Mark Update August 3, 2009

Hello to all. Hope this letter finds you rejoicing in Jesus. He is coming! May God bless you as you follow Him. Here follows a letter I am sending to friends and family:

Hello from Ecuador,            

I have much to be thankful to God for, which I would like to communicate to you.  I have been experiencing very good health for 3 to 4 weeks now. I believe this is because of prayer. I thank and praise God for this! It is not fun being sick for a prolonged period of time. Thank you for your prayers on my health's behalf. When we finally arrive at home, there will be no more sickness!

I am just finishing a second tract. (I reproduce them. We do not have access to a lot of tracts down here, so I format them on the computer and then make copies. We fold them by hand and cut them with scissors.)  This tract is on the same lines as the wordless book. It is about a bracelet with colored beads and it describes the meanings of the colors. We have made little bracelets like the ones in the tract. We are planning to go to a village tomorrow which Joyce has visited once before. Its name is Costa Azul, which translates to Blue Coast. We plan on passing out the tracts and bracelets to the children.  She has told me that we will walk down a dirt road that is off the main road which we live on. I have walked to the dirt road before; it is about a 45 minute walk from our house. Joyce has said it is a long walk down that dirt road until you come to a small village. She had visited a friend there a few months back and has been looking forward to returning. It is my understanding that this village does not have a church that believes and preaches and lives the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer will be effective here also!

Lord willing, Mark Alan, Paul and I will fly out to Tonampade this coming Wednesday, the 5th of August. This is a very important trip! Please pray that God's will prevails. God's plans and ways are so far above us. Faith is such an important aspect of our lives. “Trust in the Lord with ALL thine heart, and lean not unto THINE OWN understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge HIM, and He shall direct thy paths."

We have researched the other avenues of getting out to the villages in the interior of the jungle. These are by foot or canoe. I look forward to using both these in the near future. We are planning to walk to Tonampade, Lord willing, in September. We would take a bus about 2 hours to the end of the bus route in that direction. At that point, it is either a 30 minute car ride to the end of the road or a 3 hour walk. When you come to the end of the road, it is then a 5 to 8 hour walk to Tonampade, depending on who you talk to. I would like to have a guide who is a believer and Spirit filled. Prayer will be a great help here also. By canoe, I am told it is a two day trip to Tonampade.

I have been invited to a conference in Tonampade in mid-October.  It is a gathering of Huaorani believers from many different villages. I met the president of the community of Tonampade last week in Shell. He told me of the conference and some exciting news about plans the Huaoranis are making. Exciting, because they line up with what God has been speaking to me about the last couple of years. They want to fly over the area of the jungle where their lost relatives live and play messages of greetings and desires to make contact. They are talking of doing this for 3 days. Let us support them with prayer!

Well, I am finishing up this letter a day after Joyce and I went to Costa Azul. She was right, it was ALOT of walking. It was such a blessing to be doing the work of the Lord that He has for us to do. We ended up in a village named Pioculin. It is a Quechua village. There is a great need of the Lord there and we plan on returning soon. The seeds we planted yesterday will bear fruit one day, I believe.

Just a few closing thoughts that God has laid upon my heart. I believe He wants to encourage someone in this. It is such a wonderful blessing to live a life of faith. There are many difficulties along the road, but they are there to bring us further down the road to total dependence upon God. If God has called you to do something, He will never leave you alone in it. Trust Him; you will be so glad you did!                                                   

Please share this with someone who will be encouraged in the things of the Lord.