Morningview Baptist Church

What a tremendous week of ministry.  Our team saw, first hand, the spiritual darkness of the Ecuadorian culture and the inspiring work the Lord is accomplishing through the faithful pastors in Ecuador.

Ecuador’s religious climate is one of syncretism:  a religious blend of pagan idol worship from long ago and Catholicism.  Most families are raised with the errant theology that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained sinless her entire life and is the co-redeemer for salvation.  This Catholic theology is centered on man-centered works rather than biblical doctrine.   The Catholic church in Ecuador recognizes that authority is shared by a multi-faced panel composed of Jesus, Catholic tradition, the Pope, and, chief among these – Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Obviously, this is heretical and undermines the exclusivity of Christ for salvation and as our sole redeemer.

In this religious culture, our partners in ministry, missionaries Steve and Carol Thompson, have been serving for over twenty years.   They have helped start over thirty different churches, established a growing campground for conferences and retreats, as well as trained many faithful pastors to shepherd the churches throughout Ecuador.

Our team was fortunate to experience the fruit of Steve and Carol Thompson’s labor.  On just our second day in the country, we worshipped with a church that was founded in persecution.  During their initial evangelistic outreach in the town where they now worship, the believers were literally attacked by an angry religious mob and driven from the town.  Now, God has a faithful pastor and church family witnessing effectively in this community.  Many who are new believers in the church today were throwing stones as part of the angry mob just 15 years ago.  The dear Saint who sat behind us lost an eye that very day that the Gospel might go forward.  It was in this very town (Patate) that our team was privileged to lead a VBS in the local school where children heard that ‘Jesus is the true light of the world’ through Bible stories and other activities daily.  We pray some of these Patate school children will become devoted Christians and continue the evangelical growth in their community.

Additionally, our team led a four-day conference for about twenty-two pastors and some of their leaders.   The group of pastors were from diverse backgrounds, but shared a common faithfulness to serve Christ regardless of the cost.  Their gratitude to Morningview Baptist for your sponsorship of the ‘pastor’s packs’ of ten biblical resources was overwhelming.  Please know you provided a wealth of resources that will equip these pastors and likewise their churches to be healthy congregations for generations to come.  This never could have happened without God’s work through you.

Still, the needs and opportunities for support in the area of theological training are great in this country.  The new government leadership is requiring all pastors to be certified with a certain level of theological education within the next two years.  Failure to comply with obtaining appropriate theological certification can result in imprisonment of up to eight years on the first offense.  Sadly, in the mid-nineties our own International Missions Board redirected their resources and left the Ecuadorians with no seminary and no staff or funds to train pastors.  As a result, today about 95% of all Ecuadorian Baptist Pastors have no formal training and lack the resources to travel internationally to get it.

Thanks be to God, the Thompson’s have been working for many years to reestablish a seminary.  Steve and a team of five other godly leaders are committed to provide this necessary training.  The timing today is more critical than ever.  After much prayer, planning and work, their ministry center, Camp Chacauco, is almost ready to add a theological seminary on their grounds to train pastors for ministry.  What can we as a church do to help?  Pray, give and go.  First, pray for this theological seminary which will be only the faithful institution of biblical, conservative theology and essentially one of a kind in the country.  The seminary needs funding to the amount of $24,000 to complete the first floor of the building and begin enrollment in December of this year.  You can give to support the work of the seminary.  They are still enlisting staff, garnering resources to provide their seminary library and establishing curriculum for the theological students.  The total financial needs to start this work are about $84,000.   Pray about how your family can give towards this need.  In addition to giving, all of us can pray and many of us can go.  It is our hope and prayer that God will allow us to continue to partner with Steve Thompson and to play a key role in the advance of the Gospel among the vast numbers of the lost in country of Ecuador.  Please plan on coming this Sunday night as we share more of the incredible work that God allowed us to see and partner with there in Ecuador.  We believe that God has brought our church to this point for such a time as this and it is our hope and prayer that our work last week will be but the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship of taking the Gospel to those who have never heard.

Written by:  David Hardgrave & Randy Breedlove