We are very excited for this weekend. We will be traveling to Quito, to spend time working with the our friends Manuel and Elvia Rosero. Manuel and Elvia run a church in South Quito (Which is the poorest part of Quito) and also run a program to help public school students with their homework.

We have enjoyed our time in La Concordia. Rob has been working creating 3 websites, including a site for sponsoring the tuition for the poorer students of the school. Kirstie has been absorbing the culture, and working on her Spanish (which is coming along great).

With Rob spending 10 hours a day with his website ministry, and Kirstie at home with Bela, we have not had the opportunities to serve here in La Concordia that we would have imagined. The school has rock solid leadership, a knowledgebale computer teacher, and a great English teacher. We have not seen any area that can really utilize our gifts, talents and abilities. The church is also doing well, and we cannot offer anything to help them that they do not already have.

It is much different in Quito. In the one week that we spent there in April, our eyes were opened to the possibility of working in Quito. Manuel and Elvia Rosero have a desire to start a Christian school in South Quito, and are only lacking the help to get it going. The have specifically voiced the needs for a computer lab and teacher, English teacher, and people to aid with students with special needs. (Sound like anyone you guys know?)
Their church is also growing, and they many youth, and a desire to start a youth group, which is a huge passion of ours as well.

We are seeking the Lord’s guidance. If he calls us to Quito, we will be thrilled, but we are preparing ourselves to hear His plans for our next steps, not make our plans first. Please continue to pray for us in this! Thanks all.

We have been trying to upload some pictures for you guys, but are having some Internet connection issues… We will try to get those photos up for you ASAP!

Bela is 1 Year Old! Wow….. Life travels fast. Friday we had a big party here at the school, and were blessed in the company of our Ecuadorian friends. Bela had a great time, and was all smiles, especially when she got to dig into her own cake!
The theme of the party was “Finding Nemo” which has been a favorite movie for Bela (Lots of Colors) We showed a slideshow of the first year in pics and video, lots of “awwwws” and some tears form us. (We will try to upload the video for you guys too…)
All in all, a great party, and great year for the Doars! We pray that God will continue to bless us, and guide us as we raise his precious little creation.

Hey All… SOrry about the non update for a week… We have been really busy this week… we are plannin Bela’s birthday party! We made a run to and from Quito (4 Hours each way) And I got sick again.. though not nearly as bad… For the record, Kirstie is yet to get sick!

We had a really awesome mother’s day celebration on Friday where students brought their mothers to the school, and had a time of games and words of encouragement. The church also held an event on Satuday that reached out to non-christian moms of the Christian members of the church.
Kirstie is writing about that, and we will post it ASAP.

Thanks for hanging in there… so are we!

We’ll first off, we’ll let you guys know that Bela is doing great. We went to the doctor who took a stool sample, and everything checked out ok. He recommended some dietary changes, but praise God that she doesen’{t have any bugs!

We were just in Quito visiting with our friend and surrogate parents Manuel and Elvia Rosero. We were just planning on being there for a few days while Sandro and I shopped for some computer equipment.
Manuel and Elvia run several programs for kids in south Quito (The poorest part of Quito), One of them is to help kids in the public school system with their homework and studies. Last Saturday, 40 kids came for homework help with only Elvia and a few older students to help.

If you know anything about us, is that we are horrible spectators, so we jumped in to help. Kirstie was helping students with their English, and I was helping with math. We got a little bit of a taste of what our work in June will be like. We are looking forward to pursuing God’s Guidance into what he has planned for us in our lives and ministry here.

Most of my time recently has been spent working on the student sponsorship website. We came up with a name for it, the “Padrinos Program” (Padrinos is Spanish for Godparents). I came up with this logo design, but the feeling are mixed as to which one to go with…

Leave a comment, or contact us to let us know which one you like!

It is the rainy season here in Ecuador, and near the mountains here, there have been numerous mudslides and flooding. As a result, mountain provinces have delayed the start of school until April 28th, as some schools are under water, or covered with mud. That makes sense. Then there’s La Concordia.
La Concordia, which sits on the border of Esmeraldes and Pichincha, is sort of a political no-mans-land. Classes here at Luz del Evangelio have been in progress since April 2nd, and things have been going smoothly. Yesterday, the principal of the school, and my good friend, Sandro got a call from the government stating that if the school stays open it would have to pay a hefty fine. When asked why this was, the government representative stated it was because of the mudslides and flooding. When Sandro informed him that we were in the coastal region, and in no danger of flooding, the representative stated that it didn’t matter, since some of the schools were closing, all of them had to close.

To our understanding, since Luz del Evangelio is a private school, technically the government cannot tell us when to be opened and when to be closed, they just have to regulate the number of hours and days we are open. Oh well, at least the kids are excited for a vacation.

This Friday, our family will be taking a trip up to Quito for a few days to get some things for the computer lab, and to plan out some things with our friends Manuel and Elvia regarding our ministry service that we will be participating in Quito in June. It’s a 5 hour bus ride each way, so please pray for safe travels!

P.S. A note about photos… We are uploading photos as we can… the Internet here is unreliable, and very slow. Remember that the Photos Page has more than what we put in the posts!

Thanks all! God Bless You!