Irma y Vielca

Irma began to study the Bible in Machala (on the coast of Ecuador). She made changes in her life and this started to raise questions for her cousin, Vielca. You see Vielca was a party girl and in their family they always got together for Carnival, Christmas and other religious holidays. Suddenly, Irma stopped participating in the parties and instead babysat for the family especially for Vielca and her two children, Angie and Micheal. But, it bothered Vielca a bit that Irma was staying home caring for the children instead partying with the rest of the family. She thought Irma was boring. However, Vielca's curiosity got the best of her and she started to ask questions. Irma mostly told Vielca "you need a bible study." Everytime time Vielca had a question, Irma did her best to answer, but eventually ended up saying "you need a bible study."

Irma progressed, got baptized and moved to Cuenca. Vielca followed her to Cuenca and eventually started to study the Bible. She quickly made progress and now both Irma and Vielca are faithful sisters in our congregation.

Shortly after their studying the bible, both of their husbands traveled to other countries to work leaving Vielca and Irma alone with their children. Irma has one son named Jeferson and as I mentioned before, Vielca has two children Michael and Angie. Irma's husband went to Spain and Vielca's to New York. They have now been gone for 4 and 6 years respectively. However, both husbands are diligent to communicate and send money. What impresses me the most is how Vielca and Irma maintain their integrity under these dificult situations. They are both young and beautiful women, yet they remain chaste and faithful to their husbands. They deal with the frustration of not having their husbands near to help raise the children and of course they are lonely. Both husbands have noticed this and expressed their surprise and gratitude and both see how well Irma and Vielca are raising the children. The family reports back to the husbands and always mention how well behaved the children are and even comment on how they are able reason beyond their years on matters like why one shouldn't smoke, drink or steal. This, of course, sparks curiousity in the husbands and they ask questions. This gives both Irma and Vielca an opportunity to witness to their husbands.

Michael, who is 7, is quite the young man. A couple a weeks ago at the meeting Michael approached me and asked if he could talk to me. So I sat down and asked what was on his mind. He asked me "hermana, are you a pioneer?" I said "yes, why do you ask?" He said, "I know that if you are a pioneer, you must be wise and experienced and I was wondering if you could help me with a problem I am having at school." He then related that a boy at school was picking on him and he didn't know how to handle the problem. What made things worse is the kid was apparently the son of a witness family and in Michael's mind should know how to behave. So we talked about some suggestions about how Michael should handle the situation. Last week I asked how things were going and he said, "I applied the counsel you gave me and thank you very much. Things are much better now and the boy stopped bothering me." He added that because he did things Jehovah's way, they are now good friends. How precious is that? This is a testament of how well Irma and Vielca are doing raising their children and teaching them about Jehovah even though their situtations are difficult. What a good example for all of us.