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

Some Birthday Fun

This was fun- Sunday after church our dear friends Raul & Patty came to Cuenca after their church service in Azogues and invited us to celebrate their son Sebastian's 4th birthday with them. He picked Pizza Hut - so that's where we met them.


They are working hard in the new church in Azogues- we are hoping to bring our next medical teams there to give them a little more exposure in the community. Patty has opened a small Christian bookstore in Azogues, and it is going well, and bringing in a little extra income for them. Raul is going to begin working as the spiritual counselor in the Verbo School this year.

Enjoying his birthday brownie!

Internet Issues

Well, this has been crazy- I notified Google about an issue with Google reader, and they canceled my account . . . which meant I couldn't get into our blog- so that meant days trying to figure out how to get that fixed. Thankfully, I found a "forum" that someone in the empire of Google pays attention to! So, we're back. YAY !!

2007 Summary - Part Four

OCTOBER - The Manta church with 50 in attendance outgrew it’s small building and moves to a beautiful theater in an excellent location now there’s room for over 300.

Paul Berube from and Allan Ross a pastor from Scotland visit for a time of ministry to the congregation and to set up a student exchange program between our churches.

NOVEMBER - Dr. Luis Rojas, a board member from our church, travels to Uruguay, South America to minister in a Christian Leadership Conference for medical professionals. We are blessed to see our leaders sent out by the Lord and ministering to other nations.

Boris Ordonez and Raul Bonifaz are sent out to plant a new church in Azogues, Ecuador. There are currently 70 members in attendance in the work there.

Two couples from our church the Osorios and the Rodriguezes travel to Nicaragua, Central America to minister to the Verbo leadership from all over the country. Once again we are honored to have members of our leadership team sent out to serve other countries. There was a mighty move of God and the leadership was greatly blessed.

DECEMBER - Terry King with Bill and Craig Davidson, from Alliance International Ministries, visit and minister to the Leadership and congregation. Bill and Craig also minister in Guayaquil and Riobamba and do a scouting trip for the Service Corp. It was a wonderful, inspiring time for all. We were refreshed and challenged by what the Lord ministered through these trusted men of God.

March in Downtown Cuenca protesting the Ecuadorian’s Presidents failure to approve laws dedicated to improving highway safety. The march was organized by the Parents of the students who lost their lives in the bus accident in conjunction with the Church. Over 500 individuals from all walks of life participated. The press was there and we are already seeing some progress. By the Lord’s strength we plan to stay in the fight.

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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.

Summing up 2007

We hope that many of you might be interested in seeing a summary of some of the major events of our lives and ministry for 2007. Thanks so much to all of you who contributed through your prayers, gifts and participation in successes and blessings of the year. May the Lord richly bless you and encourage you through 2008. I'm going to do it in quarters, so it will be easier for me to manage.

JANUARY – Leadership mentoring program reorganized. The year began with our traditional week of prayer and fasting. We closed down our home groups for 1½ months and meet together corporately. Then we met with every couple in the leadership and had a time of prayer and evaluation to see if they should continue in the ministry or take a time of rest and restoration. All but two of our leaders continued, and we had an opportunity for wonderful times of ministry and were able to help couples work out some important difficulties they had been facing. Then we asked them to pick an elder with whom they wanted to work with in a mentoring program. Marilyn and I are currently working closely with 7 wonderful couples and one on-fire young man.

On the 7^th Marilyn celebrates her birthday. Here she with Tammy making plans for an upcoming medical team.

The Taylor University Lighthouse team came with 15 students who worked with various children’s ministries throughout the city.

FEBRUARY - The City Park in front of our church is re-zoned as a residential area. We are currently in a law suit with the city de- manding that our park be restored. They plowed up the volleyball court that was used by local citizen's every weekend in the top photo, and put up a barbed wire fence in an area we used as a parking lot.

MARCH - Taylor University sends 8 Students who stay 4 months studying Biology and Spanish at the local University of Azuay and in our newly formed Language Institute.

Happy New Year!

Since we spent New Year's Eve trying to rest up for the 3 day ordeal of getting back to Ecuador, here are a couple of nice firework pictures taken by my niece, Rachel on the 4th of July!

We pray that each of you has a blessed and fulfilling 2008. Every year we have a corporate fast for the church body, open to those who would like to participate during the first week of January. We open the church building at 6:00 am and at 7:00 pm for times of prayer as well. This morning we read these verses in Isaiah 58:

...vs.8, 9 NLT... "If you do these things your salvation will come like the dawn. Yes, your healing will come quickly. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. "Yes, I am here," he will quickly reply."

We pray that your steps this year will be led by your godliness and that you sense the glory of the Lord protecting you from behind. We look forward to many new adventures together . . . with our precious Lord Jesus, our wonderful brothers and sisters in Ecuador, and you, our faithful team and family in the States and the rest of the world. God bless you!

Merry Christmas!

Now we can get to the task at hand! We want to thank all of our friends and supporters for being with us on this journey. We pray that this Christmas was spent near family and loved ones, and was a time of blessing and joy, bringing you rest and encouragement.

God has given us these times of joy. Psalm 81:4 TLB

This tree is in Rockefeller Center in New York City, btw . . . we had a 12 hour layover on our way to Oregon to spend the holidays with our kids and grandkids. There will be more on this later. Bless you all.

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.