Booher, Myles and Mary

~ Serving in Ecuador; South America ~

Myles and Mary Booher,
Ecuador, South America.

One of the goals of this trip has been to connect more with and get on the same page as the Camas Valley Church. This church is the Barnards’ new sending church, and has a lot of experience and wisdom in the area of missions, as well as a real vision for God’s work in Ecuador to be carried out. We have not changed sending churches, but have gleaned a lot of wisdom from the elders there. This also has been a beautiful opportunity for the elders of the Happy Valley Church (our sending church) to get together with the elders there and learn practical ways of how to be a better sending church and shepherd the sheep serving on the mission field. It’s been a neat chance for furthered unity between local congregations here.

Myles was blessed to participate in a class that Camas Valley offers called Inductive Bible Study, learning how to study the Bible with the Bible. It has transformed—for the better—and organized, some of his methods of Bible study and added more balance. He is excited to go on studying God’s Word more effectively this way. Jesse Barnard helped teach the class, and Manuel Pilmann in Ecuador (thanks to internet) and Philip Witt were the other students. The classes were three mornings a week for several weeks.

Much of the time we have been here Linnea has been very sick with recurring fevers. Twice without us realizing it, her fever spiked, causing a febrile seizure. So very scary! The second time it happened we took her to a local doctor who prescribed antibiotics for an ear and sinus infection, as well as Tylenol to keep her fever down. She recovered well. Then ten days later she woke up with a fever again. Wanting to keep her fever under control (seeing her tendency toward seizures) we gave her medicine to manage that, but for a week she was sick, sick, sick, her fever rising every time the medicine ended. We finally took her to the ER and learned that she had a severe ear infection, complete with puss draining out of her little ear. Poor baby! That was almost a week ago now, and thanks to Jesus and loads of home remedies, she appears to be steadily improving. Being parents of a sick infant—especially for weeks—is a whole other story! We are just praising Jesus for healing our little sunshine.

We are looking into getting a routine MRI for Mary to check on the cyst in her brain since it has been about three years since the last scans. Nothing medical happens fast here, but we are waiting to hear back from our care provider if the type of MRI needed is safe during pregnancy. That will help determine when we can return to Ecuador. By the way, our next addition is about half cooked now! Woohoo!

Speaking of the baby, please pray for God’s direction as to where we should have this baby. Several of our ideas have fallen through, and we want what God wants. Lord, please give us ears to hear Your voice!

Right now we are house sitting for Philip and Caitlyn Witt while they are…on a trip to Ecuador. Yep! Their trip finally worked out and we are not there, nor are the Barnards. This is a huge disappointment to us, of course; it is so unlike what any of us pictured, but we trust God has wonderful purposes in it. They are visiting the Boohers and a few others there, and they get to see our house and where we normally live! We are so excited for them.

Please pray that we will have patient and flexible hearts as we just live day to day, not knowing when we will return, though we hope in February sometime.

Please pray for a dear Ecuadorian brother, Richard, who was falsely accused and recently imprisoned.

Thank you all so much, dear brethren for your prayers, your love, and your participation in God’s work through generous giving. We thank God for you all and pray that He blesses each of you richly.

Lovin’ Jesus,
Myles, Mary, and Linnea