During the months of December and January, when Nicole has summer vacation from school, we are visiting family in Ecuador. It is a good time for children to see their grandmothers, uncles and cousins. We have split the time with both families. Lorie's family lives in the city of Cuenca and while there we attend church and some activities they have.
Most of my family lives in the city of Loja, a four-hour drive from the city of Cuenca; but my mother and her husband live in the countryside four hours away from the city of Loja.
It is a great blessing to visit family because they encourage us to continue serving in the ministry, and we also encourage them to continue trusting in God. They share their problems with us and we help them take refuge and seek God's help, because He is our hope and strength.
We enjoyed seeing my brother Marco and his father Eduardo (my stepfather and my mother's husband) born again. They had already heard the gospel years before and their decision to entrust his life to Christ was a great surprise and joy. I had been praying for their conversion.
It was very nice to walk for three hours back and forth to the river to baptize my brother Marco and his father Eduardo. I thought about the story of Philip and the eunuch when in Acts Chapter 8 it says that the two of them went down into the water and Philip baptized him and the Ethiopian continued on his way rejoicing. It is interesting that it says that they went down to the water, we do not know the distance, it could have been hours, but it is very beautiful to share the same story.