june prayers and praise

hi there,

thanks for keeping us in your prayers. here are some requests for this coming month...

praise: construction has started in Cusuimi and despite 2 days of rain, which meant that the technicians and Bruce couldn't join Alfredo, they got a lot done in the few days they were together. the technicians stayed extra days and were able to lay all the pipe work.

praise: Alex house-sat in makuma while the Hedlunds were at a conference in Quito and made good progress on her moody distance learning course.

praise: The truck has been repaired and Alfredo drove it to Cashipimi (10 hours each way on bumpy roads from shell) and it didn't fall apart this time!



prayers:

these coming two months Alfredo is travelling in the jungle almost every week. pray for productive work time, good health and people to accompany him on the projects

pray for our house moving. we hope to change house at the end of the month but the house we are moving in to still needs work done (for example it currently has no water!) and we need to get packed up and paint the old house before we can hand it back to the landlady.

pray for more staff in the shell office. as alex will stop travelling in the jungle when baby comes and just work in the office, we are looking for an engineer who will travel, so alfredo doesn't have to do it all on his own.

pray for finances, we have to increase our own finances due to increasing family size and have to raise funds for the Shell office expenses (with all the jungle flights, our monthly office costs are about $500/month)


we love hearing news from england... tell us what the weather is like, how your favourite football team is doing (Alfredo's team Liga has got to the final of the latin american champions league, he is very happy!) what films you recommend!

hugs Alex and Alfredo

India Video

One of the guys who was in India with us in January has produced a video of the work. take a look at it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wyTiZj3U1k

praise and prayers may

hi all,
with 2 days holiday at the beginning of may, the weekend and then a week in Macas cutting rebar, I am a little late getting this out, sorry!

praise:
*yesterday we attended the ceremony of the signing of contracts for ECORAE Amazonas project. they plan to transfer the first part of the money today. The Municipio has also transferred the money for their two projects, so we are up and running!

*we filled up a truck with all the materials (minus 4 tanks that didn't fit) for Kusuimi last tuesday. a local government group loaned us the truck and canoe so we have saved lots of money on transport, a blessing!

*a friend of a friend in Macas allowed us to stay in her house for the week while we prepared materials, giving us a new friend and saved hotel fees!

*our hot water is fixed in our house (for me, this is a huge praise after a month with only cold water)

*Shell missionary women held a baby shower for me. early I know, but many of them will have left Shell by September.

prayers:
*That Alfredo's Dad Fernando and brother Josue can find jobs. Fernando has some interesting contacts with other local governments that need a financial director until the end of the year. pray that one of these will result in a job.

*for our projects. all three projects have started and have tight deadlines. Alfredo will go with the technicians to kusuime at the end of the month and Alex has to get all the materials for Amazonas into the airplanes and sent in before she can start.

*for the pregnancy. that there won't be complications and that Alex can continue working and travelling until work on the projects can ease up.

thank you for keeping us in your prayers,
Alex and Alfredo

car destroyed after Cusuimi visit

hi there,
we've just got back from visiting our latest project community Cusuimi. unlike our normal communities, we can access Cusuimi via road and canoe rather than having to fly or walk. However, after this gruelling trip, I think I'd rather fly! we left 7am Tuesday and arrived in Cusuimi on 2pm Wednesday. it was quite an eventful trip... the car is looking sorry for itself with

• both front indicator lights falling out,
  
• one headlight lost,
  
• leaking radiator
• flat tyre
• leaking valve on spare tyre
• lost mud flap
• various screws found in the car that we don't know what they belong to
• many new rattling noises
• mud inside and out

Flying is much easier, quicker and less damaging... just costs much more!

we had a good time in Cusuimi. we taught hygiene classes, had lots of community meeting to make sure everyone know what they had to do for the project and Alfredo walked the whole community making measurements for where the pipe will be going. We now have to buy all the materials and they have to start collecting all the stone and sand for the cement and start digging the trenches for the pipes.

we are off to Amazonas and Santa Rosa tomorrow to prepare them for their projects, this time in airplane!

April Praise and Prayers

Thank you for your encouraging emails these past weeks. Please keep us in your prayers!

Praise:

We have made progress on the convenios with ECORAE and the Municipio. We are waiting for the Municipio to transfer the money and we are reviewing the draft of the convenio with ECORAE.

Alfredo's sister graduated last week with a degree in infant psychology.

I have made it to 14 weeks of pregnancy without morning sickness, a true blessing!

That HCJB have been able to help the victims of the flooding on the Ecuadorian coast. They sent medical teams and radio listeners donated clothes and food items to be distributed.

Prayers:

With convenios signed, we have to start construction work! Pray for the logistics, the traveling (10hours from Shell to where the canoe picks us up!) and for our health.

For the pregnancy. I will reduce my jungle traveling and only supervise the Amazonas project where I can stay in missionary housing in Makuma. Pray that I don't get parasites or malaria.

For Alfredo's Dad, Fernando. He resigned from his job last month because he was being forced to sign corrupt contracts. Pray that he can quickly find a new job.

Foe extra staff in the Shell office. Alfredo would like to have another engineer in the water projects office to share the load when I stop traveling. (If you know of any engineers who might be interested in a short or long-term placement let me know!)

Hugs

Alex and Alfredo Leon

Two become Three

We are expecting a baby! The due date is the 26th September. We plan to stay in Shell and give birth in the HCJB Global hospital where Alfredo was born! We will be moving into a larger house on the hospital compound in the summer so that we have space for baby and visitors. For those worried about all our travelling… the doctors have given the all clear for the moment and I will only supervise the ‘easy’ project in Amazonas where I can stay in ‘luxury’ with the missionaries in Makuma.

Helping Partners in India

I (Alex) joined the medical team sent from Ecuador to India in January. The purpose of the trip was to encourage HCJB Global partners in India and research the possibilities of future work in the country. I thought I was going to investigate the need for water projects in the country, but when we got there I found that the area we were in had very good water supplies: one village had 15 water pumps installed by the government! The only real sanitary engineering I got to do was unplug the toilet! However, I was not bored or idle! While the doctors and nurses saw patients in the villages and ran the pharmacy, I taught hygiene classes to the people waiting in line and helped Dorothy entertain the children.

The evenings were packed with classes to the nurses school and playing with the children in the orphanage where we were staying. At the end of the trip we were able to do a little sight-seeing and visited the Taj Mahal and Jaiphur.

In the beginning I found it difficult and frustrating not being able to communicate with the people without a translator and having to be careful what I talk about as Jesus is not accepted in the Muslim areas. How I take for granted in Ecuador the ability to freely talk about God in Spanish and people being receptive.

I feel very privileged to have been invited on the trip and it was a lovely opportunity to get to know better the lovely Ecuadorian doctors and other missionaries who were on the team.

While I was gone, Alfredo kept busy in Shell and Quito: sorting out details for the next projects, meeting government officials to decide contracts and preparing for the class in February. The original plan was that his brother would be in Shell with Alfredo, but Josue got a job in Quito just as I left, so Alfredo was forced to find new friends in Shell to reduce the boredom! He had a fun holiday with his family over ‘Carnival’ (the weekend before pancake day) when they all came to Shell to visit.