Our little family on the land, with our "shack" (a storage shed) in the background!
So much has happened since our last newsletter, it might be hard to fit it all in here! It seems like our ministry opportunities this month, and land purchase have been so tied together, I'll have to explain it all from the beginning. We (Acts 1:8 Mission Society) are finally the happy owners of a piece of land in San Pedro de la Bendita! As we said in our last update, God used a wonderful donor to give us a donation that made it possible to purchase this land for the ministry here. We discovered that property here is just as, or more, expensive than it is in our hometown in the USA, which was super surprising to us. That meant that the money we had wouldn't be enough on its own to purchase the land, but we had a bargaining chip to make it a deal: our 23 year old Toyota 4Runner. Here in Ecuador, it's not uncommon to throw in a vehicle as part of a trade for land because both land and vehicles are so expensive. So with our cash in hand, and the title to our vehicle, the landowners were willing to sell/trade to us, and we are now permanent in San Pedro (we got the land title on March 25th)! That leads us to some unique ministry opportunities over the last month.
The purchasing of land means: PAPERWORK! We live about an hour and a half from the largest city in our province, Loja. As the provincial capital, Loja has all of the IRS (abbreviated SRI here) offices that we've had to go to in order to pay new taxes, and file paperwork - which has been a bit of an ordeal. Since we threw in our only vehicle as part of the deal, we couldn't drive anywhere to do anything for a few weeks! Living in a small town at the top of a mountain, there is no real public transportation, so we've had to rely on a small company of taxis operating out of San Pedro to take us to and from Catamayo (where we buy groceries, and catch the bus to Loja, etc. - you share the taxi with 5 other people also heading in that direction), an interprovincial bus to take us to Loja, and then taxis within Loja to go to administrative buildings. All this reliance on taxis has given us the unique opportunity this month to share Jesus with our taxi drivers! What's great is that, as the only foreigners in our town, and of very few in Loja, taxi drivers are always curious about what we do and why we are here, so the conversation immediately goes to the Gospel! I can think of at least 3 drivers in the last couple weeks who have asked how they can be saved, and many many more who have shown great interest in the Gospel. One driver asked about Mary worship, and after Andy read a passage about idolatry out of the Catholic Bible to him, the man said "Why hasn't anyone ever told me this before!? This is in our Bible, and we do exactly what this is telling us not to do!" He really wanted to know more, and we're hoping to see him again next time we're in Loja. As he's done for years, Andy still preaches on long bus rides to the city, so there were extra moments to do that with all the added trips to Loja lately. Please pray for continued opportunities to share, and for open hearts!
Our multi-church service for "Good Friday", where Andy preached with several other pastors.
In addition to the cool chances to share with taxi drivers and on busses, we've had more conventional ministry going on lately in addition to what we normally do. For International Woman's Day (a big deal here), Andy was invited to go to the women's side of the prison to preach to not only the female inmates, but their children who also live with them in the prison. We were very surprised that they allow children to live with their mothers, but this culture believes very strongly that children should be with their mothers, even in conditions that are less than ideal. The time at the women's prison went extremely well, and we are hoping for continued opportunities to help support ministry going on there, in addition to Andy's weekly time at the Men's prison. A couple days later Andy did a men's conference at our church, and the following weekend I (Priscilla) did a women's conference. It seemed like both conferences went very well, and the pastor wants to make these a monthly thing, with us leading them. With 3 small children aged 5 and under, I don't get many opportunities to do ministry outside the home, so it is a happy change from the norm. We'll see what God wants to do, and go from there!
Finally, you may remember that when we were in the USA last August, we had two separate donors give us amazing donations that they felt specifically were to be for a new, reliable vehicle. Our only car was nearly 24 years old, and we just couldn't reasonably put the demands of these mountains on it without paying the price of it breaking down, so we only drove it within a 4-5 mile radius to go to church and to buy groceries. With parts unavailable and expensive to import, it just was becoming more and more of a burden to keep the Toyota, so we prayed and God provided the funds to make it possible. Well, we got back to Ecuador in September and began the hunt for a car. Vehicles (both used and new) are CRAZY expensive here, so we had to come to terms with the fact that it would be not only the donations needed to buy the car, but also our life savings. It is such a big responsibility to be in charge of money that God has given us, that people sacrificed so much to give to us, and every cent we've saved individually and as a family for the past 15 years - we wanted to be sure we were making the right decision! We researched long and hard and finally we settled on a Chevrolet D-Max truck in February of this year and we ordered it from the car dealership (they don't just keep cars on the lots here, they have to be ordered). After 2 months, and A LOT of cultural lessons on our part, Andy finally went to Guayaquil (the largest city in Ecuador) on 4/4/17 to pick up our truck! We kept wondering what in the WORLD God has been doing, and why on Earth it would take 2 whole months to get this car we ordered in February, but we honestly believe that it was so we had the chance to talk to all these taxi drivers! We never would have had the chance to talk to them if we had been driving our own car to do all this paperwork. God certainly works in funny ways, but he always accomplishes his will! I think that we will still try to take the bus and taxis in Loja when one of us goes without the kids, just for the opportunity to share and have a captive audience!
The kids hanging out in the new truck-bed after we weeded the corn crop
Sorry I wrote such a book, AGAIN! But, this has been such a big month for us personally, and for the ministry. We are looking so forward to being able to go into communities that we couldn't get to otherwise, but now are available to us with this new truck! We're also so excited to see how God uses this land for the ministry! We have such big dreams of a training center, maybe a Christian elementary school, churches...lol, and a place for us to live where we can finally unpack all of our stuff. It feels like the possibilities are endless with such a nice piece of land! We know God will make it clear, provide funds, and use it how HE wants it to be used, and we are just excited to see what the future holds for the mission!
Please pray for the following:
Opportunities to make friends with people in San Pedro, and to minister to them:
People are very suspicious of us since we are not catholic, and in our town they refer to all non catholics as either Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons... I was finally invited in to a woman's home where I got to know her and her daughter a bit, and they admitted that I changed their perception of what I would be like They've asked me to come back and have coffee whenever I like, which is a big deal. We've had to tread very lightly here since people are so afraid of us as outsiders and as evangelicals.
Jail ministry: The jail is trying to close access off from ministers/ churches / religious organizations. Pray God will open the door
that is at the moment closed and being discussed by the administrators!
Catamayo Church: Andy's regular preaching, Men's ministry, Women's ministry, Home visit ministry
New opportunities out in the many small and isolated communities around us that have NO Gospel presence!: These are places we finally have access to with this new vehicle!
Partners in the ministry: Not just Americans, but locals! Anyone God would have work with us! Living out, alone, in the boonies has really shown us how much we desperately NEED companions in the ministry work, and how much of a need there is here and all around us. We really need people to come alongside us who are willing to give their lives and their time to share Jesus with people!