Women Ministering to Women

This weekend, on the Seminary campus, around 140 ladies have gathered together for Friday and all-day Saturday.  It is part of our new Disciples in Ministry program where women are being trained to minister to women.

National Youth Congress

We praise the Lord for the National NYI Congress this past weekend.  60 young people gathered to be inspired and trained on how to reach "urban tribes."  These are some of the many cultures that are found around the world today among young people—youth who are often ignored and not reached with the gospel message.

Our Seminary Chapel is Remodeled!

Recently a Work & Witness team from Long Beach, CA, traveled to Quito, Ecuador, to remodel our Seminary Chapel.  Missionary Dwight Rich led the project.  The picture speaks for itself!  Thank you to everyone involved in giving our Seminary staff and students a beautiful place to worship.

NAF welcomes the Almeida Family

 Rev. Fernando and Liliana Almeida will be arriving in Ecuador in September to begin to working with our Nazarene Seminary.  They have two children, Nicole (14) and Andrés (7).  They are originally from Portugal and are Global Missionaries.  Most recently they have served in a variety of capacities in the Regional Office.  We are very excited to have them join our North Andean Field missionary team.  Fernando is currently on a short furlough in the USA.  Liliana is with the kids in Argentina.

Equipping Those with a Missionary Call

"The Cross-Cultural Orientation (CCO) weekend events are designed to assess, train, and orient those who are interested in cross-cultural ministry in and through the Church of the Nazarene. This event is required for anyone interested in serving for 90 days or longer, but we encourage all who plan to serve to attend" (Taken from the careerinmission.org website).

Recently, several people that have a missionary call gathered for two days at the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Quito to attend a Cross Cultural Orientation.  This event was organized and taught by missionaries Dana Howard and Fernando Almeida.

Oscar and Bibiana Cardona

Hello.  We are from Bogotá, Colombia, and recently celebrated 9 years of marriage.  We have 2 precious children, Ana Sofia (8) and Daniel Esteban (5).  We have been Christians for 14 years.  During this time we have seen the faithfulness of God in our lives, but more than anything we have seen this in our marriage.

We married young because we were going to have a baby. However, after a year, we separated.  We thought going our own way was the best choice.  However, after another 18 months, God allowed us to run into each other, and we decided to give our relationship a second chance.  We knew that our daughter was suffering because of our separation.

This time, we permitted God to not only live in our hearts but also in our marriage.  That was 7 years ago!  Now, we give God the glory.  He is faithful.  Even through the difficulties, trials and frustrations, His mercies are new for us.

Today we live in Quito, Ecuador.  Together, with our children, we decided to accept the challenge to leave our country, our lives, and prepare at the South American Nazarene Theological Seminary.  The goal is to give our best to God.  We know that without God we could not live.  We want share with others who have lost hope that there is a new start.

Luis Eduardo Chila

I am a 28-year-old Ecuadorian who comes from a very poor family. My mom raised me and my 4 brothers by cooking and doing laundry as a business.  At age 7, my dad abandoned us, and at age 16, I began to drink alcohol to the point where I was drinking every day.  Although I always wanted to stop drinking because of the problems it caused my family, I never did.

Around this time, I met Erika who became my girlfriend.  We lived for 4 months with my mom because I couldn’t find a job.  However, every day my problems seemed to get bigger than the day before.

I was losing hope in ever finding a job when I had the opportunity to work in a Christian High School as a security guard.  One day, a teacher invited me to a meeting at his house.  At the meeting they talked about the Word of God and had refreshments, and I felt good.  The teacher continued to invite me to the meetings. Sometimes I would go and other times I would not because I stayed in my neighborhood drinking alcohol.  This went on until the teacher invited me to a retreat.  There they talked about the Word of God and that God could change man, heal his heart, and transform his life. They asked if anyone would like to receive Christ. I told God, with a little bit of doubt, that if He really existed and if He could really change lives like the people said, then I wanted Him to change me.  In that moment I received Christ in my heart.  Afterwards, I found out that the teacher was also a pastor. He started to give me Bible studies and visit me at my house.

One of the changes God made in my life was with Erika.  We followed God’s commandment and got married.  I started faithfully attending the meetings at the pastor’s house because there it felt like home.  I stop drinking.  I invited my friends to the meetings too.  After a while, I begin to teach at the meeting and shared everything that God had done in my life and in the life of my family.  Eventually we were holding three different meetings in three different houses.

Today I am studying with my wife in the Nazarene Seminary and working with families in an urban sector of Quito. We help families restore their lives in the same way ours was restored and teach them to live the way God commands us.  Our purpose today is to give other couples what was given to us.  Before I close, I would like to encourage you to open your heart to Jesus Christ.  He wants to change you life like He changed mine.

Testimony of Rut Ascanta

Although I was born into a Christian home, as a child I would not allow myself to give my life to Christ.  Instead I was demon possessed, which brought much sadness to my parents’ lives.  I want to share my testimony not to give glory to my past but to demonstrate the greatness of God to win my life.

I was demon possessed from the age of 2 until 16.  When I was possessed I couldn’t control my emotions, my feelings, etc. I was rebellious with my parents.  At age 8 I lost all my knowledge after I fell from a tree that was about 26 feet high.  When I became a teen, I became even more rebellious. When I was 12 years old I decided to kill my own brother, not for any reason, only because I didn’t want to see him anymore. I thought my sister was simple trash and that she wasn’t even my sister.  I wanted to kill myself with my own hands.  I thought I was strange and my parents didn’t love me.

July 8, 2007, is a day I will never forget!  It marked a difference in my life, a radical change.  It was that Sunday that I had a stoke and facial paralysis.  I felt I could no longer go on.  That same day an evangelist visited my house.  He preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  At that moment when the evangelist finished sharing the word of God, I decided with all my soul to give my life to Christ. Since that moment I have felt a profound joy and I was radically changed.  Christ changed my life completely!

At 17 years old, I began to go to church and I was a Sunday school teacher.  I continued to pray in God’s name, read the Bible, and meditate on it.  I decided to go the Nazarene Seminary with the purpose of guiding others in the correct ways of Christ. I was able to come to the Seminary because it was God’s purpose for me.  My call is to be a regional missionary.  The grace of God changed my life. Now I love, I sing, I praise because He is always with me and with everyone!

A Double Blessing from the Missouri District: 10/15 through 11/13

The Missouri District sent two teams to Ecuador to work on the Barb Bouldrey memorial project.  Barb had a great passion for missions and dedicated many years of service as the NMI director for the MO District.  She was well loved, respected and lived a full life until cancer quickly took her to be with her Lord.

Team One

Team Two

Both teams accomplished a lot as they worked with the Quichua people in the mountains outside of Riobamba in the Sierra Centro District.  They worked with the Licto church people in a small village of Licto.  Once the Licto church was completed with roof and electricity, they had time to go further up the mountain and help another Quichua church, called Gueseche, to get their foundation started.  The teams experienced God’s beauty all around them and the blessing of working alongside the indigenous people and sharing some of their day-to-day life with them.  The church people graciously offered what little they had, which included guinea pig (cuy), corn on the cob (choclo), big large beans, and homemade cheese.  Another church served potatoes and onions in a bean sauce (sambo) and more cuy.  They were so generous with their food.

Licto Church - finished

Gueseche Church - in progress

In addition to the construction projects, the teams evangelized the local children after school.  They shared the evange-ball, evange-cube and acted out stories of the Bible along with playing games with them.  Their favorite game was soccer.

Pastor Andrus praying at Kids Club

Rev. Wayne LaForce preaching and Jon Fischer translating at a service.

Wayne is also a former missionary.

The teams also visited churches around the Riobamba area, and several of team members preached.  Rev. John Boudrey, husband of Barbara Bouldrey, preached at the dedication service of the Licto church.  He was thrilled to report that several people prayed for salvation after the service.  One night after attending church way up on another mountain, the teams had to drive down a very steep, slick mountain road.   God made His presence ever so real through different team members singing and praying all the way down the mountain.  One memory never to be forgotten was when two church ladies knelt down on the ground and looked up into the sky during our circle of closing prayer.

Another memory was meeting Lillia, a 9-year-old girl, and inviting her to come to Kids Club.   She had a little bundle on her back—her one-month-old brother that she was taking care while her mother worked.  Her mother was helping to put a roof on a building nearby.  The little brother slept through all the singing and the games.  Yet another memory is sharing the story of salvation to over 50 children in the “upper room” during the church service.  Their faces beamed with joy as they participated in the dramas.

Lillia and some boys

Praise God for the youth that was on both teams.  One teen dedicated his life to Christ during this trip.  Also one of the women expressed that she had never felt God’s presence so real in her life.  Her husband said that he had only heard her testify three times in her life and two of them were during the trip!  We praise God for the double blessing—for the Missouri District teams that blessed the Quichuan people and for the Quichuan people that blessed the teams.