Returned to Ecuador, trying to unpack

We returned to Ecuador in mid February. Found a home two weeks later, and started to unpack our stuff that has been in storage. We then started to get our documents registered with the government. We are still in that process. It is now mid April. During the last month, Suzette lost her mother as well. Suzette is now back in Ecuador. We would appreciate your prayers for Suzette, her Dad and her sisters.
We are still trying to get everything unpacked. I will try to post some photos. Bless you all. Mike

Raising funds for BGMC

We were raising funds for BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge) where kids raise money for missions projects around the world. See http://bgmc.ag.org/ I know it does not look like work to you but we were in those go-carts for two hours. I had a great time. My cart, #15, was not the fastest on the track but as you can see, the bumpers all around the cart worked really well. Grant Foster in cart #8 (see photo, left) is about to learn that only two carts can go side by side in the curve. My cart also laid a great smoke screen of burnt oil when I would leave the curve and accelerate through the straightway. BGMC is great.

Marc's birthday

I was able to go to Gainesville and have a meal with Marc on his birthday. We had a great time. I am very proud of him. He has been doing a great job in school, cooking for himself, even washing his own clothes. We really do believe in miracles. He was also able to go snow skiing during Thanksgiving. This was a planned trip for missionary kids. He was able to learn to ski and we are all happy that he has found a sport that he can get involved in. He may have noticed that there is not much snow in Florida. I am sure traveling will be a part of his future.

Leaving Florida soon

Our plan is to leave Florida by the end of January and return to Ecuador. We are enjoying Florida before we leave. One of these photos was taken in Key West and the other in Fort Myers beach. We are still traveling and raising the last of our funds. We lack about $950 per month in our monthly budget. As important as raising our budget is to us, we are also leaving our kids here in Florida. This is a major concern for us and fills our prayers. We would appreciate your prayers as well for Lana and Marc as they are both going to college and starting their lives as adults. We should be posting more on this site after we get back to Ecuador.

Motorcycle Trip to Keys

I was able to go to Key West with Pastor Wade Mumm and a group of men from Greeneway church in Orlando that are traveling to the 4 corners of the Continental USA on their motorcycles and praying for our country as they pass each mile marker on the highway. Their website is 4corners4prayer.com They will go to California, Washington state, and Maine before returning to Florida in about 25 days. It was my pleasure to go to Key West with them on the first day of their trip. They are now in the third day of their trip. Please join with them as they pray for our country. Also pray for their safety on the roads.

Answering machines and voice mail

It is now 2 am in the morning. I will get up and go to church in a few hours and I don't have any particular church that I am scheduled to be with. This is not a good thing for a missionary. I should be scheduled somewhere and raising money to return to Ecuador. That is what I want to do.


Raising funds is not what most missionaries like doing. I actually like preaching, teaching, being with people. I just don't like the hours of phone calls trying to book a service. I don't think we are suppose to talk about such things out loud. Missionaries are suppose to be positive and have the ability to overcome whatever comes their way with Christ's help. I agree with all the things that I am suppose to be and do. We have been living and overcoming the many things that try to mess our family up. I just don't like calling and talking to answer machines.


I need to wrap up my fund raising and get to work again. Can I say that I am grateful to all the churches and indivduals who have over the years sacrificed something in their own lives so we could work and be well equipped in Ecuador. I love these people and pray for them. Some of these people are family members, some are very close friends, some of you, I barely know, but you are faithful. Thank you for your support, help, and prayers. We will do our best to finish the fund raising and get back to the work we have been called to do.


Forgive me if it seems that I am complaining. I have been asked time and again to be honest and tell us what it is really like to be a missionary. I think I will try to be as honest as I can be with out complaining.


Bless you all. May you sleep well tonight. I will try to sleep in a few minutes and may most of your answer machines/ voice mails break down and cause you to ignore the phone completely or take the other option and answer the phone.

Mike

New Family photo

Photo by Michael Landes from The Landes Image, Bartow FL

Lost my photos

Hi,

I have not posted anything in a while. My computer was hit by lighting. I have not been able to retrieve my photos from the damaged hard drive. My kids said that they can probably figure it out. We will try to do something about this soon.

Mike

Speed the Light 500 mile ride. More video to come later

Speed the Light 500 mile Bike-A-Thon

This is Marc and Mike with their bikes before the 500 mile ride from Panama City Florida to Fort Myers Florida.

Look at Pastor Johnny Kelley's site http://bikeforthelight.com/ to see video from the ride. Go to media and each day of the ride is listed. At the end of day two you will get to see Johnny on Marc's trike (Catrike Speed) and Mike's recumbent bike (Bacchetta Strada).

Thanks to Andre at Mack's Cycle and Fitness in Miami, FL and thanks to Mark and Linda Powers at Power on Cycling in Plant City, FL for all their help with the cycles.

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We will try to post our own video when we are able to do so. Mike

In USA again, visiting churches, raising funds.

Hi,

We are in the USA now. We are intinerating from church to church. Some of you were wondering what happened to us. We returned to the USA to raise funds again and to let Marc graduate from High School here. My computer got hit by lighting here in Florida, (welcome back to the USA and Florida). We have not been able to retrieve any of our photos from the hard drive yet. Lana thinks it is possible and if we get access to them, we will post photos from the last year in Ecuador. We are scheduled to return to Ecuador in January 2009, though we could make one short trip to Ecuador before that.

Marc and I just finished being in a Speed the Light 500 mile bike-a-thon from Panama City Florida to Fort Myers Florida. I will try to post something about that soon.

Our church in north Quito May 2006

This is our church in the north of Quito. Suzette was celebrating the Ten Commandments and completing the series last Sunday. The kids learned the tenth commandment and each one recited as many commandments as they could. They won stuffed animals for their prizes (thanks to Calvary Assembly in Winter Park, FL). You can also see that we are overcrowded in our adult service as well. There is not enough room for all the people under these two small tents. What is amazing, we continue to new people every week. Thank you for praying for this new work.

Ocoee Glad Tidings builds church May 2006

Ocoee Glad Tidings Assembly of God has been with us three times. This time they were with us at Xavier Mina's church in northwest Quito. They were here two years before and poured the floor for this church and started the walls. This time they completed the walls and the roof. They came between the first and third trip to build a Quechua church that you can read about in the July 28, 2005 posting below. I really appreciate everything that Glad Tidings has done for Ecuador and us. I have a lot of very good friends on this team. This church building will give Pastor Xavier an opportunity to reach his whole community. The construction of this building will put this congregation about 20 years ahead of where they would be with out the help of Glad Tidings. God bless you, Pastor Gary Howell and the congregation of Glad Tidings for what you have done in Ecuador.

April 2006 Ten Commandments and to the coast

In April we were working on a Ten Commandments series in kids church. We covered one commandment per Sunday. We used dramas, overhead stories, puppets, and powerpoint slide shows. Here you see in the photo, Josue who is 3 years old, as the prophet Nathan who will be talking to David about his sins. You can also see that Nathan was a very wise prophet and drank coffee from a Krispy Kreme cup. (No, we don't have a Krispy Kreme in Ecuador but I am sure we will have one in heaven.)

I also spent a lot of time on the coast this month in workshops but I don't have any photos of that.

Winter Park Calvary Master's Commission March 2006

We were able to host the Master's Commission team from Winter Park, Florida, Calvary Assembly of God in March. We went to Tena Ecuador. Tena is on the edge of the jungle. I like Tena a lot. It has rivers like the rivers in the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia (cold white water) but the climate is tropical. We were able to minister in our local church there, schools, and a serveral open air locations. This local church has been through a difficult time and this team was very encouraging to them. Calvary Assembly has been sending us stuffed animals, dolls, etc. for about a year and you can see in one of these photos where we are giving them away. This has been an incredible blessing. The kids love them.

North Central University March 2006 other photos

I have had people ask me if they were the best team I have ever had or what was the best team I have ever had. I can't answer that. I seem to be blessed with some of the best teams that have ever worked with a missionary. Maybe the question should be, "How do you always get such great teams?" The answer to that is, "I don't know". I do seem to be blessed in that God sends one team after another that are incredible. In saying that, I want to say this North Central University team was great. May God bless them for all that they have done for Ecuador and us.

North Central University team March 2006

North Central University www.northcentral.edu sent me a great team for the second year in a row. The poor things had to leave all this snow in the first week of March to come down here to South America and minister. They were great and they didn't mind being in the strange 50 to 70 degree weather that we were having here. I am very impressed with North Central. Their students always have a servant's heart. Several members of this team have been with me twice. Actually Katie Peterson came to Quito to study Spanish during the summer between her two trips with the school. I will not be in the country next year when the university sends out their teams during spring break but I want everyone to know that I love having a connection to North Central's fine students. I will always be open to host a another team from North Central. I will try to post more photos on a second post.

First Assembly Fort Myers Master's Commission team February 2006

I don't know if there are enough good words in the world to describe how I feel about Master's Commission. This team came from First Assembly of God, Fort Myers, Florida. I have been blessed to have been able to host some of the best youth teams that have ever existed. I love these teams. If our future is in the hands of these young people, we are going to be fine. These young people were well prepared and were such a blessing to Ecuador. They prepared their skits and materials for working with kids because that is the type of ministry that I do. On the last day we found ourselves in a park that was full of teenagers. They changed their program and did a youth program. It was incredible. Many people responded to their altar call in the park. We were able to refer these people to a local church that sent representatives to be with us.

Kid's ministry workshop Machala Ecuador February 2006

This workshop was in Machala Ecuador in February 2006. I was explaining "what is" an object lesson by using an object lesson for an example. I was using this flashlight as an object lesson. You can also see my "Speed the Light" Sanyo video projector to my right in the photo. Machala is on the coast. Doug and Carol Baldwin are building this church. It was hot as fire in this church. I think Doug and Carol must be saints. They live in this heat all year round. My workshop was about 3 hours long with student participation but 3 hours of that heat was like 10 hours in some other place. We talked about using object lessons, dramas, characters, puppets, music, and many other methods to teach kids. It was an overview workshop. It is impossible to give a lot of detail in 3 hours. I am sure I will return to Machala to do other workshops in the future.

Suzette in pre-school kids church January 2006

This is Suzette working in pre-school kid's church in our new church in north Quito. We are in the process of building this new church in north Quito with missionaries Phil and Deanna Barber and Bill and Connie McDonald. We are developing the kids ministry department and our desire is that this will be a model church to use to train leaders in other churches. Our future plans include sending teams of our workers to other churches to train them how to do kid's ministry. We will also have children's ministry workshops in our own church for our own people and those from other churches that would like to attend. Our adult church is meeting under two small tents while these kids are meeting in a small shack type of building on the property. We now have about 25 kids (plus 4 to 5 adult workers) in this small room. The adults have already outgrown their space under the two small tents. We are reaching the lost every Sunday and need a building to meet in.

CBC/ Evangel team here January 2006

We had a combination team from Springfield MO that included students from Central Bible College and Evangel College. This was a youth meeting we had with the team and the young people at our church in Quito . We also went to the Chota Valley and many other locations north of Quito and did kids programs for kids in this poor region of Ecuador. We want to give thanks to this fine team from Missouri for all of the help that you gave us.

Buena Fe kids crusade

This is Mike at Buena Fe, a small coastal town about an hour north of Guayaquil. We had a crusade that started every afternoon right before it got dark and lasted about one and a half hours up to two hours. We had one light bulb over our stage and the kids were sitting in the dirt street. The local cars, bikes, and motorcycles went around the block so we were able to use this street. It was very hot so starting right before dark was a time when the air could cool down a little.

On the left you can see us working in the beginning of the darkness with our one light bulb. That is Mike on the left with his gray hair and blonde puppet. We also used a white sheet on the front of the puppet stage to project powerpoint words of the songs that the kids were learning the week we were there. We were working in a small house church that was meeting behind the tree we were next to in this photo. This town had never had a program for the kids like this. Once the program was over at night the locals would caution us to be careful leaving and don't stop for anyone on the street. They told us that thieves may try to stop us at night because everyone around there had been watching us every night.

You can see Edwin on the left. Behind him on the right is the doorway that enters the small house church. We had a good response from the kids. Many would come back early the next afternoon to talk to us. Some of them were a part of a Sunday School class that the church had started and many were kids from the neighborhood that had never been to this church. Please pray that this church will grow and that they can get a place of their own to grow their church.

We had a kids crusade at the Alliance Academy. This is Mike doing object lesson with shaving cream. It was also wild and crazy hat day. My hat wasn't that crazy (a bandana) but it was comfortable. We did this crusade half in Spanish and half in English. The main language used at the Alliance Academy is English but most of the smaller kids only speak Spanish. It was a strange thing to split the languages but it worked out fine.
You can see the kids all fixed up there hats in different ways. This is a photo of the older group. Some of the kids want Christmas to come early. The kids were split into pre-kindergarten through second grade and then third grade through sixth grade. The younger group had more kids that did not speak much English. This is one of the rare times that I get to work in English but it was weird because I would use Spanish words in the middle of my sentences. It is hard to use English when you never do it in these crusades.

Bible Quiz in Chota

This is in the church in north Ecuador in the Chota Valley. This is Mike, Yolanda, and Suzette with a group of kids that participated in the first Bible Quiz that I have heard of here in Ecuador. Yolanda is a Maps Mission worker(http://carpuelama.blogspot.com) that has been living in this area and working with the people in the Chota Valley for about a year and a half. She is doing a great job. After we had a workshop on children's ministry in Chota, she started a children's ministry within the next two weeks. We need to get a portable buzzer system for using in Bible Quiz so we can loan it to different churches when they would like to use it. The kids in the photo on the right were using flashlights to signal when they knew an answer to the questions. You can see the top of the heads of two of the judges that are facing the children. A buzzer and light system would be very exciting to this young people and would create an excitement for many kids in Ecuador. The young man in front of Mike was the winner of the Bible Quiz. I believe his name was Arturo but everyone called him Junior. He is a very intelligent young man. Pray that Bible quiz would become a national event. Light for the Lost provided the funds to purchase Bibles for many of these kids that never had Bibles before.

Clowns in Riobamba

In the photo on the right are (from left to right) Buguis (Edwin), YoYo (Mike), and Colores (Andrea). We had street outreaches in several places in Riobamba. We went to several churches and had outreaches in parks and open areas near each one. We were able to give away PowerMark magazines to kids at each location. Buguis and Colores are becoming very well known in many areas of Ecuador. The clowns open doors to us that other types of evangelism can not open. People are very open to clowns and then we get to share the gospel.

Clown workshop in Latacunga

This photo was taken at a clown workshop that we just had in Latacunga Ecuador. Edwin Ruano is helping this young lady to set her makeup with powder. There is still powder on her face at this time so the colors are not as bright as they will be when she is finished. It is very difficult to get makeup for clowns here in Ecuador. The makeup that they can get often runs and is bad looking after an hour or so. Edwin was showing her how to powder the makeup to set it in the skin so it will last all day. You can see in the photo on the right that they had papers to draw their clown faces that they wanted before they started putting makeup on their own faces. We also taught them in the workshop about the way clowns act, think, and do things. They were able to learn a little about balloon sculpture. There was one man that fixed his makeup as a hobo clown and he looked very good but he had already started cleaning his face before I was able to get a photo of him. It was a good workshop but we will be turning this into two workshops in the future. One workshop will be only on clown makeup and the other will deal with the other aspects of being a clown and clown ministry.