Walking in Wisdom - October 2021

“Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt,

so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

~ Colossians 4:5-6 ~

Last month, Lisa was helping two university students with an English interview. The girls explained that they couldn’t do the same interview with the same person, so they asked Lisa to change her name and appearance for the second interview, that way it was “different.” Lisa explained that she could not lie, and the girls tried to explain to Lisa that it wasn’t really a lie. This gave Lisa the opportunity to share her faith, and explain that she must honor and obey God, which means not lying. The girls admitted that they don’t really follow the Bible, and Lisa was able to question them more on their belief system.

It would have been easy to lie for a simple college interview. There is always the fear, “If I don’t do this, they’ll be angry, and I will lose the relationship.” However, that is not the way we are called to live. We are called to be obedient to God, share His truth, and trust Him with the results. If we do not live a life above reproach, even in the little things, how can others see that the Gospel has changed our lives?

These girls follow a religion that, as they say here, “no vale,” it doesn’t work, it is no good. Please pray for us, that we will walk in wisdom, always being on guard and knowing how to answer. Please pray that those around us will see a difference in our lives, for the sake of the Gospel.

One of our desires is to build better relationships with people in the church. We enjoyed several fellowship opportunities, which provided opportunity for informal discipleship and teaching. Much of the ministry here involves formal discipleship, but the informal is just as valuable, and that is what we love to do. One family came to our home, and the wife helped Lisa cook an Ecuadorian meal.

The Tuesday night Bible study continues to move forward. God is clearly working in the hearts of the attendees. Every week they seem to take steps forward in understanding, and we think “How much closer until they believe?” We know that we serve a God of perfect timing Who is not slow to fulfill His promise, but is patient, desiring all to come to repentance. Please pray for God to continue working in their hearts for salvation.

We were able to take a trip to Cuenca, Ecuador this month. Cuenca is a beautiful, historic city filled with many churches. While we enjoyed the beauty of the city, our hearts were saddened to see so many people praying in vain to statues and virgins. This was another reminder of our purpose for being in Ecuador. We were able to meet with someone regarding the paperwork for our driver’s license and things are slowly moving forward. Praise God! This has been a regular prayer request for us, and we are thankful to see movement in this area.

This Sunday, after our morning services, we travel to the Quito area. Jeff was asked to speak for the inauguration service of a new church that evening. The pastor and his family are Ecuadorian church-planters that were discipled through a past ministry of Jeff’s grandfather. We are honored and thankful to be part of this special service.

Lord-willing, we have two survey trips planned this month. We would like to visit the towns of Macas (on the jungle side) and Él Triunfo (on the coastal plain). If you are familiar with the 4World Initiative, these towns may sound familiar. There are believers in these cities, but no solid church. Therefore, they are target cities for future ministry. In between these trips, Lisa will be speaking for a ladies’ meeting on November 20th. Please pray for her preparation during the busyness of travel.

This past month we began to see the difficulty of balance - the balance of growing/maintaining current relationships and developing new ones and the balance between family and ministry.Please pray that we will commit our time to the Lord and make the best use of time according to what He wants us to do.

Simon Says:

We had a fun trip to Cuenca last month! Normally, we only ride on the blue buses in Riobamba. On the way to Cuenca, we rode on a giant green bus! We got to see different markets and churches in Cuenca, but my favorite part was the ZOO. Mommy and Daddy surprised me by going to the zoo on our last day there. My favorite animals were the toucans and the lions.