Ecuador Blog

We have our washer/dryer on the roof of our apartment and we also have a neighbor who lives up there. It is a man (Marco) and his two small children. Well, one day Nathan decided to offer him a study. He accepted. Nathan gave him the Bible Teach book and the Great Teacher book. A little less than a week later, (this past Sunday) Nathan went up to get the clothes and it looked like Marco was praying. Nathan looked closer and he wasn’t praying, he was reading the Great Teacher book! Marco saw Nathan and stood up and walked over to him with the book in one hand and the other hand over his heart. Nathan asked him if he liked the book and he said he liked it SO MUCH!! And he told Nathan that he had already read the entire Bible Teach book and it has “impacted his life a great deal”!!! With joy in his heart and tears in his eyes, Nathan told Marco he would come back that same day to start studying the Bible Teach book with him. After that first study on Sunday, Marco said, “What do I have to do to preach this?” Nathan said, “Nothing! Slap on a tie and let’s go!!” Just Kidding. Nathan explained that there were certain requirements and Marco said, “I have to gain more knowledge, don’t I?” Nathan said yes and told him they would start studying two times a week and also told him about the meetings. We had the second study on Wednesday and he told us that he was enlisted in the Military and that he attends some kind of military training class two times a year. He wanted to know if he should still do that now that he’s studying the Bible. We showed him several scriptures that explain God’s view of war and supporting any government other than God’s Kindgdom. When we finished, he said he wasn’t going to go if the Military calls him and he shouldn’t go to the training classes either! Awesome, huh? He also came to the meeting with us on Thursday! Nathan had a sheperding call after the meeting, so Marco and I walked home together. I asked him if he enjoyed the meeting and he said, “So much!!!” (”Bastante!!!”) He is a school teacher so he very much enjoyed the Ministry School and said he wanted to learn how to give talks about the Bible! Also, Elke told him she hoped this wasn’t the last time we see him at the meeting and he said it definitely wouldn’t be! So, needless to say, we’re very excited about this study.

Jehovah is definitely blessing our decision to move here. Here is our schedule as of right now:

Monday - free day (prepare for bible studies, go grocery shopping, etc.) and family study in the evening.

Tuesday - door-to-door from 8:30 to 10:00, study at 10:00, another study right after that, come home for lunch, and five studies in the afternoon/evening. We usually get home between 7 and 8 pm.

Wednesday - door-to-door from 8:30 to noon, lunch, study at 3:00, then I go with Letty on her studies from 4:10-7:00pm, come home and Nathan and I have a study at 7:00.

Thursday - study at 9:00 am, come home study for the meeting, then I go with Elke on her studies from 2:30 til the meeting at 6:00 pm.

Friday - door-to-door from 8:30-noon, study at 4:00 pm.

Saturday - door-to-door from 8:30-noon, lunch, study for meeting, Public Talk/Watchtower Study at 4:00pm, then we have a family from the cong. over for dinner after the meeting.

Sunday - study for Bookstudy, Bookstudy at 11:00 am, Nathan has a study at our house after the bookstudy, another study at 3:00, another one at 4:00, and another one at 5:00. The 5:00 study is also at our house and the guy stays after the study for dinner. (I don’t sit in on three of Nathan’s studies on Sundays, because they have all either studied before, been publishers and been removed, or are publishers right now and Nathan wants them to be able to confide in him if they want to. Which they do, because one has already told Nathan that his problem is that he is physically and verbally abusive to his sisters that lived with him until they just recently left him by moving out. Anyway, he probably wouldn’t have told Nathan that if I had been there.) So, right now we have about 15 studies going between the two of us! Not bad for a month and a half, huh? But just like all of you with your studies, we pray every day that they will continue.

Continue to keep us in your prayers as you all are in ours!!!

We love you very much,
Jennifer (and Nathan)