First I want to say that it’s not just one thing that we have to share, but a bunch of
things that are all connected. We have known and worked with Pastor/Dr. Victor Vaca and his wife Angelita in the Loja province for around 6 years and have always had respect for them and for their ministry. They are the only Ecuadorians we have known to work as foreign missionaries (they were in Africa for years) and he has been in ministry since he was a teenager (he is now 54). This is kind of a long story, so I am giving you the short version to spare you the details. Victor Vaca is a medical doctor and professor in the Medical university in Loja.
He has been wanting to quit his “secular” job for years, but as he is finishing up putting his two sons through college there has just been no way to do so financially (Doctors in Ecuador do not earn even a fraction of what they do in the United States). Pastor Victor and his church planted several different churches over the years and one of those was in Catacocha around 2004. It was the first evangelical church to be established in this city of around 10,000 people. Many years later (in around 2014), another couple went to Catacocha and planted another church. The “pastor” of this newer church was there for around 8 years and then one day just got up and abandoned the ministry, left his wife and teenage daughter, and a year and a half later is getting “re-married.” A LONG story short, we were friends with that congregation too. They asked Priscilla and I to come and help them keep things going as it was in danger of all falling apart because of the terrible sin of the former pastor. As most of you know or remember, we prayed long and hard and felt that the Lord was leading us to help. BUT, from the moment we heard that the former pastor had problems I (Andy) started praying that the Lord would use me to bring the two churches together into one. This is always a delicate process, so we have not said much, but have continued to pray over it for the last year and a half or so. Well, we asked pastor Victor to meet with us about a month ago with the intention to discuss the possibility of uniting the churches (him being the pastor of one of them and me being co-pastor of the other). Needless to say he loved the idea and both congregations are on board (at least the majority). But then came the question of our work in San Pedro and the Vaca's mother church in Loja. We have decided to unite all these ministries together and work, help, and support one another more formally (because we already were to some degree).
Victor’s desire is to quit his job and become a full-time missionary with Acts 1:8 Mission Society (The 501 (c) (3) Priscilla and I started in 2016), but the means to support him are not sufficient at this time. This is what we have been praying for for a LONG time. They couldn’t be better missionary candidates for the mission, being that they are natives, obviously have complete command of the language and the culture, and are very experienced in ministry. We have prayed for the opportunity to bring on more missionaries as much as anything we have been praying for over the last 10 years. Please help us pray that the Lord does a miracle in order to make this work for His glory! We have been concerned for some time that if something happened to us or if we needed to visit the United States, the churches here wouldn’t have anyone to lead, preach, or continue what we started by His grace. This union would go a LONG way to help solve this problem, although we are definitely praying for more workers to come help! We know the Lord is in this whole thing, we are just waiting on Him to bring it into fulfillment! There are also a couple of other candidates waiting in the background. We see these other candidates as great potential in the future to come and work here full-time. Help us pray!!!
Very much tied to the whole situation above is the fact that the church we have been pastoring in Catacocha doesn’t have it’s own building, but Victor’s church in Catacocha (just to be clear Pastor Victor oversees a church in the city of Loja, the city of Catacocha, and in the town of Yamana) just bought a piece of land a few months ago and broke ground 2 weeks ago! So, when the building is done these two congregations (that are becoming one) will have a stable place to worship! Also, the church in San Pedro, by the grace of God, will begin building our church building sometime within the next month! After praying, waiting and praying some more we have finally received the permission to get the water installed and should have the blueprints approved next week! I (Andy) had a meeting with the building contractor on Oct 1st and thus a LOT is happening all at once! Please help us pray for the Lord to have His way in all this and to provide the means to make it all happen.
As always, we cannot express how thankful we are for all your prayers and support over the last 12 years! Each of you are more precious to us than you can imagine. I want to say that we used to send thank you letters via snail mail a LOT more often because when we lived in the North of Ecuador there was a great multitude of Americans working there and thus gave us many opportunities to send letters to the U.S.A. as they came and went. We simply do not have such opportunities where we live now. Please forgive us and know that we pray for you and we are extremely thankful knowing you are lifting us up before His throne of grace on a consistent basis!
In Christ, Andy, Priscilla, Jude, Sam, and Elena
Please send all monetary contributions to:
Acts 1:8 Mission Society
PO Box 212
Harrison, OH 45030.
You can continue to 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).
You can also write checks to Priscilla or Andy DVarga with "gift" in the memo section, but you will NOT receive a tax-deductible receipt at the end of the year for funds given this way.
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
To donate through PayPal electronically please scroll to the top of the homepage at www.dvargamission.org and click the "Donate" tab.
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