Joyce Blosser April 28, 2011

Dear friends and family, It has been a very long time since I have
written.  So much has happened the past few months.  God always proves
His faithfulness to us, I am very thankful.  A group of young people
from New York came for 2 weeks.  They helped us work on the property.
It was a great blessing to us, may God reward them for their labors!
We are working to get the dorm building ready for visitors from the
jungle.  We have had a few already.  We are almost done with the fish
pond, so we will be able to raise fish for eating.  Also, one Huaroni
man planted a yucca garden for us!
The day that the group from the U.S. left, a new missionary couple
came to stay with us for a few days.  They just arrived in Ecuador.
They are expecting their first baby, so they moved closer to Shell, to
be near the hospital.  The husband, Andy,  was here for a few months
last year.  I know they will serve the Lord greatly here, please pray
for them. There is also a missionary family living in Tena now,
working to put wells in the villages.  This is a great work here, to
provide clean water for the villages.
I am still teaching English.  I started a new class in Napo, at my
house.  It is fun to see the children learn.  I want to not only teach
them English, but also show them God's love.  Sometimes it is hard for
me to have all the patience that I need!   Mark has been making trips
to the jungle.  He wants to go more frequently this year.  Please pray
that things will go smoothly for us.
I think most of you know that 3 of my boys will be returning to the
U.S. in May.  Mark Alan, Paul and John.  Mark Alan is engaged to a
beautiful girl from Peru.  He will be getting married next April.
They want to serve the Lord in missions work.  I know it will be hard
for me to see 3 of them leave at once, but  it is a part of life.
The Lord has given me a burden for the young mothers of our church.
So often they are alone and they have questions about raising their
children in the ways of the Lord.  I want to visit them more and
encourage them.  There are also a lot of people around me that need to
know of a Savior.  So many people here have such hard lives.  Every
story I hear seems worse than the last.  I want to touch people's
lives.  Sometimes I let the language barrier prevent me from reaching
out, and sometimes it is my natural shyness.  I want to overcome these
by God's grace. On the here tonight, we ran into a couple whose 18
year old daughter died last year.  She was in the hospital and Mark
and Nancy, the owner of the property where we live, were able to visit
her.  She accepted the Lord one night.  They were also able to
minister to her parents.
This afternoon was extrememly hot so we decided to go to the river to
swim.. I have not done this, left my work in the afternoon to swim,
since we have been here.  It was such a nice afternoon.  There were 3
young native children there that Mark and I were playing with.  They
were beautiful.  A group of about 30 people form a tour came to swim.
As we were watching, a young man got caught in the undertow, and
started drowning.  They were able to save him from a canoe.  Almost at
the same time, another one drowned, too, but they could not get to
him.  We just watched as he was swept away, they didn't even find his
body.  It was very sobering to watch someone go out into eternity.
Was he ready?  Did he have the hope of going to Heaven? One minute he
was laughing and having fun with his friends, the next, he was in
eternity.  We don't know when God will call us home. we need to be
ready.  It was sad to see the group on the shore, too as they realized
they had just lost one of their friends.
God bless you all. Love, Joyce