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Church
Partnership |
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Disciples Making Disciples |
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Ministry Highlights |
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Stories from
Around the World Many heart-warming stories are told from ministries around the world. Following are several of the highlights. To read these stories, click on the links listed under "Ministry Highlights" in left-hand column. |
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Ecuador: |
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 Brampton West Alliance Church sent a
team of four people to partner with a Quichua-speaking
church in Ibarra, Ecuador about thirty minutes north of
where we live in Otavalo. The church had never done
evangelism or discipleship. Ten very timid, nervous
and frightened brothers set out Sunday afternoon. In
spite of this, twenty-seven prayed to
receive Christ that day. Afterward, back at the
Church, it was wonderful to listen to reports of
what the Lord had done. The next day I watched an
entire transformation in the team. Everyone was
eager, bold, confident in Christ. We saw a woman, JW,
accept Christ right in the street. We saw five
teenage boys who took the testimonies, but left
making fun of them. Five minutes later, one returned
alone, wanting to know what he needed to do to be
right with God. He also prayed to receive Christ. We
saw entire families accept Christ.
On Tuesday afternoon, a young lady and the head deacon of the local knocked on our last door for the day. A young mother with two sons and a teenage daughter were inside, along with a couple in their fifties. This was a very poor family, but the couple was dressed in nice clothes. I started out saying that I had lived in Ecuador about four years, and had seen many people going to church, but very few following Jesus. Later, the mother and children all accepted Christ, but the couple never said a word. I asked the woman why she looked so troubled. She started crying. Her husband talked to me in English, explaining that just that morning, they had been evicted from their apartment and their rented restaurant. They had a successful restaurant, but for the last couple of months, for some reason, the people had stopped coming. They had spent their last bit of money to prepare lunches that day and no one came. They were at this poor woman's home to ask if they knew how they could get a poverty home for themselves and their six children. They had just sat down when we knocked at the door. I ask him if they were married. "No." They explained that they had left their former spouses ten years ago. I told them that God is not blind. That we can't live in sin and ask Him to bless us. They both decided to confess this to their children, to repent, and to accept Christ. The wife said to me that when they had left their apartment, she had shook her fist in the air and shouted, "There is no God; there is no God." But after she watched what He had just done for her, she knew without a doubt that He is real. We saw seventy-six accept Christ, and many more reconciled to Christ. A few days later, several more teams (of churches from Ontario, Canada)
came to work all over Ecuador. They reported the same kind of divine
appointments. We worked with a team from Orillia (Ontario) in Chacapungo,
a small Quichua-speaking alliance church in the central mountains. Around fifty accepted Christ. But for me the most special was the
Pastor's mother, who twenty years ago disowned him when he accepted
Christ. A Canadian team member, the pastor's twelve-year-old son, and a
brother from the church visited her, and she accepted Christ. She then
came to the next church service and the pastor (her son) could not stop
crying. |
