ACTS 1:8 MISSION SOCIETY

Mission in San Pedro de la Bendita, Loja, Ecuador! 

We are a family of independent missionaries with the goal of reaching the lost here in the province of Loja, Ecuador (population about 500.000) which consists of less than 1% evangelical Christians.  The population here is more than 99% Roman Catholic and has been so for hundreds of years.  Most of the communities in the province have never had an Evangelical Christian church in them and thus it is a tough mission field.  Due to years and years of domination by the Roman Catholic Church here, there can be a real fear of outsiders, and the local church leadership regularly tells the people that evangelical Christians are demons, are out to steal their stuff (sometimes including body parts), and that they need to be harmed or expelled from the community.  Missions in this region is a marathon, not a sprint.  Building trust in the community as an outsider can be difficult and is usually a long term commitment. These are real dangers and social complications that a missionary candidate must be aware of before they commit to serving in this province, and it is our goal to be completely transparent about the difficulties of living in some of these communities.  Housing can also be less than ideal, with rentals being hard to find, and those available can be dilapidated and small.  

Our ministry is primarily engaged in evangelism, discipleship, and our first home church plant in the town we live in, but we would love to expand to wider church planting and leadership training in the future. Currently the main tasks would be street preaching, door to door evangelism, preaching in home churches, and one on one evangelism in the streets and wherever else God leads.  The people are generally very friendly and open to hearing the gospel, but the cultural sins are very entrenched in the people; idolatry, bearing false witness, drunkenness, and adultery are the primary things we deal with on a daily basis.  

We are looking for a mature Christian or Christian family that first and foremost has a passion to win souls, someone that is gifted and experienced in sharing the basic gospel, and also feels comfortable and is gifted at preaching through the Bible in a pastoral role.  They would also need to fit the description/qualifications in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9.  They will also need to be able to write a monthly letter to supporters explaining what they have been doing and things they need prayer for.  We are looking for someone that is willing to go wherever God leads and for however long God is leading them here.  They should be willing to lay their lives down for Christ with the goal of winning this area for the glory of God.