IT´S ME!!!!

Hey Gang!! I´m finally back in a village that has quite a bit of civilization...lol. The interesting thing about this village, Huyatara is that this week they are having this HUGE festival and there are lots and lots of people here. One thing that´s kinda rough is that there are TONS of drunk people. You can be praying for protection in case we run into any of them.

My time in Quito Arma was good overall. When I first got there I was definately in culture shock. As my parents have told you I was not quite expecting what this village was like. There were no paved roads, it was all dirt, which I´m fairly used to. The first place offered to us to stay in had dirt floors and mice and was really not a place I wanted to stay in. The next place was a lot nicer so we ended up getting both little houses to stay in. The boys (Drew and Nestor) stayed in the first one, and then us girls (at first Amy, Leslie, and I) stayed in the better one with concrete floors. Thankfully however, the Lord provided some mats for us to sleep on. That made it a lot better, but the mice still ran around sometimes. We had some benches, and a lot of shelves that we were able to use and then we brought a cook stove and gas with us to make breakfast and lunch. We ate dinner in a little tienda (store) in the village. The lady that Cooked for us was named Eliza and was a very good cook. I did begin to get tired of rice and chicken because that´s pretty much all that she cooked for us. Thankfully though we never had anything wierd.

Our ministry in Quito Arma was awesome. The first week we had about 5-8 people at each meeting, however it ended up dwindling down to just Leancio (The principal of the school there) and his family. Needless to say we ended up investing a lot of time in that family. His wife Lucy is also a believer as well as his Mom, Yolanda. Our times with them were very sweet. We met almost nightly with them and then tried to meet with them at least once during the day, the guys with Leancio and Leslie and I with Lucy and Yolanda. The Guys talked about a lot of important issues with Leancio including quiet times, spiritual warfare, accountablilty, and many others. Leslie and I went over the books of Ester and Ruth with Yolonda and Lucy. They were great times. We also met some times with another school teacher named Ada. Please be praying for her that she will be interested in reading the Bible we gave her and going to study the Bible with Leancio and his family. There is also another man that we met named Cleto and he was really interested in the Bible and we gave him one also. Pray that he will be interested in reading and studying also. The Lord allowed us to meet this woman named Emily and her husband Erasmo and thier son Samuel while we were there. They are not from Quito Arma but were there because of Emily have a year contract as a nurse there. They are strong believers and really want to infulence people for the Lord. Please pray that in the short time they have left (until July 10) they will be able to make a big difference.

I cannot tell you how many things I realize that I take for granted every day in the States. I mean really, having a toilet you can sit on (and put toilet paper in), taking a scaldling hot shower if you want, eating different kinds of food all the time, having constant internet and phone access, and even having constant electricity. God is so good to us! I´m so thankful that he has provided for me in such a way. But anyway, how wonderful it feels to feel girly again. I took a "hot" shower today for the first time in about 3 weeks...it´s crazy how amazing it feels to be actually clean. And sleeping in a bed! WOW! What a difference that makes!

Next week we are headed to Nasca and get to have a time of debriefing and fellowship and being clean and eating!!! I´m really excited to get to hear about what the Lord is doing and see all the people that I bonded with the first week I was here!! I love my team mates and all but seeing other people is such a blessing!!

Well I better let this be all for now! I hope that this finds you well and I would love to recieve e-mails from you all!´ I probably won´t be able to respond to all of them, but it´s always nice to hear encouragement!! I love you guys and thanks for your constant support!!

Natalie