Letter from Kevin & Kathy Bruce

Greetings from the RV Outpost!

The summer begin with a tragedy in the community south of us. The first week of June our neighbor Milton went to go fishing and found the body of a young girl floating in the river down below us. For Milton it was an extremely upsetting moment, but after praying, the Lord gave him courage to tie the body up, get help, and find out what had happened. We were in Ibarra that week, and Kathy’s sister Chrissy was at the Outpost alone, but did what she could to help. Milton soon found out that the body belonged to one of two girls that were missing from a family 3 hours’ hike upriver from the Outpost. The girls had been returning from their country farm to the community center where they went to school, and had to cross one of the swollen creeks along the way. Apparently they somehow were washed downstream. Their family, along with many others from the community, searched for the next two weeks all along the river from their community to town, but were unable to locate the other body (about 25 kilometers of river). Please pray for the family of Marco Aurelio as they deal with this sad loss. Pray for Paulino as he reaches out to them and others there in the community. One day while searching the river near us, Marco Aurelio asked me if it was true (as he had been told) that people that drowned in rivers couldn’t go to Heaven. I assured him that drowning in a river made no difference to God---His acceptance of a person had everything to do with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and not the manner of death. I encouraged him to help his remaining family hear God’s truth. But our hearts are heavy knowing that likely neither Marco nor his girls have accepted Jesus’ payment for their sin. Please pray for this needy family!

The beginning of this week found us assisting in a medical caravan here in RV. A missions trip organized by our friend Sheila in Kentucky came down bringing medicine and doctors. This group is visiting different communities here in Ecuador giving a free medical checkup and medicine when necessary. They have come annually here to our community, and it was a joy to work with them again. In the two days here they saw around 350 people and showed Christ’s love in a very tangible way to the Awa people. We also took the opportunity to teach the Bible with all those who came, sharing that although when Jesus was here on earth he was concerned with the health and physical issues of the people, he came with the purpose to provide a cure for the even more serious disease of sin. Just as these doctors freely offered medicine, God freely offered his Son. Click here to see a few pictures

Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Kevin & Kathy

PS: check out this big worm we saw while hiking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtaIpfJUqF0

Kevin & Kathy Bruce

Liebenzell Mission
Casilla 10-01-692
Ibarra, Imbabura
ECUADOR
+593 9 478-7811

http://brucekev.blogspot.com