Thank you

Thank you to those who have responded to join me in prayer for the Chilean miners... Anybody who has had to sit in a doctor´s office alone waiting for test results and possibly life-altering answers knows how much it means to have company in the wait... even if it´s just somebody sitting alongside and being there with you in it.

I´m so very moved by their wonderful attitude, and such willingness to help each other out. It´s incredible to see how the guys inside the mine are helping themselves out - and the ones on the outside are helping the guys on the inside to help themselves out. Oh, it´s really a beautiful illustration.

I haven´t heard yet any comments on their "God-perspective". It doesn´t mean they don´t have one; just means I don´t know what it is -- in which case I tend to look for the fruits that identify the tree. I´m seeing lots of self-control and kindness for each other and their families, for example. So I´m praying that God continues to be tangible like that in the mine with them. And even though nobody says anything out loud about it --- I know for certain that both the men on the inside and the rescuers on the outside all know they need a miracle. They know that all of their best efforts have a limit. So in my prayers, I´m lifting them up and cheering them on, all those who are willing to be that miracle, against all odds.

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I bumped into Joey and Michael last Sunday afternoon, in the little triangle of grass just outside "La Plaza" (The Plaza of the Americas for those who´ve been here). It was the first time that Joey was sitting straight up, holding his shoulders back and his head up high. He even looked me in the eye a couple of times. I was teaching him a new game that he didn´t think he could get,,, but he kept at it and started forming a strategy. It´s that game that has a bunch of pegs in the shape of a cross, with one peg missing (generally in the center), and you have to jump pegs, taking the ones out that had been "jumped" til there´s as few left as possible. Joey usually gives up pretty quickly, but he kept at it. (It´s really a pain to keep at it, too --- because you have to keep putting all 32-odd pegs back into the game board each time just to be able to play it again.) He went about 4-5 rounds right there with me... so I gifted him the game to practice in private. I´m curious to see how he´s doing with it; maybe I´ll see him this Sunday.

I heard from Joey that Willian has a job. I´m still praying to be able to see him again soon, and give him the Christmas bag I made for his family (I believe it has "2007" on it), and have kept for them since then. I think he needs to know that God hasn´t forgotten him all this time, and has something special saved up for him and his family...

So thank you for continuing to support Mission: Ecuador. I wish you could see the personal confidence and dignity that is developing for the individuals involved in the Dysphagia program,, and for the street kids and their parents that I´ve had the privilege of living alongside of all these years. You´ve made a difference for a bunch of folks trapped down inside themselves (like those miners in Chile), and you´ve become a miracle for them all.

Love m