Restored house

Good news from Ecuador!! An earthquake damaged house has been beautifully restored by Rodrigo of Life in Abundance. Children who lost their mother to cancer some years ago live in the house. Well done Rodrigo.! Bien Hecho!

Aid from First Baptist Church, Santo Domingo

Update from Jill - 26/4/16

Once again early this morning, before dawn, a caravan loaded with donations left the First Baptist Church in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas loaded down with provisions for the earthquake survivors. 

We have now passed the first stage of emergency rescue. The next stage is to see what can be salvaged of properties, securing temporary accomodation for people made homeless, and planning ahead to see how people can rebuild their lives. 

The teams from the church always bring a message of hope in Jesus Christ."If you are still alive, then God has a plan for your life."

ECUADOR EARTHQUAKE 16/4/16: Update from Jill

We are still experiencing aftershocks and the death toll has obviously risen. There are teams of volunteer youths going to help extricate bodies from Pedernales. The smell is terrible. Some people who have been brought out alive have lost limbs

We will make sure donations are used to help victims of this earthquake.
The First Baptist Church in Santo Domingo de Los Tsachilas (La Primera Iglesia Bautista ) is a centre for receiving aid which we will distribute to areas not in the headlines, smaller communities, where the main aid agencies are not working.

These are in the province  of Manabi, namely:
Calceta, Junín, Tosagua, Canoa, San Vicente, Chamanga

This is a list of the goods needed

Alcohol
Antibiotics
Saline solution
Non perishable foodstuffs
Items for personal hygiene, such as soap
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Toilet paper
Plastic cups
Spoons
Disposable plates
Mattresses
Blankets
Cooking facilities
WATER

One of the needs is for cooks to go and prepare food for the relief teams, who are working very hard, and there is no one to give them a meal.

I have been quite ill, with a sudden attack of labyrinthitis, with the most horrible nausea and vertigo, so I could not move. The pastors were called to pray for me and immediately I knew something in the spiritual had been broken. I was able to open my eyes without the room spinning and I am making a steady recovery. I am hoping to be able to go and interpret for some Americans who are coming as a rescue team.

Many thanks in advance

All blessings

Jill 20/04/2016

Ecuador Earthquake.

On Saturday 16th April, an earthquake struck at a fairly shallow depth of 19.2km (11.9 miles), magnitude 7.8 about 27km from Muisne in a sparsely populated area of Ecuador.

The earthquake has affected many of Ecuador's coastal regions. 

Some 413 people have died and over 2500 have been injured. The search for survivors continues.

Many charities have begun delivering aid to the affected areas.

Please continue to pray. 

If you would like to donate to LIAT, all money donated will go to the victims of this disaster.  

Thank you

New beginnings

"Rodrigo and Blanca, accompanied by Latin Link Mission Partner Emily, and Womens Worker Petita, are  working in a fresh location. Their aim is to teach handicrafts and sewing skills to marginalised women, and to identify victims of family abuse. Psychological, legal and spiritual help is then offered to the women in order to help them overcome their difficulties and begin a life free of abuse. The skills the women learn also enable them to make a small income."
 

The story of the CMS conference

Actually it wasn't so much of a story as a saga. In fact as we are both old enough it would have been easier to book by Saga!
Way back in November -ish time Andrew found a pub that did B& B near CMS HQ in Oxford who assured us they would look after the dog, take her for a walk several times a day etc etc. then at the beginning of May we realised we hadn't actually booked for the conference & the cut off date was the end of April, anyway Jo was able to squeeze us in & at the same time Andrew rang the pub again who again assured us that the dog could be with their dogs & even told Andrew the room we would be in but no everything was fine and they didn't need a deposit. It all sounded too good to be true - it was!
We arrived in plenty of time to get the dog settled in, about 4 pm, but the girl at the bar said ' O are you the people with the dog, we got doublebooked so we have rebooked you' and muttered something about them being booked up by Late Rooms bookings. So she proceeded to say we had been rebooked at a pub in the next village. As it was a bit of a complicated journey a customer said he'd show us the way. At the pub they said they had had no bookings from this place, were booked up & they didn't take dogs anyway, so they suggested somewhere else. When we got arrived there was the sweetest girl at reception who got special permission for us to have a dog there but as it was quite expensive we didn't know what to do. By that time the meal at the conference was about to start so we went to CMS. Jo & Henry gave us such a lovely welcome & said the dog could come to the conference if that would help, so we booked up the Hotel & stayed, otherwise we would have had to come home!!
As it was the conference was excellent as usual, we all loved the Latin food, including Leila, who was very well behaved 
Below is a photo of the 3types of paella which was Saturday nights meal & made outside under a gazebo on BBQs

Above is Ronald ( with the beard) who was brought over from L America as the keynote speaker & we heard his remarkable testimony. Next to him is Ollie from Riobamba, Ecuador, who I didn't know until I prayed for him on the Sunday morning. He has just started a jewellery business in Birmingham. He says he met Jill at Francesca's funeral. His children used to play with her. We have his details to stay in touch.

Above are the 3 stalls -Siwok, a charity from Patagonia & ours which is on the right at the back

The other main speaker was Alf Cooper who came to fame because he was the chaplain involved in rescuing the miners in the disaster in Chile a few years ago. His son & daughter in law, presently at St Johns Theological College in Nottingham, led the worship and  Andrew accompanied them on the piano. He did very well playing songs he'd never played before by ear.
Alf is an absolutely inspiring speaker & personality. It was he who started off the Saturday night so I felt a bit daunted as he was a hard act to follow, but there were a few others before me. I prayed hard! Andrew had put together a power point from Jills, Jennifer's & Blancas pictures which seemed to go down quite well. The picture of Ruth's new baby at the onset training went down well & also the fact that it is obvious there are a lot of people being helped in the women's work. Several people came up to me to thank me afterwards.
Sunday was our day of making connections -like Ollie; the wife of the man who was the curate at the church I was at in Sheffield as a student; a couple whose son who I know, is the deputy head of our local special school 5 minutes walk from home; the Latin link rep;  etc etc
Also it turned out that the Brazilian receptionist at the hotel was a Christian & goes to a Brazilian church in Oxford, so we gave her some of the prayer  letters about missionaries in Brazil,& just before we left we were able to share our faith with a young man staying there so that was good.
Below a final picture of something one would expect to see possibly in Ecuador but probably not in the UK-a car & motorbike inside a van which was on a rescue vehicle ! 

It was a very good conference-we are always impressed by the quality of people  at these conferences ( I am sure that's not just because there were 8 bishops there). Look out for The name Marcus Throup a missionary in Brazil who did the Bible studies-excellent. And of course it was the first CMS weekend conference Leila has attended and at 16 months she did very well indeed. It may well be the first time a dog has attended a CMS conference- I leave CMS to work out if that is so!

Avril Betts-Brown 19/5/15

Jill's Blog Entry 7

I have the enormous privilege of being considered” family” here and so was asked to the Baptist Church Deacons’ meeting on Saturday. It  was a beautiful setting, sitting on a terrace overlooking the town, with God’s presence there.  After the meeting we visited some sick folk and ended the morning with a great dish of chicken and rice, with chips. Wonderful.

 Monday May 1^st was Día del Niño, Day of the Child, and the whole school had a trip to the park. Pastor Rodrigo led everyone in some Christian choruses and a Bible story. Then   our PE teacher got us doing dance sequences, they call it Bailaterapia; thoroughly enjoyed by staff and pupils alike. A special day like this has to include plenty of food, and large quantities of chicken and rice, bread, cake and cola were consumed.

We have been filming the work of the charity, and on Thursday it was the school’s turn. Everyone looked especially scrubbed up for the occasion; the teachers in their new orange tea shirts, the children in their clean white ones. One of the teachers was quite ill, but had come in for the filming. What you call a star.

The Freedom in Christ course is in its fourth week, and the group is beginning to participate more freely, something not really in the culture here. Well, someone else wants to join, which is encouraging.

But for me the high spot of the week is that all the children in our top class can now read simple stories of varying lengths. I have been saying for ages that our children can read, and now  I have it on film to prove it. If you could have seen the children’s faces when I congratulated them: it was something truly beautiful to behold.

Jill Ball 5/6/15