Update 8/9/10

1. It's been a few weeks now since the VBS I spoke of in my last update. Thank you so much for the prayers as it went very well. We started the first day with about 60 kids but had around 100 every day after that. The kids come mainly for a 4 block radius around the church and look forward to this every year. Some of them have been coming for 2 or 3 years now. Thanks again for the prayers as I know this week meant so much to these kids.

2. Next week I will be taking a few days for a trip down to the jungle. There is a missionary couple and a journeyman that I'm good friends with who work with the Shuar people that live in this area. The Shuar, like the Quichua that I work with, are an indigenous group. However, unlike the Quichua, the Shuar are not nearly as integrated into mainstream society and are still very cold and closed towards strangers. There are no more than 15-20 believers in this area and no churches. I am bringing down 3 Ecuadorians (2 of which are Quichua) for this trip. Two are pastors/missionaries that will share testimony and hopefully open doors to the Shuar. The other is a young man who is an architect and is going to design a bridge for the Shuar in an area that needs it badly. Our goal in bringing Quichua with us on this trip is that the Shuar might see that the message the white people are preaching comes not just from foreigners but from their own people. We hope this effort, along with the goodwill of designing the bridge, will open doors for future ministry. Please remember us in prayer starting Sunday the 15th and the the next several days. Also pray for good weather as rain is very frequent in the jungle and the roads are quite bad.

Thanks everyone for the prayers!

Update

1. It's been two weeks since the team from Wellford was here and a lot was accomplished. Over the course of 3 days we stopped in 4 communities. The focus has been on working in the schools by bringing materials and supplies. In the community of Zhud, where previously the school had been open to us, it was now unwilling to allow us in. Instead, we played sports and games with the kids of the community. However, in Gonzol we were welcomed more enthusiastically than ever and the director of the school invited us to spend several days there the next time the team comes through. God is certainly opening doors there. In Huigra we were able to do activities with the children from the church there. This community is one of the poorest in the area. The pastor, Francisco, has no home or land and relies solely on the provision of God through his congregation and on teams that we bring through. Please pray for each of these communities that the local churches would take advantage of the doors that have been opened and be faithful to follow up on that.

2. Today, tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday (July 14-17) a youth retreat is being held outside of Cuenca. An estimated 40 youth will be attending from all around the Azuay province. The topic is "Breaking the chains". Please pray that the speakers and topic would be relevant to the lives of these youth and that they would be ready to hear what God has to say to them.

3. Next week (July, Mon 19- Fri 23, 2pm-5pm) the church I work with in Cuenca (C.A.S.A. Ministries) is holding a VBS. The neighborhood where the church is located is very rough and most of the kids will be children of prostitutes, alcoholics, drug addicts/dealers, etc. Please pray for those of that that will be involved and for the church that they would follow up on this opportunity appropriately.

Thanks so much for the prayers!

Update

Tomorrow morning a volunteer team from Wellford, SC will be arriving here in Cuenca. They have adopted two communities, Zhud and Gonsol. Sunday morning we will be driving out to work in these communities and a few others on the way to driving up to Quito. We will be spending the night in a few places along the way and finish Thursday by driving the rest of the 5-6 hours up to Quito. Pray for open doors and hearts so that God's work would be done in these communities. Pray that after the team leaves, these communties would be open to more evangelistic work being done there in the future. Pray for safety as I will be driving every day. I will provide another update after the team leaves and thanks for the prayers!

Praise

In the past several posts I've been giving updates about the house church we have here in our apartment building every Monday that started with Douglas. This week Douglas celebrated two big events with us: his 22nd birthday and his baptism. He was very excited about both and we baptized him in the bathtub.

You can also be praying for me as I begin to organize a ESL class that I want to teach once a week. There are enough people here who have asked me about this that I think it would be beneficial. I intend to ask all the Christians who participate to bring a non-Christian friend whenever possible. I already know of one couple who aren't believers that are interested. Please pray that the logistics of it all would work out so the right people will come and we can use this as an opportunity to connect them to a house church. Please also pray for me as I learn how to teach English, as at this point, ironically, I am much better at teaching Spanish.

Thank you everyone for your prayers!

More updates

Please pray for the youth from the church in Cuenca in the above picture. Last weekend I had about a dozen of them over to my apartment for a BBQ. My goal with them is to get them to move beyond one hour a week Bible studies and social events to real ministry. One option I'm praying about and close to implementing is ESL lessons. Many people in the church we work with in Cuenca, including the youth, have not yet grasped that lost people must be reached and loved from outside of the church. They must take ministry and love to the places where lost people are, which is generally not in a church building or even a house church on Sunday morning. I would like to use ESL lessons one day a week as an opportunity for the youth to bring their lost friends to someplace where they can hear about the Bible and Christ in a very open and inviting way. Pray that if this is something God truly wants to happen that the scheduling would work out and the youth would commit to their involvement.

Continue to pray for the house church we have here every Monday. Douglas and Diana are still very consistent and passionate in following the Lord. However, Washington, Diana's cousin and also friend and co-worker of Douglas, has fallen away and back into some of his old habits. He knows he is living in sin and needs help so pray that love and faithful friendship on the part of Douglas and Diana will bring him back around.

Pray for the community of Guangra. I mentioned this previously as a community we were planning to hike to so that we could make arrangements for a medical team in November. Several times our plans have been cancelled but we recently made progress. A few weeks ago we met the villagers from Guangra at a small town in the mountains that they hike to once a week for supplies at the market. We gave them the letters they need to fill out so we can have a approval from the government and they will also be presenting our request to the entire community. In the meantime we are going to be in contact with them so that we can arrange a date to meet again. They will bring horses and we'll ride in with them and have a look at the community and be introduced. Pray that all these arrangements work out and that we would experience good weather when the time comes to go in as we are in the middle of the rainy season now. I will update when I know for sure when we'll make that trip.

Finally, pray for our efforts in pastoral and leadership training/discipleship in the area of Chunchi. I previously mentioned that there are about 5 communities sending their pastors/leaders to train with us for 3 hours once a month. This is going well but it is evident that many of the people in attendance have great need of growth in their lives. Pray for the community of Tolte as their leaders and pastors are experiencing a very trying time. The teenage daughter of a respected church leader (who attends our training) had premarital sex with another young man in the church and the consequences of that to everyone are being felt. The father, despite being one of the church leaders, handled the situation very poorly and we can now see just how fractured the relationships of that church are beneath pious talk. Pray for healing and conviction on all sides and wisdom for us and the pastor as we try to deal with this tense situation as God desires.

Thanks so much for your prayers! I know updates are sometimes a long time coming but I try to update when there's real news about definite needs. And I really do thank you for your prayers! They mean so much to me!

This week

I have a few quick updates regarding prayer requests for this week. First is that, as tomorrow is Monday, we will be having house church with Douglas and his friends in the morning. It is going well as he and Diana come consistently and he regularly invites some new people each week. We are taking them through a long process of discipleship that we began two weeks ago. One great thing is that Diana got baptized in a river today as she had never gone through with that step after being saved.

There is a small village by the name of Huangra that we are planning on taking a medical team to in November. However, in order to do that we must go there first to take care of some paperwork that the government now requires for medical teams. Huangra is about a 6 hour hike from where we will leave the truck so we will need prayer for that trip. Our plan is to hike in on Thursday, spend the night, and return on Friday. Pray for positive contact with the people of Huangra as we have been invited in but have never actually made the trip before. Pray for good weather as rain could make the trip difficult or force it to be postponed yet again.

Update

It's time for another update and I apologize that it's been so long since the last one. In the last update I mentioned a young man named Douglas who recently accepted Christ. Since that time we have had our first house church in his apartment. He invited 4 people, a couple that lives next door and the cousin of a friend from work. The names of the couple are Jorge and Maribel, the friend from work is Wasington, and the cousin is Diana. Pray for the salvation of Jorge and Maribel and possibly Washington as well. From conversations so far it's difficult to tell if Washington is saved or not. If he's not then he's definitely seeking...if he is then he'll need a lot of discipleship in the future. The couple is from Peru and is struggling with working here in Cuenca and having left their children in Peru. After our first meeting they seemed very interested in the things we talked about but not ready to make a decision. Pray that these people will continue to attend our house church meetings, which take place every Monday around 11am. Pray that as they here the Word they will see the Truth. Pray that they along with Douglas will invite more and more people.
Also pray for church leaders from several communities in an area called Chunchi. We have talked the church leaders about going through a program of therapy with the eventual goal of helping them become mature Christians who can lead their churches in a change from traditional church to house church. This therapy will cover all aspects of the Christian life as we have found that many believers accept Christ but are carrying baggage from their past with them. Pray that they would take it seriously and apply it fully in their personal lives. Thanks for the prayers and I'll update again when there's more news!

Update

Here's a brief update on what's been going on for the last week or so. As I mentioned in the last post, we've had a volunteer team in from Wellford, SC. They have adopted two communities that we work with, Zhud and Tambo, and send teams down about 3-4 times a year. The focus of this trip was donating school and sports supplies with the goal of being accepted to return in the future. We donated lots of toys and basketballs and soccer balls and were able to do some quick sports and craft activities to share the Gospel. After 3 days we were able to open many doors in these communities that we are praying the nationals can exploit in the coming months.

I also have a praise and prayer request in the form of a young man named Douglas. Here is his story. While the first volunteer team was here a few weeks ago we went out to eat one night. Douglas was our waiter and overheard us praying for our meal in Spanish. When we were finished and going out to the car to leave he came out and asked what church we were from. He seemed very interested although he wasn't a Christian. We met with him a few days later for an in-depth conversation. He still wasn't ready to make a decision so we left and told him that we would talk more. In the meantime he left town to visit family and we had the volunteer team. Yesterday my boss and I had to go out to a pastors/leader meeting with the nationals and invited Douglas to tag along. While we were in the car he asked a lot more questions and after an hour or so decided to accept Christ. It was a simple prayer and you can always tell when someone is sincerely seeking. Pray for him as he has been reading the Word a lot and will need discipleship in the future.

Prayer Updates

This is the same family I asked prayer for last week. This week the number of people at our house church there grew dramatically. Currently the only Christians in this picture are two sisters and their parents. However, this week they invited a number of other relatives. I took the kids outside for a craft and games while the adults had Bible study. Nobody was saved but hopefully they've heard enough that they'll come back when we return in a few weeks. Pray for the salvation of these relatives and friends in this community called Ayaloma. Also pray that once there are more believers in this little community we would find a way into the larger city Nabon, which is just down the road.








Yesterday we visited a very remote area southwest of Cuenca. We call this area Santa Isabel, although it's a least an hour's drive by dirt road from the city itself. The man in the photo above, Angel Leon, is in his 80's and his sons and daughters and their families constitute the majority of the only evangelical church in his area that sits way back in the mountains. Pray that more families would come to know Christ and that some who have left the church would return. Pray for encouragement as it is clear that these amazing people are getting discouraged. We are going to try to return at the end of this month to visit them again and show the movie "Fireproof". Pray also for the salvation of one of his daughters and a renewed spirit for one of his sons who is attending seminary and persevering but is getting discouraged.

Finally, there is a volunteer team coming in this week from Wellford, SC...almost home. They fly into Cuenca on Saturday. They will be doing sports ministry among many other things. Pray that their time here would open hearts in some communities where people have not been very receptive. Pray that many children would come to the workshops and parents would see the love of Christ.

First Week In Cuenca

I've been in Cuenca almost a week now and I apologize for no updates and for this one being so brief. The reason for this is that I've been working with a volunteer team from the second I got here and have hardly had time to do anything but work and sleep. Most of what we've been doing this week is going around to the churches and encouraging, exhorting, and prayer walking. I've gotten to see the different areas where work is going on and where new work is starting. I've been able to meet so many new people and most of the pastors we work with. I could tell lots of stories if only there was time...but instead I'll just show a few pictures and a short story behind each one that you can be praying for.




This is me and another of the volunteers with a Cichua family about an hour and a half north of Cuenca. The two women in the picture are sisters. They listened to a Christian radio station for about a year and decided to make a decision to accept Christ. They have encountered strong hostility from the Catholic church. Pray that they would not long remain the only Christians in their community. Pray that they would be strong in the face of the persecution.




This is the site of a future church building. The church currently rotates between houses and has between 30 to 70 people attending. They are slowly but surely making progress on an actual church building. They want to do it slowly so they will not fall into debt. Pray that God will provide the funds in their timing and continue to show them how to rely on Him and not missionaries or other churches.










The church in the previous picture is trying to plant a new one in this community. This site overlooks the communities in the second picture. On top is where we prayed for open doors and below is the valley between the two ridges of the Andes where we're hoping to plant new churches. Pray for open doors here as there are currently no Christians that we know of.


Thanks so much for your prayers. I'm just getting set up here in Cuenca and this week has been a complete blur. Keep praying as I start to form relationships with the people I'll be working with for the next couple of years.