Greetings from Ecuador,
This letter is one of the most interesting I have written in over 10 years on the foreign mission field. God has been answering prayers that we have prayed hundreds of times over the last 20 years. Namely, Lord use me and let me see Your salvation in those who have never heard Your holy word! And before I get started telling you all about what God has done and is doing, I want each of you who have prayed with us for the people here, given to the ministry, written letters of encouragement over the years, visited Ecuador, and such, to know how grateful and thankful we are. I also want you to know that we couldn’t be here without each of you and I am thoroughly convinced that you have fruit to share in what's going on here.
So, we started having church services again a month ago. We are starting out holding meetings on Friday afternoons at 4pm. We had no idea what to expect at our first meeting because we were very clear that we were not giving out food during or after our church services, and no one needed to come to the meetings just to get food in the future. So, we were thinking about 10 or so people would show (20 maximum).
When we arrived 30 minutes early to the rented house/church there were 50 people waiting on us! We thought, “now what are we going to do?”; with Covid restrictions here we would be taken to jail if we tried to put them all in the house, so we went into improvise mode. We started setting up chairs in the yard and by the time we started there were close to 80 people there! Then comes a scene similar to Acts 6, Acts 19, or John 10 when great confusion and opposition arose! Someone called 911 on us and the police arrived half way through the service; I was in the middle of my message and I had no idea what was going on because of the crowd and being unable to see the street. All I knew was that something was wrong. Cilla was out on the street and (I found out later) started talking to the police. They said someone had called 911 and reported an unlawful meeting. Cilla came and told me the police simply needed me to announce that everyone was required to separate their chairs a little more and not to worry about it further! Wow is God amazing! Then Cilla asked what we should do in the future, because we had planned on doing these meetings once a week. They said, no problem, just call us and we will shut down the street so you can have all the outdoor space you need! I finished preaching and everyone went home. We knew God was up to something big!
Then the following Friday came, but before I tell you what happened, I want you all to know that our town is notorious for being resistant to outsiders. We held church services for over a year, every Sunday and had maybe 3 to 5 visitors during the entire year. Discouraging doesn’t even begin to describe the long hard days and months that went by. Then we moved to our new home and didn't have a place in the middle of town anymore, so we thought we would just wait until we heard from God on what to do next. Long story short, we felt now was the time to try again.
So, back to three weeks ago (our second meeting). We arrived 2 hours early with help from a guy I’ve been discipling in the big city, another friend who is a musician, and a Christian couple we’ve made friends with over the past 6 months. We bought plenty of chairs, tables, canopies and a few other things to be more prepared for the crowd, still not knowing how many would come. We weren’t there 10 minutes till dozens of folks started coming. We had plenty of help and the service started, even though the police never showed up to shut down the road. About the same amount of people showed up and I could sense the spiritual battle all around us. In similar fashion, about halfway through my message a voice came blaring through the town’s speaker system, which was turned up as loud as it could go. I guess I need to pause and tell you that our town’s population is so completely Roman Catholic that the church has speakers throughout the town that make church announcements and say mass on. We can even hear the announcements and evening mass at our house about a half mile outside of town because of how extensive the speaker system is. I (Andy) have personally never seen this anywhere else in Ecuador. So, a young priest in training got on the speaker system and starts calling us demons, telling the people to leave immediately, and basically that if they continue to associate with us they are denying their faith. About 5-10 people or so got up and left in a panic, but the vast majority stayed till the end! We don’t know where this is all heading, but we plea for your prayers! The last two weeks after the announcement was made, we’ve had about 10 people or so for our services, so we are unsure if it’s because of the announcements or because of another reason… but it seems pretty clear that it’s because of what’s being said about us. Please keep us lifted up before God. We just want to see the people here know God and the power of His resurrection! We are saddened that people are reacting in fear, but we are happy that there are still some who are willing to come and hear the Word! No one said it would be easy and we never expected it to be, but we also know that through our prayers the Lord will give us the victory! We love each of you and thank you again for your prayers and all you have done for us.
In Christ, Andy, Priscilla, Jude, Sam, and Elena
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Acts 1:8 Mission Society
PO Box 212
Harrison, OH 45030.
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