01/21/2012: Growth in Ecuador

Growth in Ecuador

The overcrowded old meeting place.

These last couple of months (prior to September, 2011) have been extremely busy here at Pra del Tor. Our last mission report shared about our desperate need for a larger meeting place, now that our group of believers on Sabbath has tripled in size. We stepped out in faith and started clearing trees and laying the foundation for the building. We did not have the money for the steel and the roofing, but our whole church group prayed, and we went ahead and finished the foundation and then waited on the Lord.

The Correa family, some of the new church members.

Weeks passed and more people kept crowding in on Sabbath. One day, we received an email from a family member that said he was coming down for a couple of weeks to help us build. We were thankful at this prospect of help, but puzzled as to what the Lord had in mind; how were we going to afford the materials to start building? We continued to wait on the Lord.

Now, over two weeks later, we are happy to share with you that the Lord touched the hearts of His people and also some that are not of His fold yet, and has provided us with the needed steel and roofing. The building is very bare-bones still, and we have not been able to start on the bathrooms. Since the Lord has not provided funds for us to move on, we will commit our “way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will bring it to pass….” (Psalm 37:5.)

The chapel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sabbath school in the new chapel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bathroom site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prayer Requests

To finish up, I would like to place before you some of the newest members of our church group and ask that you intercede with the Lord on their behalf:

The first is Magdalena, a young mother of two small children that is overjoyed that she is learning how to be a better mother and raise her children in the fear of the Lord. She is enjoying better health as a result of her diet and lifestyle changes. Her children also have no more allergies and constant runny noses. The cross she carries is her husband, who is one of the town drunks. He has come a couple of times because she begged him, but he is very negative and makes fun of her decision to follow Jesus.

Rosa and her husband, Richard, have come to us with a broken marriage and broken hearts, looking for something to fill their emptiness. They have a long way to go still, but they have both fallen at the foot of the cross and accepted their need of a Savior that will help them rebuild their marriage and make it glorious. Sadly, their family members constantly ridicule and try to discourage them.

The third request is for Patricia and her two little babies. She is a young woman whose husband works far away in the mines and only comes home a couple of days a month at best and spends the time at home drinking with his buddies and wasting his money. She came to me with tears last Sabbath, wanting to know how to pray. She had never been taught and wanted to teach her children, but was afraid that she would say the wrong thing or not address God in the right way and offend Him.

There are many more, but time does not allow me to share everything. Brothers and sisters, “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 21

Maranatha!

 

By Barac & Laurie Orellana, Pra del Tor Ministry, Ecuador. Email: orellanafamily@gmail.com. Support for their work in Ecuador can be sent through Mission Projects International, PO Box 59656, Renton, WA 98058.

 

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