With Mateo (Matthew) in Latacunga

We have spent the last few days getting acquainted with our new son, Mateo in Latacunga, the small city south of Quito where he has been living at For His Children. Mateo is at the foreground of the photo with Joy and Teddy at the end of a long hike. He has received excellent care and has been well-prepared for the adjustment to our family. Please keep him in prayer. Next week in Quito we will be getting to know Carla. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement.

Prayer Request

We returned to our home base in Manta on Friday. It was great to be in our church. We had a super service. It´s nice to go to church and find so many people happy to see you! I enjoy preaching to our congregation too. The house was full!
Today (Monday) Joy, Teddy and I traveled by plane to Quito and then by car to Latacunga which is about 1 hour south of Quito. Today we began our time of family adaptation with the 2 children we are adopting. In Latacunga we are working with Mateo who is five, and the dedicated staff of ¨For His Children¨ at this home. Then next week we will be meeting Carla and spending time with her under the direction of the ¨For His Children¨ team in Quito.
This is exciting! but we really need your prayers as we get to know these kids and they adjust to the idea of having parents, and a brother, ... and sisters,...and brother´s in law, ... and nieces and nephews, and grandparents, and .....
Please pray for us as we make these transitions.
Also, we are praying that our auditorium building project finally can get going this week!
Thanks for your prayers.

New Granddaughter

Our granddaughter Adrienne Nina Taylor was born on July 23. We are now in the States visiting our family for a few weeks. Here Nana gets to take her to church!

A Few More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from July 11th, the Sunday after our family retreat. We had a full house with 165 in attendance--our highest Sunday morning attendance ever! Going back to the last Sunday in June we have had 125 or more four Sunday's in a row. 130 were in the Sunday morning service today, with 9 first-time visitors. We really need to get started on building the auditorium. This week we plan to buy the steel and cement for getting it started.

Mission Team from Tennessee

Recently a team of 5 people from West Park Baptist Church in Knoxville ministered with us. Pastor Bill Gowder from the West Park staff, his wife Becky, Teresa, Kim, and Jeff were the team members. We also had a friend from a church in the Quito area come to help with translating. The team did evangelism with help from our church in a community where we would like to start a ministry in the future. On Friday and Saturday they led activities and teaching in a family retreat held at a nearby camp. The team did a terrific job.

Photos from Men's Retreat

Here are some pictures from the men's retreat I spoke at before Father's Day. The retreat was held at "El Prado" Baptist Camp near Santo Domingo. Seven men from our church in Manta were able to go with me.

Men's Retreat and Father's Day

Thursday through Saturday several men from our church and I had the privilege of joining about 50 other men from churches throughout our region for a men's retreat. The theme of the retreat was Be a True Champion. It was a blessing to the men both as a time for fellowship with other Christians and as a time for learning solid, biblical principles for the family. I'm sure we will see some good results in their homes, just as we did last year as a result of a similar retreat. Since the retreat involved missing a couple of work days, not all of the men could go. Some of our leaders had to miss it, but a number of our newer believers were able to go. I was one of the speakers, and my messages were about The Heart of a Champion. The other speaker talked about "Champions are not those who never fail, but those who never quit."

We had a good crowd for our Father's Day service, 109, the most we've ever had on Father's Day! I think there were 18 dads present. Lots of families don't get to come to church on this day, so we are glad for those who have learned to make every Sunday the Lord's Day. It is especially rewarding to see families that have gone through severe crisis, but are on the path to healing their homes make a special effort to be in church as an entire family! Please pray for God's blessings on them all.