November 2015 Update

We started off the month in Cuenca, Ecuador celebrating Cuenca’s day of Independence and also celebrating our wedding anniversary. Cuenca is a beautiful city about a 7 hour bus ride from Balsas. While we were there, we went hiking in Cajas National Park with our buddies from Loja and spent time discussing our experiences.

Breaking News!!  Sophie Miller becomes the first gringo to attend Luz Victoria Rivera School in Balsas, Ecuador! She goes each week day from 8am - 12pm. This has been great for her to interact with other children and learn the language. The teacher does not speak English so there are some challenges. However, this has opened some new doors for us as we were invited to a cookout from one of the other teachers who speaks a little English and have started building new relationships with them. Lacey attended her first school assembly last week. We will continue to do home school to ensure that Sophie will be in the right grade when we return to the States.

The Millers Go Fishing! We had a couple of dinner outings with different families in which we picked fresh fruit and caught tilapia. Sophie caught her first fish while having a fever of 102 degrees. She enjoyed playing with the fish and keeping the chickens from eating them. In Ecuador, nothing goes to waste as we cook and eat the heads, fins, and tails. We had fried shrimp with a family and learned that we are supposed to eat the heads and tails of them as well. These challenges put a new perspective on praying before meals.

God uses us even when we are sick.  Sophie’s fever had gone up the day after we went fishing. She ended up having strep throat. However, this gave Lacey a great opportunity to teach Dr. Orley’s daughter English every week day. She also went on a hiking excursion with Dr. Orley’s wife.

We eat breakfast at Esperanza's a few times each week.  They normally do not serve eggs and toast for breakfast, but Patrick and his family have been generous and cook it specially for us. Yes, there are chickens running around as we eat their family members and Sophie gets to feed them eggs. This is what we do everyday. We do life with the locals and build healthy relationships with them. We do not preach on street corners or do door to door evangelism, but simply share God’s love and grace through our conversations. This requires a lot of trust in the Holy Spirit plus patience and believing that God is working in their hearts and through our interactions.

Happy Thanksgiving from Balsas  We made crafts and handed them out in the community while sharing some of our Thanksgiving day traditions from the States. Our prayer is that these opportunities will open doors for us to share our faith and for the community to have an opportunity to ask us more about our beliefs.

Dinner time with friends.  This is also another way for us to ask more personal questions and share our story. This gives people an opportunity to see how we live and interact as a family. It also gives Sophie a chance to play with her new friends. We do this about twice a week. Sophie always prays for dinner when guest come over.

Final thoughts and Prayers "Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little." Philippians 4:11-12 NLT We pray for our friends and family in the States. Many of our friends are going through their own battles and we pray that we all can find peace and contentment through God and not our circumstances. Please pray for Balsas as we enter the Christmas season and that we are able to be a light and share God's love through our interactions. Our future: We will return to the States in June and are not sure what direction to go in at this time. We have a few options that we are praying about and are hoping that God confirms these to us as we return. Pray that our hearts are in line with God as we make these decisions. Contentment: This is our prayer focus for the month. We listened to a sermon from Timothy Keller about this topic and felt like it is something that we need to work on. We want to be content in everything that we do through our faith, love and understanding of God and eternity. Sophie's prayer request: Sophie prays for peace and joy for all of her friends and that can know God better. She prays for her friends in the States that they have a great Christmas and hopes to join in with them next year in all of the cool festivities that she keeps seeing on social media. We all missed the snow night and Christmas party at  our Church. We thank God each day for your prayers and support. We feel blessed to be doing what we love to do and are humbled by your support knowing that we could not have done this without God working through you. When you pray for us, you are praying for Balsas and all of our friends and family. Your simple prayer and encouragement is having a huge impact on our lives and the lives of people in front of us. Thank You!!