God's Fingerprints

As I chose the photos for this blog I realized that they were all about people and not about the land. Ecuador is a beautiful country, but for us it was the people we met on this trip who truly made it great. Evan and I returned home from Ecuador late Monday night and I just couldn't resist a quick update before we leave for the Global Medical Missions Conference in Louisville, Kentucky this weekend. When we return I will post more photos and stories. I also wanted to say thank you for praying for us. Your prayers for safety were answered and our time had "the Lord's fingerprints all over it!"

One of the purposes of this trip was for Steve Saint to host a tour group that would help fund the first annual meeting of the leaders of the trans-Amazonian network. Seven leaders from five South American nations were there as representatives, chosen by their people to work together to reach the remaining unreached tribes in their countries. They are godly men with a passion to reach their people for Jesus. What a blessing it was to meet them! Last year, at the Global Medical Missions Conference, Eli Tecuna (first picture, man in the middle with the orange shirt and headdress) invited the missionaries at the conference to partner with tribal leaders by helping to equip them to reach their own people. Just one year later we were able to see fruit from this request.

One of Eli's requests was that medical missionaries equip tribal church leaders with door opener skills such as medicine, dentistry, and optometry. Doesn't that sound like Itec? In the past year we have been able to work with Itec to help develop these tools to assist in equiping these leaders. Further in this plan is to start training centres where tribal leaders can be trained and equipped with these door opener skills as well as Bible, leadership and practical skills. On our trip we toured a possible site for the first training centre. This camp is just 15 minutes from Shell Mera. Please join us in praying for this possible open door.

One great blessing on this trip was the tour group. They were a group of believers from Osage Hills Church, Missouri. 14 members from the church joined 6 members of Itec to tour Ecuador and further catch the vision of equipping tribal leaders. Steve Saint led the tour and gave us an insiders look at some of the history of this beautiful place. I'll have more about the trip in the next post.