Building to Battle

Our ministry here in Conocoto, Ecuador
began primarily helping build the new church. For two weeks we worked hard
laying cinder block, mixing & filling cement, & digging the septic
hole. Then the church ran out of money & until a recent donation clears the
construction is at a stand still. It has been just over a week now since our
ministry has shifted. When the shift happened we felt as if we were standing
around with our hands in our pockets, unsure what to do next. As we commutated
in our broken Spanish with the family, we began to learn more about the heart
& needs of the church. I think that many of us had expectations of what
ministry should look like, but God, in His infinite wisdom, opened our eyes
& showed us a new way to minister to His people.

Since then we have been able to go on house
visits to pray for members of the church, prepared & preformed a drama,
& do a LOT of specific praying for this family, church, & community. We
are excited about how God is moving here & are honored to be a part of it.
Since we have begun pressing into God even more, so much has happened! I was
actually overwhelmed for a moment at the number of experiences I want to tell
you all about. I will do my best to be brief about some of the things that have
happened.

1) On a house visit I was able to give my
testimony (no worries, it had been translated to Spanish) & pray for a
woman who asked for spiritual direction. It wasn’t until after we prayed that I
learned that this woman was four months pregnant! Then I asked in broken
Spanish if I could touch her stomach to pray for her & the baby (it went
something like “porfavor mi mannos on tu estomocho y horar?”). It was such a
blessing to be able to pray for this woman who wants more of God!

2) As we were preparing for our drama we
felt lead to go pray over the new church building & invite people to come
see the performance. On our way, singing & performing a parade of sorts, a
car hit our adopted dog here, twice! Needless to say, our parade came to a
dramatic halt. (Don’t worry, Pinky is ok!) But the enemy wanted to distract us
from our mission, so after the shock wore off & we knew Pinky was ok, we
pressed on. When we got to the church & were praying, three siblings who
live nearby saw us & followed. As I was praying for the church the Lord
laid on my heart to pray for these kids. Not long after that both girls were
sitting in my lap kissing my cheeks. As I prayed for them I expressed as best I
could in my elementary Spanish, that God loved them & I prayed for God to
bless them. Their response was “muchos gracias!” Followed by more hugs &
kisses. This has been one of my favorite moments so far.

3) On our off day we headed into Quito to
visit the 100+ year old Cathedral. The day was fun & relaxing. After, we
went to the street market & as we were getting ready to leave we met four
locals who were selling jewelry. Some of my team decided to get feathers put in
their hair (which turned into 5 of the 6 of us having feathers) & the rest
of us sat down talking with them. Our day off quickly became a great day of
ministry! God opened up great doors for us to share our faith! (Two of them
spoke English pretty well.) While none of these people accepted Christ that
day, we know that God put us in their path for a reason & is working on
their hearts. We are continuing to pray for them & were completely blessed
by loving on these beautiful people.

Ashley, Daniella,
Guy from Spain, Matthis, Kaitlyn, Meg, Lauren, Amanda, Me, & Diego

Please continue pray for our team; as we
are pressing into what God has for us & He is answering, the enemy is
becoming more & more threatened. There have been significantly more
attacks, distractions, & sickness. We know that the battle is already won,
praise God, & we will continue to be the BATTLECRY for this city!

“Call to me & I
will answer you & tell you great & unsearchable things you do not know.
… Nevertheless, I will bring health & healing to it; I will heal my people
& will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”

Jeremiah 33:3 &
6

“Consider it pure
joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that
the testing of you faith develops perseverance.”

James 1:2-3