By the time you read this letter we’ll be back in Ecuador. Here’s an update on our summer.

Summer Furlough
We’ve had both a busy and relaxing time in the States. The relaxing time came at the beginning, as we had three weeks with David’s family in Pennsylvania, visited friends in Colorado, and spent four weeks with Ellyn’s family and our friends in Southern California. Among other things, we enjoyed seeing new nephews and cousins, visiting a model railroad museum, a day at an amusement park, riding horses, going to a WW II airplane museum, swimming in different pools, hiking, and of course, shopping. Throughout that time we shared over and over about our work with MAF in Ecuador. Our three weeks in Oakhurst were a much busier time. We were able to connect with friends and our church home, so that meant a hectic schedule of zipping here and there to see as many people as we could. The bottom line is that we had a great time this summer doing some different things and connecting with people that are important to us. We praise God for the unbelievable love and care that our friends and family showed us.

Work Team in Oakhurst
We’ve rented our home in Oakhurst for the past four years. While we were in Oakhurst, David had some time to complete repairs and maintenance on the house. The to-do list ended up being longer than we first anticipated, so David was happy to welcome help from several of the men of our church. We’ve been blessed over the years to have work teams from the church come down to Shell, but this time we were blessed to have a work team from the church come to our house in the States.

Back in Ecuador
The internet connection and e-mail server worked flawlessly all summer (as it should!) while David was gone, and because of that we were able to consistently communicate with our friends and co-workers in Shell and Quito. It was encouraging to keep up a little with what was going on back home, and to know the MAF staff in Ecuador was having no problems communicating with the US office, as well as their families and friends. David was able to make some purchases while in the States, and headed back to Shell planning to make some upgrades on the server and the Internet connection.

We’ll value your prayers as we settle back into life and work in Ecuador.

David, Ellyn, Dustin, and Taylor