Last Sunday on the Roof

June 28 was our last Sunday in the rented house where we have been for the past year. We met in a similar house for about 3 years before moving to this one. We have been consistently filling the rooftop terrace for our Sunday morning services. This past Sunday was our biggest crowd yet. We had 148 in total attendance. Most of the children are in classes for their age group in the rooms of the house below. Adults, teens, and older children crowd into all of the plastic chairs we can fit on the roof. We are thankful that we had this place to worship and grow. Starting next week we will be meeting at our church property in our unfinished classroom building. It will be a pioneer experience!
After the church service four people were baptized to profess their desire to follow Jesus as his disciples. We are always happy when there are baptisms, and Sunday afternoon was a beautiful time. The sky and the ocean were both beautifully blue.

Women's Ministry Retreat

Joy was one of the organizers and teachers at a retreat for women in ministry from a number of churches around Ecuador. Pastors' wives, women's ministry leaders, children's ministy directors, youth workers, and others. It was a great time of fellowship and training. The retreat took place from June 25 to 27.

Building Update

Here I am, standing on the 2nd floor of the educational building! That means that the first floor is now covered. What a good feeling! We have seen a lot of progress the past few months. God has been more than gracious to us, and we are thankful. Now we are starting to get walls built so that soon we can use the first floor of the building.
We must begin to meet at the property on July 5. We know that the conditions will be "rustic" until the building can be finished properly, but we are still very excited. The people of the church have been acting on faith, and God has responded. We are all very grateful.

Youth Activity

Every Saturday Luis and Melanea lead a youth Bible study and fellowship meeting at the church. This week they brought the group to our house. We enjoyed serving them hot dogs, watermelon, and brownies. We had a devotional time, and played video games like tennis and bowling with the Wii for "recreation".

Second Floor

We are very happy that the second floor of the church building was poured today! We are very grateful for all the help we have received to make this possible. We will need a lot more help to finish the building. Our immediate plan is to do as much as we can to make at least part of the building usable by July.

Construction Continues

The church building continues to take shape. During the past couple of weeks work has gone into the steel and forms in preparation for pouring the second floor. We are excited about putting the first floor of the classroom building to use in the near future. We are thankful that the Lord is providing for this work through a couple of timely and generous contributions. We are very grateful.

Mother's Day

On the Saturday before Mother's Day, Joy and the other leaders of the women's ministry held an outreach and fellowship activity for the ladies. There was food, games, music, and a devotion time. Around 50 attended.

Then on Sunday we had more than 30 moms in attendance for the morning service. Each mother received a flower. We took pictures of each mother with her family.