Tuesday, May 31, 2011

TIME TO CELEBRATE

Celebration is in the air. Five children of HCJB Global missionaries are graduating from the Alliance Academy International (AAI) this year. It is an honor to have played a part in their education. Mentoring and discipling young people is the main focus of Dave's work in Ecuador, but a terrific additional benefit is to support the work of other HCJB Global missionaries by offsetting the cost of their children's educations. Because our work is funded by amazing people like you, the salary the school would otherwise pay Dave is instead used to lower the tuition costs of HCJB Global missionary kids.

HCJB Global's high school seniors for 2011
(and proud missionary parents, too)

We celebrate the work that God is doing in these students' lives and we're thrilled about the work that God is doing through the lives of their parents. We congratulate the following students (parent professions in parentheses): Elizabeth Hartwig (hydroplant engineering/national missionary training), Joseph Kurtenbach (communications/teaching), David Quiring (teaching/nursing), Trevor Weeks (radio engineering), and Josh Zook (radio engineering/human resources).

Thanks to your support, young people are getting a great schooling experience and the financial burden on the parents to provide a quality education is lightened. For next year, HCJB Global will have students at AAI whose parents work in health care, media, community development and education. Thank you SO MUCH for partnering with us to bless both young people and their parents. We are blessed so that we can be a blessing and we celebrate being able to do that together with you!

ENCOURAGING WORDS

We all enjoy an uplifting word from time to time, so with joy, we share this good news with you:

  • A student who is a self-professing atheist sought out Dave recently to tell him he really appreciated his Bible teaching. 
  • The student feedback from the "sex-talk" seminars both of us gave has been very positive. 
  • Several weeks ago, a young lady was baptized at our church and afterward, she told Dave that taking his class was one of the reasons she decided to get baptized. 
  • Dave was just recognized by a vote of AAI staff and students as the 2010-2011 Outstanding Teacher for the high school. His plaque reads, "By word and deed, your presence has enriched the lives of students... and served as an example for all." The high school boys gave Dave a standing ovation when his name was called. 
    Dave with his small group at the Jr. & Sr. Class banquet
  • Dave was asked by the senior class to give the address at their Baccalaureate service on June 12. The entirety of his speech will be drawn from Scripture quotations. 
  • An old tradition at AAI has been to hold baptismal services at the end of the school year. This June 12, that tradition is being resurrected as four seniors (including Joseph and Josh -- mentioned above) take the plunge before they leave for college. Beth will be leading music at the service. 
    • Beth helps lead music at a recent
    Sunday Service at our church

  • We are encouraged by your words, too, so we are really looking forward to spending some time this summer with many of you in the U.S.!
CELEBRATE SUMMER

June and July will find us in the U.S. and we can't wait to celebrate time with as many friends and family as we can squeeze in! We expected to be in Quito over the summer, but since Beth's sister, Rachel, is getting married, we're flying up for a five week visit. Yay! We will be in IL from June 21-July 11 and in MN from July 12-25. We will share in the following churches (follow the links for service times, directions, etc):
We hope to connect with more friends, as well, so please drop us an e-mail (if we don't beat you to it) to arrange a get-together. We have more stories to share and we are eager to hear some of yours!

With grateful hearts, 
Dave & Beth Saavedra
and Levi, Luke, Aaron and Evangeline, too. 
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