Happy International Women's Day!

Tuesday mornings I meet up with a friend to spend some time in God's word and talk about what is going on in life and we pray. I hesitate to say I disciple her, as normally we read the bible together and then she talks us through what she discovers, I feel like my presence kind of just opens a space for that to happen every week.

We are reading through the book of Romans together and yesterday read through the first eleven verses of chapter 5. It took a while to talk about all we saw in the passage, to let the big, amazing truths soak in - justified through faith, peace with God through Christ, access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, the hope of the glory of God, the effect of suffering leading to perseverance to character to hope which does not disappoint because we have love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. God demonstrating his love for us in that Christ died for us while still sinners, the importance of Jesus' resurrection guaranteeing our hope of eternal life, reconciliation won for us through Christ.

Half-way through, my friend paused and looked up with a bit of a smile. She said, 'And I asked my husband what he was going to get me as a gift for women's day today, yet here it is, a feast in God's word, what could be better than that?'.

Indeed, what could be better than the Holy Spirit applying to our hearts the incredible truths of the gospel and the impact it has on our lives for now and eternity? And for me, the joy to be able to spend my Tuesday morning in this way was a perfect gift for International Women's Day.

Happy International Women's Day!

A river runs through it

Perhaps I was getting a little antsy, or desperate looking. In any case, John suggested he take the kids out for lunch on Saturday and that I go for a ride on the bike. That's love right there.

Off I set, along the river, heading north towards Sauces. The sun shining, the breeze blowing, rolling along down river, I started feeling less antsy and more alive.

I came to this part of the track and three things came to mind.
1. A hip hip hooray for the safety precaution!
2. A hope that no more of the mountain would decide to fall as I passed this section.
3. A gladness for rivers that run through this valley in the middle of the Andes making it possible for not every ride to be only a steep uphill.

A lovely way to spend my Saturday lunch time.

A visit to a nearby town

David is a local missionary on our team with a big heart for people to know Jesus. It's been great to see him working with a small church about an hour and a half out south of Loja.
Recently, however, it seemed that the best thing for this small church would be to connect itself with a local church and receive encouragement and support through them as well as through SIM.
What was amazing about this was the way that the connecting pastor presented themselves to this church. The pastor said, "The one thing that we make a priority in all our work is that we strive to keep the gospel in the centre of all that we do."
It is great to see that with the church at below 2% of the population that the gospel is making headway. At times it feels as though this is not the norm and that being an apostle, a prophet or having the gift of healing is the focus for a church. Please praise God with us, that as this pastor shared, it's got nothing to do with these things but rather the church is all about proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for this small church, that they may be encouraged and further equipped as they live out the reality of following Christ.