Ministering in the Pacific Northwest

Joy and I have been traveling to Oregon regularly as well as ministering in the Seattle area in the last few weeks. We spent a wonderful weekend with the Portland (OR) Chinese Alliance church and Pastor Jim Sellers.

Pray for our frequent travels (and that the gas prices do not keep climbing so much).

Here is our schedule for the next 30 days.
March 7-9 Dallas, Oregon C&MA church
March 13-15 Hillsboro, Oregon C&MA church
March 19-31 - Travel to Indiana to visit Randy's mother and family

Pray for our travels.

We are in the Seattle Area

January 9-10 we traveled to Seattle where we will make our home for the next 6 months. Some friends have allowed us to live in their log house until our apartment is ready. We will be visiting churches and Awana clubs around this area until July 08. We would love to see you, especially if you are in this area. Write us at: rnewburn@gmail.com for phone numbers and other information.

We have received word that Tungurahua, an active volcano in Ecuador, about 60 miles S. of Quito is in full eruption.

6 Month Assignment in Seattle

Yes, Joy and I are headed to Seattle for a 6 month home assignment. This is why we have not posted lately. We have been packing, closing down, cleaning out, planning, and saying good bye. We will be in Seattle for 6 months of deputation and fund raising for our ministry.

We hope to see many of our friends on this trip, as well as visit their churches.

We are hoping that we have found someone to live in our house (to watch it) while we are gone. An empty house--gets emptied! We have found housing in Seattle now and that is a great blessing.

Wednesday, Jan 9 we leave on Delta Airlines and arrive around noon on Thursday in Seattle.

Drop us an e-mail. We would love to make contact.

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.