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That's LIFE

It has been a busy crazy wonderful few weeks here in the jungle! We are excited to welcome a new missionary family, Matt and Ashley Richardson with their three kids, who have come to Sucúa to help out and work for the next few years along side our jungle ministry! It is also a huge blessing to have help, "the harvest is plentiful, but the workers and FEW" and for that we are thrilled to have them here, WELCOME family!
Very shortly after we had the privilege once again to host First Assembly of God of Phenix City, AL and the 25 team members who always brings a full and exciting week, with Medical Clinics (we saw and treated over 600+ children and adults during their 5 day clinic), Construction (we were able to finnish a church in the small jungle town of Huambi and hold their dedication service with pig roast and all!) and children's street ministry with VBS in the afternoons (we had over 600 kids!).
I love lovE loVE lOVE LOVE missions and one of the things I LOVE the most are missions teams, they always bring so much LIFE to our ministry and not only leave our jungles full of LIFE and JOY but leave us full as well! Not to mention the fact that my kids LOVE being a part of everything that is going on (check out the pics above of Will with Sofia Richardson and local girl in village doing children's ministry and Drew and WIll doing songs/dramas at VBS)
A BIG thanks to First A/G in Phenix City, AL bringing LIFE once again to the jungles of Ecuador!

from water to ashes

Carnival is my most dreaded holiday every year in Ecuador!
While I loved it as a kid and my kids now absolutely love it, I am more prone to stay in doors during this 5 day holiday that seems to start a month leading up to it!
In the states “Mardi Gras” is celebrated, here we call it “Carnival”. In New Orleans the holiday Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday is celebrated by eating, drinking and throwing beads! In Ecuador, it is celebrated by eating, drinking and throwing water and any kind of silly spray, flour, food coloring and a whole other slew of yuk!
You can be getting out of your car at the grocery and BAM, be hit by a water balloon, not a very pleasant grocery visit.
As I am typing this, my kids and their friends are outside playing with water balloons and buckets, I do think out water bill will be high this month!
Being a Catholic holiday and because Ecuador is very influenced by the Catholic church, it usually all ends on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent when all gather in a mass at their local Catholic church to have ash placed on their foreheads to symbolize repentance (for all that water throwing, ha!)


So until next week, I’ll be in doors, doing a lot of cleaning and cooking and well, supplying my kids with a bunch of water balloons and cookies to keep them outdoors and out of my clean house!!!
Loving life on this side of the world,
-L

5:30am yesterday morning Joil along with seven other members of our missionary team both national and foreign packed up our STL Land Rover and headed out for a "jungle adventure"! After driving 2 hours to the end of the dirt road they unpacked the vehicle and packed their backs with the overnight essentials including water filters, bug spray and a "you can do it" attitude!
The next part of the trip was all on foot through steep trails up the side of mountain ridges, streams and rivers and sticky mud that was in places knee deep. After trekking over 6 hours to reach the jungle village of "Pandin" they were able to rest for a few minutes before heading out again for another hour's worth of hiking to find the place that would be home to the new water well project!
While there, not only were they scouting out places for the water well, they were also able to minister to the local people in the village, which is the main reason we are doing all this cool stuff! They held a service in the evening when the sun went down and the church was maxed to capacity with the hungry souls wanting to know more! One girl testified of being completely healed of a snake bite that the others said she should have died of, praise the Lord!!!
Next week Joil is traveling back to the village with a group of people that will be helping put in the first stages of the water well but what is so exciting is that they will also be baptizing several local brothers and sisters who want to make a proclamation of faith!

Thank you again for standing with us in prayer, you never know how much it means to us! Now off to clean some really muddy boots!!!

Sincerely,
Leah

Visits from afar

I only have one grandparent who is still living and allow me to say she is very much “ALIVE”! Mary Elizabeth McDonald is my paternal grandmother who is from Louisville, Kentucky. She is in her mid 70’s and very much active in her family, community and church.
Recently she traveled by her self to Ecuador to stay for a month to be with my parents in Cuenca and a few days ago, she came to visit us out in the jungle.
My grandmother has always been an inspiration to me. She had a very hard childhood and young adulthood, however I have seen how over the 30 years I have known her how she has allowed her not so fortunate past circumstances become strong points in her current situations. She has taught me to be a strong person in every situation, to be brave and to love community. She has taught me the skill to keep records of my life because no one else is! I have always admired how she has written records of her life past and present, family lines and family trees, my grandmother knows her family history and that shows me how much she truly cares about her family, even those she doesn’t even know.
I am blessed to have her in my life. Over the years I have realized how short life really can be and how little sometimes we really know about those we love, and that has pushed me to know those I love even more.
May you also truly know those you love..

and this one makes four!

I have not blogged in a while, I have been sick, to be completely honest, I have had morning sickness and I have been put on bed rest and it's probably a good thing because I haven't wanted to do a thing!
If you haven't figured it out by now, yes, I am pregnant! It came to me and my husband as a real surprise as we were not expecting or trying to have another child anytime soon. However, as I see it, all things work together for those who love HIM! Although, it doesn't seem to be in my timing, it seems as though it is in the Lords timing and for that reason, I am ok with it.
This will be our fourth child and the "third" unexpected! ha! All my pregnancies have been great with no complications and full term natural deliveries.
And even though I said I wanted to have all my children before I turned 30, I have cheated by a year, ok, 2! But feel that it's still all good! This little one seems to be given me a bit of a harder time, I have less energy than before and have been more sick with MS and have been put on temp bed rest for precautionary reasons.
Today I feel so much better than I have in a few weeks, I pray I am finally getting some of that early pregnancy stuff behind me!
So, as far as it being a new year, a new start, I can certainly say IT SURE IS!

Home

This Christmas we had the awesome privileged of having our whole family at our home! My parents and brother came and my in-laws also came from the USA, although there were not enough beds for everyone we had a great time piling in and enjoy the early morning coffee and conversations then had fun cooking Christmas dinner for the 10 of us and a whole slew of other people for the special occasion!
I remember as a child going from one grandma's house to the other on Christmas and spending the whole day opening presents and eating, it was quite the fun filled! Since we have been a "family" in Ecuador, it has made the holidays a bit different but thank God we have been able to enjoy almost every holiday with family and definitely good friends that make the day even more special
I guess one of the hardest things being on the mission field is learning to adjust, especially during the holidays! However, I have found that it doesn't matter where in the world you are or who in the world you are with, if you are in the middle of God's will for your life, you will be HOME!

Are you not of more value than they?

As I started off my Bible reading today for this year, I was once again brought to my favorite passage of scripture in Matthew 6.

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
I have found over recent years how anxiety has found ways of creeping into my life and there have been times that I have clenched onto this passage with everything in me. It has given me so much peace in knowing that my God created me just the way he wants me, how he cares for me even more than the birds in the sky or the grass on the ground and if he would consider the fact that the earth would be clothes, how much more would he care for my "clothing"!

As we start off this year, 2011, seek God first beyond what your worries or anxieties bring and he will give you everything you need (he knows what you need before you even ask) HAVE FAITH and BE THANKFUL, he will PROVIDE!