Photo by jpereira

Last weekend we went to Tena to hold our monthly meeting with the Bible Institute students (IBCI) and Steve, Caylin and I went to a dinner at an Ecuadorian Chinese food place to follow up with a bunch of men and their wive’s who were at the church planting conference. They were all really excited about it, and there are three of them whom we are excited about helping start a new church plant in a churchless town near that area.

Although I’m not the type of person to point out spiritual warfare at the drop of a hat, I can definitely say that we were being distracted at the meeting by things beyond the norm. It started with us sitting down waiting for everyone to arrive. The restaurant was quiet, and things looked good. Then, after everyone arrived and right when Steve started to talk, it was almost immediate that tons of abnormally loud cars started driving by outside, then groups of people making tons of noises outside (which echoed in through the window), then the church bells to the nearby cathedral started ringing, and then, when things started to die down, then the server came and brought one plate at a time, then 2 sets of silverware at a time… It was horribly distracting! So I immediately started to pray and ask God to take control of the evening.

Later on, after we ate, I felt impressed to speak about sexual purity and serious accountability, but for one reason or another I decided not to. But after everything was said by Steve and the other guys, Steve looked at me and out of the blue said “Is there anything else you would like to add?” I thought that was very strange because I hadn’t been saying much the whole evening and was really there to tag along. So I decided to say what God had impressed on my heart to say, but when I started to speak, I felt as if I couldn’t catch my breath, or as if I was talking the whole time with my lungs full of air and I had to really focus on forcing out what I was trying to say. I have never felt anything like it, and I’ve spoken at much larger groups than that before, so it was very out of the ordinary. So I continued to pray.

Over-all, the night was a huge first step and we are excited about helping these guys plant a church in the near future. We are being cautious to go slowly and make sure that these guys are very grounded because we want everything we do to last and be strong. Be praying for us as we try to encourage, motivate, train, and equip leaders here to plant more churches with a missional mindset to plant more churches. And thanks for bearing with me as I wrote my most lengthy blog post yet!

PS. … so I didn’t have any pictures of the dinner, but I figured you would enjoy the one posted above!

So, I think Cotopaxi gave me frostbite… one of my toes has black on the tip of it. I first thought it was just a bad blood blister, but its still there. So, without doing any homework what-soever, do any of you readers out there know how to deal with frostbite? Should I cut off my toe? … or at least the black tip of it… sorry if it grosses you out!

Recently we helped host an international Church Planting conference here in Quito. The network is part of Acts 29 International, a strong movement of Godly men who are focused on planting churches that plant more churches.

This conference was more of an introduction to the network, and a start to the long application process the pastors have to go through to be a part of the network. Our goal was to try to get the pastors and future church planters excited about the network and about helping new church planters out with their experience, to keep each other accountable, and create a strong network of Godly men that they can fall back on for help, instruction, correction, and encouragement. And over all, I think it was a huge success with a good handful of men who have graduated our IBCI training and have shown strength in being active in their current churches, while maintaining a vision for the lost.

Promoting it was a great way to get my feet wet in how graphic design and marketing works down here, as sizes, printers, and many more things are very different than the states. This first event was a sort of trial to see how effective my passions can be when mixed with the mission. Sure, we’ve seen an increase of use and contact on the Compassion Connection website, but with promoting this event, we had a full room of men and their wives who were very interested. Attendees came from all over Ecuador, from the jungle region (5 hours away), from two different coastal areas (6+ hours) and a few more from Brazil, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. We had some interest in Colombia as well, but those guys weren’t able to make it.

On top of that, we made some great connections with the Christian radio station down here, HCJB, and Steve was interviewed a week before the event, and a reporter came out to the event as well and interviewed the lineup of speakers. There was even talk of some TV time, but I think we just ran out of time. Praise God for His working behind the scenes to help us in our efforts to connect, and increase the men down here who are on the front lines of the Gospel.

Hey Everyone!!!

What a jam-packed last month it’s been.  God has been so good to us!  The newest edition to Compassion Connection (Noah & Cate Brennan) arrived with the the 2nd Missions 101 group mostly comprised of New Yorkers. It was an awesome time having them here!  We went back to Chichicorumi to do another children’s outreach program, a couple of work projects such as painting a clinic and building a bathroom at the nearby church, hold a men’s Futbol tournament, a women’s basketball tournament, a Jesus movie, and Gospel presentation.

The children’s outreach program was awesome!  So many kids came!!! More made first time commitments for Christ, as well doing some following up on previous kids who made commitments at our last outreach.

We made it a point to go on neighborhood prayer walks in the village everyday. The day I got to go, we brought Bibles for those who did not have a Bible in their home. Also, we were extending invitations to come participate in the tournaments.  The most amazing prat of that trip for me was when we met this particular girl and we asked her what she knew of God and what He had done for her, and she replied, “No, nothing”.  I was astounded! I had never met anyone in my life who had never heard of God before!! It was a very humbling experience, it really made me realize that there are still so many out there who still haven’t heard the Good News! It seriously blindsided me.

The kids that came to the outreach were adorable & hilarious, I recognized old faces as well as new ones. I remembered almost all of their names, which I think made a big difference to them.  One thing that really stood out to me was that in the Quichua culture, it doesn’t seem that much affection is given to children. So, the girls would sit by me, and I would run my fingers through their hair and I think it was a type of affection that they really craved, kinda a motherly affection. I noticed that more and more girls were trying to sit by me. It really softened my heart, because I’m not a super affectionate person. God really blessed my heart in that.

The tournaments were awesome, I got to play in the women’s basketball. I actually did pretty good  The other team pretty much mopped the floor with us though. They were crazy good. Pretty agressive players for quiet Quichua women

And as usual, the monkey got into most of our team’s tents, not ours, we had a lock this time  but those little thieves ran off with a lot of people’s stuff!

But also as usual the family there was a huge blessing to us! We’re really loving getting to know each of them (there’s a lot of them hehe). Our last night in the village, we made a bon fire and had some pretty amazing worship with the family in English, Spanish, and Quichua. It always amazes me to hear worship in other tongues! Beautiful.

All in all, we were really blessed by the NY team, and the village outreaches.   Please keep praying for the spiritual strongholds here. Also, for God to raise up strong believers to disciple new believers.  Also, please be praying for Steve & Sandi, they just got word that Sandi’s dad is in the ICU with not much anticipated time to live. This next week they are flying out to Seattle to see him and or say goodbye. In short, this is a very hard time for them, and Sandi’s pancreas problems have been flaring up. Please lift them up. Please pray for Anthony & I on direction and ministry location and opportunities.

We love you all & miss you dearly!!!!!!! Thank you for your prayers, love, & support!!!!!

God Bless!!!!

Anthony & Caylin Lagoon