Our church in Loja is helping out with a church plant in a town called Celica. Celica is about 4 hours south west from Loja and is usually in the clouds. They say people from Celica find out who their spouse is only after they get married, cause they haven't been able to see through the haze before that (haze of lovesickness???).
This church plant was started by a pastor from Guayaquil who used to travel the 6-7 hours every week or so and now this responsibility has been passed onto our church. There are a few different groups that take turns in going to Celica each week. John has gone out with Toño a few times now.
John stood out as a gringo and received the appropriate 'go home' greeting from a local walking down the street on his first visit, thankfully the guys from the church were more welcoming!
There they stood in the middle of a room that was the size of an average lounge room in Australia making loud music to the Lord....
This new church is so thankful to have our church supporting them and showing an interest in them; and we are really glad to see how our Loja church is taking up this challenge to invest in the lives of other younger christians, even when it means an 8 hour drive on a Sunday.
May it be so that more and more Ecuadorian christians reach out to those around them, especially in Loja province!
can praise the Lord – for that is our eternal song (well, this was amongst a lot of other things that were brought to bear…cherishing God’s word, a warning not to fool with sin – it is a deadly enemy, living a holy life in sight of a holy God) .
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