Crossroads' Missions Trip to Ecuador
Riobamba & Quito
with E3 Partners
July 28th – August 5th, 2006
The goal of the trip is to spread the Good News. e3Partners (formerly Global Misssions Fellowship) brings together North Americans that have a heart for missions internationally with native churches that want to do evangelism and grow. These churches commit to following up on new believers and provide a home base where they can experience God's love and grow in His will.
We had 29 team members. Each team consisted of a North American, a translator and a person from the local churches. The teams represented several churches from USA and three local churches. Fifteen of the members were 18 years old or younger, and there were 16 people who were experiencing an E3 mission trip for the first time. They were all cooperative, had great attitudes, and demonstrated servant hearts.
Dave Johnson, the team leader from E3, called this trip a “Triple Crown,” since we spent four days in Riobamba, then had our one day outreach to the Ecuadorian Senate, and one day in the Quito area doing follow-up and evangelism in areas where an E3 team had served two weeks ago. Mary Davis was our second leader from E3. We had the privilege of seeing a wide range of people respond to the gospel message: from very poor villagers to the powerful members of Congress. For the most part, people were very receptive in all the areas we visited.
Photos above:
Mt. Cotopaxi
City of Quito
Youth on the trip
Photos left: Sunday Service in Riobamba
Dave Johnson giving a message with his translator - Mariela.
Hubert giving his testimony also with his translator - Fanny
Prior to evangelism trips, the teams and a local pastor went and prayed at several parks and at a market. Subsequently, they went back to talk with the people.
Photos below:
Sharing in progress.
Working with children.
Mary Davis in fellowship with a young one.
Riobamba downtown with Mt. Chimborazo in the back.
It was a great joy for us to see the nationals begin using the Evangecube and sharing with their people. This was especially true for my team. Last year, a team worked with this church, and were somewhat disappointed that only a few adults and a lot of children responded to the Gospel. When we met with the pastors last year, Dave challenged them not to try to do the work alone, but to prayerfully pick out three couples to train and help with the work of the ministry.
This pastor did that, and on our first day of door-to-door evangelism, we had at least 10 nationals working with us. There were over 20 the second day, and around 40 on the final day. The total number of different national workers that our team had from this church was 56. The greatest thrill came as we were loading into the jeeps to go back to the hotel (because we had to leave for Quito). At least 20 nationals were going down the street with their Evangecubes to continue calling on their neighbors before the evening service at 5:00PM. They went eagerly, and were fervent in their presentations of the Gospel.
Photos below:
Rural Riobamba.
A boy studying the instructions for the evangelism cube.
The Senate outreach came as a real surprise to us. A few days before the trip Mary Davis sent around a e-mail asking us to bring formal clothing since we would have an opportunity to witness in the 2 Ecuadorian Senate office buildings.
Photos below: All dressed up for the occasion. Pastor Sam and others wind down in Burger King afterwards. Hubert in front of the Senate office building.
Prayer was the key to the Senate outreach. Two hundred local Christians had already been prayer walking around the Congressional Building complex for a few days. Some of our team members were assigned to prayer instead of going into the buildings. There were so many local prayer walkers, our North American prayer team was told to stay on the bus and pray there.
Most of you already know Senator Gailo, an evangelical Christian, arranged for teams to visit the two Senate buildings and for a famous evangelist to speak to the entire Senate while it was in session. However, the presentation to the entire Senate was called off the day before (8/1/06), because an influential Catholic priest complained to the chairman of the Senate. But God removed the chairman from the room for an important telephone call on 8/2/06 and when Senator Gailo again requested a presentation to the Senate the vice-chairman said why not. This was a historical moment, because the Gospel had never before been presented in the Senate chamber. The Gospel presentation was given by Rev. Alberto Mottesi who is considered the Billy Graham of Latin America. Rev. Mottesi also told the Senate that they were responsible to God for all the legislation they passed. Each Senator was given an Evangecube and had previously been given a Bible by Senator Gailo.
At the same time we had 20 teams of North Americans with their translators presenting the gospel in the two Senate office buildings. Our team counted a total of 121 decisions for Christ in and around the National Ecuadorian Congress. There were also 40 national pastors in the building helping in the office-to-office outreach and giving out Christian literature. The Senate chaplain will be following up on those who made decisions in the Senate building, and many of the government workers and Senators are excited about being able to start Bible studies right in Senate office buildings.
One of our team members, on the street outside the Senate building, spoke with a group of people and shared the Evangecube. The leader of the group asked many questions, and eventually received Christ along with several others of the group. In further conversation, she stated that they were on the way to visit a Senator about a problem in their community. She is the leader of the African community in her city. She wanted an Evangecube to take back to share with her people. Talk about a God-appointment!!! Only God knows how many hearts were really touched that day.
In the Quito area we did a special presentation for children with a puppet show on the prodigal son, exuberant singing and candy. Photos: Puppet show, Pastor Harry with the children's ministry group
On our day off, we went to the equator and visited the Museum Intinan there. We tried our skills at balancing an egg a nail head.
Photo: Pastor Sam up the creek with a paddle.
Many of our team members were stretched, and the comment made most often is a new appreciation of the power of prayer. The Ecuadorian people take prayer much more seriously, and pray more fervently than what we generally see in the United States. In that way, the Ecuadorians were a tremendous example to our team.
God’s work goes on even after we leave, and decisions are made for Christ after we are back home. Take heart in this, and don’t be discouraged if you didn’t see much results while you were serving on the field. Every team member has stories they would love to share with you. We can only begin to tell you a few highlights here.
Photos below:
Crossroads group
Leaving Latin America - end of a God centered experience.
For those interested in statistics, we had 805 Gospel presentations, 891 decisions for Christ, and we worked with 86 different national workers plus our 28 translators. We helped to establish 6 new churches including one in the Ecuadorian Senate.
Thanks again for all your prayers. Thanks to Mary for her trip reports, from which much of this has been taken. Thanks to Dave and Mary for their leadership. All for His Glory,