Giving thanks...

Happy Thanksgiving Day! It is a work day here in Ecuador - Dick is giving a talk at the first ever Andean Infectious Diseases conference. I will be leading Bible study for the Awana staff this morning and then off to the dentist. But today is a great reminder to give God thanks. We are thankful for you, our friends and family. Grateful for the ways people's lives have touched and guided ours. We are grateful for peace, for freedom, and for opportunities to help in the world. Barb Boyd and Gwen Boyd pictured here are both physicians who visit Ecuador nearly every year to provide surgical/medical care to people in under-served areas. Dick will be going with an HCJB Global medical team to Haiti over Christmas to help people get through the cholera epidemic. Marian is looking forward to seeing family in the US during that time. We are thanking God with you! Dick and Marian

Medical Education and Technology

Even 20 years ago when we first arrived in Ecuador, information technology helped with medical education. We would send a medical search request to the National Library of Medicine via a dial-up connection and receive an answer within a couple days. That was amazing back then!
Now, Hospital Vozandes' teaching staff can offer live training sessions via video-conference with medical personnel in other places. The picture is from this month's Morbidity-Mortality lecture. On the screen are students participating from the Loja medical school in southern Ecuador. They are watching in real-time and asking questions. Medical education and technology have come a LONG way! At the podium is Dick Douce answering hard questions about tuberculosis...some things don't change.

Back to normal?

Thursday morning, I was at home, doing school work when Dick came bursting in "Did you hear? It's chaos! The police are on strike and the airport is closed. Schools are closing and people are going home." Thus began one of those too-exciting days around here. Ecuador's president talked with the police who were on strike, was tear-gassed, then treated and held at the police hospital until an armed force rescued him Thursday evening. The local newspaper reported that six people died in the trouble on Thursday, and nearly 200 were injured. Friday, a welcome calm returned. We are currently under a state of emergency. Please pray that next week bring cooler heads and wise decisions.

Saturday, we went grocery shopping. State of emergency or no, folks need to eat. People get paid at the end of the month, so the first Saturday of the month there are many people in the stores. Add to that uncertainty about the coming days and we weren't surprised to see that our store's 42 checkout lanes were fuller than usual.

Taxi Driver and HCJB Radio

The taxi driver asked us "Do you work at Radio Station HCJB?" As the driver, Pablo, made his way to our friend's house, he told us how listening to HCJB's program Al Oido ("A Listening Ear") changed his life. Al Oido is a program where people call in with problems and receive pastoral advice from Marco and Martha Claudia Mosquero over the radio. Pablo's life has been in a mess. He is the caretaker for his four children after his second wife left him. A friend told him that he should listen to Al Oido, because sooner or later someone would call in with the same problems he was experiencing and then he could listen to the advice. So he started listening and sure enough, heard good advice for his situation. He also heard that he should attend church. So he found a neighborhood church and attended one Sunday. People were so caring, that he decided he would continue attending and bring his children. He proudly told us that he and his oldest daughter will be getting baptized in October. He now plays hymns and chorus CDs in his taxi, and of course, listens to HCJB.

Dear friends,

Do you ever feel like you are on a fast treadmill? These past six months have been event-FULL! In February, Marian got a call that her dad was in Coronary intensive care unit and not doing well. She was able to go and be with him the last six weeks of his life. It was a wonderful, terrible, precious, difficult time. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement during that time.

During that time, Dick began his new role as Medical Director at Hospital Vozandes Quito. He is overseeing the 260 or so Ecuadorian doctors who have admitting privileges at our mission hospital. Many of these doctors have been our long-time friends, many have studied the Bible with Dick. Now, Dick uses his role to encourage these friends to lead other doctors in Bible study and to honor God with their service to patients in Hospital Vozandes.


Meanwhile, Marian decided that after over six years as the Executive Director of Global IT for HCJB that it is time to move on. The HCJB-IT folks met at Taylor University in June where Marian made a good transition of responsibilities over to friend and co-worker Juan Cabrera. Marian is now a graduate student in Organizational Leadership in an online program with Crown College (a Christian & Missionary Alliance school in Minnesota). She is also coaching the Ecuadorian staff members of the Awana Latin American regional office in Quito. Stay tuned for more news too about improving Camino de la Luz online Bible studies.


July 3rd, Elizabeth Levine and Daniel Douce were married! We had a great family time with them in Portland Maine. Please be praying for them in this new adventure!




We also got to attend a Douce Family Reunion, Marian's Uncle Karl's wedding and cousin Rachel Spann's wedding. In between weddings, we helped Marian's Mom to distribute some of her Dad's belongings. We finished with spending a week with son Tom in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. What fascinating natural resources!


Today, we are on our way back to Quito. Thank you for your prayers, friendship, and putting up with us when we aren't so communicative!

Love,
Dick and Marian