Februray Newsletter

Saludos a Todos de Quito Ecuador en el Nombre del Nuestro Señor Jesú Cristo. Greetings Everyone from Quito Ecuador in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you all are doing well, I know it has been a while since I have written I’ll try to update you on all that has and is going on here in Quito.

I arrived in Quito on January 9th and had a day to spend some time with the Fischers oldest daughter Michelle who was here for her Christmas Break. It was great getting to spend time with All of the Fischers. Michelle left on the 11th and our first team arrived on the 12th. So In the midst of trying to get settled into my casita (little house) I was also trying to help Shirley get ready for the team coming from Colorado. It was nice because this team worked about an hour away from our house in an indigenous Village called Guamani so the team stayed here on our property at the work and witness center. Side note but we live on what I like to call a compound…it is a beautiful piece of property at the bottom on a very steep hill about 5 minutes from the grocery store and about 10 minutes from the nearest Mall. We are also about 5 minutes from the Seminary which is great and I’ll explain why in a bit. Our property is located right next to a Nazarene Church, which is great on Sunday mornings…I love walking to church! And if we are late it’s ok cause we can hear the singing in the house! On our property we have 4 buildings, The Fischers House, the Work and Witness Center which has dorms on the top floor and a kitchen/dining room/relaxing room/laundry room on the bottom floor. Out the back of this building we also have a shop which stores a lot of the work and witness stuff. There is another Missionary Family that lives on this property, the Halls. Stan is in charge of the new NILI program (Nazarene International Language Institute) which I will talk more about later. Sherry his wife keeps all the websites and communications stuff running. They have two kids, Mary who is a freshman at an English speaking school here and Landon who is in 5th Grade and is homeschooling right now. And then there is my little house. This property is so pretty we have TONS of flowers, an avalcado tree, Lemon trees, orange tree, Pomegranate tree and a green house with some amazing tomatoes!

So back to the group from Colorado, they were here working with us for two weeks out in Guamani. Their project was to add a second floor onto the church in Guamani. They worked really hard and did a lot of block moving and laying, Pouring cement and adding a roof to the church. The Ladies worked along side Shirley making all the meals and having kids club twice a week out at the job site. One day they even had the opportunity to go into a nearby school to have Bible club, and they shared the story of Jonah and the whale. There was a retired art teacher on the team who drew an amazing chalk picture during the Bible story. I’m excited to hear how God works in this community and how he opens doors for ministry in this place! This was my first team here in Ecuador and it was so fun to work with the Indigenous people. They were so open and WOW are they hard workers! One night the church people stayed up until 2am to finish pouring the columns so the roof could be added the next day. And the women wow I think they work just as hard if not harder then the men. In their skirts and traditional outfits I’ll attach some pictures of this!

I had the opportunity to work out at the job site the first week but the second week I was offered an amazing opportunity to begin studying Spanish at the seminary through the new NILI program. One of the things I really wanted to focus on here in Ecuador was learning Spanish and God opened doors and has truly blessed me with this opportunity to study in this new program. The NILI program is a 3 month full Spanish emersion program that began this January. There are 11 students from Olivet, SNU and Kansas State here studying. We have three levels of Spanish classes, and they meet everyday from 9:30-12:30. With the Beginner class meeting from 8:30-12:30. I am in the intermediate class with three of the other NILI students. Our classes are divided into three blocks. This first block is over next Friday the 22nd. And during this time we have been working on Reviewing and for me re-learning the Grammar and rules of Spanish. The whole class is taught in Spanish…which I must say I thought would be harder then it is. We read newspaper articles and write responses in Spanish on them and we do a lot more…all in Spanish. The next block will be all conversation, which I’m looking forward to. I must say I’d rather be conversing then sitting listening to someone else talking. The Third Block I think has to do with Culture but I’m not really sure. The Students here for the NILI program live at the Seminary and have roommates from Ecuador, Columbia and Peru. They also have the opportunity to do a lot of traveling in fact right now they are all in the Galapagos Islands, I’m a little jealous I’m not there with them, but it is a VERY expensive trip and there were no extra tickets. So I’m excited for them to get back so I can hear all about these amazing islands. I am glad however because this week is a vacation week for me, and I’ve so desperately needed some time to write to all of you! There are other trips planned through the NILI program, a trip to the Los Baños , the jungle and Guayaquil. Two weekends ago we spent a weekend out in Otavalo the most amazing open air Indigenous market. We worked with a Nazarene Pastor there and had a ministry outreach program on Sat. sharing with the people using the film “Through the Dark” the movie about the life of Felix Vargas. Felix and his family went with us this weekend and he shared his story with the people and at the end of the service there was an amazing altar call with about 100 people coming forward to accept Christ. After this time of praying with the people we passed out 50 bags of food. It was a feeding of the 5000 experience. There were so many people there and we only had 50 bags of food. But the Lord blessed this time and everyone that needed food got food. Our God is a God of miracles, not just back in Bible times but Today right now he is actively working and blessing His people. What a Great God we serve!

So Between that first work and witness team, Spanish class everyday, traveling and ministering I think that pretty much sums up what has been going on here in Ecuador this past month. WOW that was a lot of happen in only a month. I’m excited to see what God has in store for the next 8 months! I know it is going to be amazing, and I know He is going to do great things here in this place! I just want to take a minute to stop and Praise Him and Thank Him for what he has done in my life, and I hope and pray that you will stop and take a minute right now and look back to what He has done in your life. God Loves you, and if you are actively and earnestly seeking Him he is going to do AMAZING things in your life. Trust Him in that, and be willing to step out of your comfort zone with Him because when you do Life is so much more then you could ever expect or imagine! God is good and His Love endures forever! I love you all and miss you so much, I wish you all could be here with me experiencing all of these amazing things. But I know that you have work to do there, but I want you to know I am praying for you all in your work wherever you are and I ask that you would please remember me and the Fischers and all of the other missionaries here working in this place! And that as we each follow God’s direction in our lives that this WORLD would come to know Christ through our daily walk with Him. May God Bless you richly today as you actively walk through your life with Him by your side!

Oh one more thing, the Volcano, I’m sure you have heard about our volcano that is ready to erupt and has already started blowing ash and lava. I want you to know that it is about 95 miles from where we are. We are safe and right now it is not affecting us at all. However this Sat the 16th We have a team coming in from the Pittsburgh area and the plan was to work in Riobamba which is closer to the Volcano. We are not sure what is going to happen now because there is a lot of Ash in Riobamba and we aren’t sure if it is safe to be working with all this ash. So Please remember this in your prayers that God would guide Jon in making the decision about where to work. And that if we do go to work there that we would have the opportunity to help the people that are being affected with the ash and lava. Also Jon is very sick right now. He was in the states this last weekend for some meetings and arrived back in Quito last night, but he has what we call the Gripe…a very bad cold. So please pray that God would touch him right now and get him better before the team comes. There actually is a lot of sickness going on around here right now, so please pray that everyone would be start feeling better soon!!! Below are some prayer requests, I just want to thank you right now for all of your prayers and thoughts and cards! I am encouraged daily in knowing that I have people praying for me! Please know I am praying for you as well!

Dios te Bendiga (God Bless you) y cuidate (and take care)
With Much Love!

Jen J

Prayer Requests
-Volcano and the people being affected by it
-Jon, that he would be feeling better very soon!
-For all of the missionary families here in Ecuador-Rich Family, Howard Family, Hall Family, Fischer Family
-For the NILI students this week on their trip to the Galapagos
-For the team that is coming in on sat. night.
-Work project for this group-Riobamba or elsewhere??
-Spanish Classes/Classes at the seminary
-Missionaries and friends in Venezuela-Craig and Gail Zickefoose and Kim Haddon