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News for Friends, Family, and Partners October 22, 2009 Dear praying friends, Thank you for your continued prayers for our ministry here in Ecuador. We are blessed by your prayers and generosity towards our ministry. We just wanted to give you an update on what is taking place with us here in Ecuador. We spend a few days every other week in San Luis de Pigulca. We are really getting to know several members of the community and are blessed by the relationships. We have been invited to lunch a couple of times where we enjoyed tostado (toasted corn), boiled potatoes and hard boiled eggs prepared by the Quichua women. We have helped with the planting of fields and have spent a fair amount of time watching Gregorio the president of the community weaving on his loom. About six weeks ago we began studying Imbabura Quichua to help us to be able to communicate in the heart language of the people. There are some women who do not speak Spanish and a few men who speak only a little bit of Spanish. We feel if we are going to really make an impact on the community then we need to speak some Quichua. Robin has studied Chimborazo Quichua for the past couple of years but there are a fair amount of differences between the two. When we visit Pigulca we also try to practice our Quichua.
Most of you know that Robin is doing her Master’s project in Pigulca. One of the things we learned from many people is that they desire to plant vegetables. Traditionally they plant corn, beans, quinoa, chochos (another type of legume) and a few potatoes. Only a couple of the families plant other vegetables and they have not had a huge amount of success. A friend of ours, Paul Chiriboga, just graduated from a university here in Quito and has a desire to work with the Quichua people. He has now visited the community twice talking about organic fertilizer, planting techniques, and how to improve production for all types of crops. The community has received his teaching and begun a community garden. Another idea the community had was to raise chickens for meat. Many of the people in the community have chickens but they are only for eggs or possibly for feeding their own family. They had never tried to raise chickens in quantities for sale. They began this project about four weeks ago, though there is very limited community participation. Please pray that God would give success to those participating in this project, so that others would gain confidence in such a project. Please also pray for us as we look for opportunities to speak about the WORD of LIFE while helping in projects such as these. Another strategy for sharing the Word of Life is to use scripture verses in both our Quichua practice and English classes. We will choose verses from the Imbabura Quichua Bible and the same verses in English. When practicing Quichua we ask people to help us understand what the Quichua words say/mean. We hope this will give us the opportunity to talk about what God is saying in these verses. Likewise we will attempt to use them in a similar way in English classes. You may remember that we have an intern named Lacy Thompson, who is a Covenant College Community Development student. She has been working in Atucucho, a large poor community in the North of Quito, since August doing investigations regarding the financial situation in the community. She has helped with a number of ministries in the church. At this point she is preparing to begin the first savings group in the church. She has been working with a young lady from the church who will continue to facilitate that group once Lacy returns to the States at the end of November. In addition, she will be meeting with a large group from the community about the possibility of starting some other groups in Atucucho. Please pray for Lacy in these upcoming meetings. Also pray for Angelica, the young lady who has been helping her, that she would grow in leadership skills and ably lead the church savings group. In addition, please pray that God would raise up a believer from the church in Atucucho who would be willing to facilitate groups in the community, bringing the light of the Gospel in a practical way.
In Christ’s Service, Mike and Robin McMahan
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