Disciples in Ministry arrives in East Ecuador

About a month ago we had the opportunity to travel to the East of Ecuador, to the city of Macas, to present the regional vision for an integrated discipleship system (link to page in Spanish).
It was an amazingly beautiful trip winding down the road through the mountains until we reached the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon.
The purpose of the trip was to share with the leaders and the lay people of the Austro district the vision of every church member becoming a minister (servant) in the ministry that God has conferred upon him/her to serve the body of Christ. More than 50 people came for the event, we shared with them God's desire for every active member of the body of Christ, and gave them the opportunity to offer themselves to God for the ministry He has given them.
Following a general presentation of the various ministry for which discipleship and equipping materials were developed, we had a presentation of 6 introductory workshops in the following ministries: NYI, NMI, SDMI, Compassion, Communications, Ladies.
Our brothers and sisters were very encouraged with the possibilities of involving themselves in a ministry according to the gifts received from God, and were already willing to schedule a second training event which would be more focused in the ministry they were willing to commit to.
The previous day, despite the long 8 hour journey, we arrived for a special meeting with the pastors to get to know them and challenge them to capture this vision of involving every member in their local church in active ministry. It was a blessed time to share about the ministries and challenges of this particular region of Ecuador.
This was another initiative to challenge all of the South American Nazarene constituency to "Live out the Great Commission"

A challenge for Missions

Last December we travelled to Guayaquil in response to an invitation from the Ecuadorian National NMI Coordinator to visit her church and a church-type mission in another town.

This sister invited us to take a Missions' challenge, and what a blessing it was to arrive at a church with very limited financial resources, that is just starting its services to the local community, but that from the very beginning is concerned in teaching and challenging its members to think beyond the local needs.

The trip was longer than expected thus we did not arrive in time for the worship. But the brothers of the church had a presentation about the topic of compassion, taken from the life of Jesus. We were blessed by remembering that our Lord had as part of His mission on earth to respond to the spiritual, social and physician needs of human beings.

At the end we gave them a challenge based in Acts 1:8 having them remember that our mission is not limited to our Jerusalem, but that God has sent us to the whole world. During the sermon Liliana shared the story of her church and how it is living the great commission with a global vision and a local action.

We ended our visit with a time for social sharing with the brothers and sisters of the church and we were able to tell them of some of our experiences. When we returned to Guayaquil it was really late, but we felt that it was well worth it our time investment and presence with these brothers and sisters in the church.

Starting up a New Year

It has been a while that we have not updated our news, but I think it's still in good order to wish everyone of our followers a much blessed year of 2012.

January started full steam ahead, full of activities. Since the 16th our clases started at the Seminário Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano (STNS). God has blessed us in an incredible way by sending us a group of 26 students in residence, and the great majority of these are starting their first year of studies. We have students from Ecuador and Colombia. Unfortunately we have no one from Venezuela in residence this time.

The range of services of STNS is not limited to residential students though. The majority of our students are spread out through the 17 district decentralized education centers, and we also have students participating in virtual education classes through the internet.

The start up of this new year brought some news to everyone:

• Greater intentionality in character formation. Character development is one of the fundamental points of the educational philosophy of the Church of the Nazarene for its ministers. We are implementing some new systems that will allow us to be more intentional in this area. Some of these include: Mentoring groups, times for the development of spiritual formation habits (namely we designated a date for an institutional time of prayer and fasting, we are closely following up on the development of personal devotional habits of each student, etc.).
• Improvements in the services offered to the students. We have as a goal for this year to complete the replacement of floors in the dorm rooms. We also received some help for a project to replace some of the kitchen elements that have already completed their due time of service.
• Two new teachers teaching. Both Liliana and I are teaching our first courses at STNS. Liliana is teaching "Introduction to Sociology" and I teaching "Church Leadership and Administration", both these courses are being taught in this first teaching block.
• Greater intentionality and focus in equipping students for church planting. All of our students need to be involved in new church planting projects under the direction and pedagogical supervision of STNS. This will help them to develop practical skills not only to pastor an existing church on the district they are from, but also to have a vision to plant new churches.

We ask for your prayers for this new group of students that has arrived to STNS. That God may use well this time to work in their individual lives, and that He may use every member of the faculty of the institution as a tool to develop the leaders that He needs for His Church.

Please see more pictures here.

Missionary Conference and Special Service in Riobamba

Before the end of October we had the opportunity to share at the Sierra Centro District Missionary Conference. This event was designed to motivate the local leaders of NMI of the district.
This event was planned by the National leadership of NMI. It was a time for praise, worship, motivation, and consecration to God's service, so that He uses us in fulfilling the mission.
This was a weekend trip in which we got to know a bit more of the natural wonders of Ecuador. We passed real close to three very well known volcanos in Ecuador: Cotopaxi; Tungurahua; and Chimborazo. We arrived just in time for the opening service with a tremendous challenge of consecration.
The following day, Liliana and I shared three training workshops for NMI leaders which are part of the Regional initiative Disciples in Ministry.
NMI leaders from the city of Riobamba and from other parts of the district came for this conference, some of them traveled more than 10 hours to arrive at the event.
It was a special time not only for discovering more about this ministry for the local church, but also of consecration to God and the Mission He has proposed to us.

On Sunday, we visited the Bella Vista Church of the Nazarene in Riobamba. It was a time of blessing and again of missionary challenge. The church is pastored by a friend and colleague whom we met in Argentina, and whom as soon as we got to Ecuador, called us inviting us for a missionary service at his church. It was a special time of consecration and re-discovering the mission of the church and our role in the development of such mission.
On this same weekend, the pastoral family was blessed with the arrival of a new member. It was great to share these moments of joy with the pastoral family.
See more pictures of these events and of the city of Riobamba here.

First Weeks in Ecuador

Time goes by real fast. It has been three weeks since we arrived in Ecuador, in which many important events happened.

Week 1: Nicole and André did all the testing and interviews to be admitted to the new school the Alliance Academy International. It was a week in which we went to the school every day since one or the other of our kids would either have an interview or had to take a test. But by thursday of that week we had the response of the admissions committee. They had both been admitted to the school and would start classes the following week. During this same week we registered our visas with a government office. We started to drive a car, or better to say, a "tank" through the streets of Quito, and at least we can get to 3 shopping centers, and to the kids' school without getting lost. On the saturday we relaxed and went to visit the museum and monument of "Mitad del Mundo" (half of the world)- it's worth to check the pictures. On Sunday, we visited our first church in Quito.

Week 2: The kids started classes and the parents started to know better the Seminário Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano where they will be working. We had interviews with the rector and he explained to both of us our new jobs and what were his expectations, then we had individual interviews with all of those who will be serving along side us. Fernando is taking the responsibility of being the seminary's administrator and Liliana will be working on developing the relationship with donors and friends of the seminary. Liliana also had his first experience to go to a street market and learn that she had to negotiate the prices for vegetables and fruits. On saturday there was special event of DIM - Disciples in Ministry of the Sierra North District. We were able to help our missionary colleagues with the logistics of the event and were introduced to the pastors and district leaders of this district. On Sunday, we visited our second church in Quito - Cotocollao.

Week 3: We started working in "Full" in our new assignments, learning more and more about the way the seminary works and starting to take action in the assignments entrusted to us. Liliana did her second trip to the market and she is really getting the hang of it in negotiating prices. On Sunday, the family visited the third church in Quito - since I had to travel to Brazil to attend to Regional business, this is the church that is right next to the property where we live.

We are now feeling more accustomed to the new city, but we still have a great need, for which we ask your prayers. We need to sell our car in Argentina so that we can buy our car in Ecuador. We are so very thankful for the kindness of the Ecuadorian Mission which is letting us use a van for our transportation, but this is not the ideal for many reasons. Thus we ask that you to pray with us for a buyer for our car to come up as soon as possible.