Andy with the Inmate Leaders of the Church in Loja's Prison
Hello from Ecuador! Wow, we have had an incredibly busy month I hardly know what to share and what to leave out!!??!!! First I want to say thanks to all you who have (at one time or another) faithfully prayed and supported us over the last 7 years. I literally count on the prayers of God’s people on a daily basis just to function. I love how God uses His WHOLE body to work together to accomplish His will and purposes. Before I came here I (in the flesh) envisioned saving a bunch of money or getting “lucky” with one of my crazy inventions and being self-reliant. I hated the thought of being looked at as a moocher or beggar. The Lord humbled me (and continues to) and has shown me the beauty of the church working together to do His will! He has shown me the relationships that form, the love for one another that springs up, and the testimony it brings to the world when His people, called by His Name, come together! So thanks for working together with us as we strive to take the gospel to those that have never heard it!!!
Video of a portion of the pilgrimage (between San Pedro and Catamayo).
As you know if you keep up with the ministry here, we had hundreds of thousands of people in our little town last month. We worked hard making signs with scriptures on them and put them on the highway telephone poles for all the people to see as they walked on their pilgrimage. I know we will most likely never see the fruit of it, but God also never lets His word come back void! Priscilla and the kids stayed at the home of some friends of ours in the next town while I (Andy) stayed at home. I walked around, passed out tracts, and talked to the people (the VERY few that would even talk to me). Honestly,
it was a very sad and heart breaking experience. I talked to this sweet lady from a little border town about 5 hours away that came to receive a blessing from the statue. She was very open to listen, but I could feel the wall she had up as I shared scripture with her that talked about the sufficiency of Christ to meet ALL her needs. As I challenged her to search the scriptures and find even one verse about Mary answering prayers and asked her why there was not 1 pubic celebration just to worship and adore God the father alone, I could sense God convicting her. Please continue to pray for the people of San Pedro and that God would give wisdom and power to win the lost here and open their eyes to the fact that Jesus is more than worthy of ALL their praise and adoration (an adoration that He alone is worthy of)
People sleeping on the sidewalks during the Pilgrimage
Andy during the weekly prison visits. He gets to do outdoor preaching to around 1000 men in the "yard" during the prison church's evangelism day.
Also, I know a lot of people have been praying for the prison ministry and I have felt those prayers powerfully!!! The church in the prison had a 4-year anniversary service/celebration in early August and I was asked to be the man to bring the message. I simply preached on what it means to be “Born Again” and how God took an outwardly confident boy, but one who was deeply insecure inwardly and changed his life. I talked about how God did it for me and how He wanted to change them too. I have RARELY, if ever personally, seen such a response to the gospel. Grown men weeping and crying out unashamedly for God to save them (and I want to share with those of you unfamiliar with men’s prisons, men DON’T cry in front of one another in prison or they become prey like a weak animal on the African savanna). So many raised their hands in response to the altar call I couldn’t begin to count. One young man in particular (named Victor) wept the entire service from the beginning of the preaching to the end. I know many of you are thinking it was because my preaching was so bad, but I suspect that wasn’t the case this particular time… Victor seemed to be demon possessed and as he started seeking God in prayer for salvation after the preaching, the demon manifested. We sat and prayed and fought in the Spirit for at least 45 minutes until he cried out “Jesus save me….you are my Savior” and the thing came out of him and he sat up in his right mind! Please keep praying for this ministry, pray for Victor, pray for me to preach what God wants, for the men to be responsive, and for Christ to be glorified in their lives!
Preaching at the Prison Church's 4th Anniversary Celebration (Victor is in green in the front row)
Lastly, we have been a part of forming a group of all the missionaries in this part of the country so that we are all aware of what others are doing (there are currently only about 6 missionary families involved). The purpose is so that we can pray for one another, that we can help and support one another, and so we can enjoy fellowship with one another from time to time. We all got together to have a service in a town of about 20,000 where some fellow missionaries in the group are planting a church. It was a really blessed time of encouraging one another and fellowship and they had me translate the service for the visiting American Pastor there. These relationships are vital to the Lord’s work here and I honestly have never seen the missionary community come together like I am seeing here (sad to say, but our past experiences had many times shown missionaries at competition between themselves more than they are with the world). That is why we believe this is a special and blessed thing God is doing here. Please pray that this spirit of unity would continue to grow and that we (Andy and Priscilla) would continue to be a light and instruments to bring the believers together as things progress between our little group of gospel farmers sowing seed!
Blessed to be able to translate for the visiting minister
With love from Loja province,
Andy, Priscilla, and kids
- 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
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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.