To The Uttermost Parts of the Earth
“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Ex. 20:4. Conveniently left out of the 10 Commandments here on the local Catholic Church.
It’s hard to believe it’s already March of 2017! It has gone by really fast for us, as we have been working really hard trying to make our new house a livable space. We have been organizing, going through boxes, and trying to figure out where to put everything in a house that doesn’t have 1 closet or storage room. On top of all that, taking care of the kids, the cares of the church, ministry outside of the church, and day-to-day chores. Some of the simple things in life have been difficult adjusting to here; things many of us take for granted, like where to buy the things you need (there is a different store for about everything you might need) and it can be very difficult. In America you can find a Meijer or Wal-Mart in about every town, but here you would need to go to at least 100 different stores to get what you can find in 1 Wal-Mart (and you still couldn’t get everything you can get in a Wal-mart…haaaa!). After living in Shell for the last 5 years and knowing where everything was and the owners of the little shops, it is a big change being here. We were looking for mosquito nets for the kids beds (they NEED them here) and it took us about 2 weeks to find them! It has been an interesting couple of months here in Ecuador and we just continue to ask for prayers adjusting to a very different place and community.
Inmates at Loja's prison receiving their Bibles
As we get settled in here, I have long wanted to continue doing a jail ministry. I had talked with one of the directors of the Chaplain program (of the program that I completed back in 2015) about wanting to get involved with a jail ministry when I got settled here in the Loja province. Well, about 2 months ago I contacted him and he gave me a few phone numbers of people working in the big prison here. I went for the first time a few weeks ago and it was really interesting. For one, at the jail in Puyo (where we used to live) there were only about 100 to 130 people, here there are almost 1000 prisoners. It is set up like a small city and when you walk in you are on your own. I was there for about 3 to 4 hours and didn’t see a single guard one time (except for the ones high up on the surrounding walls)! There were lots of drug addicts (they tell me like U.S. jails, here there are more drugs in than out), demon possessed, and everything else you can imagine. Guys were walking by cursing Jesus and many other horrible things. I spent most of the time talking and getting to know the little group of believers in the small chapel they had. They seemed really happy just to have someone new from the outside interested in them. As we talked, someone mentioned open-air preaching out in the prison’s “town square” and asked me if I wanted to preach. I ended up preaching to hundreds of men and I knew the Lord was speaking to many. Please pray the Lord continues to open the door for me to serve in this prison. We will be filing a petition to be able to enter in the jail over the course of the next year (something that needs to be done once a year) and it will have to be approved in order to continue. Also, please pray for the inmates that are part of the church and those that do not know Christ!
On another note, we have been praying about a home since we got married. I am not trying to get sympathy, but it is hard to describe the feelings of leaving your home country, friends and family, career, and accumulated stuff of 35 years and getting on Facebook only to see all your loved ones living the normal American life. I’ve been through the whole range of emotions and thoughts over the years…thankful, grateful, jealous, envious, guilt for my envy, shame, happiness for my family and friends, etc. After years and years of praying, we have found a nice piece of land here that we made an offer on and the owners have accepted! The story is a bit long, but in short one day a few months ago I was really asking God to give us a home and got up from praying and checked my email. A friend of mine who has his own company wrote that he was going to send a check to us. It was what we needed to make it possible to buy this land!!! We are in the process now of doing all the paperwork and hope to be the new owners of this land (in San Pedro where we are currently living) in about a week! We don’t have the money to build a house yet, but we figure you need land to build a home, so we will be halfway there! You can build a house here (for about $30k to $40k) for about half of what it costs to buy one already built (about 60 to 70k for a decent home - surprisingly expensive for a still developing country), so we are hopeful to have a home for our family in the future! Thanks so much to each of you that have supported us and selflessly given to the work here! Please pray for us as we continue to seek the Lord’s will in providing a home for our family!
Panoramic view of the land we are purchasing
Finally, I just wanted to share that we haven’t had anyone try to burn our house down or throw boiling water on us, so thank you for your continued prayers in this matter. I have felt an opposition by some, but nothing physical or violent. It is not an easy situation here and we greatly appreciate everyone’s continued love and support as we strive to share the gospel with those around us! May God bless each of you and reward those that diligently seek Him!
Andy, Priscilla, Jude, Samuel, & Elena - Please send all monetary contributions to: Acts 1:8 Mission Society 123 Burk Ln. Harrison, OH 45030. And make all checks payable to: “Acts 1:8 Mission Society” with“DVarga” in the memo section (All funds donated in this way will continue to go entirely to the DVarga family AND our mission work in Ecuador and are tax-deductible). If you need a quarterly tax statement or just want to contact us, please just write to the address above or call. Our phone #:(513) 334-8281
Click on the DONATIONS tab at the top of the website to donate electronically. Contact us directly at: Our Stateside address: 123 Burk Ln., Harrison, OH 45030 Our business email: andy@dvargamission.org Our Personal emails: Andy's (dvargaaw@yahoo.com), Priscilla's (priscilla.kennedy@gmail.com) OR
Phone: Magicjack#: 513-334-8281 Our local Cincinnati phone number that we are able to receive in Ecuador. It works through the Internet and is just like calling any Cincinnati phone number.