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In case you’re confused by the date on the last post, it was supposed to be posted a couple of weeks ago… I just found it in the ‘drafts’ … sorry about that!
And now for something totally unexpected!
As you know, we’ve been expecting to receive word any day about Richard’s and Isaac’s work visas (I already received mine back in October). Well, the Ecuadorian board of labor decided to put up another hoop… with a brick wall on the other side! The lawyer sent word that when she attempted to get the final approval for Rich and Isaac, there had been a change of personnel in the board of labor… new supervisor in charge of these decisions… and he informed her that we need to come up with another $12,000 investment in our Ecuadorian Corporation or it could not continue… thus no visas for Richard (owner of the corp.) or Isaac (president of the corp.). Thus, if they can’t get visas then when October comes around, I (general manager) will not be able to renew mine either! Needless to say, this is totally out of our capabilities to comply with, soooo…
What were we to do now?! It was clear to us that there is no other option to allow us to stay in Ecuador. So… ‘to the mattresses’ as they would say in ‘the Godfather’ (haha). Don’t worry… we actually went ‘to Jehovah’ in prayer. Now, this could have been a very hard fall and of course we were in a state of shock and confused… why would this happen when we were doing so great here… Rich being appointed an elder… so many studies started… the English group so close to being a congregation! … then this?!
Well, after much prayer, what came to mind for me was this: Only a few days earlier, Rich bumped into a sister who is the daughter of the elder who died in Caye Caulker, Belize (partly the reason the congregation there was dissolved and we could not go there)… remember Caye Caulker was our initial destination to go and serve where the need was greater. Anyway, she told Richard that her step-mom (Carol Pugh) was going back there and that an English group had once again been formed. So, we have been in contact with Carol, who put us in touch with the (only) elder and his wife there. Getting excited yet? We are! Because we just received an email from them (Larry and Dianne are their names) which totally confirmed our feelings that this looked like Jehovah’s direction! Here are some highlights:
- they, like us had been planning to move to Caye Caulker then, only 2 days before their move date, they found out about the English congregation being dissolved and merged into the Spanish cong. They went anyway, hoping to still be of help, but found it too difficult to learn Spanish and after 4 months decided to move to the neighbouring island of San Pedro where there is and English congregation.
- In November of 2011 they were requested by the C.O. to move back to Caye Caulker because the few English speaking publishers there (mostly sisters – only one brother, newly baptized) were now an ‘unofficial group’ and needed an elder.
- the 2nd week of January the C.O. sent a request to the branch for them to be made an ‘Official Group’.
- C.O. told them that if another elder came he would recommend that they be made a congregation!
- there are 10 publishers and many studies, some attending meetings (attendance for public talk/WT is usually between 25-35)
- 2010 Memorial attendance (English only) was 74 despite no congregation for several months!
Now, as if all that isn’t exciting enough – one of the things that was really worrying us was knowing how much more expensive rents are in Caye Caulker than here in Ecuador. We had sent out a few feelers to different places that said they had discounts for long-term, but the cheapest thing we found was $500/month… then internet access on top of that, electricity, water, etc. So… read on in the highlights of the email from Larry and Dianne:
- as of April 20th a furnished apartment is for rent in the 4-plex where they live…right next to the Kingdom Hall.
- only $325/month including electric and water and wireless internet!
- The email finishes with this encouragment: “Jehovah works in miraculous ways for sure. Here we have been praying for assistance so as to advance the Kings belongings, and why….an email shows up from Carol regarding your situation! We do hope Caulker turns out to be the answer for you.”
- ’nuff said 🙂
So that’s our unexpected news. They are going to send us pictures of the apartment. It sounds very tiny, but hey, the original plan for Belize was to live on a boat, so…
So many new brothers and sisters have moved into our English group since we arrived here in Ecuador, so we don’t feel like we are abandoning it. There will be plenty of spiritually minded teachers to take over our many bible students!
So, although the ‘door of opportunity’ we entered when we came to Ecuador has slammed shut… another has opened wide and it looks very inviting on the other side!