- May 20, Church trip to Mindo for baptism service.
- May 24, Swearing to the Flag ceremony for our graduates.
- May 26, Association of churches talent night in which our praise team is performing.
- May 28-30, Missions Conference of the Association of churches.
- May 29, Dave’s Mom, Dad, and Aunt arrive from St. Louis.
Praises to the King
- Praise for a wonderful Holy week last month.
- Praise for a strong youth group who set an example for the adults in the church.
- Praise for a men’s group that is putting spiritual construction above physical construction.
- Praise for a spirit of unity and collaboration among the believers.
- Praise for the renewal of our visas so we can remain in this country.
- Praise for finished fencing and donated gate for the church property.
- Praise for the anticipated teams coming this summer.
Prayers before the Father
- Pray for safety during the church trip to Mindo (three hours away) this Sunday.
- Pray for the salvation of those in families that are spiritually divided.
- Pray for our teens as they try to finish well at the end of the school year.
- Pray for the five teens we have graduating this year: Estefany, Salvador, Alexandra, Jonathan and Fabiola.
- Pray for wisdom in the continuation of the construction at the church property.
- Pray for hearts to be moved in the upcoming Missions Conference for the association of churches.
- Pray for our co-workers: Gissela, Pablo and Lourdes and their daughter Estefany, and Glenn and Susie Wittmann.
- Pray for outreach into new communities in the Cayambe area.
About a 2 weeks ago, we came to a point in our ministry in which we realized we were trying to hold our ground, but that we seemed to be surrounded by the enemy. Several of the teens in the youth had drifted away and were no longer attending. There was no apparent specific cause, just a general discouragement that seemed to be infecting everyone. It wasn’t for lack of activities. We had some of our best outings ever in the last month as you can see from the pictures on the right. There was no other explanation other than that we were suffering from a spiritual attack.In response to this, we called the teens together for a night of prayer. I prepared several passages of Scripture and a loose outline to guide us through the night, but what I was really looking for was a movement of the Spirit in the hearts of our teens. I warned them ahead of time that it would be only a time of prayer, no games, no ice-breakers, no gimmicks. They were to attend only if they felt the need to pray. We had almost 30 teens show up that night.
We began the evening with what I thought would be something a little lighter to get them thinking. The simple task was: tell God who he is to you. I expected a few sentence prayers about the various aspects of God’s character, but I soon came to realize the effect that simple task had. One by one, they began praying, not sentence prayers, but long, powerful prayers of deep repentance. By simply reflecting on who God is to them, and what He’s done for them, a deep sense of unworthiness and repentance became the common cry of each one who prayed. One after another asked for forgiveness. As soon as one finished, another began. Everyone in the room began weeping in their prayers. We were taking the spiritual fight to our spiritual enemy and the Spirit was giving us the victory. It went on like this for almost an hour uninterrupted. Finally, once everyone had regained their composure, we prayed for a few more specific things like the unity of the group, the unsaved people in our lives, and the congregation as a whole. By the end of the night, everyone from our leaders to our youngest teens had the feeling of an army looking over their defeated the enemy on the battlefield.
It’s not that the trials and attacks have come to an end, but there is a sense that in Christ, we have won the war. We are now seeing a renewal of commitment throughout our congregation. The men, the ladies and the youth are all experiencing a renewed Spiritual fervor. It didn’t come from any new program or even any specific message. It’s simply the result of confronting the enemy head on.
I hope this story inspires you to keep praying for us. We appreciate every one of you who interrupt your busy day to pray for us and our ministry. It’s where victories are won. ]]>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVPtZbrDsOo
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Here are just a few examples of how the Liberty team was a catalyst for change this week:
To get to know each other better, we had a time of testimonies in youth group on Saturday night. One of the girls in our youth group, Estefany, shared details of her spiritual struggle that we had never heard before. If it weren’t for the team’s openness, she might never have shared that with us.- On Saturday, the team was touring downtown Cayambe when we ran into Victor, a teen from our youth group. He was with his friend, David. They spent the rest of the afternoon with us, and David has returned for two consecutive youth meetings.
- The team came with the two-fold purpose of construction on our new church building and teaching English workshops in the local High Schools. Because of the visits from the team, four of our teens had the opportunity to stand up before all their classmates to present the team and publicly identify themselves as Christians and members of our church.
- Since the local High School in El Quinche wouldn’t allow us to host the workshop in the school, we moved it outside of class time and changed the location to our sister church in town. Almost 200 students walked from school to the church to hear the workshop. For most of them it was their first time to set foot inside an evangelical church. Because of the team we were able to invite all those teens to the activities of the church.
- One of the members of our church, Luis, is a teacher in one of the High Schools we were not able to get into. During a teachers meeting, the group visit to the other High Schools came up. Luis was able to stand up and say that the group was from his church and then encouraged them to open the doors of the school the next time a group would come. Because of the team, Luis was given an opportunity to make a public identification with his faith.
- Because of the hard work and quality presentation by the Liberty team, we now have free access to the largest High School in the region.
Even though the team only did some limited construction projects, their work has inspired the church to move forward with the installation of windows and doors in our new building. The team’s enthusiasm was the shot in the arm the congregation needed to keep moving forward on the construction project.
There are many more ways that we could explain how this team who was only here for a week has been a catalyst for change in our ministry, and there will be many more ripple effects for years to come. The Apostle Paul warns us to “make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil”(Eph 5:16). The “days” really represent the daily routine that lulls us into inactivity and thwarts progress. The presence of a team forces us to drop everything that is considered a normal routine and take advantage of the myriad of opportunities that their presence creates.
Please be in prayer for us in the coming weeks as we return to some semblance of normalcy and follow through on the many opportunities for ministry presented to us this week. We also want to extend a special “Thank You!” to all the members of the Liberty University team for sacrificing their Spring Break to serve the Lord and us this week.
Play Hard
The youth group experienced one of their biggest events ever this month during the Carnaval vacation days. Carnaval is a two-day holiday dedicated to having fun and playing around before the beginning of Lent in the Catholic calendar. It’s mostly a nation-wide water fight with some flour and eggs mixed in for good measure. With the holiday, the teens had a four day weekend so we invited them to the house for a sleep-over on Sunday night with the idea of leaving for Mindo early in the morning. 
Mindo is a small town about 2 1/2 hours away from Cayambe on the tropical slopes toward the coast. It’s known worldwide as the bird-watching capital of the world because it contains the highest number of species per acre than anywhere else on earth.
We loaded the 27 of us in two cars at 4:00AM. We arrived in Mindo about 6:30AM in time to take a long hike looking for exotic birds. Many of the teens had never even seen some of the ecological richness that is found in their own country. It was great for us to see them getting excited about spotting some of the amazing birds found in Mindo. For being with a noisy bunch of teenagers, we saw an amazing array of toucans, Mindons, parrots, and woodpeckers.
After the hike, it was time for a more extreme activity. One of the most popular extreme sports in the Mindo area is zip-line tours. A zip-line is a cable stretched from one side of a valley to the other. The riders are given a harness and attached to a pulley, and away they go, zipping through the forest canopy till the reach the other side. It was an extreme adventure for all of our teens. Many of them never leave the small neighborhood of Primero de Mayo other than when we do excursions like this as a youth group. There were also several teens who came who are new to our group. Pray for those new teens, specifically that they would return for our regular Saturday meetings and receive the Gospel of Christ as their own.
Work Hard
On Saturday, February 25, we hosted an “all hands on deck” work day to pour the cement slab roof on our provisional church building. This small building was already on the property when we bought it, so finishing it will give us a temporary place to meet while we begin the process of saving and building a larger structure out front. The building will be converted back to classrooms when the larger temple is built, and a second floor is projected for the future, so a cement slab was the best roofing choice. Including the over-hang, the slab measures 85m² (915ft²).
For our “minga”; or community work day we had about 85 people from 5 different churches in our association. We used two cement mixers, one with a gasoline powered crane, the other with a bucket brigade passed up to the platform. We used 63 bags of laidand cement and 16 cubic feet of sand and gravel. 
We also had to lay 510 spacer blocks between all the re-bar that we laid during the week.
The pour started at 9:00AM and was finished by 2:00PM. We also served a big lunch of boiled potatoes, butter beans, corn on the cob, and deep-fried pork to everyone there. The ladies in the kitchen prepared all the food from scratch (including butchering the pig the day before). Everyone from the church helped out from the older adults to the younger children. It was truly a united effort. 
We are amazed at how God provided and continues to unite the believers behind the propagation of the Gospel in Cayambe. For those of you who gave specifically to make this building project a reality, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Our goal is to be able to have some kind of service on the property for Easter Sunday. There is a long way to go. We still don’t have electricity or water on site, windows or doors, bathrooms, or light fixtures, but we do have a roof over our heads, and that’s enough for now.
Liberty University Lends a Hand
From March 8-17, we will be hosting a team from Liberty University. The 10 students are lead by one of our own Crossworld mobilizers, Paul Halsey. They will be spending the week learning about the ministry, presenting some English workshops in some of the local High Schools, and helping us with some small construction projects around the church property. Coming off of our big work day event, the team will give us a great follow-up push to keep moving forward. They will also be a big encouragement to our youth by visiting them in their High Schools. We are really looking forward to their arrival, and we ask for your prayers for a safe and successful visit.
More Than a Movie
Taking advantage of the Valentine’s day holiday, our church invited the whole community to a showing of the new movie, “Courageous”. It was extremely well received with several new families coming to the event. We hope to continue to use this movie and others like it to present the Gospel in several mountain communities, including Cangahuapungo and Santa Monica, in the coming months. Pray for Vicente Carrillo, as God seems to be moving him into a position of partnership with us in reaching out to these areas.
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- Friday, Feb 17: We’re having a movie night in Primero de Mayo. We’ll be showing the new movie, Courageous on the “big screen” in the community center. Please pray for a good turn-out and that many lives would be impacted by the message. Pray especially that there would be new people with whom we can follow-up after the movie.
- Saturday, Feb 18: We will be laying the sub-floor for the house for Rosa and her children. This widow is living in dismal conditions at the moment so we are helping her as a church build a new house. Please pray for safety during the construction and wisdom in how to invest the limited resources that she and the church has.
- Sunday, Feb 19: In addition to our regular Sunday morning activities, we will be hosting an all-nighter for the teens in our home to celebrate Carnaval. Pray for spiritual openness as we will be having a devotional time in addition to movies and activities.
- Monday, Feb 20: Following the all-nighter at our house, we will be taking the youth group to Mindo for a day of bird-watching, hiking, canopy zip-lines, and playing in the river. Mindo is a 2 1/2 hour drive from Cayambe down the Andes mountains toward the coast. Pray especially for safety on the treacherous roads and for a good time of bonding with the teens.
- Tuesday-Saturday, Feb 21-25: We will be spending the rest of the week on the church property preparing for the pour of the concrete slab that will be the roof of our provisional church building. There is a lot of work to be done tying re-bar and setting the forms. The big pour will be on Saturday when the whole church will come out to lend a hand mixing and laying the concrete. The slab will measure 915 square feet (85 square meters). Please pray for a break in the rainy weather we have been having and for safety as we labor together.
- Thursday-Saturday, Mar 1-3: We will be meeting with the other Crossworld missionaries here in Ecuador for a time of prayer, study and business meetings. The meetings will be held in Puembo, about an hour from Cayambe.
- Mar 8-17: We will be receiving a team from Liberty University. The team will be doing some small construction work on the church property and will also be doing English workshops in the local High Schools and with our teens during their regular Saturday meetings.
In addition to the upcoming activities, would you also please be praying for the following special requests:
- An MRI revealed that a back injury that Brenda suffered a couple of months ago is a herniated disc. She has been following a regimen of physical therapy and medication, but is still extremely limited in her mobility. She has been making good progress in the last two weeks, but please pray for a quick recovery of her normal activity level.
- Our Crossworld co-workers, Glenn and Susie Wittmann, are back in the US right now after the passing of Susie’s father. We are grateful that Susie was able to go and be with her dad for a few days before he passed away. Glenn returns on February 23 and Susie will return a week later. Pray for comfort for them and the family, and safe travel as they return to ministry with us here in Cayambe.
- Our Ecuadorian ministry partners, Pablo and Lourdes, have been going through some trying times as a family. Pablo recently had an emergency appendectomy which is still healing. Their daughter, Estefany, is also under a lot of pressure in her Senior year of High School and will be making decisions soon about where she will go to college. She is also considering the possibility of enrolling in the Word of Life Discipleship Center in Quito in the fall. Please pray for her to stand strong against temptation in her public High School and for God’s leading in her life as she makes decisions about her future.
What time is a good time for discipleship?
Making disciples is our mandate, it’s our purpose for being here and it’s our principle focus. But when do we make disciples? The short answer is whenever life happens. In the case of one group of very promising teen boys it means having a discipleship oriented Bible study every Thursday night, from 11 to midnight! Because of over-crowding in the schools, the local public High School has three shifts of classes. They are all in the third shift, from 6-10:30PM. All of them also work full-time to help provide for their families during the day. After many failed attempts at including them with the rest of the teen boys, we finally settled on the 11-midnight time slot as the only time they had. Ever since the change, they have been faithfully studying the book of Proverbs with us. The group has taken on the name “the night-owls”, and it seems speaks to their heartfelt desire to spend time in God’s word that they are willing to meet in this unusual schedule. Please pray for these four “night-owls”: David, Salvador, Vigny, and Jose Luis (affectionately known as “Chino”).
Thank you for your patience to read through this list of particularly urgent prayer needs. We value your role in supporting this ministry through prayer. God is busy reaching into people’s lives here in Cayambe and He has invited us to participate in it with Him. We are so grateful to have a team who prays for us back home in the US. We appreciate each and every one of you.
Together bringing Christ to Cayambe,
Dave, Brenda and the boys.
Praises
- Great opportunities to share Christ during our Christmas and New Years events.
- Awakening of spiritual commitment in our teens.
- Growth of our congregation both in members and in maturity.
- Warm acceptance from the community to our public events.
- Slowly opening doors for expansion of the ministry to new areas.
- Financial provision for construction of the roof on the new building.
- Deepened relationships as a team in the past month.
Prayer Requests
- For unity in the congregation as we begin the building process.
- For good management of time and resources with the expanding ministry.
- For personal health and safety, without it we cannot do our work.
- For deeper commitments to God’s Word in the various Bible studies.
- For our disciples to make more disciples this year.
- For our housing needs as the house we rent is for sale and we could have to relocate at any time.
New Year’s Eve was by far our biggest event during the holiday season. In general culturally, New Year’s Eve is a much bigger event than Christmas here, and this year was no different. Our church in Primero de Mayo sponsored a contest for the best “old year” display. 
The people here build elaborate figures representing the old year to be burned at midnight. The figures are similar in material to scarecrows and are usually made to represent someone important to the family. To draw attention to the event, our church built a 16′ tall Papa Smurf. Under our ministry partner, Pablo’s direction, it took us four days to complete the build out of wood, cardboard and paper maché. The evening was a total success. We estimated that there were about 350 people in attendance, many of whom have never participated in one of our church’s events before. The night culminated with a fireworks display and the burning of the “old year” together. We enjoyed a special time as a church family sharing hugs and words of appreciation for each other as we rung in 2012 together.
If you would like to see more pictures from our Christmas programs, click here.
If you would like to see more pictures from our New Year’s Eve event, click here.
Building Bricks
One of the most exciting things we can see God doing this year is providing for the construction of a meeting place on our new church property. The congregation of Primero de Mayo has rallied together to build this year. On January 7, we had an all-church work day during which we cleaned up the property and organized the building materials that had been scattered about. The church leadership is planning on early February for the pour of the cement slab that will serve as the roof on existing construction toward the back of the property. Once the roof is on, it will be a matter of windows, doors and wiring for lights, and we’ll be able to move out of the community center. After that, we will begin work on bathrooms and the enclosure of the property. In addition to the labor of our local congregation, God has provided us with some teams from the US to help us in various stages throughout 2012. In the next couple of months we will be developing the plans for a three-phase building project. We’ll try to keep you in touch with the progress as it happens.
To see more pictures from our work day, click here.
Building Lives
We believe God has been preparing His people to go out into the harvest fields in Cayambe. We feel a real sense of revival happening in the congregation. Our numbers on Sundays have continued to increase, the youth group is growing and on a personal level we are seeing greater commitments to the ministry. Our prayer is that 2012 will be the year that our disciples make disciples. It’s already been happening individually, but we believe God is moving among the congregation with the desire to reproduce itself. The groundwork has been laid for expansion of Bible studies in the downtown Cayambe area and interest has renewed and the doors are opening for ministry in the mountain community of Cangahuapungo. Please pray with us also for the mountain communities of Santa Monica and Chaupiloma. We have really struggled to get a response from the people there, but we are continuing to work with the contacts we have.
Building Together
This year we have been more aware of our dependence on our support team than ever before. God has used your prayers and financial support in some amazing ways during the past year. We have also seen a deeper level of relationship growing between the ministry here and the ministries of many of your ministries in the US. We believe that a true sense of brotherhood is being cultivated between Ecuadorians and Americans that began with our international leadership team and is now translating to the members of our congregation and the members of many congregations in the USA. 2012 will be a year of unprecedented partnership and we pray that it will be also be a year of deepened relationships. Thank you for being a part of it with us.
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