About me
Dear friends and family,
Here is a bit of what has been going on in our lives since our return from the US this Summer. Yes... we have 7 kids and you want to hear more about it. First we wanted to share with you what is going on with other areas of our ministry here. Thank you for reading this and your love!
Discipleship/Counseling . The last few months have been heavy and heart breaking, as sin issues have come up with some members in the church. Sin promises a lot, but ends up destroying. Please pray for a few marriages that are on the line, because of brokenness from poor decisions, and heavy hearts due to health problems, finances, etc. On the other hand, the gospel is penetrating lives and people are maturing in their faith. This process is slow and intense and it's humbling to see how much more committed the Lord is to the sanctification of his church, than we are.
Please pray for us as the need for counselors is great . The Lord has been so faithful to encourage us through this time through some great conversations and meetings with Ana Cecilia (who was saved last year and baptized during the Summer) and with Jonathan (a guy that was totally against church). They are both growing so much and it has been a privilege to see how the gospel is transforming their lives! Ana Cecilia is becoming a prayer warrior and an avid reader, that is zealous for loving and encouraging people with the Word. Jonathan has become a champion on understanding and sharing the importance of community and church to his friends, who he previously told the opposite. Please pray for them.
Related to this point, please pray for my awesome MARIS as she is planning on finishing her NANC certification. This will be huge, not only for the church plant and lack of biblical counseling in Ecuador, but as a tool for our extended ministry with the School.
Teaching. Coming back from the states I have had the privilege of teaching often. After closing the book of Ephesians, we had a short Biblical Counseling series on the gospel as a filter for life. This series resulted in an intense Q&A session, that I was able to moderate. Finally, last week I was able to launch our new series on the book of Genesis. Please pray for this new series as we are a lot of visitors checking out the church and and we have a lot of baby Christians.
Networking . Last year the first missions organization to come to Ecuador announced that they were closing Ecuador as a field. One of the missionaries that stayed in Ecuador approached me a few months ago and asked me to meet with a leader of one of the churches that they had planted 30 years ago. This church was one of the strongest in Quito. It has been through a lot and is currently dying. Please pray for the Lord's wisdom on this. At the same time, right before getting this call, we had been praying for an opportunity to rent a local or find something not that expensive to buy. We have had a really hard time with this and are at capacity level at our current local (living room from one of the members that got saved last year) The church that we met with (the one I was speaking of above), has offered us to use their property for free.
Training . We wanted to ask for your prayers as BILD international is allowing us to launch an Antioch School in Ecuador. We have a cohort of 6 people that the leadership of the church has been pouring into. They will be the first to start this official training program. Our prayer is for this program to help us train leaders for our church plant and eventually to provide this program on a national level. Currently Compassion Connection has a Bible Institute and we are excited for this opportunity.
Dorm Parenting. I could write a 2 page update only on this point. It has been an area that the Lord is using majorly in our lives to stretch us and to learn to rely more on Him. We are loving being dorm parents and we are hit daily with the potential to make a difference in the lives of the kids that we have been entrusted with. From the relationship with our kids that are mature in the Lord and the opportunity to disciple them and their friends from school because of our role as "parents"; to our hearts understanding on a deeper level, of the sovereignty of God as we deal with students from other cultures that don't speak the language well, or other students asking tough questions about God and struggling with the transition. We love them a lot. We covet your prayers. Also, we have made great friendship with the student teachers that are staying at the dorm, please pray for them as they have been a great encouragement. One of them might even do a guest update in the future.
Moncayo's moving the U.S. Please pray for my family (Fernando and Dalila). The instability in Ecuador is a major reality and my dad was laid off last Friday. I am so thankful that the Lord is sovereign over all events, but it's hard to see how unfair and evil a "system" could be with the people that have served so faithfully and love their country. I am thankful that one of the beautiful aspects of the cross, is that Jesus died to bring justice and there is a comfort in that. In the same way, there is a bigger desire in our hearts for people to know Him and put their trust on Him and not false ideas of hope.Through it all, my parents are confident that the Lord is the provider and they will be OK. Please pray for them and us in this transition. They are planning on moving to the U.S. in February and they are looking forward to spending time with my sister, her husband and little baby in CA. On a personal note, please pray for Ecuador and the "rumors" of new laws that would continue to take the liberties of many and especially heavily infringe on the freedom to worship or the type of work that we do here.
Support. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to raise support. We have been serving in Ecuador with the small stipend that the school provides, yet the last few months have been a wake up call to realize that we need to plan ahead in case something happens and that we need to be more careful and purposeful on raising support. We love Ecuador and we see the importance of the work that the Lord has for us here. Please consider partnering with us in this.
Some other prayer requests.
Children's Ministry. We are helping or teaching at "Fuentecita" the children's ministry of our church.
Chapel. We are speaking for Elementary Chapel on October the 27th.
Bendiciones desde latitud 0. We would love to hear from you!
Los Moncayos
Here is a bit of what has been going on in our lives since our return from the US this Summer. Yes... we have 7 kids and you want to hear more about it. First we wanted to share with you what is going on with other areas of our ministry here. Thank you for reading this and your love!
Discipleship/Counseling . The last few months have been heavy and heart breaking, as sin issues have come up with some members in the church. Sin promises a lot, but ends up destroying. Please pray for a few marriages that are on the line, because of brokenness from poor decisions, and heavy hearts due to health problems, finances, etc. On the other hand, the gospel is penetrating lives and people are maturing in their faith. This process is slow and intense and it's humbling to see how much more committed the Lord is to the sanctification of his church, than we are.
Please pray for us as the need for counselors is great . The Lord has been so faithful to encourage us through this time through some great conversations and meetings with Ana Cecilia (who was saved last year and baptized during the Summer) and with Jonathan (a guy that was totally against church). They are both growing so much and it has been a privilege to see how the gospel is transforming their lives! Ana Cecilia is becoming a prayer warrior and an avid reader, that is zealous for loving and encouraging people with the Word. Jonathan has become a champion on understanding and sharing the importance of community and church to his friends, who he previously told the opposite. Please pray for them.
Related to this point, please pray for my awesome MARIS as she is planning on finishing her NANC certification. This will be huge, not only for the church plant and lack of biblical counseling in Ecuador, but as a tool for our extended ministry with the School.
Teaching. Coming back from the states I have had the privilege of teaching often. After closing the book of Ephesians, we had a short Biblical Counseling series on the gospel as a filter for life. This series resulted in an intense Q&A session, that I was able to moderate. Finally, last week I was able to launch our new series on the book of Genesis. Please pray for this new series as we are a lot of visitors checking out the church and and we have a lot of baby Christians.
Networking . Last year the first missions organization to come to Ecuador announced that they were closing Ecuador as a field. One of the missionaries that stayed in Ecuador approached me a few months ago and asked me to meet with a leader of one of the churches that they had planted 30 years ago. This church was one of the strongest in Quito. It has been through a lot and is currently dying. Please pray for the Lord's wisdom on this. At the same time, right before getting this call, we had been praying for an opportunity to rent a local or find something not that expensive to buy. We have had a really hard time with this and are at capacity level at our current local (living room from one of the members that got saved last year) The church that we met with (the one I was speaking of above), has offered us to use their property for free.
Training . We wanted to ask for your prayers as BILD international is allowing us to launch an Antioch School in Ecuador. We have a cohort of 6 people that the leadership of the church has been pouring into. They will be the first to start this official training program. Our prayer is for this program to help us train leaders for our church plant and eventually to provide this program on a national level. Currently Compassion Connection has a Bible Institute and we are excited for this opportunity.
Dorm Parenting. I could write a 2 page update only on this point. It has been an area that the Lord is using majorly in our lives to stretch us and to learn to rely more on Him. We are loving being dorm parents and we are hit daily with the potential to make a difference in the lives of the kids that we have been entrusted with. From the relationship with our kids that are mature in the Lord and the opportunity to disciple them and their friends from school because of our role as "parents"; to our hearts understanding on a deeper level, of the sovereignty of God as we deal with students from other cultures that don't speak the language well, or other students asking tough questions about God and struggling with the transition. We love them a lot. We covet your prayers. Also, we have made great friendship with the student teachers that are staying at the dorm, please pray for them as they have been a great encouragement. One of them might even do a guest update in the future.
Moncayo's moving the U.S. Please pray for my family (Fernando and Dalila). The instability in Ecuador is a major reality and my dad was laid off last Friday. I am so thankful that the Lord is sovereign over all events, but it's hard to see how unfair and evil a "system" could be with the people that have served so faithfully and love their country. I am thankful that one of the beautiful aspects of the cross, is that Jesus died to bring justice and there is a comfort in that. In the same way, there is a bigger desire in our hearts for people to know Him and put their trust on Him and not false ideas of hope.Through it all, my parents are confident that the Lord is the provider and they will be OK. Please pray for them and us in this transition. They are planning on moving to the U.S. in February and they are looking forward to spending time with my sister, her husband and little baby in CA. On a personal note, please pray for Ecuador and the "rumors" of new laws that would continue to take the liberties of many and especially heavily infringe on the freedom to worship or the type of work that we do here.
Support. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to raise support. We have been serving in Ecuador with the small stipend that the school provides, yet the last few months have been a wake up call to realize that we need to plan ahead in case something happens and that we need to be more careful and purposeful on raising support. We love Ecuador and we see the importance of the work that the Lord has for us here. Please consider partnering with us in this.
Some other prayer requests.
Children's Ministry. We are helping or teaching at "Fuentecita" the children's ministry of our church.
Chapel. We are speaking for Elementary Chapel on October the 27th.
Gospel Community Group. It meets at our house weekly. Please pray for our relationships there to continue to deepen and for opportunities to be missional to our city of Quito.
The Truth Project. We will be leading Focus on the Family's Truth project for the staff at the School. Please pray for us to encourage and have a good influence to many people in leadership in this community.
The Master's College. Please pray for us and a great group of students from TMC as we are going to be able to minister together during the Summer of 2012. Please pray for all the planning and prep work that has to happen until then.The Truth Project. We will be leading Focus on the Family's Truth project for the staff at the School. Please pray for us to encourage and have a good influence to many people in leadership in this community.
Bendiciones desde latitud 0. We would love to hear from you!
Los Moncayos