Recent mornings and thankfulness

At church we are studying the book of Colossians, in the current sermon series and also in our small groups. I've been struck by Paul's continued call for us to be thankful, to be overflowing with thankfulness, to be singing songs with gratitude in our hearts to God, and to give the Father thanks through the Lord Jesus. I've sought to put this into action, to be conscious of what Christ has done in rescuing me from spiritual death and bringing me into eternal life, a great source of ongoing thankfulness. And, as I've travelled through my mornings of the past month or so, I've been struck by how they have really been great occasions for gratitude and thankfulness to God in his kindness to us in such practical and concrete ways. They've been varied, kind of hectic but good.

There was the 4:30am start to make the early morning flight as I accompanied my mum on the start of her journey home.
Grateful for her time here, the opportunities we had for conversation, the time she was able to spend with Evie, Tijs and Annie as 'Oma', for her being able to look after the kids as John and I went to a SIM leadership development conference.

The three loons with Oma

There was the morning driving down to Malacatos with the kids with the rest of their school to celebrate Children's Day at the beginning of June. 

Grateful to see the kids playing with their friends from school, being able to enjoy the warmer weather at lower altitude and a super fun pool.

Yay for a fun day of swimming and hanging out with friends

There was the bleak morning drive to the kids school with a new SIM team mate, Kelly, so that she could check out whether it would be a suitable option for her kids. It was a rainy and rather windy day, similar to many other recent mornings. On the way back down into town we got held up by a tree blocking the road. Out we got to clear as much as we could from the road, and then I was off to see if anyone nearby had a machete to chop the bigger branches off.
Grateful to find a machete-wielding guy plus the extra help from the bus drivers arriving to pick up a class for their swimming lesson, grateful that the tree didn't land on our car or earlier in the day on one of the school buses filled with kids! Grateful to find helpful people around, and grateful for a car with 4WD on that muddy road!

Maybe we need to add machete to the list of required items in the car

There was the morning we moved house, and despite not being our most organised move, we got it done by lunchtime.
Grateful for the generosity of friends who helped move, stack and transport our things down the hill to the other side of the valley. Grateful to have a living space downstairs that should be helpful for ministry, with bedrooms upstairs for the kids to not be too disturbed. Grateful for a little backyard with some grass!

There was the 5:30am morning waiting in the dark for my riding companion (who doubles as fearless protector from fearsome street-dogs), which turned into a 6am solo ride along a non street-dog populated road. 

Grateful for a gorgeous morning on the bike along a rushing river amongst green hills. 

There was the cooking morning at school with Annalise's class. 

Grateful to be able to hang out with the kids and help out in a practical way when asked. 

There was the morning of our team meeting. 

Grateful to be able to play a fun game and work on developing what our 'Growing up' ministry team looks like as we look to a more directed vision for this area of SIM's work in Ecuador. 

How about you, what have you been thankful for lately?

New Equipping Servants Group begun

It was five years ago when I saw my first group of Equipping Servants in operation, and so far, 3 groups in Loja have completed their three year training, that is over 40 people who have spent some serious time wrestling with God's word and how to teach it to others.
We have 3 other groups currently running and just recently begun a new group, that I, along with Pablo who completed ESI with me last year, will be running. You can imagine my excitement when I took the photo below of this new group of guys willing and eager to study God's word together.

It will be a challenging and wonderful road for these guys as they go slowly through Romans, digging deep into the nuts and bolts of the gospel, justification, sanctification and how it relates to the local church and their own lives. Pondering the marvellous grace that is bought with the precious blood of Jesus. Finding out about imputation and how it really means that there is nothing I can personally do to make God happy with me, but it is really about Christ's work that is given to us to make us lovely in His sight. 

Such great truths to be reminded of, I know I'm looking forward to exploring these wonderful doctrines with these guys and helping them to understand what they mean and helping them see what God's word will unpack for them. 

Pray with me as we continue to invest in their lives and push them to work hard in order to be leaders of the church in Loja for years to come. 

A slice of ministry

Here I am sitting on our balcony in Loja, having a coffee and this is work?

What a time to cherish...to be able to enjoy a sunny morning on the balcony, looking at what God's word has to say to us, build up a relationship, hear different joys and struggles, pray together, give advice or question as appropriate, enjoy hearing how God is at work in and through people and see him teaching and encouraging a fellow sister in Christ. Truly a joy.