Tuesday, January 5, 2010

An encouraging week....

Sorry we haven't been around, but we just finished up our CO visit last week. All that I can say is WOW!!! Our new CO and his wife are originally from Spain. They came here to serve where the need is greater 11 years ago and are SUCH a spiritual boost! They have sooo many experiences of how they were almost down to their last dollar and Jehovah came through for them, it has really made us even more determined than ever to stay here!

There were 2 experiences that really stood out in our mind as amazing. One month, (I believe this was while they were serving as special pioneers, but not sure), they had run out of money and new that they had to live 2 more weeks until they received anymore. So, with nothing much else they could do they decided that since they did have rice, they would just have to eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. About one week into it, as you can imagine, it got to be pretty difficult. Brother Estevez was SOOO hungry for chicken...just one piece of chicken! Sure enough, there was a knock at the door...guess what it was? A sister bringing them some chicken! They said they ran so fast their feet never touched the ground to go get that chicken!

Sister Estevez was telling us that at one point she only had 2 pairs of shoes, one for service and the other pair (with a heel) for meetings. Well, her service pair had completely worn out and were unusable. So, she prayed to Jehovah, but she decided that she was going to keep going out in service and that although it would be incredibly uncomfortable, she would wear her heels. So, the next morning, she was getting ready for service, and dreading putting on her heels, when there was a knock at the door...I'm sure you can imagine what happened next. There was a sister who had a family member that owned a shoe store. The family member had a pair of shoes that she couldn't sell because they were on the larger size (most Ecuadorians have small feet!) Anyway, the sister said that she had thought of Sister Estevez because she is taller and has larger feet. Would she like the shoes? Sure, but she explained that she didn't have any money to buy them. No problem. The family member said that if she could find someone they fit, that person could just have them!

They just have story after story of how they have been taken care of by Jehovah. They came 11 years ago and within a month, because of the changing of the currency here to the dollar, they basically lost all of their money and had $800. Here they are, 11 years later, off of that $800.
Sometimes I think it is a good reminder for all of us that Jehovah really does take care of us. I think that sometimes we focus sooo much on taking care of ourselves, that we don't let help us like he would like to! Anyway, it was an AWESOME week! We LOVED every minute of it!

Lots of good experiences, as usual, are going on here. But, I don't have time tonight to write about them all....next time! Tomorrow we head to Guayaquil to meet my cousins, Missy and Jimmy and Josh and Kelly. They are coming for a visit for a week! We are really excited! We will keep you all posted on the activities!

Hope things are going well! Miss you all!

5 comments:

AJ and Jordanne said...

Brother and Sister Etevez are so awesome! Thank you for sharing those experiences. Such great encouragement to rely on Jehovah ~ He will provide!!!

Deb n Doug said...

What great experiences. We all know Matt 6:33 but how many of us really get to apply it like Bro and Sis Etevez! Thanks for sharing your encouraging week. Hope you're having another great one!!!

Aggidio - JoAnn said...

$800 = 11 years- only Jehovah could do that. Thanks for the experiences!

Michele said...

Have a great time with Missy and Jimmy, Josh and Kelly. Tell them I said hello!!!

Judy A said...

NEW BLOGS NEEDED