The Kiwi's Debut

There is an English group now in Cuenca and once a month there is an English public talk and Watchtower Study. This past Sunday, Mark James from New Zealand gave the public talk. It was the first time we heard him speak publicly. But, it wasn't quite fair because he gave the talk in English instead of Spanish. Okay, Mark, now you have to get with the program and work on that Spanish outline. Anyway, quite a few showed up for the shindig and a good time was had by all. After the talk, we all went to a French restaurant and enjoyed an afternoon of good food and good company. It was so nice to talk English and understand EVERYTHING! Here is a little clip of the talk.

Also, I'm adding a couple of photos of new faces. Franke is visiting from Germany. She speaks German, English and French. She lived two years in Cameroon, Africa. Now she is trying her hand with Spanish and doing a good job of it. She started learning Spanish just five days ago. I took her on my bible study and she asked if she could read a paragraph in Spanish. She read so well, that the bible student couldn't believe that she just started learning. (I secretly hate her. No I'm just kidding :) ). They say your third and fourth languages are easy to learn. I wouldn't know since I'm still working on the first two.

The Scarborough Family just moved to Cuenca from Atlanta, Georgia. We hope they enjoy their new life in Ecuador.

Now for an update on Soyla, the Bible Student who recently lost her one month old baby. Today, Beth and I visited her to study. What a wonderful experience. Speaking about the fact that we are living in the last days I asked her if she believed that we truly are living in the last days. She said "yes" but, just yesterday, she was talking with her sister about what she was learning. She said that her sister was saying that she couldn't believe because she wasn't sure that the bible was truly from God since it was written by men. Soyla started to preach to her sister using the book and the bible explaining the reasons why she believes that the Bible is from God. So, she has started sharing what she is learning. Also, talking about the fulfillment of prophecy regarding Matthew 24:14, I asked Soyla if she saw the fulfillment of Jesus' words. She said yes and she added with tears in her eyes "when my baby died, I felt that God sent you to me." We all started to cry. By the end of the chapter, we talked about what each one of us need to do to survive the last days and we read Hebrews 10:24, 25 about attending meetings. Soyla immediately asked where the Kingdom Hall was located and what days and times were the meetings. She said she was going to attend Sunday and expressed an appreciation for the necessity of attending meetings to learn more and please Jehovah. I think Beth and I were walking on clouds afterward.