'The Grace of God upon my life is not dependent upon me, or what I have done or deserved; but a gift of mercy from God, which has been given unto me because of His great love for me.' (Judy Pruett © 1990 Thankyou Music)

Everyday I'm learning more and more what it is to walk with Jesus and I'm learning that there is nothing quite like knowing Jesus and having Him lead your life. God has been showing me more and more of His grace here and it overwhelms me. I get up in the morning because of His Grace, I get to serve Him because of His grace, I get to grow in Him because of His Grace, I get to love Him because of His Grace. Notice something that repeats throughout those statements, It's all through the Grace of God! So often we feel we have to work ourselves into a place where God can use us or whatever, but its nothing that we can do, only by the Grace of God. The grace of God is the best news for sinners such as us who often get tired and want to do our own thing, but it's God's grace that gently pulls us back into His arms again. We need God and we need His grace so much! It's only when we realise what a big mess we are that we see how much we need to Grace of God to work in us. It's only by the Grace of God that we get to so anything for Him, so let's keep seeking this grace...and picking it up every day and walking in it!

December Update

In December our church celebrated their first anniversary.  We invited a lot of churches from the surrounding areas and a lot of people showed up. We organized a lot for this special night. I helped out to get the church together and had the privilege of organizing the music and worship time for the night. It was great to see a lot of people from the church serve in some way or another.

In December I was also blessed to have my parents and brother join me for Christmas. It was a really special time to be able to share this part of my world with my family because there is only so much you can imagine over a phone call. Praise God for this blessed Christmas time together!

January

Two weeks ago I was in Pallatanga with all the OMS missionaries in Ecuador for Field Council week. Every missionary had to give a report on their ministry and what God is doing in each area. It was a huge encouragement to hear some stories of what God is doing. Sometimes it's very hard to see if you are actually making any progress for God and you feel like you're going nowhere, so it was good to hear that God really is at work all over Ecuador and this really encouraged me to keep walking on.

This week was a blessing to be able to chat to the missionaries and relax in English, also a huge joy to lead worship and sing in English again for a bit. Praise God for this great time of refueling!

Ministry Prayer

In February I will be away in the Oriente (Loja and Yanzatza) for a few weeks part of a missions team coming from New Zealand. Please pray for this opportunity and as we work with the people in Yanzatza.

My two main ministries here are teaching Sunday school to the youth and leading the practice times every Thursday in the church. It has been a blessing to get alongside some of the young people every Sunday morning. Basically, I've been taking stories from the bible and my aim has been to show the youth that God understand exactly what they are going through. We have been looking at characters like Job, and, for example, learning from his faith. At the minute there are about 6 young people that I'm working with, 3 of which haven't yet accepted Christ. We have become close as friends and so are able to talk freely about issues. Pray as this continues, and pray for someone to take over from this leadership when I leave in 3 months.

I had been praying and chatting through the idea of starting a cell group for the youth I work with in Sunday school. Finally, at the start of January, we met up for the first time. We are planning to continue meeting up and each time we will have a time of sharing, a time of learning from God's word, worship and games. I am working alongside the pastor's daughter Roxana in leading this. Pray that God would help me to guide her along in these initial stages and that she would gradually take up more and more responsibility.

Pray also for...

Aurelio- this man lives beside the church and gave rents the piece of land to the church. He is not a Christian. He has been ill with tuberculosis for years and hasn't got it treated so its has been getting worse. He has basically been told by doctors that there is nothing they can do and that he has barely nothing left of his lungs. Since November he has been living off oxygen tanks which need replaced at a high cost every 3 days. He doesn't have the money to buy the tanks and his family were with them but have not abandoned him so now the people from the church is all he has. Pray as we continue to meet up and pray with Him that God would work in His heart. The other day he was basically saying, 'I'm dying here and no one wants me, no one cares.' Pray that we would be ambassadors to show him God's great love and that God cares!

Thank you all for praying for me and the church and people here. God hears your prayers and they are what give me so much strength to keep seeking and serving into His Kingdom. Keep seeking God and His grace every day!

I've included some pictures for you guys to enjoy...

Blessings,

Jon B