2007 Summary - Part Four

OCTOBER - The Manta church with 50 in attendance outgrew it’s small building and moves to a beautiful theater in an excellent location now there’s room for over 300.

Paul Berube from and Allan Ross a pastor from Scotland visit for a time of ministry to the congregation and to set up a student exchange program between our churches.

NOVEMBER - Dr. Luis Rojas, a board member from our church, travels to Uruguay, South America to minister in a Christian Leadership Conference for medical professionals. We are blessed to see our leaders sent out by the Lord and ministering to other nations.

Boris Ordonez and Raul Bonifaz are sent out to plant a new church in Azogues, Ecuador. There are currently 70 members in attendance in the work there.

Two couples from our church the Osorios and the Rodriguezes travel to Nicaragua, Central America to minister to the Verbo leadership from all over the country. Once again we are honored to have members of our leadership team sent out to serve other countries. There was a mighty move of God and the leadership was greatly blessed.

DECEMBER - Terry King with Bill and Craig Davidson, from Alliance International Ministries, visit and minister to the Leadership and congregation. Bill and Craig also minister in Guayaquil and Riobamba and do a scouting trip for the Service Corp. It was a wonderful, inspiring time for all. We were refreshed and challenged by what the Lord ministered through these trusted men of God.

March in Downtown Cuenca protesting the Ecuadorian’s Presidents failure to approve laws dedicated to improving highway safety. The march was organized by the Parents of the students who lost their lives in the bus accident in conjunction with the Church. Over 500 individuals from all walks of life participated. The press was there and we are already seeing some progress. By the Lord’s strength we plan to stay in the fight.

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Marcha Blanca

Well, it's been a busy few weeks, but we haven't disappeared. I wanted to follow up the last entry with this news about the "white march" that was held on December 8th. As we mentioned before, the families of the boys who died in the accident want to make changes on the national level. They have been researching and found a national group with the same goals, and we are hoping this connection will enable us to have the numbers needed to impact the lawmakers. At this point, the president has dismantled the congress, and has a national assembly in place who are re-writing the constitution of Ecuador, so no law writing will be taking place until they are done.

After holding a press conference, and appearing on several radio and television interviews, around 1,000 people assembled in downtown Cuenca. The participants were supposed to wear white clothing, and the purpose of the march was to bring attention to what is happening on the highways of our country in a positive way.

There were many groups- students who went to school with the victims, as well as their families and many groups representing other people who were unrelated to our church. This banner says: "We support justice on the highways,it is everyone's obligation to respect the laws, and everyone should be obligated to respect the laws."

After the march we gathered in the central park of Cuenca, and we held a minute of silence, followed by a prayer for our country, and several hundred white balloons were released into the air. The parents from our church expressed their thanks to the crowd, and we met in city hall with representatives from the city government to present a declaration and a petition. This will be sent to the national assembly as well. It was a bittersweet moment.

A Great Grief

In case some of you missed the last newsletter, I wanted to put this article here so that it would be easy to reference, as we hope there will be ongoing results, and permanent changes in the Ecuadorian laws as a result of this terrible tragedy.

On Sunday, August 26^th 4 members of our church were killed in a bus accident near Chunchi, Ecuador.

For the past two summers, we have sent teams of youth to minister at the Ark Orphanage in Riobamba. They each paid to go and help out the 50+ orphans with vacation Bible school type activities, as well doing daily chores, painting, etc. Thirteen members of our youth group, who made up the last of three teams that went this year, had finished their week ministering to the children and working with the staff. As they ministered, prayed and worshiped together their love for the Lord and their burden for the orphans had grown. They had been calling home telling their families and friends what a wonderful time they were having and how their lives had been changed.

On the way home, about 2 hrs. north of Cuenca, an oncoming bus swerved into their lane and smashed into the side of their bus. Three of the youth, Pedro Vintimilla, 17, Sebastian Carrion, 19, and Andres Vallejo 20, were killed instantly. The other youth on the bus sustained only minor injuries. Angel Sanchez, 45, another member of our church, was also killed in the accident, leaving behind his wife and child. Angel was not part of the ministry team and just happened to be on the bus returning to Cuenca from Quito.

We were in the middle of our Sunday morning service when the sad news began to trickle in. Some reports said that the bus was being robbed others said that it had rolled over. Immediately, several parents and two of our elders who are medical doctors, Marlo Palacios and Rene Cabrera left for the scene of the accident.

On Monday, we had a memorial service for the three boys. With the coffins of the three boys at the front of the church over 1200 people came out. Many of whom had never heard the gospel message before. The abundant and powerful grace of God was evident to all. It’s been a trying time, but the parents of these boys have been an awesome testimony to all. God has been faithful to comfort and strengthen them and the church has pulled together to minister to the parents, family, friends and youth. Pray for us that as the weeks go by, we all will continue to seek God for His gracious help in coping with this terrible tragedy.

Making the News

Yesterday the families of the three boys who were killed in a bus accident on August 26, along with friends and supporters had a march in downtown Cuenca, protesting the president of Ecuador's veto of a bill before the congress that would have reformed public transportation laws. It was covered in both of the local papers, El Mercurio, and El Tiempo.

We have been working closely with the families, who want to use their loss to actually make a change in the laws and the Ecuadorian government. This was the first public manifestation. They are planning a large press conference, and are hoping to involve people from all over the country who have suffered because of this type of accident. That should just about include everybody! It certainly makes you think every time you are on the road . . .