Paraguay Update

November 6-12, Randy was able to travel to Asunción, Paraguay to visit the San Lorenzo Alliance Church and the Awana club there. He was thrilled to see how the club is growing and to listen to the testimonies of people affected by the Awana ministry. Below you can see the club with Pastor Marcos Bernadini, Awana Director in the middle front.


This young man was playing and got dust in his eye. When he tried to rub it out, something abrasive cut a "J" shaped cut in the cornea which the parents did not see. This happened on Friday and on Monday they went to the Dr. They were told that the injury was permanent and the only solution would be a cornea transplant. Otherwise he would be blind in that eye. God intervened. When they went back to see the Dr for followup, she looked at the eye and said that it looks like he had perfect surgery on the eye. The young man can see perfectly from that eye. The Dr. cannot understand how his eye was repaired. Isn't our God GREAT!


Meet Julio- the parrot



Pastor Marcos Bernadini with his wife Lorena and his father


One Awana leader shared how she had been in deep depression for several months, sitting at home and crying. She was challenged to help in an Awana Club and says that working with the children there has brought her out of her depression and she feels better than ever.

Praise the Lord as we see how He is using this church to reach people with the Gospel.

Pray as they start a new church for middle class outreach. Marcos will be starting an Awana club in this church in March.

Lightning injures Awana Club members

On Sunday the 4th of November, 76 children from the San Juan de Dios community went with their 15 leaders up into the mountains near their club. It was to fulfill one of the club activities. While they were out it started to rain then poured, then hail started to fall. Most Indians do not seek shelter from moderate rains. They were high up the mountain but found a shelter/refuge building and took shelter there. While there, a bolt of lightning hit very close to where they were. The ground was wet and the lightning exploded in all directions. All 76 children and the 15 leaders were burned by the lightening. Four of them were hospitalized but released after a week. The Red Cross and a local Hospital formed a medical rescue/brigade and went to help and aided in getting first aid and treatment for those involved. The Red cross is providing medicines and treatment. Several people show signs of burn, and many are still in a stupor.

This club is a church plant by another church. There is no church in this area. The pastor Guillermo Agualsaca (Awal- saka) indicated that people from nearby communities where some of the children came from were very unhappy and went away shouting that this is God's punishment for reading the Bible. In Catholic areas, reading the Bible is considered a sin. The people were very upset. Two other communities where new churches are being established using Awana, Shobolpamba and Shobolllinglling the people are blaming the children who went for bringing down this "judgment" of God.

This week there was a meeting of the community people along with the Red Cross. parents and people from the community were there. The Red cross people said that it is unusual that they were not all "carbonized" as when lightning strikes this way, that is the normal result. When they finished several of the clubbers spoke. Seven of them indicated that they were saved by two very large men who were dressed in white who protected them from most of the lightning. Then the asked our Awana missionary, Rodrigo Andachi to speak. He shared from God's Word that this is not a punishment from God, and that God loves them. He shared the gospel with them and it was received peacefully. This is a real answer to prayer. They are seeing the miraculous protection given to the children. Pray that this will bring much Glory to God and help establish the church there.

Rodrigo will be visiting this Thursday again. He is encouraging them to keep sending the children. He will report the results after that.

I understand that someone was filming all of this including the lightning strike and some of the rescue. I am trying to get a copy of the film.

RENTON HIGHLANDS AWANA LEADERS

THANK YOU RENTON HIGHLANDS CHURCH

Wow, we finished our first of two conferences. Thanks to a team of Awana Leaders from Renton Highlands Church from Renton, Washington, we were able to get the materials ready for this conference. Each year we publish a book with he notes of all the classes. The Renton Highlands Group brought us a machine to put the spirals in the books and that helped greatly with the work.

The cookie crew

The equator line is not on the equator....

A car full

Checking pages on the books

Trying out the spiral machine

The Renton Highlands Awana Leaders on the Equator

Later another team from Trinity Baptist Church in Renton, Washington dropped in at the conference to help with logistics making our conference easier.
THANK YOU TRINITY BAPTIST CHURCH

ORCHIDS IN OUR YARD

I enjoy growing orchids, whether wild ones that I have brought home or some of the more exotic hybrid varieties. Here you can see a couple of the wild varieties that I have growing in our yard.

Work Team holds Workshops in our office

Carol Laut and Suzanne Ellis came to Ecuador with a work team from the Derwood, Md Alliance Church. They were able to hold workshops in our office to teach how to teach missions to children, How to share the gospel, how to prepare age appropriate lessons and how to give object lessons from science and nature. Tom Larason spent hours working on our computers to get them working in top condition. Our house was full with nearly 70 people in attendance at the workshops. We are now praying that God will enable us to build two more stories on our office to be able to put in larger conference space.

AwanaGames in Ecuador

June was a busy month.
We were able to participate in or lead two AwanaGames in Ecuador. The first was held in Quito and the second in Imbabura (around Otavalo). Children from several churches came to participate in a friendly competition of 10 of the main Awana games. It was a great opportunity to present the Gospel to the parents as well as the children. You only have to hear the tremendous roar and see the smiles on the faces of the children to know how much fun they had.

Three young people did face and arm painting, placing flowers, caterpillars or balloons in the 5 colors of the Gospel Glove. While they painted the 90 children, they shared the gospel story with them during the Imbabura games.

PARAGUAY PROJECT

At the end of April and beginning of May, Forrest Schell and Marco Bernardini from Paraguay came to learn how to implement Awana in their country. We gave them training in how to run Awana in their church, but also in how to train others. They were able to visit and participate in seven different clubs in the Quito area in order to have practical experience as well.

A week or so after their return, there were nearly 50 people signed up for training. The churches there plan to use Awana to reach into the neighborhood.

Finally 40 people were trained and there are about 4o children starting club now.

Pray for a great outreach.

Jr. Hi Training and Event.

April 27-28, Awana held a training program for people working with Jr. Hi. students. Over 50 people crammed into our office for training on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Alex Chiang, C&MA youth pastor from Peru was our speaker. He helped these workers understand the dynamics and changes in youth work today as well as giving them valuable tools to work with.

On Saturday afternoon, over 150 Jr. Highers joined together for music, fellowship, and a challenging message from Alex on prayer. More than 80% made a commitment to pray daily and be in God's presence.

Randy was presented with a Birthday cake and signed shirt by his co-workers.

Bible Quizzing (Awana Style)

March 31, Samy Ariza, one of our Awana missionaries for Ecuador held his first Bible Quiz. Three churches participated, demonstrating their Bible Skills for elated parents. We are excited to see that this ministry is getting off the ground.

April 1, No fooling

Joy and I returned from doing Missionary tours (deputation) in the U.S. Joy was in cold Pennsylvania while I was in Florida. No I did not choose that, we were assigned that way.

After three weeks of work, we met in Indianapolis and visited Randy's mother and brother. It was a great opportunity. Randy's mother has moved into a condominium that will provide increased help as she needs it. She seems happy there, and will be happier when warmer weather comes and she can be out a little more. We also got to attend a soccer game where Nathan, Randy's nephew, played.

The last week in the U.S. we were able to go to Seattle and visit the the family Joy's sister and husband (Bill and Allison Morris)came to Seattle to visit too so we could have a family reunion. We were able to stay with Dan and Mel who live across the street from David and Gretel so visiting the grand children was easy. Breanna is learning new words daily and Ian, just burps. IT was a great family time. We returned on March 26 (leaving) and arriving the night of the 27th. God was with us. Although Randy's passport was due to expire in 2 weeks the airlines allowed us to return to Ecuador and he is getting a new one here.

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