WooHoo!! 25 Years!!

Wow! As we think back on all the thoughts and concerns we had when we first began this adventure there are SO many, I think I'll just focus on two.... the first was the peace of knowing this was what God was calling us to do. Second, was struggling at not being overwhelmed at the thought of reducing our 3 bedroom house, and two vehicles, down to 6 - 55 gallon drums, and a handmade crate the size of two disassembled kids bicycles. Wish we had taken more photos!!! I think I was so traumatized I couldn't take a picture!

Joel, John, Jonathan, Marilyn, Lisa and Al Vescera - January 1988

WE'RE BAAACK!!!!

Wow- I'm so sorry for leaving you all hanging for SO long. I could go into a long list of excuses, but I think I'll spare you that! I will just post two photos... as many of you know, our daughter Lisa moved here with her family in August 2011. We now have 4 of our grand children living 10 minutes away. Who could resist those eyes and arms saying "pick me up, Grandma!"  There you have it ... one excuse for my terrible lapse!

Samantha Anne

Lisa and Christoph recently spent 6 weeks traveling the states to visit friends and spend Christmas with the Neumann side of their family. It was so fun to walk in the door and have Samantha do exactly what she's doing in this picture, and hug me for about 20 minutes! John said he's never seen a baby be that still for so long before!

I see in my absence that Blogger has made some new updates, but it's just as hard to move the pictures onto the post, so I'll just make another one about the rest of life and the ministry!

Merry CHRISTmas!

We pray you have all enjoyed the blessings of being with family and loved ones during the holidays! 

 We give thanks to Jesus for coming to Earth so we could know Him and His love and peace.

We give thanks to Jesus for blessing us with all our family and friends- especially those who have supported us over the years, allowing us to be here in Ecuador! We love you and appreciate you!

Joel and Karyn's wedding!

It was a lot of work for all involved, but we had a wonderful time, and are so happy to have a new daughter! Enjoy some pictures- we wish you could have all been there. Thanks so much to those who sent their wishes and prayers along to our kiddos.

Joel and Karyn have moved their belongings to Chicago, and will be starting school in June. Karyn at Midwestern University, and Joel at Lewis University. They left their car parked in front of our friends, the Herndons - thanks Karyn and Eric! and are here in Ecuador with us. It's wonderful to have the house full for a little while.

Mr. & Mrs. Joel !!!!

Well, this is long over due, but in September Joel talked to Karyn's parents about his interest in marrying her, and asked me to see if I could get an engagement ring made. (There are a lot of people in our church who are in the jewelry business.) He had a crumpled picture taken out of a magazine that Karyn's best friend sent to him up in Alaska, where he worked last summer fishing for salmon. He carried it around in his pocket, and on a clandestine usage of his bosses' computer took a photo- holding the wrinkled scrap in front of the computer's camera. It was quite interesting, but I printed it and took it to a friend.

John and I went to the States for a couple of conferences, and we mailed him the ring. The future mother-in-law is so relieved that the future daughter-in-law liked it! The wedding will be March 19, in Oregon.We are so happy for our baby boy. Karyn is an amazing young woman who came to know Jesus when she was 18 years old. Joel met her when he was attending Corban College in Salem. She was the co-captain of the women's soccer team, and in her bio stated that her goal was to become a missionary jungle nurse. She speaks Spanish well. She has graduated from Corban, and been accepted at Midwestern University in their Physician Assistant program. Joel has applied to nursing schools in the Chicago area, and they will be moving there when Joel finishes up this semester of school in Salem.
We are looking forward to the day when they can come down here and join us - the Lord knows there is plenty to do, and we welcome the opportunity to have our children closer to us. In the mean time, keep them in your prayers. They are a wonderful couple, and we feel so blessed to welcome Karyn into our family.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We thank you, O God!
We give thanks because you are near.
People everywhere tell of your mighty miracles.

Psalm 75:1
We pray this finds all of our friends and family
enjoying their holidays with a sense of peace and love
that comes through the grace of knowing our Lord Jesus.
We celebrate with you, all He is and all He means to us.

This has been our first Christmas with an empty nest. It has been fun to do all of the traditional things we've always done, but in miniature . . . compared to the typical Italian excess we enjoy when our kids and extended family are around! I put up a little tree, and we cooked all the traditional foods- but two pieces of fish, six shrimp, a four inch casserole of stuffed squid, you can get the idea. John and I have enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful time together this year.

We were invited to celebrate New Year's Eve with our friends- Eddy Lopez, the medical director of our clinic, and his wife Rebekah. They had us and 5 other families over. They have this big beehive wood oven and they have perfected roasting chickens in it. Here is Eddy carving so we can eat. It was a great time of fellowship . . . .

singing, praying, eating, and as always in Ecuador, everyone gets into fire in a big way to celebrate New Year's . Their house is on a hill on the edge of town, and here are some fireworks that we saw going off over Cuenca. It was amazing to see how the sky filled with smoke over about 10 minutes. Soon we'll talk about burning the old man.

Hope you all have an amazing year, that the Lord's sweet care and blessings are evident to each of you every day. He is near! And people everywhere tell of His wonderful miracles.

Anniversary

My goodness- I was looking forward to July 9 for months now thinking about what John & I could do to celebrate . . . but as happens so often, the tasks of the day move us on and before we know it the "special" day has past.
So, 20 years ago, John and I and the 3 kids, (Lisa-10, Jonathan- 7, and Joel- 15 months) got off a plane in Guayaquil, Ecuador, amazed at all the noise and confusion, got ourselves out of customs, and met our old friend Rick LaBouef, who drove us 8,366 ft. straight up to our new home, Cuenca, Ecuador. So many things have happened since then, I hesitate to even begin to talk about it for fear of this entry turning into a book!
Cuenca is more beautiful than ever in some ways, and more terrible in others. We have several grocery stores now, and most of the roads are paved, the downtown area was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999, and is in a constant state of upgrading. When we got here, looking for a taxi after 9:00 pm was a lost cause- everyone went to bed! We walked home after a night meeting, many, many times. The spiritual atmosphere was very traditional and closed to any new ideas.

On the other hand, the culture has become much more open to influences that are not in sync with former family values. Teenagers line some of the main roads drinking from early afternoon into the night any day of the week. Spouses are less likely to put up with their mates philandering, so the divorce rate is up. However, these negative influences have broken open the closed spiritual doors, and we are convinced that we are in the middle of a revival here. Recently someone told me they were talking to a missionary who worked in Latin America many years ago. When revival was happening in other Latin American countries, the situation in Ecuador remained closed- now it is time for Ecuadorians to seek God for all He has for them, and His Holy Spirit is being poured out like never before.

We count it all as God's grace and mercy- he has put a love for Ecuador and it's people in our hearts, and we rejoice to see the fruit He has allowed to come forth as we worked for His kingdom here. Each day we see new areas of need, and He shows us how we can minister. It has been an awesome 20 years, and we look forward to many more years of walking with our Savior, and rejoicing in the marvelous ways He works.

Spring 2008

Action packed, only begins to describe our spring in Cuenca. The last week in March, a Taylor University freshman, here on a short mission trip, tried to impress his classmates with his “Survivor” savvy and was lost for a day and a night at a 13,000 foot elevation in the Cajas National Park above Cuenca. After an grueling search and rescue effort, the young man was located and brought to safety.

In keeping with their heritage of excellence, Dr. Skip Trudeau, dean of students and Dr. Chris Bennett, associate provost and dean of international programs at Taylor University, abandoned their busy schedules and flew to Ecuador to offer apologies to the mayor, the city officials, the search and rescue leaders and to our church family. This gesture of humility, once again, solidified our confidence in Taylor’s high standards of academic integrity, one of North America’s finest higher educational institutions.

On the heels of this event we received a 32 member graduating team from the Bethel Church School of Ministry, from Redding California. This group, who moved in the true Spirit of Jesus, ministered in Riobamba, Cuenca and Guayaquil. The above photo shows a ministry time in Cuenca- below, some team members doing some prophetic art during worship time. The pastor of the Riobamba church confirmed that a woman in his fellowship was healed of leukemia in response to prayer from the Bethel students. PTL!

In early April, while the Redding team was still here, we received a GHO gynecology team led by Dr. Ross Rumph and Mary, his lovely wife. Ross stayed on a second week and spearheaded the efforts of the 1st Women in Medicine & Dentistry team from Global Health Outreach.

Simultaneously, we were also enjoying the company of Rachel and Ricky Guido, our niece and nephew from North Carolina, who were translating for the various medical and ministry teams and visiting their friends in Cuenca. They did a fantastic job, and we love having them in our empty nest.

Micah Daniel

Our new little boy is here! He was born after a longish 9 hour labor on June 4th - we were all expecting a quick one like the last time, but Lisa hung in there, working hard and he weighed in at 8 lbs 10 ozs and is a little sweetheart. He loves to sleep and eat and hasn't been fussy at all. This is lovely, but not much need for Grandma to walk and cuddle. However, we do have the big sisters who need to eat, go to the playground, and snack and swim. So, never fear- I have been busy. God has blessed us and we are very thankful.

We are always interested in learning the names of our grandchildren. Our son-in-law firmly believes that information should be shared on a need to know basis, and nobody needs to know the name of the child until the child is born. :o) So, his name is the same as our third son, Joel's two middle names. That was a pleasant surprise- we have loved those names for 21 years now!

Here he is looking like a little peanut, sleeping like a baby.

2007 Summary - Part Three

JULY

Mom Guido passed away on July 5. It was the first day in ten years with us that she didn’t get out of bed. She hadn’t been eating well for about 2 weeks so we were expecting it. We shared 10 years together with her in our home. She was a very easy person to care for and brought a special joy to our home. We were blessed to have her and miss her greatly.

John was able to attend the Haggai Leadership Seminar in Singapore. It was a great opportunity to meet Christian leaders from all over the world and receive some first class teaching on leadership. Here the group from Latin America receive the first prize for the group presentation they prepared.

During the Haggai Seminar John suffered his first ever attack of sciatica. It was the most painful experience of his life and continues to be a bit of a problem although he is finally feeling 95% better during the last month. This is his friend Sheriff, from Calcutta, India. It looks like he is enjoying ministering to his new brother.

Paul and Diana Hermoza with their son Matias were sent out to join Fabian and Clara Molina and their 3 girls in the work Manta, Ecuador.

His Glorious Presence Church, from Maryland sends youth a youth outreach team to Manta, Ecuador. The Church and the city receive a great blessing and the US team leaves inspired and encouraged by a job well done.

AUGUST

Our church community suffered the most traumatic event of its 20 year history when 4 members of our church are killed in a bus accident. They were on their way back from a youth outreach to the Ark orphanage and were side swiped by an oncoming bus. Andres Vallejo, Pedro Vintimilla and Santiago Carrion lost their lives while serving the Lord Jesus. His grace has mightily poured out on their parents, relatives and friends and on the congregation.

SEPTEMBER - Our daughter Lisa and her husband Christoph, announce Lisa’s pregnancy with our third grandchild. The ultrasound says it’s a boy. Not in this view of a cute profile, of course. The due date is June 3, her father’s birthday. Marilyn will be there at that time for a month to help with the girls and with the new arrival. We are all very excited to welcome another member to the family, and we hope his name is Guido Neumann. :o)

2007 Summary - Part Two

APRIL – Our dear friend, Curtis Leins, visits to minister to the congregation. The Lord used Curtis mightily to minister to us, our leadership, the congregation and the Verbo leadership in Quito.

Daniel and Marta Quiroz with their son Alejandro were sent to Gualaquiza, Ecuador a small town in the jungle, where they are currently pastoring a new church plant with 70 in attendance. They have had many opportunities to have radio and television time, locally. They are having a big impact on the whole area. There is a family who is riding a bus 6 hours each way, to get to church each week!

Medical Doctors associated with Taylor University work one week at our clinic in a Medical Outreach.

MAY – Taylor University President, Gene Habecker, and his wife, Marylou, visit Ecuador to see what all the hubbub is about from the teams and faculty who have come down in the past. His vision is to have ten Global Engagement Centers where Taylor students can study and have a healthy exposure to the culture and the expression of the Christian church in other countries. He also presented a Leadership Seminar in Quito and Cuenca.

Construction project begins on our Sunday school and fellowship area.

JUNE - On the third of this month John turns 53 years of age.

What we did for our Christmas Vacation

We really hadn't planned on going to the States to see the kids for Christmas this past year, but when a friend called saying we could buy tickets to New York City for $259 without any blackout dates we made a quick decision. How could we pass up a chance to see our quickly growing grand girls!

Jonathan was able to fly up from LA for 5 days, and Joel was off- he's a manager in the school cafeteria, so . . . no school, no work. Lisa juggled her schedule and only had to work one evening during 3 weeks. Christoph is working at Hewlett-Packard, and they have a policy that you have to take the week between Christmas and New Year's off to be with your family. It was great.
In spite of a thankfully only 24 hour flu, which went from one to the other every three days, we had lots of fun time to be together. Lisa and I took Emily to see the Nutcracker in Portland, while Grandpa, Joel and Daddy babysat Katrina. When Jonathan flew up we went to the Portland Zoo for Zoolights. They put a crazy amount of lights all over the zoo and you walk around in the (really cold) night. We fulfilled our obligation to our Italian heritage eating lots of special food.

Katrina stays warm with her daddy.

Emily says hi to Rudolph at the zoo. Since most of the real animals are sleeping they supplement them with humans dressed as animals!

Katrina takes anything to do with food very seriously, especially blessing it. But she just might be fooling around with her Uncle Jonathan.

We were so blessed to enjoy this time together- it is always fun to see our kids relate to each other as friends, and have our son-in-law right in the mix. Praise God!

In lieu of a "newsletter"

Hi there! Well, after having some trouble with our old newsletter format . . . can't get the website to open! We decided to try this out. Seems we can jot a quick note and keep you up to date and perhaps improve our recently abysmal communications.

It has been a busy fall. We had a visit from our dear daughter, and our two grand babies, here are Emily and Katrina playing in a fountain in Guayaquil. That was followed by a visit from the leaders of the Verbo church in Nicaragua; followed by a surgery team to Gualaquiza, where we have a young church plant; followed by a visit by a couple of great pastors from New Hampshire and Scotland; followed by a two week medical team to Manta and Cuenca; followed by a visit from the leaders of the Verbo church in Loja . . . are you getting the idea?

Right now John is in Machala for some meetings with the leaderhip in that province. He'll be joined tomorrow by some of the leaders from Cuenca, and present a seminar on Leadership with alumni from the Haggai Institute. We have several men who have studied a month either in Hawaii, or Singapore at the Haggai Institute, and they are excited to share what they learned. He'll be bringing home 5 house guests on Saturday- all members of the leadership council in our church plant in El Guabo.