In August, Fred and I were asked to teach a Christian Education Course at the Seminario del Pacifico in Esmeraldas (a poor city on the Pacific Coast in Ecuador with a predominantly black population). This course involves about 30 hours of instruction where we teach the Biblical basis of children’s ministry and then also practically how to study and prepare a lesson. As a final assignment for the students, each student is assigned a passage which is not well known from the Bible and they have to prepare a story on this passage for a particular age group. After this preparation the student teaches the lesson to the rest of the students and time is spent afterwards in discussing and giving positive suggestions for the students benefit. This exercise has been very beneficial to the students and helps them to put into practice what they have learned.
 

Arlene teaching the students in Esmeraldas, Ecuador

 In September, we traveled to Monterrey, Mexico where Arlene taught the workshop to the teachers of 9 Presbyterian churches from that area.  Fred traveled with Jorge Aleman a Mexican pastor to La Victoria (a city 4 hours south of Monterrey), where he taught the workshop to the teachers of 8 churches in that area.

Ani Dunner and her husband recently visited us from Santiago, Chile. Ani is one of the leaders of the children’s program in Chile where we taught the workshop three years ago. We were very happy to hear from her the positive reports on how God has used the ministry there and how they have also shared it with some other churches. On our return trip to Ecuador from Mexico we stopped in Lima, Peru to drop off some more books for the growing need of the churches there. At present, the curriculum is being used primarily in the Presbyterian churches and also in the churches planted by the Evangelical Free Church missionaries. We have two more requests to teach the workshops in areas of Peru which are far removed from Lima. A Peruvian friend has asked us to come to Moyabamba in the jungle area of Peru to a large community of churches originally planted years ago by Scottish Presbyterian missionaries and another couple have asked us to teach at the Pastor’s training and resource center in Trujillo. The Lord willing we will be able to help these areas out in 2010.