September Newsletter

September 22, 2010

Last month, we took part in one of the most beautiful things of our lives. It was a great blessing and an honor to be invited to participate in the dedication of the whole Bible in the Shuar language.

After more than 30 years of work, at last the Shuar nation has the whole Bible in their language. They had invited all of the employees and missionaries of Alas de Socorro to be part of the event of the presentation and dedication of the work that has been completed. We went to the community of Makuma, where many of the missionaries had lived and where much of the translation had been done. It was very special for Maggy and I to go because we were able to travel there in one of the airplanes of Alas de Socorro.

The community of Makuma reminded me a lot of the place where I grew up in Venezuela. It is a lot like the town of TamaTama, where the school base for the missionary kids was located. It was very special for us to be able to participate in the event.

I have some other news that is very special and is a huge answer to prayer as well. Now that I have my permanent resident visa, I went to the aviation authority (DAC) to apply again for my commercial pilot´s license. At first they said no, that I still needed to wait until I was a citizen. But they gave me the chance to speak with the chief of licensing and after presenting my case, they allowed me to apply!

I have taken both written exams for the commercial and the instrument rating. Now, the only thing I lack is the get my logbook apostilled (certified) in the U.S. and to take the check rides. I hope to be able to take care of both of these items in the next couple of weeks and be able to be a commercial pilot for Alas de Socorro – Ecuador in the coming month. We give thanks to God for allowing this to happen and thanks to all who have been praying specifically about this.

I would like to take the opportunity in this letter to introduce you to a good friend, Samuel Ford. We met Sam over 4 years ago when some friends started bringing him to our Sunday meetings. Sam has had a very difficult life, as he lost his father when he was a baby and has been living with his mother and older sister.

Sam had been having problems at school and at home and as his mother has to work to support the family, she was unable to spend the time with him that he needed. Upon seeing that her son was growing and she was losing control of him, she began to look for options to maybe send him to a military boarding school.

Maggy and I felt that this was not going to help Sam in the long run, and after much prayer, we spoke with Sam´s mother to invite him to spend a year with us to see if we could help him. As an added blessing, the school for missionary kids here in Shell agreed to allow him to attend.

With the support of his mother, Sam came to live with us at the end of last month for the duration of this school year. He is very intelligent and capable of many things, and he just needed the opportunity to leave the bad influences of his old school and spend some time with a relatively stable family. So far he has been very good and the changes are helping him. He is behaving very well in school and better every day at home.

You can pray for Sam that he will continue doing better, for his mother and for us that we will be wise and diligent to help him.

We commit everything we do to God,

David, Maggy, Joni Karina, Joshua, Jonathan, Jennifer