Gobs of good news!

Bible institute classes—It is reported that all five Bible institute students are doing well, getting into the groove of spending three hours, three nights a week in class. They seem thrilled to be advancing in their ministerial preparation. We are certainly thrilled to be making this investment in the future of the work in Ecuador.

Sheree Wuertz ill—Although not anything extremely serious, Sheree Wuertz has been battling respiratory allergies and a mean sinus infection that developed into bronchitis. She has seen gradual improvement in the last few days. Pray for her quick recovery.

Great progress on RMC—Thanks to the hard work and generous donations of a team of six volunteers from Heritage Wesleyan Church of Rock Island, IL, the large bathroom area of the first floor is nearly all walled in. The septic tanks are in the ground and will be connected this week.

They're still coming!—Although they have completed seven chapters of the book study (Captivating, by John and Stacy Eldredge) that Sheree Wuertz is leading, more women joined for the first time last week, bringing Tuesday afternoon’s total to 11! God is bringing hurting women into this circle to bring healing. Pray for us to be able to keep up with all the opportunities that are opening up.

Ana Lucia still smoke-free—Ana Lucia gave Tom a big hug on Sunday and said “Thank you so much for the church's prayers for me. I almost yielded to the temptation to go back to smoking this week, but I didn’t.” She confessed that she was “dying for just one puff.” Continue to uphold her in this battle against 40 years of tobacco addiction.

New ICW disciples—Attendance was good yesterday with a total of 54. There were 37 older youth and adults and 17 children. (the number of adult/youth attending has almost tripled since January!) Tom preached from Matthew 4 yesterday, making a call for “true disciples.” At the close of the message he called for those who were willing to study the Bible, spend two hours each week in a discipleship class, obey God’s Word, leave any sin behind and become obedient followers of Christ to come forward. Hoping for at least two or three, it was awesome to see eight people make a public commitment to be disciples. After the service, two others joined. FIVE WERE ADULT MEN! They signed up for discipleship classes after the service. Now, we face the big challenge of working out times and schedules to get them all started. (I love that kind of problem!)