Happy New Year

We want to wish all of you a very happy New Year and that it may be a year where we focus on Jesus and how we can better know Him, and grow in Him.
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Joshua's at church

This was the first year that Joshua participated in a Christmas presentation at church. He was a sheperd and had a line to say about the true meaning of Christmas.

Joshua is amazing for memorizing things and didn't have much problem to remember his line. Unfortuantely, not all the children showed up the morning of the presentation and so the teacher read the text instead of each child reciting their part.

It was exciting for us to see him participating in this. I still find it hard to believe that he is almost five years old (in April).

Mision Compartida (Shared Mission)

Mision Compartida 2008 is the radiothon that HCJB holds every year from our facilities in Quito, Ecuador. It allows a chance for our listeners to come to the station and see what we do here. It's also a fun time for the kids to play, sing, and hear about Jesus' love for them.

The program ran from December 11 through 13 (Thursday - Saturday). There was around $140,000 pledged to help the station operate through the coming year.

These three days are an opportunity to hear many testimonies from listeners of how God has impacted their lives through the ministry of HCJB.

Improvement in police visibility

We have seen an increase in the number of police patrols through our neighbourhood over the past couple of weeks. This is fantastic as there have been a number of muggings in the area.

Last week a friend stepped into my office to show me a couple of photos he had just taken on his way back to the office.

A few undercover police officers had three young people in handcuffs on the ground...right in front of the street gate to our home!

We give God thanks for the increased patrols by the police and that nobody was in the way when these three people were taken into custody.
Barry
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More family news...

Well, now that Joel is feeling better, Joshua has come down with what appears to be the same thing. Hopefully, he can get over it quickly. Yesterday he slept a good part of the afternoon which definitely seemed to help. Today he was feeling better although still a bit weak.

Tuesday we took Joel to the ophthalmologist and found out that he needs glasses and probably early next year, surgery. Today we went and purchased some glasses for him which he'll be able to start wearing next weekend. At first he didn't want to wear glasses (Joshua did) but after showing him how he could look like daddy, he thought it was an OK idea. It definitely makes him look more sophisticated.

Family life...

Friday morning, we were just sitting down for breakfast when Joel complained that he wasn't feeling good and wanted to go lay down. Thus began a couple of days of fevers and and weird sleep patterns for us.

Today, Joel is feeling much better, eating well, and appearing to be his normal self.

Joshua, Marlene and myself are feeling well, so it appears it was just Joel's turn to not feel so well. We don't know what it was but we're glad that it wasn't anything more serious.

An interesting thing happened on the way...

This past Monday, three of us (Barry, Doug - Director of Media Ministries, and Graham - Regional Director) visited our Hospital Vozandes del Oriente in Shell (a five-hour drive from Quito). On the way we found ourselves almost in the middle of a shootout between Police and some thieves.

On the by-pass around Ambato, suddenly two motorcycles with two riders each went by us on the left. Ahead of us a police truck, which had been sitting in a cut in the meridian, pulled out into the two lanes on our side of the meridian. The first motorcycle went around the front of the police while the second tried to go around the back. Fortunately for the police there wasn't enough room behind the truck and the motorcycle went down. Immediately, some police jumped out and had them covered with their pistols. Two police on motorcycles, who were chasing the thieves, went by us then continuing to pursue the remaining bike.

We had slowed down by this point, not really knowing what was going on. When we got to the overpass you see in the video one of the police on motorcycle was stopped there telling us to stop as well. I turned around to look behind me and saw the second motorcycle turn around on the offramp and come around us to go under the overpass. At this point the motorcycle police began telling us to get out of the van and take cover behind it. It was about this time that I remembered I had a video camera.

Doug and Graham had just gotten out when we heard a series of six or seven shots fired as the motorcycle with the thieves went across the overpass. You can hear one of the ricochets right at the beginning of the video.

God certainly was protecting us on that trip. If we had been about 30 seconds further on we would have been right in the middle of the shots fired.

We found out later that the thieves had stolen $21,000. While the situation was not under control, the police were well coordinated in their pursuit of the thieves and all of them were apprehended.

Family Life Conference

Marlene and I went to a Family Life Home-Builders conference a few weeks back. It was an interesting time and we had a surprise in that we met up with two couples from our Bible study group that were also attending the same conference.

The idea is to provide the Biblical principles of how to raise our children. In this regard it was very well done and provided a substantial amount of information. I know that it has helped to reinforce in us what our the principles behind what we are trying to teach our children and how to convey those in a way which builds them up.

As parents it's very easy to be saying "no" all the time. It's much more difficult to use each moment as a teaching moment, even if it is in the midst of discipline or having a great time.

It was a fairly concentrated time and so we left at the end quite tired, but it was an enjoyable conference.

Poor proofreading, or poor quality assurance

It is so easy to make mistakes in writing, which is why it was always stressed in school the necessity of proofreading. Some mistakes can be quite humorous. I received an email today indicating that this company had released a new version of their software.

Faster - We're seeing average photo upload times quadrupled

Now, when I read that line, I don't see how having upload times quadrupled means that the program is faster. For me, quadrupled means four-times, and without a modifier, means that in this case the program was uploading photos at 1/4 the speed that it used to (taking four-times as long).

Oooops!

Removing the old...

The old Field Direction building, probably the oldest building on the compound here, was demolished this past week. The estimates are that the building was constructed about 45 years ago.

Due to a number of factors (including large amounts of mold and completely new electrical wiring needed) it was decided to remove the building. For at least the past six months it was being used as a storage area for unused furniture.

The space will be used for parking until a plan can be developed to better utilize the area.

Joshua turns 4.

Joshua celebrated his fourth birthday April 19. He enjoyed a party with several of his friends. It was a fun-filled day with lots of activity, balloons, and of course, cake and ice cream. You can see the photo album by clicking here.

Now that's a hole!

Due to the rains in Quito, a huge sink-hole opened up at the Trebol. The Trebol is a major traffic interchange in south of Quito.

Incredibly, no one was hurt. Apparently a couple of policemen heard some rumbling so they blocked traffic and moved people away from the area. The hole measures about 40m across and is about 60m deep.

A river runs underneath this area through a viaduct, but it appears that with so much rain lately that part of the viaduct was weakened enough to cause this huge hole.

The civil engineers are saying it could take upto one year to complete repairs and have traffic moving normally through the area again.

Hermann Schirmacher took the photo at left which shows some of the work being done to repair the tunnel under the Trebol.

The floods...

Here are some photos of the flood areas in Ecuador. It really is incredible to see the amount of water in some areas. HCJB Global has sent several large trucks full of food and other supplies to the affected areas. These items are the result of the generosity of many organizations but the most telling was the participation of Ecuadorians in support of their affected countrymen.

A very large number of people arrived at HCJB over the weeks, walking, with taxis or their own vehicles to drop off food to send down to the flooded areas.

A very humbling scene.

Rid'm Cowboy!

The other day Marlene heard Joshua calling out, "Come, Joel, come." She was curious as to what they were upto and went to see. Joshua wanted Joel to ride the horse with him. Joshua likes the idea of cowboys with guns. If it's a small stick that he finds, it's a gun. If it's much bigger, then it's a sword.

No guns?

This is one of those signs that tends to catch the eye so I took a picture of it. The sign in on the glass door of the parking area entrance to Mi Kasa, a department store here in Quito. I had to do a double-take to make sure that I was seeing things correctly!

The sign is a drawing of a gun with a line through it inside a red circle, like the kind you see for No Smoking or No Drinks.

Requirements for a good office chair

My boss is checking out a new office chair to see if it meets one of his requirements: it must be comfortable enough to sleep in. Ok, I'm not sure that this is an actual requirement of his but it does help for those warm sunny afternoons after a good lunch.

I'm now working out of my new office in the Administration building (where my boss' office is) so I'm more removed from operations. It is good as it gives me some time to work on the many administrative tasks which have been suffering because of my direct involvment in managing the day-to-day.

Future drivers

We went to Parque Carolina the other weekend. After riding his bike around for quite a bit, Joshua spotted these cars that were being rented by the lap (a small lap for a small price). Seeing them, he wanted to drive them.

When we go grocery shopping, many times we'll take the boys to Jugueton where they can climb into these cars and pretend to drive them. Seeing them out in the open where he actually could drive them was something new.

Joshua did quite a good job of driving, although I had to correct his steering several times. The good news is that the cars don't go very fast and I was able to walk alongside them.

Joel was quite content to sit next to his brother and play with the radio...

New beds

Joshua and Joel got their new beds January 3, only one week late for Christmas. For a number of weeks, Joshua was asking, "Daddy, where's my new bed?"

When I went to the office he thought I was going to work on the beds and wanted to come along and help. But now Joel can enjoy getting into and out of his own bed, something which he couldn't do with the crib. He's getting much better a staying in his bed, but the first few nights he was regularly falling out of bed. We had a mattress on the floor to cushion his fall and I don't think there was one time that he woke up when he hit the floor.

In the past week I think he's only fallen out once or twice.

I started working on the beds back in August but only had a few hours a week to work on them.

If you love me...

“If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” John 14:15

Jesus teaches us that we can’t separate love from obedience. He gives us the Counselor or Holy Spirit who provides guidance for our lives. The Holy Spirit is characterized by truth and when people accept Jesus as their savior and Lord, they receive the Holy Spirit. Then they can begin to love and obey. We pray that the Holy Spirit shows you the truth. Amen.

Ready for Christmas

Two boys who are ready for Christmas. Joshua and Joel smile for mommy as she takes a picture for Christmas.

We had a good Christmas as we enjoyed a turkey dinner (Christmas eve) and a day in the park (Christmas day).

Today, (Thursday) the boys are receiving their other big gift, new beds as daddy finished them this past weekend. Now, Joel will be able to get into and out of bed rather than needing to wait for mom or dad to get him out. This seems to have been frustrating him a fair bit lately.