Would you like ketchup and mayo on your pizza?

Saturday we took our new NILI students for pizza at Miriam's, where you can buy a large piece of pizza for $1.25. On each table is Mayonnaise, ketchup, and a hot sauce called 'ají'. We sat down and I naturally added the mayo and ketchup to my pizza as did Jen and Lucy. The NILIs were both amazed that anyone would put ketchup and mayo on their pizza. That is one of the reasons i love my job, it is fun to see Ecuador through the eyes of our new students. Something I take for granted, Mayo and ketchup, is a whole new and rather shocking adventure.

The NILI classes start today. We are really excited for this semester and to see what God is going to do in all of our lives. There are 2 University students who we call 'classic this semester and in the coming weeks we will be joined by 3 couples who will be studying in NILI professional.

The bulk of our orientation was this weekend, with a few things to finish up this week. God is so good to help us prepare our students for their time here in Ecuador. Every time I do a workshop regarding culture or how to live in a cross cultural environment I am so grateful to the Lord for what I have learned, the way I learned it(even though it was not the easy way), and for the years I spent with the Z's in Venezuela. God is amazing in the way He prepares us for what we will do next without us even knowing about it. Hmmm... I wonder what He is preparing me for now.

We also welcomed Jen Staudt to our NILI staff this month. She was a volunteer with me in Venezuela and then came to Ecuador with the Fischer family last year. Jen is back now as Ministry coordinator. It is wonderful to have her her to bounce ideas off of!

Personally, I was able to start a Precepts Bible study on the book of Matthew today with people from my home church through Facebook. How exciting is that! Although I am far away and 2 hours earlier I can connect with my home church. There is no way to tell you how excited I am!!!!!!! The part that is most exciting is that about a month before the announcement was made that the study would be on Facebook I had been looking on line for ways to do a Precepts study on my own. Knowing me though I knew I would need accountability to ever finish it. So I decided to 'wait and see'... I didn't have to wait too long. I hope to learn a lot!