Bethany Altona

2009-01-04T19:31:00.001-08:00

It was requested that I try to podcast the sermons that we record. You can see the podcast spot on the sidebar. You can subscribe to it if you have itunes (a free download). These first sermons I uploaded in a higher quality format than I normally will. It sounds better but takes longer to download. Anyway, it is available if you want it.

Don't Miss It

2008-12-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

I used this story in my "From the Pastor's Study" in today's bulletin.

On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk NC. On their 5th attempt, the plane under the control of Orville, embarked on a 12 second flight. Wilbur rushed to the local telegraph office and sent the following message – we have flown for 12 seconds - we will be home for Christmas! Upon receiving the telegram their sister, Katherine went to the newspaper office, told the editor of her brother’s new flying machine, and informed him, they would be home for Christmas, if he would like to set up an interview. He told her that was nice, and he would be sure to put something in the paper regarding the boys. On December 19th, the local paper placed the following headline on the 6th page of the paper: “WRIGHT BROTHERS HOME FOR CHRISTMAS” The most important story of the year – man’s first flight – and the editor missed it! I wonder if the same could be said about us when it comes to Christmas.

I thought it was an interesting story that reminded me that it is so easy to miss the meaning of Christmas in all of the other "events" of the time of the year. I know that my family is very busy during this time of the year. We have already had a School Christmas Program and a Cantata at church. This week we have a piano recital, a violin recital and another cantata. That is just this week. It is so easy to get wrapped up in all the events that we forget why we have all the events - celebrating the birth of Christ. So how do we keep our focus on Christ even through all of the busyness? That is my question to you. What do you do individually or as a family so that you keep your focus on the birth of Christ during this time of year?

Anniversary Sunday

2008-11-30T15:23:00.000-08:00

Anniversary Sunday was today. We had great services - even though the snow kept some away today. It was a great day remembering God's faithfulness throughout the years. I will try to upload two presentations from this morning and as always the audio of the sermon is available at our website.

I have also uploaded the history presentation in pdf format here. You will need the Adobe reader, which most of you all will have. I originally uploaded it to YouTube in video format, but I figured out how to do this all on my own. I am so proud of myself - until the website crashes tomorrow!

I have also uploaded the Year in Review video here. You can also access it via the History tab at the church website. This one is a bit long to download if you have dialup, but I did keep the video in lower quality for those who do.

I have been having a bit of trouble downloading the video using Internet Explorer - which I try not to use. I use Google's browser - Chrome and it starts fine. I also tried Firefox and Safari , and they both worked fine also. (which is why I use anything but IE) With IE, it seems to not want to auto start the video. If you have that problem, right click and select "save target as" and choose the location where you would like to save the video. Make sure you know where it is so that you can find it again. Hope that helps.

Blog

2008-11-23T20:29:00.001-08:00

By the way, if you signed up to be a follower of this blog because of our Ecuador trip, you might be wondering why I am blogging again. I thought I would try to write a bit each week on here to try to be an encouragement to those who wanted to read it. I would love for you to comment about what I write, or even bring some other point up.

I did change a setting to protect from spammers commenting on the blog. If you do not see your comment posted immediately, it is because I will be reviewing all comments before I post them.

If you have not looked at our church website, I encourage you to look at it. David Reed made some changes for me that I hope will be a help to both those in our church and interested people out of town. Thanks for reading.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

There’s a story about a city fellow who was visiting relatives on a farm and the farmer gave a whistle and his dog herded the cattle into the corral, then latched the gate with her paw. "Wow, that’s some dog. What’s her name?" The forgetful farmer thought a minute, then asked, "What do you call that red flower that smells good and has thorns on the stem?" "A rose?" "That’s it!" The farmer turned to his wife. "Hey Rose, what do we call this dog?"

Forgetfulness. Most people do battle with forgetfulness. I know that I do. I am glad that my wife remembers where I put things and what appointments I have. I would be lost without her - at least I remember her name! As we consider Thanksgiving this week, I want to remind you to be thankful. I look at thanksgiving as a reminder to be thankful all year long. Because we are forgetful people, we need reminders even to be thankful.

I think it is interesting that God knew the forgetfulness of the Israelites and warned them that once they were comfortable in the Promised Land, they would forget what He had done for them.

Deuteronomy 8:11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Notice in this passage that God knew that once the Israelites had experienced comfort, they would try to claim that it was of their own strength and power that they had gotten their comfort and wealth. God wants them to remember that it was of His power and strength that they had received the blessing of the promised land. He wants them to show that they remember by obeying and giving Him the glory.

Many times in our comfort and wealth, we forget that it is God that has given us what we have. It is God that has placed us in this country of wealth. It is God that worked in our hearts so that we accepted His gift of salvation. It is God who gives us our health. The list could go on and on of what God has done for us. Do you thank Him for that, or like the Israelites, have you forgotten what God has done for you? I encourage you to remember to be thankful for all that God has done for you - not just this week of Thanksgiving, but all year long. As the Psalmist says:

Psalm 92:1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.

Give thanks to your great God. He has done so much for you.

We Made It Home

2008-10-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

I thought I should share with you that we did in fact make it home. It was a long day of flying, but we made it. Sunday was a great day in Ecuador. At the church service Sunday Morning, Kevin preached about the body of Christ being many members, but one body working together. He used our week of work as an example. At the end of the service, some of the men who we had been working with and a few of the women who were helping with bringing food stood up and gave testimony of thanks to us and testimony of what they had learned. It was an emotional time for both them and us. It was so exciting for me to see that these young believers had grasped why we were there in Riobamba. We had gone down there with the goal of being an example of Christ's love working and serving to the believers in Riobamba. We had prayed as a church that we would be an example and by the testimony given, the Lord did in fact use us in this way. We praise God for using us men for His glory. I do invite any who would like to come here more of our trip to our services on Sunday. We would love for you to be there as we share of God's work in and through us during our trip to Ecuador. Thanks for praying.

Saturday Update

2008-10-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today we finished up the roof and then started on the concrete. First we needed to get more rock to cover the bottom of the floor. This is the dump truck that came to deliver the rock. This is one of the few full size trucks in the city.

This pictures shows how we got the concrete to the area we needed the concrete. Ron manned one most of the day as well as hauling water from the cistern and loading the mixer. He just doesn't quit.
Here is a picture of the completed building.
Here you can see Kevin putting the finishing touches on the concrete. The float he has in his hand is the biggest float that was used for the entire floor. Kevin floated the entire floor with that!
Here is the concrete mixer we used for the day. We were thankful that one of the men in the church brought and operated the mixer. Most of the time they mix it in wheelbarrels. It was still hard work to add rock, sand, and the cement. It was a lot of lifting.We were excited to get the floor poured today. It was a hard day of physical labor, but we made it. Andrew's adventerous eating finally came back to get him. His stomach really was bothering him this afternoon, but he kept after it.
I am not sure if there will be another update tomorrow. After church we will be heading to Quito, probably stopping by the equator tomorrow afternoon. Please do pray for us as we travel to Quito tomorrow. There will be three of us riding in the back of the pickup the three and a half hours to Quito. Then Monday morning we need to be at the airport by 4 AM for our 6:45 AM flight to Miami. We only have a 1 hour 40 minute layover in Miami where we need to go through customs and recheck our luggage. Kevin said he usually wants to have a 2 hour layover, so we are really hoping and praying that all goes well in Miami so we don't have to catch another flight to Chicago. Also be praying for me as I travel on from Ohare to Omaha, NE to meet with my wife's family concerning her grandma. Please pray for the Meyer family this week, and pray for me that I would keep my strength through a long day of travelling. Thanks to all who have read, kept up with us and prayed for us during our stay in Ecuador. We know that God has answered your prayers for us. We do feel as though God has worked through us and in us this week, and for that we give Him the glory. If you can be at Bethany's services next Sunday, we will be giving a report and showing many more pictures and some video. We would love to have you join us both in the morning and evening services.

Friday Update

2008-10-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

On Thursday might Vichi and his family took us all out to dinner. We had a nice time of laughter and fellowship.

This picture shows a little bit of the personality of Vichi. Just after this Ron went and took a spoonful of his cake, handed Vichi the spoon and started to take the cake. Vichi had a scared look on his face and we all started laughing really hard. It was one of the many fun moments we had on this trip.

This is Fernando, a carpenter in the church who has worked with us for a few days now. He provides some amusement also. He is always talking and making sound effects with his talking. We don't always know what he is talking about - I am not sure those who speak Spanish always know what he is talking about, but his sound effects are great and always make us chuckle.

This is the inside of the building . You can see that we got most of the building roofed today. They decided to put up some pannels that allow the light to get through, you can see those in this picture. They were obvioulsy much lighter than concrete ones and Ron asked several times if we could just put up the plastic ones the rest of the day. Ron spent most of the day with Kevin and several nationals on the roof. Andrew spent some time up there towards the end of the day, and Dave and I needed to stay down on the ground because we had the muscle to put the pannels up to the roof - or they were afraid our weight would break through the concrete pannels - who knows which is the real reason. You can also see in this picture all of the rocks that are carefully laid out on the floor. When they pour concrete, they layer the ground with bolders and then porur the concrete on top - that way it only takes about an inch or two of concrete. Tomorrow we will hopefully be able to pour the floor in the auditorium.
This is a picture of our favorite ladder. I wrote earlier in the week that I would not be using this ladder, but I have several times. It is quite a ladder.Here is another picture of the building with the roof almost completed. We would have finished it, but we ran out of roof pannels. We got some more (Dave and I went with Kevin. Ecuadorian hardware stores are an experience), but we still needed to paint the underside since the underside of the roof is the ceiling of the church. It is amazing that here in this part of Ecuador, no one has any type of heat (besides a fireplace) or air conditioning. They do not even have weather on the news, because the weather is always the same. Very different from the midwest.

This is the guys fininsing up nailing the last available pannels on this evening at about 6:00 PM. It was a long day, but we were glad we accomplished what we did today.
Thanks again for all who have prayed. Kevin said tonight that this really has been good for the people in the church. We praise God for that and for giving us the strength to make it through another day.

Thursday Update

2008-10-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Well here is our progress today. We put the last rafters up. We ended up needing one more than we had made, so we also had to take apart one that we had made already and make another. Then we were able to put the cross braces up so that we can mount the roof panels - hopefully tomorrow. This is a picture from below.
This is a picture from the top. You can see Ron and Kevin on top of the roof, and Dave and I are below handing things up to these guys. Andrew is the one taking this picture.
This is a picture of the nationals working on notching the cross supports. We kept them busy making these all day.
This is Camilo. He is the brick layer. In this picture he is working on the sewer cleanout. The sewer goes through this box and then goes into the septic tank.
This is Carlos and his daughter Martina. Carlos has been working with us all week.
It was a good day. The Ecuadorian food or water finally affected my weak stomach, but I will make it. Dave has a bad cold, but is toughing it out. Ron and Andrew are doing great. Thanks for all your prayers for us. We do appreciate it.

Wednesday Pictures

2008-10-22T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well I got a few minutes to upload these pictures before church . I will quickly try to get a brief description. of all these pictures.

This is from the end of the building with our six rafters in place. You can see a wall towards the back left. That is a wall to the bathrooms. On the right side is the kitchen. Behind the kitchen is a Sunday School room.Here is another view of the rafters in place.
This is the roof sections that the nationals painted today. They look like steel sections, but they are actually made from concrete. Should be interesting to put those up.
This is Carlos, a national who took the week off of work to work with us here on the building site. He is a quiet guy, and a very hard worker.
This is Vichi. He is a character. As you can see from the smile on his face, he is always joking with us. He knows English pretty well. He is the one who owns the property where we are working. He is a lot of fun to be around, and we all tease him and he teases us all right back.
Again, thanks for all your prayers for us. We do appreciate all that you have done for us back home.

Wednesday Update

2008-10-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

I tried to get Andrew to do this update today, but he declined. He says that he is fine - that's his update. So, I guess I will fill you in. We had another great day of work. The weather started out a little rainy but by the time we made it to the worksite, it had cleared and the sun was shining. Thanks to all who have been praying for good weather. We did get a lot accomplished today which hopefully you will be able to see once I get the pictures up later on tonight - hopefully. We were able to finish building the rafters, and then we moved to putting the rafters in place. This was quite a project that the four of us, Kevin, and Dale all worked on together. Andrew was mostly on the scaffolding, Dave and Dale were on the ground running around for what we needed, Kevin, Ron, and I were up and down the ladders and sitting on the top plate. There was one time where Dave and I were holding two ladders together to make a step ladder for Ron to climb. We wished we could have gotten a picture, but we thought we might re-enact it later on so that we could get the picture. It is amazing how much you have to think how to do things with what you have. It really is a lot of fun. We were able to get 6 of the 9 rafters in place with no injuries. Only Kevin fell off the ladder once, and we were able to catch him while he held himself up. Dale said that he told us not to get hurt.
Tonight we are eating at a resturant owned by someone in the church and then we will go to prayer meeting. I have no idea what to expect, but it should be interesting.
Thanks for all who have prayed for us - please continue!

Tuesday Pictures

2008-10-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

I thought I would show you what we accomplished today. We finished putting the top plate up all the way around. I am not sure if you can tell from the pictures that these are probably somewhere in the neighborhood of true 6x3 made of incredibly heavy wood. Each of them we cut to length and then put up on top of the posts. This is made even more interesting because of what we use as a ladders. One is a ladder that is actually two thin poles with 1x2 boards nailed to it. I don;t think those are rated for a guy my size so Ron gets to use that ladder. We also use a barrel and a metal ladder that reminds me more of a metal lattice to grow vines one. It really actually works quite well. Once we get the boards in place, we drill through the posts that we notched and put a 1/2 inch bolt through the post and top plate. Suprisingly enough, our building is incredibly close to being perfectly square - only 1 cm off a 20 m building. (sorry for using the metric measurements - it actually is kind of handy now that I am getting used to it - I can't believe I am saying that!) Anyway it is quite a process and we were glad to finish that up before lunch (or dinner for those of you in Altona).

After lunch we started working on building the rafters. Kevin and Dale made a pattern that we started to copy. It was a lot of hard work to build these rafters. We are again using the 3x6 inch boards to make our rafters , and we have to notch out each piece that intersects so that they actually rest on the other board rather than trust our hardware. I think Kevin is tired of hearing from me that we could do something different if I had my garage full of tools and the hardware available at the Galesburg Lowes. It has been a good experience trying to build with minimal tools and hardware. It really does make you think things through. Here is a picture of one of the joints. Hopefully you can see the notch that we made to join the support of the rafters. All of our notching is done with a circular saw, hand saws, chisels and my favorite - a hammer. We also notch out for the area sitting on the wall which is not really an exact science since the wall is not straight because of how crooked these beams are. It really has been a fun experience - challenging.

Tonight we attended our second Bible Study in the home of a family of new believers. It is interesting to hear their take on our being here in Ecuador helping their church. One lady said tonight that she is with people quite often that do not understand her, but with us she knew we could understand her and she could understand us because of our bond in Christ. Obvioulsy she was speaking of spiritual things. In spite of our lack of ability to understand the language, they can see that we are communicating the love of Christ by our being their to help them. It is exciting to see them "get it." That was one of our goals in being here. That we would be able to demonstrate the love of Christ to the nationals here in Ecuador. I do think we are accomplishing that goal, and it is because of the hard work of the Ron, Dave and Andrew and their good attitude no matter how tired they are. It really has been great to be with these guys and all the Mayfields.

Thanks to all who have read, commented and are praying for our team. We need your prayers and we appreciate the support. Pray for another great day of weather tomorrow. Today it sprinkled a bit while we were heading home. It actually really felt good on our sunburned necks. Today we had 11 people in a small Chevy pickup on the way home from the work site. That is one full cab (6 people) and bed (5 people). Thanks again for praying for us.

Tuesday Update

2008-10-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

We made it through the day. We are heading out to a Bible Study in a few minutes. It was another day of great weather. I will try to update later on tonight - hopefully with some pictures.

Monday Pictures

2008-10-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

This is the view that we woke up to this morning. What a view from the roof of the Mayfield's home. By the way, Ron is actually sleeping in a little room on the roof. We thought we might call him Peter for the week.
This is our lunch break. It was a great time to take a break after several hours of work. We are eating underneath a little lean-to shed that Kevin and Viche built this morning out of some sticks, wire and a curragated concrete roof - yes I said concrete. It did keep up out of the sun for a little while which was good.

Here is our progress for the day. After treating these 6x6 posts with a tar and diesel mix, Andrew and Dave drilled holes through the posts to attach them to a plate at the base. Ron and I notched each of the posts so that the top plate could sit on the posts. It was a lot of hard work, but it was enjoyable. I am not sure we have seen a straight piece of lumber, so it has been a challenge. The wood is eucolyptus (sp?) - very hard wood.
Here are the guys after a long day of work. Dave, Andrew, and Dale
And Ron
And the dirtiest of them all - Me. I must have worked the hardest. HA HA

Monday Update

2008-10-20T16:09:00.001-07:00

Well we survived our first day. We left the house this morning at 7:30 after a good pancake breakfast. We did accomplish a lot more than we thought when we started. I will explain a little about what we did with some pictures. Tonight we are going to a Bible Study with Kevin and Trina at 8:30. They said to plan to be there until 11 PM and then we will be back up at 6:00 AM to start the day. That could get a little tiring, but we are excited about the opportunities we have here in Ecuador. We did have a great meal at lunch. We had a chicken soup - fortnunately none of us got the chickens foot in our bowl of soup. Then they had a salad, rice, and a chicken in tomato/chicken broth. It really was very good. Anyway, I will put a few pictures up so you can have an idea of what we accomplished.

Sunday Afternoon Pizza

2008-10-19T17:01:00.001-07:00

Here is our group eating pizza Sunday Afternoon in Riobamba.

Church Service

2008-10-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the church service this morning. I know it is not a very good picture because of the sun behind Vichi, but it is the best I could do. Vichi was teaching a memory verse for the day. None of us did a good job at memorizing the verse in Spanish. You can see how small their room is. We had more than 50 people in a very small room - but it was exciting.

Building Site

2008-10-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

This is the building site where we will be working this week. Eventually the floor will be covered with the bolders and then coated with concrete. They plan for us to help them accomplish that project this week as well. We do have to mix all of our own concrete, so it should be quite a job. You can see the posts on the lefthand side. Those posts are bolted to a bracket that is sunk in the concrete. We need to finish putting the posts on the right hand side and then we will tie them together at the top of the posts once we notch all of the posts at a hopefully level height. Then we will put rafters up and a steel roof. If we can accomplsih all of that, we will be very happy!

Sunday Afternoon

2008-10-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy day of going to church, seeing the building site, eating pizza, and watching the Bears. Can you believe we were able to watch the Bears WIN in Ecuador. We have had a great time already. I am going to try to upload a few pictures so you can see the property and current meeting place. It was pretty amazing to be in the church service. The hunger for truth and understanding of the nationals was really exciting to see. This afternoon we are going to one of the team's homes to have a time of fellowship with the missionaries. Tomorrow morning we will will be eating breakfast then heading out to the building sit. Pray that we are more of a help than a hindrance. I am going to try to upload a few pictures later on this evening - so check back later on tonight.
One quick story from yesterday that I forgot to tell you. Andrew had his Packers hat on yesterday and when we got to the security check point in Chicago, the TSA agent told Andrew that the checkpoint for Packer fans was way on the other side of the airport - and it was only open on Thursdays. Dave and I enjoyed that!

2008-10-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

We made it! We arrived here at the Mayfield's about midnight on Saturday. It was a long day of travelling and we were all exhausted after travelling all day. We had an hour delay in Miami so they could fix the toilet and video player on our plane. We made it through customs and immigration without any problems, and Kevin, Dale, and Sandy were waiting for us when we got off the plane. All 7 of us travelled the 3 1/2 hours back to Kevin and Trina's in a ford ranger pickup. It was a double cab, so just Andrew and Dave road in the back. I think they had the most comfortable place to ride. Kevin put a foam matress back there so they got to lay down and rest. It was quite an experience travelling through Equador. Like nothing we had ever experienced. It was dark, but just the city lights on the hillsides were amazing. The "good" roads were a little rough. I cannot imagine the rough roads. We are excited to be here and to attend the church service today. Sandy said she would try to keep us up to date so we at least knew what was going on. I think we are all adjusting well to the altitude. It kind of feels like someone is sitting on your chest. Even while I was sleeping I could feel myslef take a really long breath. Andrew said I was a woman. We will see how the working goes at this altitude. Well I need to finish getting ready for church, so I will sign off for now. Hopefully I will be able to post a few pictures later on this evening.

Departure Coming Soon

2008-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

I thought I would let you know our travel schedule so that you can be praying for us as we travel to Ecuador. We plan to leave Altona around 5 AM and our flight leaves O'hare Airport in Chicago at 10:05 AM. From Chicago we head to Miami arriving at 1 PM. We have a short layover in Miami before heading to Quito, Ecuador at 2:50 PM. We arrive in Quito at 6:45 PM and then make a 3-4 hour drive to Riobamba. It will be a long day of travel, and we do covet your prayers for us throughout the day.

Our group going includes myself, Ron Reed, Andrew Johnson, and my brother Dave.

By the way, don't be afraid to leave a comment to let the group know that you are praying for us. I changed a setting to make it easier for you to comment without having to sign up with a google account. So comment away!

A Little about Ecuador

2008-10-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add a few maps so you can see where Ecuador is. I know for some it has been a long time since Geography Class, and many have asked where it is in relation to the US - so here you go.

We will be flying into the city of Quito and then driving to Riobamba where the church is located. Riobamba is a large city of 400,000 people sitting at over 9,000 ft above sea level - very thin air! It should be quite an experience for some guys from Altona - population 550 and 750 ft above sea level.

Sunday Night Dedication Service

2008-10-12T23:29:00.001-07:00

Our Sunday Evening service we spent reminding us as a church our goals for going to Ecuador. As a text, we used several passages from the book of Philippians where Paul shares with the church his desire for them to follow his example and also how they have ministered to him in his need. We talked about our goal to be a good example of men serving Christ with out talents for His glory and not out own. We recognize our responsibility to show them how a Christian is to not seek their own, but instead seek after Christ. We also shared that we have a tremendous opportunity to be an encouragement to the missionary team in Ecuador. We want our actions to prove what we have told them many times - that we care for them and their ministry. Finally we wrapped up the evening with goals for us personally. We know that we will grow in our knowledge of mission work in general, but we also want to grow in our knowledge of the people in Ecuador. We want to come back with a renewed understanding of the work in Ecuador. Our desire is that we would share that passion with the people back here in Altona so they too can become even more excited about missions work in general and the ministry in Ecuador specifically. Please join in prayer with us that we would accomplish these goals on our trip to Ecuador.

Preparing for Ecuador

2008-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

On the suggestion of my dad, I decided to create a blog to keep all those interested up to date on our church's missions tip to Ecuador. I cannot believe that we will be leaving next week. We have received all of our passports and we just about have enough funds for the trip. We praise God for the opportunity to serve Him in this way.