God does answer prayers!

Glenda (the translator assigned to work with me), and one of the church members from the local church went out today to evangelize and every house we stopped at was either too busy or just did not want to listen. Glenda said that we should go up a street and then she said we need to knock on this door at a house. We did and a 12 year girl answered the door. We asked for her mother or father and she went to get her mother. Her mother came and we asked if we could talk to her a few minutes about Jesus Christ. She said very excited Si! We then used an evangecube to share the gospel with her and her 12 year daughter. At the end we asked if she and her daughter wanted to accept Jesus as their Lord. After they prayed, the mother said that she had been reading a Bible and had many questions and had been waiting for us to come. Our coming to her house was an answer to prayer.

Continue to pray for us as we will be using the evangecube with the police officers we have been working with. We have been talking about a need to have a relationship with God but have not gone as far as to ask if they want to accept Christ. Please pray that God will soften their hearts and they will accept Christ.

Dios te bendiga,
Jim Crosslin

Stories from the Trip: Karter Wiser

On Tuesday, Steven Gladstone evangelized to a twelve year old girl and she accepted Christ. And she wanted him to come back the next day so she could grow a relationship with Jesus, but he wanted my team to disciple to her the next day. On Wednesday she brought 3 of her friends to learn about Jesus, so the three of them studied the Bible and did the lessons. I love how remarkable her interest was in Jesus. She was a very smart girl and it excited me to see her grow in Christ. We shared stories about ourselves and our families and I wish I could go back every day to see her progress. I will be praying for her as I go back home and I am happy that I could bring such a precious girl to Christ.

Stories from the Trip: Jordan Graves

My favorite story was on Wednesday. It was the late afternoon and there was me, my translator Mauricio, and my national Juan. We had literally walked 2 miles up the hill to go to a house because we had already visited the closest houses. We were extremely tired and thirsty, so we all shared one bottle of water. By the time we got to the house we realized no one was home. But someone was home next door and a couple was walking down the street. Juan went and talked to the neighbor while Mauricio and I walked with the couple down the road, we talked for like 15 minutes, longer than anyone else. We shared the cube and I gave my testimony with them and they accepted Christ. We prayed with them and then we left down the road while they went to a friend’s house. That afternoon Mauricio and I waited for a woman to come home for a follow-up visit but she didn’t show. Mauricio and I talked for about a half hour about his life, illness, and coming to God.  The day was very long and tiring, but it was great regardless!

More stories to come!

We’re home!

As if leaving Guayaquil at 11:10pm isn’t enough to mess up one’s sleep pattern, add to that a plane delayed by 2 hours!  We arrived at Westwood about 11:40am Saturday morning, feeling like death warmed over.

It was a great week and the flight delays were a minor bump in comparison that all the work that was accomplished.  We hope to have a few more posts to tell about it as people submit their stories from the week.

Above is a shot of Denyse Wiser sharing the gospel.  In the hat on the far side is her translator, Javier, who wouldn’t let her carry her backpack all week!

It seems we can’t say it enough.  Thanks so much for your prayers!

Thursday Update

It’s actually Friday morning and we’re loading the bus to head back to Guayaquil.  Everyone is well and we had a great week.

We helped start three brand new congregations and worked to strengthen two new church plans.  During the wee we saw 146 professions of faith, did 54 follow up visits, trained 36 nationals in evangelism, had 69 children in children’s ministry and 54 in evening Bible studies. 

The churches we worked with are in the following communities near Cuenca & Azogues:  Uchupucun, Deleg (2), St. Isbel, & Corazon de Jesus (Turi).

I’ll try to add pictures and stories later.  Thanks for your prayers.

Wednesday Update

It’s Wednesday night and the last team got in at 9:10pm.  Everyone seems to be healthy and happy.  Fortunately I haven’t heard of any major digestive or other illnesses yet.

Scotty Vines told me a story this morning about a man who came up to him who spoke English and said he felt led to talk with him.  The man wanted to discuss a marital situation and Scotty thought it was neat since he is the DivorceCare leader at church and equipped to give some good advice.

Deborah told of finding a Christian man in her community today who she will challenge to help reach the community for Christ.

For me, Jay, we were doing a follow-up visit and had an opportunity to share with another member of the family who accepted Christ.  I was also chases by a goose and a dog today.  I used my backpack to separate myself from the dog so he bit my backpack before the owner came out to help.  Fortunately, she received Christ a few minutes afterwards.

I guess that’s all for now. Tomorrow is the final day of work.  Friday day and night is a travel day.  Thanks again for all of your prayers.

Couldn’t resist

I  (Jay) couldn’t resist adding this photo to the blog.  By the way, the temperatures are really great here compared to Alabama.  Where we were today required a jacket unless you were moving around or playing soccer.  By the way,  I’ve discovered I’m too old to play a sport and really give it 100%.  I had a number of minor injuries, including a head crash with Preston while playing soccer.  We discovered that a good soccer player doesn’t really have to look at the ball that often, and he knows where his teammates are.

Tuesday Update

The shot above is of Preston Marshall doing some fancy footwork on the soccer “field”.  Preston and Andy Gordon are working on the soccer team that travels to different sites each day (where another team is already working) and gathers neighborhood children and teens to play soccer.  After that, they share the gospel with the people gathered to play.  They enjoy playing North Americans (Norte Americanos).  Needless to say, even the children here have some fancy moves with a soccer ball.

By the way, the young man in the picture beyond Preston accepted Christ after this picture was taken.  He lives in Turi, a neighborhood of Cuenca, Ecuador.  Andy & Preston really connected with some teens at another area where they worked Monday.  The teens are doing a cookout for them tomorrow.

It seems to be difficult to get reports from every member of the team, but I’ll continue to try.

Most of us enjoyed getting ice cream from a nearby shop tonight after everyone got back  about 8:30pm.  Spending time together is even difficult as we are divided up to work with different church plants in different areas during the day.  So we enjoy it when we get a chance.

Monday Report

Today the teams started evangelism and we had many exciting experiences.  Alan Turman got to spend a few hours at the police station, fortunately not under lock up, but an intentional visit.  After a couple of hours of discussing the gospel, Alan asked the important question, “If you were to die today, what are the chances you’d go to heaven?”  After some blank looks and uncertainty, Alan contonued, “If I could tell you how to know 100%, would you  like to know?”  The police chief responded arrirmatively and Alan shared the EvangiCube with him.  The chief prayed to receive Christ and Alan will do a follow-up visit tomorrow and begin discipleship.

Scotty Vines reported an opportunity to lead an entire family to Christ.Liz reported that the band-aids have been used by the soccer team to help with some of the injuries on the soccer field.  Scotty’s team also met a Catholic lady who believes in Christ and trusts Him solely for her salvation.  Although she will not leave the church, pray that she will share the truth of God’s word within the Catholic Church.

Andy Gordon and Preston Marshall are visiting different sites using soccer to connect with children and teenagers, using that forum to share Christ.  Today they connected with a lot of teenagers who were very interested and appreciated all that was shared with them.  Preston shared that it was his best day ever on a mission trip.

Deborah Nichols had 16 children in the cell meeting today for children’s ministry.  They met on the steps of a Catholic Church in the community she is working in.  The meeting that was supposed to last an hour ended up almost two hours as adults sho cane were discipled in our discipleship lesson one on salvation.  It leades them to the scripture to answer questions.  The picture to the right is of some of that meeting.

Katie and Jim had a challenging day with some of the folks being very closed due to their Catholic faith.

Sunday Update #1

Today most of the teams led worship and some started evangelism and other ministry activity.   Due to the fact that we are working in six different places, I haven’t even seen some of the teams since breakfast.  My team, (Jay, Deborah and Jordan) led worship in a house church in the neighborhood we’ll be working.  Deborah and Jordan shared their testimonies and I overviewed the work of E3 and challenged them to get involved (see 2 Cor. 5:18-21).

The pastor is taking my team to dinner, but I had to get this video to you.  The people down here usually school us in soccer, but the minute I turn on my camera to get some funny video of Jordan learning some lessons, he steals the futbol from a young Ecuadorian and then kicks for a goal.  I know it sounds like a jet is flying over, but that is actually the sound of a thousand angel wings assisting Jordan in this endeavor.

All are safe and well (as far as I know!).  Thanks for praying.  Tomorrow is when we need the most prayers as we begin the work of evangelism in the communities in which we work.

Click here to see it on YouTube.