Hello from the Southern hemisphere!
Well, we have been a little busy here lately, but the Lord is much better to us than we deserve! Everyone in the family doing well and the littles are growing up quick! Our hands are on the plow and we aren’t looking back! We just had a team (mostly) from Texas and from a ministry called, “God’s Eyes," doing an eye glass brigade/evangelical outreach all over our province of Loja. We were able to share the gospel with a lot of people and help bring spiritual sight to a lot of people. We also were able to be part of giving physical sight to those who would never have the resources to help their otherwise bleak situation. The entire team of workers, doctors, and translators was around 55 and we tested and gave reading glasses, prescription glasses, and sun glasses (necessary for eye heath in the high Andes mountains). Every person that came to the outreach was given the opportunity (the vast majority took the opportunity) to go to a station of prayer warriors to hear the gospel and receive prayer. This was my primary job for 5 days and it was exhausting, but rewarding. Thanks to each of you who give, pray, and support us in various ways to make the work possible! Please pray for all those that heard the gospel for the first time to respond the Christ’s call to the marriage supper of the Lamb!
Speaking of the outreach, we have been praying for and have asked for prayer for years in past newsletters for a man named Carlos that lives here in San Pedro. He was the first person we met in San Pedro and immediately we felt God wanted to do a work in his life. We have very consistently been praying for him for 6 years! Well, he showed up to the outreach to get glasses and met with an awesome Ecuadorian missionary (who normally works in the big city of Loja) for prayer and to hear the gospel. He was in the “prayer room” for over an hour! During this time he cried out to the Lord to be saved and has been consistently coming to our services ever since! Please keep him in prayer…he has a LOT of history to overcome and living in such a small town with old friends all around him tempting him to go back to old habits and old ways. We are well aware that Jesus is more than faithful, but please lift him up if the Lord puts him on your heart!
In San Pedro (the town we live in), we have been consistently teaching and preaching the Word and seem to see people growing in the knowledge and strength of the Lord. We have been struggling to get all our permissions to start building the church here and have made significant progress although there are still steps that need to be taken. After a long unjust fight, we received an official piece of paper stating they are going to give us a water meter. We will be submitting blueprints within the next few weeks to the city municipality and plead for your prayers concerning the approval! On a side note, a family that have only been coming to our services for about a month visited me a couple of days ago and asked what they could do to help us in our efforts to win the people of San Pedro for Christ! I told them besides prayer, we are planning on beginning construction soon and they said they would help as much as possible with materials! With the prices of materials skyrocketing all over the world we are praising God for putting it into their hearts to come beside us in the Lord. Please keep this project in your prayers!
For the last year we have been working closely with a church in the city of Catacocha (Population around 10,000 in the city and 23,000 in the county), 45 minutes from our home. So, yes, a lot bigger than San Pedro. Due to a series of unforeseeable circumstances, the leadership was forced into roles they didn’t feel called to or prepared for. I’ve been preaching there sporadically since that time, and giving counsel to the leaders. A few weeks ago the church voted that Priscilla and I would be brought on in a pastoral role there to come alongside the existing pastors in their efforts to raise up strong leaders in the church. Please pray for us as we take on this extra responsibility. I’ll be preaching there at least three Sundays per month as well as joining the weekly meetings in some of their other bible studies/discipleship meetings. We are also attempting to raise up praise and worship leaders in the church by providing weekly classes for some of the youth who are interested in learning to play guitar and ukulele for worship. Pray that the right people would sign up to learn, and that soon we will have local leaders ready to take over the music ministry.
Things on the COVID front are STARTING to calm down and there is talk about the government taking away the requirement in May to be vaccinated in order to enter businesses and to wear masks. Right now the government is accepting travelers with a negative PCR test OR a complete vaccine. Please keep us and the whole country in your prayers as this has crippled the already struggling economy. It has also caused a lot of difficulties in our personal lives. Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support!
Finally, because of tightening government restrictions we were forced to create a new PayPal account that is strictly under Acts 1:8 Mission Society’s control and business checking account. Our old account was created over 10 years ago when these things were fairly new and was simply set up under my personal name. We had the business account tied to the PayPal account, but the government wants it strictly tied to the non-profit, so that is what we have done. If you give through the old “PayPal button” it will just be considered a personal gift to us from here on out. All the new letters/emails, as well as the “donate” button on the website, will have the link to the new account in them. Thanks for your help and understanding!
Andy, Priscilla, and children
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 page and click the "Donate" tab.
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