Ecuador Ecuador 
Linaje Escogido celebrated their 25th anniversary in July 2010, and is a small church up in the mountains about an hour out of Quito. They have about 40 members and have experienced much tribulation. We built their sanctuary in 2006/07, finishing the building they started many years before. In one sense it is our "base camp" of operations for evangelizing the yet unreached surrounding areas. Unfortunately, it continues to face much turbulence due to leadership issues. Please pray for this little church that has so much potential. It is dear to my heart, and we have invested much time and resources in it since 2005.
Early History: This church experienced serious persecution in its early days. Pastor Pedro Vasquez ("mother church" pastor) planted this mission in the face of much opposition. Many believers were hospitalized and at times had to run for their very lives from angry mobs wielding machetes and clubs... benches and bibles were burned and people beaten. Pastor Ricardo Oña was doused with gasoline with the intention of being burned, but he escaped.
"New Life Bible Chapel" from Harrisburg, PA adopted this sweet church as their sister church, and is praying for them, helped a great deal with the costs of the sanctuary, and provided Sunday School material.
Come to know the Church through photos:
This little church was built on donated land of one of the members. Here is a shot of the inside.
It is high in the mountains, in a rural, agricultural setting overlooking a huge valley.
As usual, our visit brought a special service, complete with singing by two different groups of children, and a truly indigenous meal afterwards. (God protected me again!)
This is what the church used to look like before the construction, and here is a special report on the building project that took place from October 2006 to January 2007.
Here I am presenting Sunday School material, thanks to "New Life Bible Chapel".
The church finished their 3 month training course on Evangelism in April 2005, and held their "Community Outreach weekend". This included special music, a number of testimonies, sharing the gospel, and showing the Jesus movie to their neighborhood. Read more about this Outreach program here on it's own webpage.
Here we are setting things up, and what it looked like in the afternoon as the groups were singing.
BACK TO THE TOP OF THIS PAGE
