of July. We have enjoyed having her help us in the Shell office and we’ll miss her!

Alex and Benjamin presented our work to the HCJB Global Vision tour that came through Shell. (Alfredo was in Taisha).

We enjoyed catching up with the Hardin family, ex-Shell missionaries who returned for a few weeks to help out in the hospital.

We did some mountain climbing! We went with some friends from Shell to climb Chimborazo Mountain… from the car-park/first refuge to the second refuge and then Alfredo and his brother climbed up a little further to touch snow. I (Alex) struggled with the altitude so went up on horseback (I know, what a cheat!)
A week later we went with Alfredo’s brother Eduardo, sister Gaby and cousin Daniella, (Benjamin stayed with Granny Julia) to climb Cotopaxi… from the car-park to the refuge and then across to play in the ice/snow. It was a perfect day with clear views of the top.
(See photos on our blog)

While in Quito we were able to spend time with Alfredo’s nephew Alejandro (who normally lives in Guayaquil), taking him to the zoo and buying him new glasses.

We celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary in a nice Quito restaurant.

This email is late getting sent out because we went with the Covenant Church to visit a possible project in the north of Ecuador with the Cofan Tribe. We joined a Korean-American Team who was going to help the community build a church. Our job was to evaluate the possibilities of a water project/other community development projects that the national Covenant Church and team from Canada can help with. It was an interesting trip and chance to visit another Ecuadorian tribe and another part of the jungle. The access to the community was via canoe in very rough water… I had Benjamin strapped to me and prayed hard that we didn’t capsize! While there wasn’t an opportunity to build a water project, we were able to apply our community development principles and help the community develop plans for future projects.
Prayers for August:

We are without a camera… one got lost up Cotopaxi and the other has succumbed to the humidity in Shell. Pray we can get a replacement and the other repaired quickly.

Pray for safety and good time as we take the youth group from our church in Mera on their summer trip next week.

Pray for Stephanie Smithers, Stephanie Bliss and Lizzie White as they prepare to come to work with us for 6 months. Praise God that they will be able to continue our work while we are in the UK.

Pray for our preparations for our visit to England next January.

Pray for the two new projects in Santa Rosa and Cangaime. Both communities are few evangelical believers so pray for opportunities to testify to God’s goodness while we work with the people.

Pray as Sara Hossman (a nurse who worked with us in April) will return to visit for a week in Mutints and teach hygiene and hold holiday bible club with her friend from Switzerland.

Thank you for making it to the end of this message… turned out I had lots of news!
Thanks for all your prayers and support for our work here in Ecuador.


May you be richly blessed this month.

Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin Leon