May's exciting news

Dear friends,

we are already in our last month of study at Redcliffe College,
doesn't time fly!

We have good news to share: we are expecting another baby, due in
November. There must be something in the Redcliffe water as there are
currently 6 of us pregnant!

This month is busy: we were in Hull last weekend, sharing at the HCJB
prayer group, St Aidan's and Priory Baptist Church.

Coming up...
in Cambridge this weekend (with the Shields)
then Frodsham, Cheshire sun 16th
Gurnard Isle of Wight 23rd
and in Devon for Lizzie's wedding at the end of the month.
The half term holiday (1-6th june) we'll be back in Coventry.

Praise:
that we had a lovely Easter holiday on the Isle of Wight, London,
Barrow, Kents Bank and Leamington Spa. Praise that Benjamin likes
travelling in trains and coaches!

That we have a lighter schedule of classes this term so we get some
down time during the week as we are away each weekend.

That Benjamin is very sociable and adapts well to all the different
homes we stay at and people we meet.

Prayers:
that we can enjoy and take full benefit of our final month at Redcliffe

that we will not be too worn-out with all the travelling

that the pregnancy goes smoothly

that our financial support will increase as the family grows!

Thank you for you interest and prayers. We hope to see many of you
over the coming months. Write us if you see we are speaking in your area

blessings
Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin

March praise and prayers

9th March 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
I know this is late... my laptop has only just arrived back from the
computer doctor today and the email list was on here.

We are doing well in Redcliffe College. Alfredo and I are attending
classes full-time so we have lots to keep us busy. Benjamin is in
crèche 4 hours a day and now sleeps most of the afternoon.

We had a lovely half term break, going up to the Lake District and
then a few days in Coventry (and Alfredo played in the snow for the
first time).

We have been officially accepted in HCJB Global as long-term
missionaries (we were previously short-term).

Prayers and praise:

praise that we had a relaxing holiday over half-term and were able to
spend time with friends and supporters
praise that my computer is working again and we didn't lose any information
praise that we are accepted as long-term missionaries
praise that Alfredo was only ill a few days with flu and not Malaria
or glandular fever
praise for all the friends at college

pray that we can balance family life, English study, class attendance
and homework completion
pray for our finances as we are about £3000 short of tuition and
living costs for next term due to the extra flights and visas we had
to pay for to get Alfredo here (see below on how to give)
pray for Alfredo as he is overwhelmed with the English language (and
English people!)

Our diary is filling up but June still has dates available and we
haven't finalised Easter or may holidays yet so get in touch if you
want to see us and haven't got in the diary yet.

Thank you for you interest and support. We look forward to seeing many
of you over the coming months.
Hugs and blessing,
Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin Leon

Leon comings and goings in UK

here is our current diary: contact us if you see a space and want to come visit us. You are welcome to come midweek to Gloucester for dinner if you are close enough.
June and July are basically empty and we'll have finished college so can travel during the week for cellgroups, presentations etc... let us know!


20th 21st march coventry, park fellowship
27th gloucester (Chu family)
2 april - ? isle of wight
11th - Barrow in Furness
12-17th? easter break ?
17th- 18th Leamington Spa, (Wiratunga family)
24th - 25th Gloucester (Hext)
1 may - hull, hcjb prayer group afternoon and st aidans church evening
2nd may - hull, westhall baptist church
8-9th - cambridge (Sheilds family) sat presentation in church
15th 16th, Frodsham, presentation (Tim Coad)
29th-31st devon, wedding
1-6th june half term break where?
12th june Redcliffe graduation
3rd july isle of wight, presentation st albans, ventnor
11th July Alfredo leaves UK
24th July, wedding, Isle of wight
27th leave UK

dear all,
just a brief message as my internet is not working properly...
Alfredo has his visa issued and we are just waiting for his passport to arrive back in Ecuador so we can buy the ticket for England.

Benjamin and I are in Gloucester studying at Redcliffe Mission College.

We had a nice new year with my family in Stroud and we are settling in to the routine of study and creche.

get in contact via facebook or email if you want to see us while we are in the UK.

blessings alex

december prayers and praises

photos are us at Richard and Ma. Fernanda's wedding last Saturday and The people in Santa Rosa celebrating their finished water project


Hi all,
We are having a minor panic now with so much to do before we leave, but we know it will all come together in the end!

Alfredo’s visa was denied… we applied for the wrong type. We have applied for the correct type and we are waiting for the results, hopefully we’ll know by the 20th (or at least before we want to leave the country!). Alfredo is treating the whole things as a lesson in humility as he was so sure he’d get it, he didn’t give it to God.

Plane tickets are bought; we leave Ecuador 29th dec and arrive in Heathrow on the 30th. We plan to spend new year with my parents in the Cotswolds and then start classes in Redcliffe College in Gloucester on the 6th January.

The projects in Cangaime and Santa Rosa are finished and Alfredo is trying to get the Municipio engineer to sign all the paperwork before we leave. I have been working with Lizzie, Steph and Stefy to try and get them up to speed on how things work so they can survive while we are gone.

I traveled with the girls and Miriam to see 6 communities last week for possible projects. We had a good trip and Benjamin loved the jungle, running off with the local children any chance he had and even liked the ‘chicha’ (the fermented drink made from yucca).

Alfredo’s brother got married last month. We were able to celebrate ‘Quito days’ this weekend as we had to go up for the visa application. Steph invited us to an English tea party (at our house) with croquet on the lawn.

If you want to send us anything, please use the Gloucester address now:
Alfredo and Alex Leon, Redcliffe College, Wotton House, Horton Road, Gloucester, GL1 3PT. WE have a pigeon hole so you can send stuff even though we are not there yet. We plan to buy a mobile phone when we arrive in country and will send the number when we know it!

We haven’t organized our traveling schedule yet for visits, so if you’d like us to come your way please write so we can work out the best route and time for traveling. We already have plans to go to Bradford, Isle of Wight, Hull, Birmingham/Coventry… but no fixed dates yet. Please write to me with ideas/requests.

We are looking forward to spending time with all of you, are faithful friends, prayer warriors and supporters.

May you have blessed Christmas season

Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin

praise and prayers November

AAghhh! November already. My list of things to do before we leave for the UK is large, but we are making progress on some stuff.

we are having electricity rationing in Ecuador at the moment as the droughts have reduced the hydroelectric power so there isn't enough to go around. tomorrow we'll be without 10am -2pm and it looks like it might continue for two more months! pray for rain!

Praises:
Beginning of November is a double public holiday and as it fell Monday/Tuesday we had a nice long weekend. The whole of quito left for the beach, so we went to Quito! Alfredo’s brother Rodrigo had his civil wedding and then we went with most of the family north to Cotocachi etc. It was a nice break and good time with the family.

Alfredo went for his visa and didn’t have any problems with his paperwork and didn’t need have an interview. The paperwork is now sent to the embassy in new york so we won’t know if he has the visa for three weeks, please pray!

Alex went with Tracey and Tannia to do our first parasite study in the jungle. Tannia did the hygiene teaching in Amazonas, Tracey spent her time looking at the samples in the microscope and I tried to keep Benjamin from eating the mud (I quickly gave up trying to keep him out of the mud!). We found the 68% of the school children had parasites. We gave medicine and hope that the number will go down next time we do the study. This is a good measure for a community to see how clean water, sanitation and hygiene can improve their health.

We took a group of 7 ‘Safe Water in Ecuador’ members to Mutints to see the project they funded. It was an adventure, with a 3 hour walk each way and a rain storm that meant the river was too high for us to cross so we couldn’t leave the community for a few hours! The group enjoyed themselves!

Alfredo, Lizzie, Steph and Stefy have installed the pump system in Cangaime and are currently in Cusuime reinstalling the pump.

Prayers:
That Alfredo is given his visa for our trip to the UK.

That we can train the girls enough in these two months so they feel confident in continuing in the jungle while we are gone and that we can find enough work for them to do!

That we can find ‘cheap’ air tickets to return to the UK.

That we can finish Santa Rosa project and get all the paperwork sorted for Taisha

For our work in the Mera youth church youth group and for preparing a puppet sketch for the Christmas program.

For our time in the UK. We start classes at Redcliffe on 6th January. We won’t have much time after our studies to visit people so need to plan our weekends and half-terms well. Information on how you can get involved is in the newsletter I’ll send later in the week.

Thank you for being faithful prayer warriors for us. We look forward to seeing you all soon!
Blessings,
Alex, Alfredo and Benjamin

latest trips: Mutints

hi all,
we've been travelling a lot over the last few weeks...
we took the 'safe water in Ecuador' group to visit Mutints. It was an interesting trip as we had to all fly in little planes to Makuma and then walk 3 hours to the community. It rained so hard that we couldn't leave the next day until the river had gone down a bit (it was still up to thigh level when we crossed). There was a lovely thankyou celebration where the community showed their thanks to the SWIE group for their funding and gave gifts of necklaces and spears in recognition, and the SWIE thanked the community for working so hard and doing such a good job on the construction and gave a tool kit and volleyball. Alfredo and I took turns to carry Benjamin.