REVIVAL CONTINUES!

 

We are amazed and grateful to report that the time of harvest in Ecuador has continued for over a decade and has shown no sign of abating.  In Cuenca, our third service is standing room only.  Each week we receive 30 to 40 first time visitors, many of whom make a public commitment to the Lord.  On average 20 new believers are being baptized every month.  Our discipleship classes are well attended, our marriage seminars, retreats, and Alpha courses are running at capacity, and about 50% of those who attend are unbelievers, hungry for God.     

The gospel is advancing mightily all over the country. The Lord is pouring out His Spirit on many churches and ministries. In January we celebrated Verbo’s 30^th anniversary in Ecuador, and we’re grateful and humbled to see that by His grace, He has shown special favor towards Verbo.  

Diego Espinoza, our national leader, introduces Bob Capaldi, director of South America.

In key cities like Quito, Riobamba, Loja, Pasaje, Guabo and Lago Agrio, Verbo is the largest evangelical church, often times with double or even 3 times the membership of other churches.  In many instances our churches are filled to capacity in 3 and even 4 Sunday services.  In cities like Guayaquil, Cuenca, Santa Rosa and Santa Domingo, our churches have significant influence and favor in the city, with important social works, through their community and ecclesiastical involvement.  

the church in Cuenca

John continues serving as director of the southern region of Verbo Ministries in Ecuador, which includes a total of twelve churches, the Family Health Foundation, a Medical Clinic, the Verbo school- with 250 students from K-12, La Esperanza children’s home, Radio Familia - our FM radio station, and our Arco Language Institute.

John sharing in Quito

 

Marilyn continues serving in the local church and heading up short-term medical outreaches, throughout the country.....  more on that soon!  

One Physical Therapist prays with a patient, while the other works on a patients hand...

February 2013 - Verbo Santa Isabel

    

THE CHALLENGE

 Lisette and Vanessa 

Carlos

 For over a year we have struggled with the authorities to keep La Esperanza, our children’s home, up and running. Much of this time we weren't allowed to enter the house to see the kids, only shift workers could be there, and our volunteer program was suspended. This has been our most heart wrenching, and time consuming challenge.  
Even though the government doesn’t approve, 

we are planning on having husband and wife teams care for the children on a daily basis.  They have tentatively given us a year to make this model work.  We’ve found the only way the children can experience healing and security ... is in a healthy family atmosphere. How can they learn what God planned as a functional family if they are never allowed to see a model?

Camila, Danny, and Nancy

   

In the end if we can make this work, 
they will allow us to keep our home.  

 If not, they will force us to close.  

 This would break our hearts, as many of our children have been with us for a long time.  We can’t imagine them being placed in an overcrowded government run home.

Maria Fernanda

YOUR PART

Thank you for the important role you play in our lives and in what’s taking place in Cuenca and Ecuador. 

We need your prayers and support in order to make vital changes in the care model for our  children’s home. 

Priscila

Nancy

PRAYER NEEDS
Our 18 children- that God would guard their hearts during these constant adjustments.
 The staff- that they would see their jobs as a ministry and calling and be diligent to care for the children with love and integrity; 

The couples who have answered the call- for the Lord to confirm and bless them. 
   That we would be shown favor with the government.

Will you pray with us? 

La Esperanza Picnic, VBS, and our first baptism!

As time goes on, we are more and more blessed with this ministry. As each new child has come and integrated into the house, we have seen them go from frightened and wary to being an integral part of the laughing pack of kids. We are blessed for the support of our church family, who give time and money to take care of these little ones, and take them on outings and provide them with special memories. We are blessed with the staff that carries out the day to day work of feeding and helping with homework and all the normal daily stuff, with joy and commitment. We are blessed that we find favor with the government, and they are seeking our help to open another home. We are blessed by each of these kids who trust us and are thankful for what we can do for them, physically and spiritually. We are blessed by the support and prayers of those of you who help us with this ministry from far away. Mostly we are blessed that our Lord has allowed this opportunity to serve in His Kingdom, and get to know these precious little ones one on one.

Our first baptism- Daniela,Carla, Rocio, Olga, Franklin, Veronica, and Cristina

VBS with a team from Glorious Presence Church- we had about 25 kids from the neighborhood join us!

John gets to rough house a little with the kids.

Jesica and Jordy blowing bubbles

John explains the rules of a game

Priscila and Nancy tumbling

La Esperanza Update

La Esperanza now has full government approval and is doing great, with 16 kids and a new staff member, Beatriz (Bachita). She and her daughter Ruby moved to Cuenca from Loja to work with us. Both of them are a great help. Chio, the mother of the first 8 kids has been amazing. She has the mom anointing and treats each of the 16 like her own. Tia (auntie) Paola is doing a fantastic job administrating and taking care of the kids, with the help of Bachita and Ruby she’ll be able to dedicate more time to planning, fund raising, communications, and general administration. We’re all sad to see Rachel leaving for the summer, she’s been a wonderful help. She moved into the children’s home for the last month and is the official big sister the kids are really going to miss her. The kids were so upset when she said goodbye on her way to the bus station, they all had to have a cup of chamomile tea!(Please come back baby Rach.)

We’re all one big happy family. On father’s day I got 16 gifts that the kids made in Sunday School! Last Saturday we celebrated Daniela’s Quinceañera (15th birthday - coming of age - party). I was honored to be the dad giving a toast and having the first dance with Daniela.

A couple of weeks ago Rachel, Ricky and I decided to take the kids to Baños (the hot springs just outside Cuenca). I was wondering how much it was all going to cost me when I happened to bump into Silvana, the publicity manager from our radio station, and she arranged for us to get free transportation in a brand new tour bus, free passes to Baños and a snack at KFC. The Lord is good. Many thanks to Silvana and Family Radio. The kids had a great time. Being dunked, thrown in the air, taught how to swim and being saved from drowning was a wonderful bonding experience.

Each one of these kids has a heart breaking story. Many of them were abandoned, left to live on the streets, most were physically abused and all of the girls 12 and over have suffered sexual abuse. What a blessing it is to see them responding to the love and care; participating in devotions, singing and serving in the church. Some of the kids have been through other facilities and couldn’t adapt; they’re doing great with us and the authorities have taken notice. There are lots more kids out there who need our help. We want to reach out to as many as we possibly can. Our current facility has been approved for 20 children; we might be able to extend it to 25. Right now the limiting factor is $$$. Would you please join with us? We need and appreciate your prayers and support.

A New Ministry

In mid April we decided to investigate the need or an orphanage in Cuenca. In spite of being told for years that there was no pressing need for children at risk in Cuenca and southern Ecuador, what we discovered was startling and sad. Every facility we visited in Cuenca, was under-staffed, over-worked and under-funded. In 2007,only 31 children in all of Ecuador were adopted in spite of the 230,000 'orphans' who live here!

Paola Hermoza's entire family followed Marilyn and I here from Lima, Peru 11 years ago. A young woman with a burden for orphans and abused children, Paola set out interviewing orphanage directors, social service administrators, doctors, lawyers, social workers and even interviewed the director of the women’s prison here in Azuay province. To a person, everyone she interviewed pleaded for assistance and concurred that, because of the strength of the Family Health Foundation and the decades of stability of the Verbo church, a children’s home founded by us could rescue many precious lives of children at risk. We also believe that this thrust toward mercy and social justice could impact our entire city and province with the gospel in action. (Mt.25:40)
We presented a proposal to the executive board of the foundation. Our orphanage proposal was enthusiastically received and unanimously approved. Preliminary government approval came rapidly, due both to the solid history of the Family Health Foundation and the diligent efforts of Paola. We then presented the vision to the church and six couples immediately volunteered to work as house parents or assist in any way they could. The time table we projected had us receiving our first children in September, but it seems God had another idea!
On June 1, the Lord dropped 8 children on our door step. Suffering unmentionable abuse at the hands of their demonized father, these eight siblings were filled with fear and anxiety. Their mother fled in terror, when their father repeatedly raped one of the children in front of the others, and then threatened to sell them into child prostitution.

So now, our well articulated plan could not wait for our carefully scheduled timetable. We kicked it into high gear, believing God for provision. The Verbo church family rallied with clothing and temporary housing. Family Health Foundation, treated the two youngest for pneumonia, provided medicine to treat all 8 children for lice and scabies and pregnancy tested one of the older siblings.

Temporary housing was found to meet the immediate need, but we needed a home closer to town where our psychologist, social worker, and other care givers could begin the long-term healing we had originally envisioned. In the beginning of this quest, we made a commitment to Jesus to care for these children as HE wanted them cared for.

Paola’s contacts quickly found us a couple who were willing to rent their large house for $800 per month. That amount seemed beyond our reach, but in faith we looked at the house and offered them $500, the amount we had originally budgeted for our first home. Raul and his wife, Etelvina, who attends a Verbo women’s bible study, were moved by our heart for orphans, and agreed to rent to us for our $500 budget amount. On July 1 we are the new tenants of a beautiful house in Cuenca, near the church building and a big market - God is faithful!
After we interviewed the potential house parents on Saturday, June 14, we found the perfect couple to care for these 8 precious children. Yuri and Maria del Carmen have a two year old daughter, Rebekah, and because of a health condition will not have other children of their own. Yuri has always wanted lots of children and Maria feels called by God to be a mother of many.I had the privilege of leading Maria del Carmen to the Lord a number of years ago. Since that time, this couple has been an integral part of the Verbo church family. Maria del Carmen has helped Marilyn with the medical brigades, and then went on to work in the Physical Therapy department at our clinic. We are confident this couple can help foster the wholeness and healing these battered siblings need and deserve.

On Sunday, June 15, Maria del Carmen brought all the children to church, and the oldest sister, Daniela, gave her heart to the Lord. We know this is the first fruits of our obedience to the Lord’s command to care for the orphans and fatherless. (James 1:27)

-Please pray for God’s provision of furniture, bedding, appliances, dishes and the plethora of items we will need to make this house a home.
-Pray the authorities will take the father’s crimes seriously and detain him accordingly.
-If God moves you to participate financially please send your tax deductible checks to AIM- and note "for the orphanage", the address is at the bottom of the page. Or you can give by clicking on the donate button on this page as well. By all means, if you would like to help us in a hands on way, we would appreciate your help on a short term mission.

On mission with you - John

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.