September/October 2024

Urgent Prayer Request: Please pray that God will send Ecuador rain as the water table is extremely low and the government is going to mandate water rationing and more electric black-outs. Also the Gos will send us full-time or longer short-term missionary help too.

News:

• Winter: It is winter here in Ecuador with cooler (chilly), overcast days, but the humpback whales have made their migration to the coast to give birth and mate again. The whales will be here through mid October.
• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Bible Clubs: The kid's Bible clubs are still growing with over 50% memorizing a weekly Bible verse.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: The E-team visited the mountains in August. The kid's were so happy to see them.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are showing the Chosen, Season 4 and the past month, we have had over 300 in attendance.
• Land: We have not been able to speak in the communities meetings to ask for land as the meeting dates have been set just days prior to when we have been in the States or in the mountains, no coincidence. However, it is in the Lord's plan as we are in another project at this time. Hopefully, at the beginning of the new year, we will re-start our push for a meeting to obtain land to build a bigger facility. It is all in God's perfect timing.
• Interns: Our amazing adult interns, Kevin and Karen Walker have gone back to Alabama, but they were instrumental in filling areas of service with teaching a session of the youth mother's class, the Kid's Bible clubs one week, teaching a youth Bible club, helping in the agriculture/chicken project, and so much more. May God blessed them abundantly for their service to the Ecuadorians, E-team and the ministry.
• Mission Conventions: We are going to the States for a few weeks this month to share in several church mission conferences. We are always super excited to share what God is doing with Pate Ministries with our supporting churches and potential supporting churches. Our E-team runs everything magnificently while we are gone.

Big News:

• Young Mother's Project: We had two young ladies come from Cuenca to teach nutrition. The ladies did an amazing job and the mother's had lot's of questions. The mother's are now getting to spend their tickets that they earn for arriving early, learning their memory verse, participation, and answering questions at the end of each lesson for baby or children's items. They are so happy. Thank you for filling our Amazon wish list.
• Health Clinic: The 2nd week of July, we attended 24 patients and sent 10 of them to the hospital with critical blood pressure or blood glucose. We are serving the community in a vita way. All receive a Gospel Tract and prayer.
• Chicken Project: Praise the Lord, the project is fully funded for the whole village, but if you still want to give, we have additional people we want to add.

Bigger News:

• AED and CPR Mannequins: A church from Jacksonville provided us with an AED (Automated Electronic Defibrillator) and 4 adult and 4 infant CPR mannequins to train our E-team and our communities on CPR. Gary and Andrés witnessed a man drop dead at the location where we eat lunch everyday with our teams. No one knew how to help him and he died. CPR was not something we thought to train our people. Now, we have the tools to bring a life saving program to our communities, while sharing the life-saving Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
• Special Project: Look for details of a special project we have coming over the next month or so, most of the teams have seen it, but we are not ready to announce it publicly just yet. It is so exciting - no, it's not land for a new building yet.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building - God is in control.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

July/August 2024

• We were so busy, that I never updated the website for August - so sorry.

Urgent Prayer Request: Please pray that God will send us ministry minded people that are bilingual, and that can drive, to work with us. We are growing and need help. We are also looking for longer team missionary help too.

News:

• Winter: It is winter here in Ecuador with cooler (chilly), overcast and rainy (muddy) days, but the humpback whales have made their migration to the coast to give birth and mate again. The whales will be here through mid October.
• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Youth Bible Club: We held a beach bonfire gathering for our youth and the youth of Cornerstone church in Bluffton, SC, the 3rd week of July. We had over 80 total. It was a lot of fun games and teaching the Ecuadorians how to roast marshmallows for s'amores. We finished with a Bible story and hot dogs.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: The E-team will visit the mountains the 1st week of August. They will re-supply the leaders and encourage them. They will also be giving out the school backpacks in the mountain Bible clubs.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are still averaging almost 300 people each week. We hope to start showing the Chosen, Season 4 soon.

Big News:

• Young Mother's Project: We had two special guests share on establishing healthy routines and many had questions for the Nurse Midwife too. These young mother's are really engaging in this program.
• Health Clinic: The 2nd week of July, we attended 24 patients and sent 10 of them to the hospital with critical blood pressure or blood glucose. We are serving the community in a vita way. All receive a Gospel Tract and prayer.
• Chicken Project: We have had a lot of response to the chicken project, but there is still time to get involved. Polivio, Andrés, dad, is starting a sustainable chicken project in a village that is very remote and super-poor. For $50, you can provide a family with baby chicks. These chicks will lay eggs that will provide a protein food source that will meet a physical need for these families. Polivo will monitor their progress and share a monthly Bible study with them to meet their Spiritual needs. What an amazing way to show the love of Christ in a tangible way.

Bigger News:

• E-Team Member: We said good-bye to Samy, one of our E-team member who came from Cuenca to the coast with us. She only committed for one year of service, but has stayed with us for almost three years. Samy has blessed this ministry with her talents, time, friendship, service, and leadership, and her sweet contaigious smile. She will be missed, but we are excited for her new opportunity to share the Gospel and show the love of Christ as the liaison for a foundation (non-christian) based out of her home-town of Cuenca, called, Helping Kids in Ecuador. She has been home-sick for a very long time, and this will allow her to reconnect with her family and friends.
• Meeting with the Montañita Community about Land: The July meeting was postponed to an unknown date for the next meeting due to the Ecuador vs Argentina (Ecuador lost). We are still waiting for the dates.
• Special Project: Look for details of a special project we have coming over the next month or so, most of the teams have seen it, but we are not ready to announce it publicly just yet. It is so exciting - no, it's not land for a new building yet.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building, we are hearing rumors that the land we were looking at may be used in total by an new school construction - God is in control.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

June 2024

News:

• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Youth Bible Club: A Praise Report: An older teen came back to the youth Bible club while we were cleaning up. He approached Andrés and told him that when he started coming to the youth Bible club that he did not believe in Jesus, but since he has been coming, His life has changed and now he believes in Jesus! Praise the Lord for this changed life. We currently are running about 25-35 youth every other Wednesday.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach:
• We hit 309 in attendance one week in May to the Glory of God.
• We gave out aluminum LED flashlights to the men for Father's Day.

Big News:

• Young Mother's Project: We had a special guest, A women's health nurse practitioner that came the first week of June to speak to the young mother's. She also held a special clinic for feminine examinations. The young mother's are also saying their memory verse to receive items or vitamins for their themselves or their babies.
• Health Clinic: We average 16 patients each week and have identified many patients with serious illnesses that were unknown to them. Each week we send at least 2 - 3 people to the hospital for critical issues.
• EFL: Mike and Jeannie McGalliard did a great job teaching English as a foreign language for six weeks in our ministry center. The students really responded well, and even a few have started coming to our Sunday night Bible study.
• Mike and Jeannie McGalliard: Please pray for Mike and Jeannie to get all of their paperwork in order to return with retirement visas in order to work six or more months a year with us.

Bigger News:

• Baptism Service: The 1st week of June, Gary and Pastor Micah Strickland baptized 5 people in the Pacific Ocean on Montañita beach. The waves were huge, but that did not stop them. It was our first baptism service.
• Chicken Project: Polivio, Andrés, day, is starting a sustainable chicken project in a village that is very remote and super-poor. For $50, you can provide a family with baby chicks. These chicks will lay eggs that will provide a protein food source that will meet a physical need for these families. Polivo will monitor their progress and share a monthly Bible study with them to meet their Spiritual needs. What an amazing way to show the love of Christ in a tangible way.
• Meeting with the Montañita Community about Land: Gary was able to share in the community village meeting after waiting from 10 pm to 5:30 am for just a few minutes about why we need land. There was not enough time to show the full presentation, and it was requested that he come to the next monthly meeting to share the full presentation.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building, we are hearing rumors that the land we were looking at may be used in total by an new school construction - God is in control.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

May 2024

News:

• Bible Clubs:
• The Mountain and Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: Gary and Andrés visited, encouraged, and resupplied the Mountain Bible clubs last month.
• Coastal Clubs: Last month we gave out almost 600 backpacks. The children were overjoyed with the backpacks and all of the school and hygiene supplies. They also started school the last week of April.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We have a full schedule of teams this month in which the Pastor's of the churches will preach in the service. We are still growing the church.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach:
• We are still having large crowds coming to the outreach.
• Land: Please pray specifically for the Lord to open up land along the highway in Montañita which we can purchase at a reasonable price
• Ladies Bible Clubs: Last month, we have a small group of ladies from Clanton, Alabama come and hold a special Bible club for ladies in the communities in which we hold Kid's Bible clubs. They ministered to over 350 ladies.

Big News:

• Young Mother's Project: Last month's start of the young mother's project was a huge success. We will have the discipleship class the first week of each month. We also gave out newborn gift bags to 3 mother's last month.
• Health Clinic: The health clinic has also been a huge success. We have 10-18 patients each week and have identified many patients with serious illnesses that were unknown to them.
• EFL: Mike and Jeannie McGalliard have been teaching English as a foreign language for several weeks with 4 classes with 8-10 students each class. They get an hour and a half of English and a 20 minute devotion.

Bigger News:

• Dental and Medical Clinic: The 2nd week in May, we have a team from Fernandina Beach coming with several dentist, an oral surgeon, a medical doctor, a dental hygienist, and two nurses to hold a dental and medical clinic. The dentist will only be pulling teeth and the medical team will be seeing patients.
• Dress a Girl: We will have the Jacksonville chapter director and another lady with Dress a Girl coming in May to give out handmade dresses to the girls in our communities. The Dress a Girl organization has chapters all over the U.S., they make pillow case dresses for girls all over the world to bring dignity and self esteem to girls. This will be the first time these ladies will be participating in the actual distribution of the dresses they made.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

April 2024

News:

• Summer: Summer is almost over, but it is still warm and humid. The government says that El Niño is gone, but we have a La Niña on the way which will bring lots of rain.
• Bible Clubs:
• The Mountain and Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: Gary and Andrés will be visiting the Mountain Bible clubs the first week of this month.
• Summer Break: We have started giving out the school backpacks and will complete the coastal clubs by the end of the month.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés has been doing a great job as Pastor of the Sunday night services.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach:
• Our laser projector is fixed and ready for the first movie, the second week of this month.
• Land: Please pray specifically for the Lord to open up land along the highway in Montañita which we can purchase at a reasonable price

Big News:

• Young Mother's Project: Praise the Lord, Veronica started the first three of seven young mother's discipleship clubs the first week of April. Veronica taught great concepts from the Bible and a book called Christian Femininity.
• Health Clinic: The health clinic started the last week of March. The clinic is open to the communities from 7:30 am to 9: 30 am every Monday. The first day, we served 18 people from the community. We are following up with 75% of them to confirm high blood pressure and or diabetes. We sent two people to the hospital. It felt so good to put on scrubs again!
• EFL: We have set a date to start teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) the second week of this month. Our 4-month adult interns, Mike and Jeannie McGalliard will teach two classes, twice a week for six weeks.

Bigger News:

• Raising up leaders from the Kid's Bible clubs: We have one of the girls that attended our San Jose Bible club for many years asked us if she could lead the Kid's Bible Club with the leader of the community. When we left the mountains, we could not find any church to take over this Bible club near Cuenca and the former leader was too tired to do it by herself, especially after taking over the Ladies Bible club. Karen graduated high school is doing a great job with Narcissa in the Kid's Bible club.
• Are we a church? We are starting to look and act like a church. We understand that the people are the church, but our little church plant is looking more like a real church.
• We held our first Easter Sunrise service on the beach with 45 people and many Ecuadorian tourists listening in.
• Gary and Andrés preached their first Wake and Funeral service for one of the families who attend our Sunday night Bible study. We also provided food for the family for both days.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

March 2024

News:

• Surfing Injuries: Samy suffered a twist fracture during a surfing accident at the end of our retreat and had to have surgery with two pins. Andrés, the first week of March, also suffered a fractured rib while surfing. Surfing is huge here on the coast and we will eventually use surfing as a way to connect with the surfers out in the ocean and share the Gospel with them, but we have to keep the E-team healthy and free from injury. I bought Gary a wet suit, but he has not taken lesson yet, after all the injuries, may he will wait for the surfers to come back onto the beach, jaja.
• Bible Clubs:
• The Mountain and Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: Next month, we will be visiting the Mountain Bible clubs.
• Summer Break: the costal kids are on summer break for two months. We will be giving out the school backpacks with the next few teams in the coming weeks.
• Youth Outing: The E-team took the youth on a 3-hour hike and helped develop a great bond with them on a new level. The youth club is growing.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés has been doing a great job as Pastor of the Sunday night services.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach:
• Our laser projector has had some issues so we had to bring it to the States while under warranty. Please pray that it can be fixed or replaced under warranty. We have been using a low grade projector, but it cannot provide the large screen and high quality we are use to.
• Land: Please pray specifically for the Lord to open up land along the highway in Montañita which we can purchase at a reasonable price
• The McGalliards: Mike and Jeannie McGalliard have arrived and are studying Spanish in the local Spanish school. They help out where they can.
• New Projects: We are in the planning stages to start several new projects: Young Mother's Project, Teaching English as a foreign language, and a health clinic.
• Grandkids Visit: Last month, we enjoyed having our daughter Heather and her family join us for a week of ministry. Tom served as Noah, Heather taught, and the kids were animals on the Ark in our Noah's Ark drama. Those kids worked so hard for the Glory of God.

Big News:

• E-team Spiritual Emphasis Retreat: We held our annual spiritual emphasis retreat in the middle of February. Pastor Stephen Peeples, from Roopville Road Baptist Church did an amazing job leading us in God's word and Rebecca Carrion also did an amazing job in teaching us our how to be better teachers in our Bible clubs and ministries. Our whole E-team gave great testimony of how this retreat impacted their lives and ministry.
• One Testimony from Veronica, Andrés wife: "All this time of the spiritual retreat has been a blessing for me. I was able to stop in my schedule and my daily activities and that help me to stop and hold my head up and start to analyze what I have been doing and what I’m doing in my life. This helped me evaluate things I need to be changed in my life in and things that I need to improve and more stuff that I want to add to my life, with all the practical lessons of the Pastor and Rebeca. In the end, everything turned out to be a time of refreshment, challenging to myself, and also kind of making decisions to step up and keep serving the Lord in the ministry."
• Ecuadorian ID's: Gary and I hit another milestone. We had to renew our ten year Ecuadorian Cedillas (Ecuadorian official ID - similar to a photo Social Security Card). God helped us in a big way and it was a success!

Bigger News:

• The Agricultural Project: The agricultural project had a successful year, while we decide if we are to continue the project, the leader, Mr. Polivio, felt God leading him to start a more in-depth adult Bible study with the participants and also has invited people from the communities we serve, including the Tuesday night group.
• Special guest from Norway: Andrés has contacts from Norway. They sent a group of young people on their gap year to spend three weeks with us. They help English classes with the youth from the community of Montañita and have also helped out in the Bible clubs. What a blessing!
• Short Term Mission Teams: It is almost time for our short term mission teams to start. We have a busy team season this year with multiple small teams coming with seasoned teams.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

February 2024

News:

• Bible Clubs:
• The Mountain and Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: the Bible clubs continue to grow. The E-team did an amazing job while we were raising funds in the States in January.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: The Sunday night services continue to grow. We are having anywhere from 15 to 35 people in attendance.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: It is high season, so our numbers decrease as the people are still working during the high (tourist) season, but due to the recent unrest, the tourist have decreased and our numbers in attendance have continued to be over 250.

Big News:

• The McGalliards: Mike and Jeannie McGalliard will arrive the middle of the month to start Spanish language training, and help in the ministry. They hope to make several long term trips throughout the year while they work on retirement visas.
• ESL Training: Dena and Jeannie McGalliards completed their English as a second language (ESL) training through the North American Mission Board and Florida Baptist Convention. They will planning the classes soon.

Bigger News:

• The Chosen Series: Representatives had heard of the ministry using the Chosen series in the community. They came and filmed one of our Tuesday night outreaches, along with filming several people giving testimonies of how the series has impacted their lives. They plan to use footage in their Global marketing campaigns. That was a hard secret to keep.
• E-team Spiritual Emphasis Retreat: We will host our annual spiritual emphasis retreat in the middle of February. We have scheduled Pastor Stephen Peeples, Roopville Road Baptist Church to lead us in God's word and Rebecca Carrion to lead us in training in being effective in teaching and discipling the children. We will bring the mountain leaders to the coast to join our coastal E-team for a week of growing together as a ministry and in the Lord.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

January 2024

Start the new year by trusting in Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

News:

• Great Sadness:
• Bible Clubs:
• The Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: We held the Christmas nativity pageant in all of our Bible clubs, including some that we only hold a couple of times a year. The children were so excited to get a Christmas bag and a special panettone to take home.
• The Mountain Clubs: We visited the Bible clubs, encouraged the leaders, held the Bible clubs with a nativity pageant, and presented the children with Christmas bags and a panettone. It was a great week seeing the kids; they have grown so much.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We are studying the Book of Genesis. The attendees enjoyed the pastor's sharing from the visiting mission teams.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We had a record number of people attend the outreach the third week of December - 560. People were standing in the road in front of our building. I am sure they expected some kind of gift since we were giving out small gifts in the Bible clubs. We gave out a reusable grocery bag with our schedule printed on one side and John 3:16 printed on the other side. We need to find private land for sale to build a bigger building.

Big News:

• New Bible Club: We were able to find a different building to meet in for our Manglaralto Kids Club. The new location was easier for the kids to attend as they did not have to cross the road.
• ESL Training: Dena, along with the McGalliards will attend English as a second language (ESL) training through the North American Mission Board and Florida Baptist Convention to teach ESL in a couple of months.

Bigger News:

• Christmas Newsletter numbers error: In our 2023 yearly update letter, the number of attendees in our clubs and outreaches was underestimated. Here are the actual numbers that came in at the end of December, they are not inflated. We are still overwhelmed at what God is doing in Ecuador, it's all God.
• 30,275 Kids in Kids Bible clubs
• 15,689 Kids memorized weekly verses
• 4,595 Adults attended the Kid's Bible clubs
• 9,793 People attended our Tuesday night community evangelical outreach.
• The numbers were correct in the other Bible clubs: youth and ladies
• ESL Classes: We will begin ESL classes within the next few months. We are in the planning stages now.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than our leased building.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

December 2023

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!

Isaiah 9:6-7 "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

News:

• Great Sadness: We had the privilege to make house visits to pray with and encourage two young women who were terminally ill and their families. One had attended our Tuesday night community evangelical outreaches and the other, Natalia had attended our Tuesday night outreach and our Monday Montañita Bible club. Please continue to pray as both passed away in November. We have been able and will continue to minister to the families.
• Bible Clubs:
• The Coastal Kids and Youth Bible Clubs: We will be hosting a narration of the Christmas story and why we celebrate the Christmas season with a live Nativaty with the children to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in all of our Bible clubs. We will also be giving a special panettone bread and a gift bag to each child. We are working to get a new location for the previous bi-weekly Manglaralto Bible club.
• The Mountain Clubs: We will be visiting the Mountain Bibles the 2nd week of December to re-supply, encourage the mountain leaders, and host Christmas Bible clubs in each area, complete with a narration of the Christmas story and why we celebrate the Christmas season with a live Nativaty with the children to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in all of our Bible clubs
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We finished the Book of Mark and have started studying the Book of Genesis. On the last Sunday in November, we had 50 people in attendance, not including us, our E-team, or the visiting mission team. Our final mission team of the year will share special music in the worship service.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are still running close to 300 people coming on Tuesday night to watch season 3 of The Chosen and hear a Gospel message afterward. Please pray we can find private land for sale to build on. We anticipate over 400 people to attend our Christmas service.
• Planting Seeds, Agricultural Project: Mr. Gomezcello and the participants of the agricultural project will host a farmers market with the fruits and vegetables they have grown this month.

Big News:

• Christmas Newsletter: Our Christmas newsletter is finished and going out in the mail. It highlights what the Lord did through Pate Ministries this past year. If you do not currently receive our newsletter, please send us a message and we will make sure you get one.

Bigger News:

• Tenth Anniversary: We moved to Ecuador to live and work as full-time missionaries on December 2nd, ten years ago. We could not have imagined all that God would do through Pate Ministries over ten years. We look forward to what He will continue to do over the next ten years.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than the one we lease.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out YouTube for more videos.

November 2023

News:

• Bible Clubs:
• The Youth Bible Club: We had a great start with our grand opening festival to introduce the youth of several communities to a youth Bible club. We are holding the youth Bible club every other week at our building.
• The Mountain Clubs: The Mountain Bible leaders are continuing to do a great job with the Bible clubs.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We are finishing up the Book of Mark this month. We have had special music with Andrés' girls playing the keyboard and singing in the worship service.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are still running close to 300 people coming on Tuesday night to watch season 3 of The Chosen and hear a Gospel message afterward. Please pray we can find private land for sale to build on.
• El Niño: We are still enjoying scattered warm and sunny days, however, El Niño is moving more rapidly and Ecuador is expecting flood and torrential rainfall close to the middle of next month.
• Mamitas Project (Little Mamas): Our Mamitas project has been postponed until January. We haven't been able to get everything organized for it in the timeframe we allotted. We have been very busy with teams, and some extra projects in the building.

Big News:

• Teams: Our 2024 Team Calendar is full and we are booking into 2025 already.
• Christmas Newsletter: We are currently working on our Christmas newsletter which highlights the year. If you do not get our newsletter, please send us a message and we will make sure you get one.

Bigger News:

• Answering the Call: We have two couples who are coming to Ecuador to help. The McGilliards coming for three to six months, starting in the middle of February, and the Walkers coming for one month in May. We hope to use them to begin teaching ESL (English as a second language).
• Intern: We were so blessed to have Trenton, intern with Pate Ministries for six weeks. He was a huge blessing to the ministry and developed many relationships with youth in the community. We pray that God will bless Him as he finds God's will for his life.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property to purchase and build a building larger than the one we lease.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Andrés and his family were denied a US Visa - thank you for your prayers.
• Check out YouTube for more videos.

October 2023

News:

• Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: We have started a new kids' Bible club in a little town called San Antonio. The last week of September, we had over 230 people in attendance.
• The Mountain Clubs: The Mountain Bible leaders are continuing to do a great job with the Bible clubs.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Our regular attendees are enjoying our visiting pastors or speakers. The E-team is doing an awesome job with the worship music.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are still running almost 300 people and have chairs within five feet of the road. We are finishing up season two of The Chosen again, but season three is still not out in Spanish audio - the people are going to be so disappointed. Most cannot read the Spanish subtitles.
• El Niño: We are still enjoying scattered warm and sunny days, however, El Niño is moving more rapidly and Ecuador is expecting flood and torrential rainfall close to the end of this month.

Big News:

• Agriculture Project: We have added another rural community to the project. Meanwhile, everyone is seeing growth and already harvesting vegetables and hopefully, they are growing spiritually too through the devotionals.
• Mamacitas Project (Little Mamas): Veronica will begin the devotions with the mamas this month. We have received many donations for the moms and babies. We are so excited to see this project get up and running. Andrés wife, Veronica will mentor the young moms (ages 14-19), share a Bible study with them, listen to them and so much more.

Bigger News:

• Coastal Youth Club: We are kicking off our first-ever youth Bible club with a youth event the first week of October. We will invite youth from six surrounding communities to come for the youth event to includes food, games, and a Bible lesson. It is needed in these communities as the youth are faced with gangs, drugs, and sexual promiscuity.
• New Bible Club: We have started a new kid's Bible club in the community of San Antonio. Over 150 children and 30 adults were in attendance. This makes a total of 10 Bible clubs on the Coast.
• Interns: Trenton, a young man taking a gap year is coming for six weeks and we have the McGilliards coming for two weeks also.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property for us to purchase and build a building that is larger than the one we lease.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out YouTube for more videos.

September 2023

News:

• El Niño: We are still enjoying warm and sunny days, which is nice.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés has become the primary preacher, preaching the Word, unless we have a visiting pastor. We are averaging about 25 people from the community in attendance, it's looking more like a church plant than a Bible study.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are back to running with almost 300 people. More people are asking for Bibles and want more information. A single Columbian mother of two young boys asked for prayer and food after one of the outreaches, she brought her boys to the outreach because we serve bread and hot chocolate or coffee and she knew the boys would have something to eat that night. We are praying for how to help these people without causing dependence.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: We are having more moms learning the Bible verses to help their children, 4 and under to get a prize.
• The Mountain Clubs: The Mountain Bible leaders are continuing to do a great job with the Bible clubs.

Bigger News:

• Mamacitas Project (Little Mamas): Veronica has targeted October to begin this project. We are still collecting baby items for the project too. We are so excited to see this project get up and running. Andrés wife, Veronica will mentor the young moms (ages 14-19), share a Bible study with them, listen to them and so much more.
• Agriculture Project: Mr. Gomezcolleo reported that the project is going great. One testimony: an immigrant couple in the project, lost their jobs recently, but they were able to have food to eat from their garden, which is sustaining them until they find work.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for us to find private property for us to purchase and build a building that is larger than the one we lease.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders who continue the mountain Bible clubs.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out youtube for more videos.

August 2023

News:

• El Niño: We are still enjoying warm and sunny days, which is nice, but is affecting whale season and the migratory birds.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We are averaging about 25 people from the community in attendance, it's looking more like a church plant than a Bible study.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are starting season 2 of The Chosen this month. The new chairs have arrived and so hopefully we will have enough chairs for everyone. Testimony: one of the ladies, Francia, attends regularly, she told us that since she has been attending that she is off many of her medications, her blood pressure has lowered, and she is almost pain-free. She says that she reads the Bible we gave her and knows that God is the one who has healed her.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: The second week of July, we held a carnival with games and prizes after the Bible clubs. The children had a great time. This was the first time we held the carnival on the Coast and the first time the children had ever done anything like it.
• The Mountain Clubs: The E-Team went to the mountains at the end of July to visit the Bible clubs, resupply them, and encourage the leaders. Praise the Lord for the success of the Mountain Bible club's transition to the National leaders.

Bigger News:

• Mamacitas Project (Little Mamas): Our Northport Baptist brought many supplies for the mamas and babies for the project. Veronica is preparing the devotions at this time. We are so excited to see this project get up and running. Andrés wife, Veronica will mentor the young moms (ages 14-19), share a Bible study with them, listen to them and so much more.
• Agriculture Project: Mr. Gomezcolleo reported that the people are very responsive to the devotions during the agriculture training and they are starting to see the growth of their vegetables.
• Moved-In: Thank you for all of your prayers for Andrés and his family, they moved into their home on the coast on July 31st.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena and Gary's healing.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out youtube for more videos.

July 2023

News:

• El Niño: We are still having warm and sunny days, which is nice, but is affecting whale season and the migratory birds.
• A Wheelchair for Carlos: Thank you for the donated wheelchair for a faithful Vensulean man born with Polio that walks with crutches (no use of one leg) to our outreaches, over a mile.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: We are averaging about 25 people from the community in attendance, it's looking more like a church plant than a Bible study.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are almost at the end of season 1 of The Chosen. We have been having record crowds in attendance. In the first week of July, we had 285 people show up to see the series and hear the Gospel afterward. We have actually had to order more chairs.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: The second week of July, we held a carnival with games and prizes after the Bible clubs. The children had a great time. This was the first time we held the carnival on the Coast and the first time the children had ever done anything like it.
• The Mountain Clubs: The E-Team will be in the mountains to re-supply and encourage the mountain leaders the 3rd week of July.

Bigger News:

• New Outreaches in the works: We are planning to start a new outreach to young mamas (ages 13-20) during our regular Bible clubs in four communities, once a month. It will be led by Andrés wife, Veronica. She will mentor them as moms, share a Bible study with them, listen to them and so much more.
• Samuel: This is Samuel's last week with Pate Ministries. He is heading to Cuenca to study Agriculture at the University. We wish him the best and will miss this young man so much. He was a great help in ministry.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena and Gary's healing.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out youtube for more videos.

June 2023

News:

• It's still warm!: Due to the El Niño phenomenon we still have hot and sunny days! This is wonderful.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Our services are growing at turtle speed, but praise the Lord it is growing. We have bought a new full-size piano keyboard for worship, thanks to a donation.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: While the warm and sunny weather is great, it also means that people are still coming to the area for tourism. Tourism is good for the people and their welfare, but it hinders them from coming to the Tuesday outreach. Also, people were not coming because of the hordes of mosquitos from the standing water on each side of the building, but the warm sunny weather has dried up the land. We are looking forward to the return of the people above 150.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: Our children continue to memorize God's word each week, with more than 70% of the children memorizing a weekly Bible verse. The two new bi-weekly Bible clubs are going well. Our numbers in our Bible clubs have dropped by a hundred or more due to children moving up to high school which meets in the afternoon, during our clubs, and some due to after-school events. The lower numbers make our clubs more manageable.

Bigger News:

• Project Agricultural Outreach: Mr. Gomezcoello, Andrés' father, started the agricultural outreach in three communities and one public jr. high school class, at the end of May. He has a total of 36 people (the 38 students in the high school, are counted as one participant). We had two churches and our ministry committed to providing the funds to provide the seedlings and things each participant will need to begin the project. Mr. Gomezcoello will teach them how to grow a sustainable garden with fruits and vegetables that will provide food for their families and funds, when they also sell what they do not eat, in order to buy more seeds. Each time he meets with them for training, he will share the Gospel with them. To participate in this project, they had to agree to a Bible study during each session.
• 2024 Calendar: Our 2024 short-term mission team is filling up fast.
• Andrés and Veronica's house: Thank you for your prayers, Andrés and Veronica have closed on their house. Now, they are continuing with the renovations.
• New Seasonal E-team member: We have added a seasonal E-team member. We welcome Karina Estefania Zambrano Mendoza. She is the sister of Andreina. She also plays several instruments and sings.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena and Gary's healing.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out youtube for more videos.

May 2023

News:

• El Niño Phenomenon: We have been experiencing an El Niño phenomenon over the past month. It creates super heavy rains that have lasted from 8 hours to 16 hours and caused a great amount of flooding. We were, by the grace of God, speared flooding in our ministry building, but the flooding left large ponds of standing water on each side that is bringing mold and mildew and hordes of mosquitoes into our building.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Pastor Jason Reid from Gardenview brought the word to us when his team was here at the end of April.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach (formerly known as the Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie): It is still warm due to the el niño phenomenon so the people are slowly, but surely returning to the outreach. Most people arrive more than an hour to an hour and a half late. It's incredible, but at least they are arriving to hear the Gospel preached after the movie. We are still averaging 150 to 180 people.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: We will be starting two new Bible clubs, every other week, that are close to our ministry center. This will hopefully open the door for these two villages to begin coming to our Sunday service and Tuesday outreach. The two existing Bible clubs are too far for the people to attend any events at our ministry center, however, they will still get the benefit of the Gospel in their village every other week.

Bigger News:

• Community Testimonies: In the process of looking for land and also in looking for more open doors for Bible clubs in nearby communities, we have been receiving amazing testimonies from the community leaders. They are saying that they have heard about the ministry and that it is having huge impacts in a positive way on the children and adults that attend the Bible clubs and the Tuesday night outreaches. We are so happy to hear these testimonies and give all glory to God for what He is doing through Pate Ministries in Ecuador. We never imagined the magnitude of the ministry.
• 2024 Calendar: Our 2024 short-term mission team is filling up fast. Our Daughter and her family are in Ecuador. We are so excited to have Heather, Tom, and the three grandkids in Ecuador during the first week of April. They did a great job. The kids made friends without knowing each other's language.
• Andrés and Veronica's house: It is in the closing stage. Thank you for your prayer. The house did get flooded in one of the rain events, but no major damage was suffered.
• New E-team member: Jorhen will be joining our E-team in the middle of this month for a 90-day trial period.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena and Gary's healing.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• We have not found any private seller (not communal land) yet.
• Check out youtube for more videos.

April 2023

News:

• Special Ladies Events: Our senior ladies team from Clanton, Alabama held 7 ladies' Bible club events in which the Word of God was shared. It was a great time for the women of the communities on the coast.
• Spanish Church Team: We had a team, including two of the pastors from Iglesia Bautista Resurreccion de Kissimmee. It was amazing to see the team in action, meeting individually with the Ecuadorians in their own language.

Big News:

• El Niño: During the first week of April, we had an El Niño weather event that brought two days of heavy, non-stop rain to our area. There was flooding throughout the Province, including the house that Andrés is trying to close on, but God was faithful to the ministry center. There was water waist-deep on each side of the building, but no water breached the building.
• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés and Gary take turns preaching when we do not have a team with a Pastor to share the Gospel.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach (formerly known as the Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie): It is still high (tourist) season on the coast and many of the attendees are still working late into the evening, however, the numbers are increasing to 200 in attendance, they just do not arrive until over an hour after it starts.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: We shared about the Ressurection of Christ and what that means to us during holy week, in all of the Bible clubs!
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The Bible Clubs: The E-team is visiting the Mountain Bible clubs and leaders the 2nd week of April to refresh their supplies.

Bigger News:

• Our Daughter and her family are in Ecuador. We are so excited to have Heather, Tom, and the three grandkids in Ecuador during the first week of April. They did a great job. The kids made friends without knowing each other's language.
• Land: We are still looking for private retail land to build a larger building.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot and new diagnoses of Kidney Disease, plus Gary's new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out youtube for more videos.

March 2023

News:

• All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted! You no longer have to provide vaccination proof or negative PCR/Antigen testing to get into Ecuador or the USA.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sight and Sound: Our new laser projector and sound equipment were installed last month and Wow, what a difference it has made in our Tuesday night community evangelical outreach.
• Sunday Night Services: Our services are still going strong and we are having about 20 - 25 people, including all of us.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach (formerly known as the Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie): It is still high (tourist) season on the coast and many of the attendees are still working late into the evening, however, the numbers are increasing to 200 in attendance, they just do not arrive until over an hour after it starts.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: The children are on vacation now, so our numbers fluctuate grately, but we are still having over 500 children a week.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The Bible Clubs: The children continue to come and be led by the National house church leaders.

Bigger News:

• We need Land: We are praying about the possibility of buying property and have been offered a piece of communal land for sale near our building. We are researching what it means to buy communal land as we prefer private sale land.
• Spiritual Emphasis Retreat: We enjoyed an amazing week in spiritual renewal with Bible studies from Pastor Tim Rigdon from North Jacksonville Baptist Church and learning how we can better serve the children and adults in our Bible clubs from Rebecca Carrion. It was so encouraging to see our mountain Bible club's volunteer leaders and our coastal E-team engrossed in all of the information provided and ask great questions. Some of our mountain leaders had never seen the beach or a sunset. We also held several team-building activities that were a first for many of our whole team that stretched our faith, and trust, and gave us new views from different perspectives of God's great creation.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot and new diagnoses of Kidney Disease, plus Gary's new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out youtube for more videos.

February 2023

News:

• E-Team: Our E-team, led by Andrés has done an amazing job continuing the ministry in the Sunday evening worship service, Tuesday community evangelical outreach, and the Bible clubs while we are in the States. We are so thankful for them.
• Smile.Amazon: Thank you to all who gave to Pate Ministries by choosing FTCE as your charity and shopping on Smile.amazon.com. We were getting approximately $450 each quarter from Amazon, however, Amazon has chosen to stop the smile amazon charity site.
• Itineration: Gary has a few more services to complete. We are very busy when in the States, but it is good to get in front of our supporters to give updates and visit potential new supporters to share about what God is doing in Ecuador through Pate Ministries.
• Itinerartion Schedule:
• Sunday, February 5, AM service, First Baptist Church Oceanway, Jacksonville
• Sunday, February 12, AM Service (Gary only), Blackrock Baptist, Yulee, FL
• All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted! You no longer have to provide vaccination proof or negative PCR/Antigen testing to get into Ecuador or the USA.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sight and Sound: We will be installing a laser projector and sound equipment this month to the Glory of God.
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés is holding our Sunday night services while we are in the U.S.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach (formerly known as the Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie): Our numbers have decreased to 150ish as it is high season on the coast and many of the attendees are still working late into the evening.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: Over the past few months, over 2/3rds of the children are memorizing their weekly Bible verse!
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The Bible Clubs: The children continue to come and be led by the National house church leaders.

Bigger News:

• Out of Room: We are seeking God on what He is going to do to help us figure out how to expand our space. We are praying about the possibility of buying property.
• Spiritual Emphasis Retreat: We will be hosting a retreat complete with worship services, education training by our good friend Rebecca Carrion and spiritual teaching from our good friend, Rev. Tim Rigon, and his sweet wife, Melody, at the end of the month. We have invited the house church leaders that have taken over the mountain Bible clubs, plus our own E-team. It is going to be a great week of spiritual growth, learning how to better serve our community, and drawing closer to God and each other.
• New "Way's to Give" pamphlet: We have developed a new pamphlet that details ways to give, including QR codes to several electronic or mobile money sites.
• Home: Dena returns to Ecuador the first week of February and Gary the next. It will be so good to get our feet back on Ecuadorian soil.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please pray for our E-team spiritual emphases retreat to be held February 22 - March 2.
• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot and new diagnoses of Kidney Disease, plus Gary's new diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out youtube for more videos.

January 2023

News:

• Vacations: Our E-team is on vacation from the last week of December to through the first week of January. They need a lot of R & R to prepare for this coming year.
• Summer: Summer is here on the Coast.
• Air Travel: Flights to Ecuador have gone up significantly, almost double. This could impact our short-term mission teams.
• Itineration: We will be in the U.S. on itineration through the first week in February since we did not itinerate in the Fall due to starting the new Tuesday night Bible Study with Movie. Our Sundays are already booked, but we have some Wednesdays available. Let us know if you would like us to share with your small group or meet for a meal to hear updates on the ministry.
• Itinerartion Schedule: List of where we will be in the Jacksonville area sharing about what God is doing through Pate Ministries in Ecuador.
• Sunday, January 8, AM service: Anastasia Church, St. Augustine
• Sunday, January 8, PM service: Dunns Creek Baptist Church, Jacksonville
• Wednesday, January 11, Mount Olive Baptist Church, North Port, AL
• Sunday, January 15, AM Service: Agape Baptist Church, Scottsdale, AL
• Wednesday, January 18, Shindler Drive Baptist Church, Jacksonville
• Friday, January 20 - Sunday, January 22, Longwood Baptist Mission Conference, Longwood, FL 
• Wednesday, January 25, First Baptist Fernandina Beach, Fernandina Beach, FL 
• Sunday, January 29, AM Service, Crown Point Baptist, Jacksonville
• Sunday, February 5, AM service, First Baptist Church Oceanway, Jacksonville
• Sunday, February 12, AM Service (Gary only), Blackrock Baptist, Yulee, FL
• All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted! You no longer have to provide vaccination proof or negative PCR/Antigen testing to get into Ecuador or the USA.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Andrés is holding our Sunday night services while we are in the U.S.
• Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie: In the last week of December, we had a record number of 343 in attendance. Again, for the second week in a row, we ran out of chairs and space outside, to the Glory of God.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs: On the last week of December, we had 817 children and 186 adults in our Bible clubs. 568 knew their memory verse.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The Bible Clubs: We had a record number of children again. The mountain leaders are doing an excellent job!

Bigger News:

• Out of Room: We are seeking God on what He is going to do to help us with space for the additional people who are continuing to come, as we are officially out of room for our Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with a Movie. The second week of building the pole barn out front of the building, it was already full. I know we had an abundance of people the last week of Christmas because they knew we would give a small gift, and we did. Praying that they will continue to come.
• Report from 2022!: We are still in shock and humbled by how God used Pate Ministries to share the Gospel in Ecuador in 2022. This past year we shared the Gospel in our Bible clubs with 27,747 children and 4,012 adults with 9,456 children memorizing their Bible verses. In our adult Bible study, we had 4,810 people in attendance since we started in May. All Glory to God! Please note these numbers are not inflated, but we actually underestimated the numbers for the end of November and the first of December in our Christmas letter.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please pray for our E-team spiritual emphases retreat to be held February 22 - March 2. We will bring our leaders from the mountains to join us this year.
• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out youtube for more videos.

December 2022

News:

• Summer: Summer is on the way, it is warming up on the Coast.
• Air Travel: Flights to Ecuador have gone up significantly, almost double. This could impact our short-term mission teams.
• Itineration: We did not spend the Fall in the States to itinerate, only a few days here and there, as we didn't want to be away from the Adult Bible Study. However, we will spend Christmas with our family and use January to itinerate (raise support for the ministry). Our Sundays are already booked, but we have some Wednesdays available. Let us know if you would like us to share with your small group or meet for a meal to hear updates on the ministry.
• All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted! You no longer have to provide any vaccination proof or negative PCR/Antigen testing to get into Ecuador or the USA.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• Sunday Night Services: Last month Andrés started the Sunday Evening Worship Services. We have had 70 people in attendance.
• Monday, Montañita kid's Bible club: The move of our Montañita Kid's Bible club from the community center to our building was a success. What a difference it is to have the club in our building with enough space and better acoustics.
• Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with Christian Movie: In the last week of November, we had a record number of 259 in attendance. We ran out of chairs and space outside, to the Glory of God. We will be sharing two powerful Christmas movies on the birth and life of Christ in December.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The Bible clubs are still growing and we have had a record number of children memorize their Bible verses this last month, to the Glory of God.
• Christmas Message: We will be holding our Jesus is the reason for the season Kid's Bible programs the 2nd week of December. Each child will hear that we celebrate Christmas because Jesus Christ left His home in heaven to come to this earth, take on the form of a human, and then die for our sins. They will also receive a gift bag, candy, and a Christmas panettone to share with their family.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• We will be in the Mountains: We will hold the Christmas Bible clubs in the mountains in the 1st week of December. Each child will hear that we celebrate Christmas because Jesus Christ left His home in heaven to come to this earth, take on the form of a human, and then die for our sins. They will also receive a gift bag, candy, and a Christmas panettone to share with their family.
• Christmas Message: We will share the reason we celebrate Christmas and have a Christmas dinner with our San Jose Youth and Ladies Bible Study the 1st week of December.

Bigger News:

• Out of Room: We are officially out of room for our Tuesday Night Adult Bible Study with a Movie. To temporarily fix this situation, we are constructing a pole barn to protect the people from the rain, who sit outside because there is no room inside. We are also having to buy more chairs. We had 259 people in the last week of November.
• Giving Tuesday Project, November 29: Our project for Giving Tuesday is to buy more Action Bibles to give out to older children. Several years ago, it was a huge success, but now the older children need one too. Each Action Bible bought in the country is $19. Will you help?
• Christmas Letter: We are preparing to send out our annual end-of-the-year update/Christmas letter. If you do not receive our newsletter, please contact us to receive the Christmas letter so you can see the amazing how God used Pate Ministries to share the Gospel in Ecuador in 2022.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out the new ministry building update: see below

November 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena returned to Ecuador, but has to return the week of the 20th to have another ultrasound for the blood clot, it seems that it has gotten worse. She is scheduled to return on the 28th, providing a good report from the doctor. She is also walking with a little stiffness.
• Little Leo: He is doing well and the size of a normal newborn at this time.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• We are starting to show new Christian movies while we wait for the Chosen Season 3 to begin. So far we have run out of room and people are sitting outside under a canopy tent. The last week of October, we had 231 people present. A couple of the movies we will show for November are Courageous and War Room.
• We moved the Montañita kid's Bible club to our building the week of the 14th.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• We will have the last few mission teams for 2022. The short-term mission teams have done an excellent job teaching the lessons in the Bible clubs. The past few weeks we have had 80% of the children, in all the clubs, memorize their Bible verses to the Glory of God.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The mountian house church leaders are still doing an amazing job continuing the Bible clubs. We will hold the Christmas Bible clubs the 1st week of December in the mountains.

Bigger News:

• All COVID-19 Restrictions have been lifted! You no longer have to provide any vaccination proof or negative PCR/Antigen testing to get into Ecuador or the USA.
• Sunday Evening Services: We started Sunday evening services, mainly for the E-team, but have invited people from the Tuesday night adult Bible study to attend also. Andrés has been preaching, except when visiting pastor's are with a mission team.
• The Gathering Family Day: Andrés organized a family day event on the 13th for the people who come to the Tuesday night adult Bible study. Over 200 people were served arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), we all played a varity of group games, in which they all participated, including the visiting team of 14 people, and we finished up with 1/2 of the people staying for the church service. What an amazing day.
• Christmas Letter: We are preparing to send out our annual end of the year update/Christmas letter. If you do not recieve our newsletter, please contact us to recieve the Christmas letter so you can see the amazing how God used Pate Ministries to share the Gospel in Ecuador in 2022.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please continue to pray for Andrés and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's healing of the blood clot and strength of her ankle.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out the new ministry building update: see below

October 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena can now wear a shoe and has started intensive physical therapy on the 5th of October, she is closer to returning to Ecuador.
• New "as of 9/19/22" COVID Restrictions for the non-vaccinated: good news!
• Vaccinated: you only need proof of being fully vaccinated (14-days prior to your entry- no booster necessary)
• Non Vaccinated: you will need to provide a copy of a negative COVID PCR or Antigen (this is new) result, 72 hours prior to your departure to Ecuador, or if you have had COVID within the last year - you can show proof of a positive COVID result within two weeks of departure or within one year. Most Walgreen and CVS Pharmacies can provide the COVID antigen free of charge and give you results within a few hours. Praise the Lord!

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• We are finishing up season two of the Chosen at the Tuesday night adult Bible study. We are planning a couple of "get to know" you events for the people who are coming so that we can get to know them on a more personal level. A testimony from Cecilia; "I am Catholic, but when I come here (the Bible study), I feel something different, something special," what she is feeling is the Holy Spirit and the true Word of God being taught.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The short-term visiting mission teams are doing an excellent job teaching the lessons in the Bible clubs. Several of our Bible clubs are still growing to the point that we may have to split them up. Having over 200 children and adults at one of our clubs.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• At the end of September, we to the mountains to hold the Bible clubs, encourage the Bible club leaders, and provide them with supplies. We were overwhelmed with being treated with homemade dinners from the leaders. The E-team did an amazing job with the Bible clubs and a special Bible story with the puppets.

Bigger News:

• Leo Anthony Pate, our 4th grandchild was born at 34 weeks to Josh and Maggie Pate came home from after a 25-day stay in the NICU. He is doing well and growing. Praise the Lord for so many miricles.

Special Prayer Request:

• Please continue to pray for Andréa and his family as they still have not closed on their house on the coast.
• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out the new ministry building update: see below

September 2022

News:

• E-Team: We have been interviewing potential new E-team members, please continue to pray that the Lord will send us at least one more E-team member.
• Update on Dena: Dena has been given permission to start weight bearing on her leg. She will begin physical therapy at the beginning of October and hopefully return to Ecuador in the 3rd week of October. Gary continues to host teams in Ecuador.
• New "as of 9/19/22" new COVID Restrictions for the non-vaccinated: good news!
• Vaccinated: you only need proof of being fully vaccinated (14-days prior to your entry- no booster necessary)
• Non Vaccinated: you will need to provide a copy of a negative COVID PCR or Antigen (this is new) result, 72 hours prior to your departure to Ecuador, or if you have had COVID within the last year - you can show proof of a positive COVID result within two weeks of departure or within one year. Most Walgreen and CVS Pharmacies can provide the COVID antigen free of charge and give you results within a few hours. Praise the Lord!

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• We are still in awe as the Tuesday night adult Bible study with the Chosen series has been going wonderfully. We have been having between 128 to 165 people in attendance. They are not just coming for the coffee and bread, they listen to the Gospel intently afterward.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• It's chilly, rainy, and muddy, but praise the Lord we are still running approximately 650 children and 160 adults in the 7 Bible clubs.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• We will be visiting the mountain Bible clubs this month to encourage the leaders and re-supply them with everything they need to run the Bible clubs.

Bigger News:

• Our 4th grandchild was born at 34 weeks to Josh and Maggie Pate. Leo Anthony Pate. It's their firstborn (living) and last biological-born child. Please continue to pray for little Leo to be discharged from the NICU soon.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Andréa and his family as they are buying a house on the coast, but there have been lots of delays and they are dealing with a difficult gringa neighbor.
• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Check out the new ministry building update: see below

August 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena's reconstruction surgery went well and she is recovering with our daughter's family in Fernandina Beach, Florida. She will complete her recovery in the United States, while Gary hosts the teams in Ecuador.
• COVID Restrictions: you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated (14-days prior to your entry- no booster necessary) OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!
• Sharing the ministry: We were able to share Pate Ministries at Callahan First Baptist's Global Impact Celebration. Dena was able to set up the booth with the help of our good friends of the ministry Paul Allen and Rev. Bill Tyler's help. Gary came in on Friday after hosting a team and was able to stay for 2 days.

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• The Tuesday night adult Bible study with the Chosen, a series has been going wonderfully. We have been having approximately 128 people coming and listening to the Gospel intently afterward.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• We are still running approximately 650 children and 160 adults in the 7 Bible clubs.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The E-team finally got to visit the mountain Bible clubs in the middle of July, after the civil unrest ended. The leaders are re-supplied with everything they need to run the Bible clubs.

Bigger News:

• Adding staff to the ministry: We will have a wonderful, bi-lingual young lady joining the E-team in July. Please continue to pray that the Lord will send us at least one more E-team member.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

July 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena will have repair or reconstruction surgery on her broken leg in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday, July 21. She will remain in the States for the duration of her recovery as it is not safe for her in Ecuador during this wet season. It was a tough decision, but the correct decision, especially since she is on blood thinners. Gary will continue to stay in Ecuador to host the back to back short term mission teams. Please pray for Dena, Gary and the E-team.
• COVID Restrictions: you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated (14-days prior to your entry- no booster necessary) OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• The Tuesday community family movie nights have now transitioned successfully to showing The Chosen, a series of 40-minute episodes about the ministry and life of Jesus. After each episode, Gary, Andrés, and any visiting pastor share the Gospel and review the scenes from the episode as to what the Bible says about it. We are still having great responses to this transition. We hope to transition from season 2 to a full-on Bible Study.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The children are back to school now. We lost one club to a change in school times, but the numbers of children attending the other clubs have grown tremendously.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• Due to the strikes and civil unrest, we were not able to go to the mountains to re-supply and encourage the National leaders in the Bible clubs. We will be going just to drop off supplies the 2nd week of July.

Bigger News:

• Adult Bibles: We gave out New Living Translation Bibles, one per family that attended our Chosen series Bible study at the end of June. There were several testimonies of adults saying that they had been praying for a Bible. Pray that they will read them.
• Adding staff to the ministry: We will have a wonderful, bi-lingual young lady joining the E-team in July. Please continue to pray that the Lord will send us at least one more E-team member.
• National Strike/Civil unrest: Praise the Lord the strike was terminated on June 30th. It kept us from several of our Bible clubs.
• New Pate Ministry Video: Check out our latest Pate Ministry Video.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

June 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena developed a very large blood clot in her leg. She has also been given permission to start putting pressure on her leg, so hopefully, she will be walking by the end of this month.
• COVID Restrictions: you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated (14-days prior to your entry) OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!

Big News:

• Ministry Center News:
• The ministry center construction is complete and the murals in the children's and the main ministry areas are complete and look great.
• The first two Tuesday, community family movie nights had a great response with 60 in attendance for the 1st one and over 170 (lost count) in the 2nd one. We will host the 3rd one the 2nd week in June.
• In the 3rd week of June, we will start the adult Bible study on Tuesday nights by showing the Chosen series and then working through the Bible study. After the first Chosen series, we will start working through the Book of John, verse by verse.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The children are back to school now. We lost one club to a change in school times, but the numbers of children attending the other clubs have grown tremendously.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The number of children attending the mountain Bible clubs has dropped some, but the National leaders continue to disciple those who do come and have started new Bible clubs.
• We will visit the mountain Bible clubs to host the clubs, encourage the leaders, and refresh their supplies during the first week of July.
• San Jose Ladies Bible Clubs: Narcissa has led three bi-weekly Bible studies with the ladies and they continue to come and grow in the Word of God.

Bigger News:

• Kids Day: We celebrated Kid's Day in all of our Bible clubs, including the mountains the first week of June. We gave out little Bible story books to the 0-4 age group, little Blue Bibles to the 5-11 age group, and action Bibles to the 12+ age group. All of the children were so happy to receive their gift of the Word of God. The mommas wanted the action Bible too, but we gave them sunglasses that were donated - they were still happy.
• Adult Bibles: So many adults that attended the children's Bible clubs during Kids Day, request Bibles, so we will be giving out adult Bibles the second week of June. Pray that they will read them.
• Adding staff to the ministry: We will have a wonderful, bi-lingual young lady joining the E-team in July. Please continue to pray that the Lord will send us at least one more E-team member.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

May 2022

News:

• Update on Dena: Dena is healing well, but the humidity is making it difficult for her to be confident in walking with the crutches. She has fallen several times. Keep her in your prayers.
• COVID: Nothing has changed here in Ecuador, however, the mountain areas are still scared of Covid and are wearing masks, but there is very little mask wearing on the coast.
• COVID Restrictions: As of February 9, 2022, you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated 14-days prior to your entry OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!
• so if you are fully vaccinated, you don't need a PCR test, just a copy of your vaccination record.
• If you are not vaccinated, you only need to show proof of a negative PCR test result three days prior to coming to Ecuador.

Big News:

• Ministry Center: We have plans to start the community family movie night to introduce the ministry center to our community on May 10th. We will start the adult Bible study in the last week of May. The murals in the children's area and the main ministry area are almost complete.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• The children are going back to school in the 2nd week of May. We gave out backpacks filled with school supplies to the over 500 children that came to the Bible clubs, during the last week of April. The children and the mothers were so happy.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• The National leaders are doing a wonderful job with the Bible clubs. They have even started new Bible clubs.
• San Jose Ladies Bible Clubs: Narcissa lead the lady's Bible club in April and the ladies loved studying the Bible with her.

Bigger News:

• Special Ladies Bible Event: Our favorite senior ladies from Clanton, Alabama will hold the first-ever Lady's event on the Coast, the first week of May.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the ministry center construction to be completed soon.
• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

April 2022 This is the month for "April Showers" We encourage you to be super intentional in showering the Lord Jesus Christ with praises! Happy Resurrection Day!

News:

• Rough Start to April: Many of you know that Dena was swimming in the pacific ocean and was mowed over by a wave. The wave slammed her leg into the ocean floor bottom several times. Needless to say, her left leg was broken in two places. She had surgery and despite mobility issues (no weight-bearing, stairs) she is recovering. We are praising the Lord that it wasn't worse. It is true that we were to move to a two-story house three days after the accident and then four days after the accident, Gary fell going upstairs with a TV in his hands and had to go to the hospital to remove a huge chunk of glass out of his knee and receive many stitches. We believe that the attacks are direct from Satan trying to discourage or stop us from doing what the Lord wants us to do on the Coast.
• COVID: Nothing has changed here in Ecuador, however, the mountain areas are still scared of Covid and are wearing masks, but there is very little mask wearing on the coast.
• COVID Restrictions: As of February 9, 2022, you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated 14-days prior to your entry OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!
• so if you are fully vaccinated, you don't need a PCR test, just a copy of your vaccination record.
• If you are not vaccinated, you only need to show proof of a negative PCR test result three days prior to coming to Ecuador.

Big News:

• Ministry Center: We have almost completed the final work in the ministry center. We hope to start the adult Bible study in the 1st or 2nd week of May. We are currently having murals painted on the walls in the children's area and then a couple more in the main ministry area. It is very cultural here to have murals painted on the walls. We are having to send the projector back to the U.S. due to malfunctioning, so we have not been able to start the community movie night yet either, but we are not discouraged, but want God's perfect timing.
• Coastal Bible Clubs:
• We finally were able to make it to our most rural and remote Bible club of Casas Vejas the 2nd week of April. We only have two options a river route or a mountain route. The river has been too high to cross for the last two months, but we found a driver with a taller truck that was willing to try the mountain route. We held the kid's Bible club and then learned how to make a cultural dish.
• The rest of the Bible clubs are going wonderfully.
• We hope to move the Montañita kid's Bible club from the community center in Montañita to our ministry center at the beginning of May.
• We will be giving out the school supplies at the end of the month, as the coastal kids are out of school in March and April.
• Mountain Bible Clubs:
• We had a great visit to the Mountains, in the last week of March.
• We took supplies to the National house church leaders and held the Mountain Bible clubs. It was great to see all the children and hear all the reports from the national leaders.
• One group of the national leaders has been visiting the families in their homes and has even started a new Bible club. Glory to God!
• We also purchased all of the school supplies that we will need for the backpack program.
• We will return again in July to re-supply the national leaders and give out our school supplies.

Bigger News:

• San Jose Youth and Ladies Bible Clubs: We had a great time studying God's word with the kids, youth, and ladies' Bible study. We are so excited to announce that we have found a young man to take over the Youth Bible study and the ladies have requested that Narcissa, our Christian contact in the community, continue the Bible study with them, even if it means no snack or craft. Narcissa agreed! I didn't think that I would ever see such a hunger for God's Word in them. Praise the Lord. Still looking for someone to take the kid's Bible club.
• E-Team Spiritual Emphasis Week: We held our Spiritual Emphasis week the 1st week of April to sow into the lives of our Ecuadorian team and ourselves through God's Word and Prayer for the great responsibility and task that is laid before us in sharing the Gospel with the lost in the Montañita area and surrounding areas - this is all new uncharted territory for us.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the ministry center construction to be completed soon.
• Pray for Dena's mobility and healing, and Gary's patients - he is doing a great job.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide for the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

March 2022 This is the month for "March winds" Let the winds of the Holy Spirt blow upon us!

News:

• COVID: COVID is still at bay here in Ecuador, despite the Level 4 travel notice by the U.S. Embassy in Guayaquil. I left the COVID entry requirements for coming into Ecuador from the change last month:
• Good COVID Restrictions Updated: As of February 9, 2022, you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated 14-days prior to your entry OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!
• so if you are fully vaccinated, you don't need a PCR test, just a copy of your vaccination record.
• If you are not vaccinated, you only need to show proof of a negative PCR test result three days prior to coming to Ecuador.

Big News:

• Officially moved: Praise the Lord, we are officially moved to the Coast. The movers unestimated the amount of ministry stuff that we had and we ended up needing two trucks to move all the stuff. Everything is unpacked in the ministry center and most organized (for now), but the construction workers are still working on the walls, bathrooms, and other areas of the building, so we are not set and ready to go just yet.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: Due to the delays in getting the ministry building finished and all supplies unpacked and organized, we may have to postpone starting the Coastal Bible clubs to a weekly basis the 2nd or 3rd week of this month.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: We will visit the Mountain National house church leaders and Mountain Bible clubs the last week of this month to see, in person, how they are doing and bring supplies for the next three months.

Bigger News:

• Gary's 59th Birthday: March 30th is Gary's 59th Birthday - please send him a text or email wishing him a Happy Birthday!
• Community Introduction to Pate Ministries: We plan to hold a family movie night on March 8th and 15th to introduce the ministry to the Montañita community. We will give a Gospel message using the movie as a tie-in and practical application. We hope to draw a large crowd from the community. Praying the building will be ready for at least that part. We will pass out cookies with the movie invitation as a cookie wrapper.
• E-Team Spiritual Emphasis Week: We are holding a Spiritual Emphasis week the 1st week of April to sow into the lives of our Ecuadorian team and ourselves through God's Word and Prayer for the great responsibility and task that is laid before us in sharing the Gospel with the lost in the Montañita area and surrounding areas - this is all new uncharted territory for us.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the ministry center construction to be completed in time for the community movie night.
• Pray for God to soften the hearts of the Montañita people to receive His Gospel.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Video of the ministry center progress: see below

February 2022! This is considered the month of Love because of Valentine's Day, but we celebrate our love for Christ and for one another all year long!

News:

• COVID Positive: Another miracle: we were able finally to test negative for COVID and get back to Ecuador. Using diluted Idoine nasal washes and gargles really helped.
• Our Apartment & Office: Praise the Lord, we were able to sell most of the stuff that we are not taking to the Coast and we were able to pack up the apartment and our office. The movers will move everything to the Coast on the 18th of this month.

Big News:

• Good COVID Restrictions Updated: As of February 9, 2022, you can enter Ecuador with either proof of being fully vaccinated 14-days prior to your entry OR produce a negative COVID PCR test three days prior to coming to Ecuador. Praise the Lord!
• so if you are fully vaccinated, you don't need a PCR test, just a copy of your vaccination record.
• If you are not vaccinated, you only need to show proof of a negative PCR test result three days prior to coming to Ecuador.

Bigger News:

• Ministry Building: Andrés is doing an amazing job in overseeing the work on our new ministry building. We are so excited about how God is going to use this building to reach the Coastal people. It's not too late to donate to the building. Videos to come soon on the results.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We will be starting the Coastal Bible clubs on a weekly basis the first week of March.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: The National house church leaders are doing a wonderful job of running the Bible clubs on their own and the children are responding well to the transition.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the new work on the Coastal.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Don't forget to share our New Coastal Work Video: Check out the new ministry video, promoting the work on the coast https://youtu.be/J3PXdIhx6D0. Please share it with your church, Sunday school class, and friends.

January 2021

Urgent Request - 1) Pray for us to get a negative PCR test on Thursday, January 20th at 10:00 am. 2) That we will get the results back in time for our Sunday early morning flight to Ecuador.

Gary and I tested positive for COVID when we PCR tested for our flights back to Ecuador. We are fine, no symptoms, but cannot get to Ecuador without a negative PCR test. They say we could test positive for weeks or months. There is an Ecuadorian provision that if we have recovered and still test positive after 30 days, we can have a physician's certificate to enter the country. We need to get back soon than later.

January 2022! Happy New Year from our family to yours!

News:

• Continued COVID restrictions: As of January 3, 2022, you have to be fully vaccinated 14-days and produce a negative COVID PCR test prior to coming to Ecuador. This will affect many of our team members. Children 15 and under do not have to be vaccinated - only produce a negative COVID PCR test prior to coming to Ecuador. However, there are two vaccination exceptions for those 16 and over.
• If you have had and recovered from COVID within the last 90 days prior to coming to Ecuador - you only need a certificate from your doctor and a negative COVID PCR test prior to coming to Ecuador. NOTE: For Ecuador, it is actually six months of recovery, but to re-enter the United States, it's only 90 days recovered.
• If you have a medical reason that you cannot take the COVID vaccine and your physician will provide a certificate to the reason, you can come to Ecuador with the physician's certificate and a negative COVID PCR test.
• Houses in Cuenca: Thank you for your prayers! Andrés has rented his house and we have sold almost all of our stuff in our Cuenca apartment and even found the landlord new renters, so we are all ready for the transition to the Coast.

Big News:

• Christmas Bible Clubs: We held our special Christmas Bible clubs for our clubs in the mountains, on the coast, and some of Gonzalo’s clubs last month. 1,584 children and adults heard about how Jesus is the reason for the season. Each child received a Christmas present, a Christmas Pantone, and a 100% juice, juice box. We were also able to bless several other ministries with Christmas present bags, Pantone's, and juice boxes.

Bigger News:

• Sharing the Gospel: We are not into numbers, but we are required to record how the ministry reaches people, for our 501(c)(3). We are so amazed how God uses Pate Ministries to share the Gospel in Ecuador. Despite the pandemic, we shared the Gospel with 10,566 children and 1,629 adults, and 1,664 children who memorized Bible verses. This number does not include Gonzalo's numbers.
• Ministry Building: Andrés is doing an amazing job in overseeing the work on our new ministry building. We are so excited about how God is going to use this building to reach the Coastal people. It's not too late to donate to the building. Videos to come soon on the results.
• Miracle Grandbaby #3: We are expecting our 3rd grandbaby due December 22, however she decided to come on December 13, 2021, through an emergency cesarian section because of placental abruption. There were so many miracles that happened during this event. First Heather and Baby Abigale are doing well with no deficits. The doctor said that if they would have arrived 15 minutes later, it would be a very difficult situation for the baby and mom. Glory to God for His protection. Also, Tom's parents happened to be visiting so they were able to watch the children for Heather to get to the hospital (our back-up's were an hour away and would have not made it in time) and lastly, I (Dena) was able to get a flight, COVID test and a taxi to the airport in one hour of notification of the situation. God is so good!

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the new work on the Coastal.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Don't forget to share our New Coastal Work Video: Check out the new ministry video, promoting the work on the coast https://youtu.be/J3PXdIhx6D0. Please share it with your church, Sunday school class, and friends.

December 2021: Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas!

News:

• New COVID restrictions: As of December 1, 2021, you have to be fully vaccinated 14-days and produce a negative COVID PCR test prior to coming to Ecuador. This will affect many of our team members.
• Coastal Housing: Our E-team members have secured housing on the Coast. Thank you for your prayers.

Big News:

• Christmas Bible Clubs: We are holding special Christmas Bible clubs for our clubs and some of Gonzalo’s too. We will share how Jesus is the reason for the season through a nativity drama with kids from each Bible club participating in the drama, complete with sheep and a donkey. Each child will receive a Christmas present, a Christmas Pantone, and a 100% juice, juice box.
• New E-team member: We are happy to announce that Samantha (Sammy) will be joining us on the Coast. She is a sweet bi-lingual young lady that is great with children and loves the Lord.
• Last team of 2021: We have a team coming on the 11th of December - they will be bringing the rest of the supplies for Christmas and for the first quarter of the year. Pray all goes well in transport and customs.

Bigger News:

• New video: Check out the new ministry video, promoting the work on the coast https://youtu.be/J3PXdIhx6D0. Please share it with your church, Sunday school class, and friends.
• Grandbaby #3: We are expecting our 3rd grandbaby due December 22!

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray that we can sell the stuff from our apartment in Cuenca that we won't need on the Coast.
• Pray for the new work on the Coastal.
• Pray for the national house church leaders that will continue the Bible clubs in the mountain
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

November 2021

News:

• Mountain Bible Clubs: Our National house church leaders are doing a wonderful job with the Bible clubs.
• Work on the Coast: The new work on the Coast is still progressing as expected. We are still only holding those clubs once a month until we move over full-time in January or February.

Big News:

• COVID: Ecuador has less than 5% COVID cases and the children are going back to school now. They have been out of school for over a year and a half.
• We have two teams coming on the 4th and 11th of December - they will be bringing the rest of the supplies for Christmas and for the first quarter of the year. Pray all goes well in transport and customs.

Bigger News:

• Special Edition Newsletter: The news is officially out! We are expanding the ministry to the Pacific Coast between January and February. We are so excited about the opportunities that we will have in sharing the Gospel by living in the area in which we will be working.
• Adult Bible study on Tuesday nights - hope it will turn into a church plant.
• Kids weekly Bible clubs
• Sunday night community Gospel movie night
• Health Clinic
• ? We are open to however else God will use this ministry to share the Gospel.
• Note: We will continue to follow up with the mountain clubs weekly via Whatapp, provide them snacks, lesson plans, craft supplies, and follow up in person quarterly.
• Coastal Housing: Pray for our E-team members to secure housing on the Coast next week; preparing for the move in January.
• Jesus is the Reason for the Season: We will begin our Christmas messages and Happy Birthday celebrations the first of December. Each child will get a message on why we celebrate the birth of Jesus, a panatone to share with their family and a small gift bag.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Andrés and his family to find a renter for their home in Cuenca.
• Pray for that we find support staff for the Coastal work.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

October 2021

Happy Fall Y'all or Rather Happy Spring in Ecuador.

News:

• Itineration: We have been completely booked with speaking engagements for our time in the States raising funds for the new work on the coast. We look forward to returning to Ecuador soon.

Big News:

• Training the Mountain House Church Leaders: We have been training many of the house church leaders to take over the Mountain Bible clubs and they are doing a great job!

Bigger News:

• Mountain Bible Clubs: We are not quitting the mountain Bibles. We are turning the mountain Bible clubs over to the leaders of the house churches. As long as we continue to do the mountain Bible clubs, we are hindering them from taking them over.

We will continue....

• to follow up each week to check on progress
• to provide training
• to provide lesson and craft materials
• to provide snacks and juice
• to spend one to two weeks a quarter to visit the clubs with or without teams.
• Our plan from the beginning of this ministry was to start Bible clubs, get them up and running and then turn them over to the Ecuadorians. We are following Biblical principles of discipleship.
• New Work on the Coast: The new work on the Coast is still progressing as expected.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Andrés and his family to find a renter for their home in Cuenca and also find a house to rent on the Coast.
• Pray for that we find support staff for the Coastal work.
• Pray that we can get all of the Christmas project stuff for the clubs here with the last two teams. Ecuador has imposed a two suitcase embargo for the rest of the year, so with the expansion, we are working with over 1500 children.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

September 2021

News:

• COVID-19: Ecuador is almost clear of COVID - Glory to God.
• Linda Galan: Our E-team member Linda has resigned her position with Pate Ministries to work in her profession and obtain a master's degree in her field. She will be missed and we wish her the best in her new endevors.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: Last month we had an adventurous ride to get to one of our most remote Bible clubs in the interior jungle area of the Coast. We made it finally after pushing all four taxi trucks out of the mud, but we made it and had over 130 children and adults hear the Word of God.
• Short-Term Mission Teams: We just finished up our last mission team for the year. Our calendar for short term mission teams has already filled up for 2022.

Big News:

• Mountain Bible Club: We are training the National house church leaders to take over several of our mountain Bible clubs. This has always been our plan to start the Bible clubs, build them up and then have the Nationals take ownership of them.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We are still on target to start the Coastal Bible on a weekly bases starting in January.
• Help! Need More Action Bible: We gave out more Action Bibles in the mountains than we anticipated. We need to raise the funds to buy about 200 more at $18 each.
• Rebecca: A sweet young lady has been working with us on a very casual bases, as needed. She is now praying about joining us on the coast.

Bigger News:

• Andrés: Andrés and his family will be on the Coast for the middle of September through he middle of October preparing some of the project on the Coast (sorry, we have not announced it yet). They are still working toward moving to the Coast to serve there, but they need to find a renter for their new home in the mountains. Please pray for them as they make the transition.
• New Work on the Coast: We are getting close to announcing the new work on the Coast! Stay tuned.
• Itineration: We will be in the U.S. for part of September and October to raise funds for the new coastal project. We are here in the States now, so email mail us if you would like to meet up. Gary's Sunday schedule is full, but if you would like to meet up for personal updates or have us share in a small group, please message us.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Andrés and his family to find a renter for their home in Cuenca and also find a house to rent on the Coast.
• Pray for that we find support staff for the Coastal work.
• Pray that we can get all of the Christmas project stuff for the clubs here with the last two teams. Ecuador has imposed a two suitcase embargo for the rest of the year, so with the expansion, we are working with over 1500 children.
• E-team: Pray for us and our E-team as some of us start transitioning to the Coast and those that stay behind for the Mountain work.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

August 2021

God's Word is still going forth despite a pandemic!

News:

• Community Carnivals: We held community carnivals in all of our communities in the Mountains. The community carnivals were a huge success. We only had small family teams to help, but we were able to incorporate local Ecuadorians to help out. The children were so excited to be able to invite their friends that do not normally come to our clubs.
• COVID-19: The new COVID variants are here in Ecuador, but Praise the Lord there have been no additional restrictions in Cuenca or the the Coast.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: We have resumed all of our regular and once a month Mountain Bible Clubs. The children were so happy to come back to the clubs and some of our Bible clubs have tripled in the number of children in attendence.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We have also been able to hold the monthly Bible clubs in all of our Coastal locations, plus we have added a few new ones. It has worked really well taking the E-team from Cuenca for one week each month to hold the Bible Clubs on the Coast. We have been running six hundred kids and approximately 250 adults in our Bible clubs.
• Short-Term Mission Teams: We had three family mission teams over the past couple of months. We had the DeVaney family, the Strickland family and the Peck family. They all participated in the Bible clubs, some also held community carnivals. The DeVaney and Stricklands held specials encouragement services for the house church pastors and leaders. The Peck family was the first to come to the Coastal Bible clubs this year. Our son and daughter in law are were here the last week of July and first part of August. We love our mission teams, they are so helpful in brining supplies, helping in the Bible clubs and sharing the Gospel and showing the Love of Christ to the Ecuadorian people.
• We have set up house on the Coast: We have rented a little house on the Coast which has allowed us to spend time making relationships and contacts on the Coast.

Big News:

• New Bible Club: We were able to add a new Bible club to our Coastal Bible clubs in a hard to reach surf town. It was amazing to be able to get a foot in the door of this town. They even let us use their community center.
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We are still on target to start the Coastal Bible on a weekly bases starting in January.
• Meet the Police: We wanted to reach out to the police and transit police in Montañita and Manglaralto, near where we will be living, to get to know them and reach out to them with the love of Christ. We provided a roast beef luncheon for them. We feed forty of them and most were grateful, but the rest thought we were nuts.
• The Action Bible: We gave out the Action Bibles last month to kids in our Regular and Once a month Bible clubs. The children were so excited to receive their own copy of the Action Bible. They cheered loudly when we gave them out. Thank you so much for giving funds for us to buy these Bibles.
• Washable, reusable Feminine Sanitary Pads: We had a wonderful group of senior ladies sew several hundred washable sanitary pads for young ladies in our rural Bible clubs. What an amazing way to show the love of Christ in a personal and tangible way. These girls do not have stores to buy sanitary pads each month, even if they had the funds to buy them, so most do not leave their homes one week a month. These washable pads will help restore the self-esteem and dignity. Thank you Twin Rivers Baptist Church, Hortense, Georgia for this amazing project.

Bigger News:

• A leader for the Coast! Andrés and his family are feeling called to come to the Coast to help with the work.
• New Work: We are working on another project on the Coast that will be a huge leap of faith for us. We are not ready to give the details yet, but are scared and super excited at the same time.
• Itineration: We will be in the U.S. for part of September and October to raise funds for the new project we are working on. We have to come back at that time because we will not be able to go to the U.S. in 2022 because of the new work. Gary's Sunday schedule is full, but if you would like to meet up for personal updates or have us share in a small group, please message us.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Andrés and his family to find a renter for their home in Cuenca and also find a house to rent on the Coast.
• Pray for that we find support staff for the Coastal work.
• Pray that we can get all of the Christmas project stuff for the clubs here with the last two teams. Ecuador has imposed a two suitcase embargo for the rest of the year, so with the expansion, we are working with over 1500 children.
• E-team: Pray for us and our E-team as some of us start transitioning to the Coast and those that stay behind for the Mountain work.
• Financial Support: Please pray that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs for the mountains and the Coast.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

June and July 2021

God, Bless Our Nation! Matthew 5:6 "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied."

News:

• COVID-19: COVID cases are ramping up here in Ecuador. We are now on weekday curfews from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am and weekend lockdowns starting on Friday at 8:00 pm to Monday morning at 5:00 am. You cannot leave your house or go outside unless it is for an emergency without being ticketed at $300 for the first two times then jail after that.
• Bible Clubs: Pray that we can keep doing our in-person Bible Clubs during this thirty days of new restrictions. We cannot hold our youth or ladies Bible clubs since they start at 7:30 pm.
• Short-Term Mission Teams: Due to more people being vaccinated in the U.S., we have opened up a couple of dates for very small teams or individuals to come and work with us for a week. Email us if you are interested.
• We are back in Ecuador: We made it back to Ecuador safely. We are experiencing a little altitude issues, but got to work on the field as soon as we stepped foot in the Country - literally.

Big News:

• The Bartels: The Bartels made it safely to Cuenca and found an apartment. Pray for them as they settle in, get over jet lag, altitude issues and allergies.

Bigger News:

• Coastal Bible Clubs: We were able to take the E-team to the Pacific Coast the third week of April to hold Bible clubs in seven areas (two new areas). Unfortunately, we were not able to hold Bible clubs in three of the areas due to new community COVID restrictions. However, in the four areas in which we were able to do the Bible clubs, we had great turn outs of children, teens and adults that heard the Gospel of Christ. We are supposed to return on May 19th, but the restrictions do not end until May 21, unless something changes, if no changes, we will go the last week of May.
• New Bible clubs: We have started two new Bible clubs, one of which is in an area that is still Gospel hostile. We had over 20 kids and 13 adults attend the first club.
• The Action Bible: We are raising money to purchase the hardback Action Bible for each teenager in our mountain and Coastal Bible clubs. These are amazing Bibles in a comic book form. Each Action Bible is $19.00 and purchased in country as the Bible is the same price as the U.S. and we do not have to worry about getting them to Ecuador.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Gonzalo and his family, especially Jr. and Jeny. Jr. is recovering from COVID and Jeny is showing symptoms. There are a great amount of people in one of their villages that are infected with COVID.
• Pray for our expansion to the Coast. We will need to find leaders for the Coast and support staff.
• Pray for protection for our village children and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

April 2021 - May 2021

God, Bless Our Nation! Matthew 5:6 "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied."

News:

• COVID-19: COVID cases are ramping up here in Ecuador. We are now on weekday curfews from 8:00 pm to 5:00 am and weekend lockdowns starting on Friday at 8:00 pm to Monday morning at 5:00 am. You cannot leave your house or go outside unless it is for an emergency without being ticketed at $300 for the first two times then jail after that.
• Bible Clubs: Pray that we can keep doing our in-person Bible Clubs during this thirty days of new restrictions. We cannot hold our youth or ladies Bible clubs since they start at 7:30 pm.
• Short-Term Mission Teams: Due to more people being vaccinated in the U.S., we have opened up a couple of dates for very small teams or individuals to come and work with us for a week. Email us if you are interested.
• We are back in Ecuador: We made it back to Ecuador safely. We are experiencing a little altitude issues, but got to work on the field as soon as we stepped foot in the Country - literally.

Big News:

• The Bartels: The Bartels made it safely to Cuenca and found an apartment. Pray for them as they settle in, get over jet lag, altitude issues and allergies.

Bigger News:

• Coastal Bible Clubs: We were able to take the E-team to the Pacific Coast the third week of April to hold Bible clubs in seven areas (two new areas). Unfortunately, we were not able to hold Bible clubs in three of the areas due to new community COVID restrictions. However, in the four areas in which we were able to do the Bible clubs, we had great turn outs of children, teens and adults that heard the Gospel of Christ. We are supposed to return on May 19th, but the restrictions do not end until May 21, unless something changes, if no changes, we will go the last week of May.
• New Bible clubs: We have started two new Bible clubs, one of which is in an area that is still Gospel hostile. We had over 20 kids and 13 adults attend the first club.
• The Action Bible: We are raising money to purchase the hardback Action Bible for each teenager in our mountain and Coastal Bible clubs. These are amazing Bibles in a comic book form. Each Action Bible is $19.00 and purchased in country as the Bible is the same price as the U.S. and we do not have to worry about getting them to Ecuador.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Gonzalo and his family, especially Jr. and Jeny. Jr. is recovering from COVID and Jeny is showing symptoms. There are a great amount of people in one of their villages that are infected with COVID.
• Pray for our expansion to the Coast. We will need to find leaders for the Coast and support staff.
• Pray for protection for our village children and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.

December 2020 - February 2021

Our hope is in Jesus, our savior! Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

News:

• Christmas Card: We apologize if the wise men in the photo of the cavity offended anyone - it was a nice photo and we do understand the wise men were not present at the birth of Jesus, but two years later. If you did not get our Christmas letter or Christmas Card, send us a call or email and we will mail you one.
• Bible Clubs: We are starting partial (shorter time) in-person Bible clubs this month.

Big News:

• Ecuador Trip: We took teams to Ecuador in December where we held six Bible clubs on the Coast, in the small fishing villages on the Coast. We are had over 750 children and 230 adults. We also made trips to Ecuador in February.

Bigger News:

• The Little Blue Bible: We are well on our way to raising the funds to purchase the little blue Bibles for the children on the Coast. However, we underestimated the numbers we will need, so we are still raising funds for them. Each Bible is $6.00 and purchased in country as the Bible is the same price as the U.S. and we do not have to worry about getting them to Ecuador.
• Cash App: You can now support Pate Ministries using the Cash App. Our Cash App name is $PateMinistries. You can also support Pate Ministries through PayPal here on our "donate" tab or can mail a check to our Post Office Box and support Pate Ministries through selecting For the children Ecuador, Inc., as your charity and shopping on Smile.Amazon.com.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our expansion to the Coast. We will need to raise additional funds to set up the work on the Coast and to hire a new leader and two to three support staff.
• Pray for our President and our leaders of the United States and Ecuador.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• Pray for protection for our village children and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

End of year donation: Over 50% of Ecuadorians lost their jobs during the pandemic, but because of your continued financial support, our E-team did not miss a paycheck. Would you consider an end of year donation to Pate Ministries?

Updates:

• Bible Club Project: We are getting closer to releasing our Bible Club curriculum, but we are still looking for a catchy name for our Bible club curriculum. Please submit your name idea to Pateministries@gmail.com. The winner will win a Pate Ministry "Jesús Salva" long or short sleeve dry-fit shirt. It needs to be a name that can be used World-wide. The concept is to teach people how to do Bible clubs in their community or use it in churches or house church that are not reaching the children. It is five year program, starting with foundations of "Who is God and Who is Jesus."
• COVID-19: Ecuador's cases are down, but it is still not the best option yet for us to be full-time in Ecuador. The E-team is doing all that can be done right now and Gary is busy with sharing about what God is doing in Ecuador and raising funds to start up the work on the Coast.
• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Teams: We are starting to book short-term mission teams for the Spring of 2021.

November 2020

Be thankful! Colossians 3:15

"And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful."

News:

• Bible Clubs: We are hoping to go back to in-person Bible clubs in December, meanwhile, we will keep doing the drive-by Gospel baggie distributions.
• Ecuador Trip: Our October trip to Ecuador was another amazing success. We took several pastors and ministry supporters for a five day trip. We were able to give hundreds of children and about 50 adults a baggie with a Gospel lesson, memory verse, craft and snack, plus 3 pieces of GuaGua de pan (special people shaped bead with anise for the day of the dead) with a sermonette about Jesus resurrecting Lazarus from the dead and how Jesus resurrected from the dead, attached. We were also able to get 14 supply suitcases in country with only minor issues.
• COVID-19: It is still not the best option yet for us to be full-time in Ecuador. The E-team is doing all that can be done right now and Gary is busy with sharing about what God is doing in Ecuador and raising funds to start up the work on the Coast.
• Catchy name: We are still looking for a catchy name for our Bible club curriculum. Please submit your name idea to Pateministries@gmail.com. The winner will win a Pate Ministry "Jesús Salva" long or short sleeve dry-fit shirt. It needs to be a name that can be used World-wide. The concept is to teach people how to do Bible clubs in their community or use it in churches or house church that are not reaching the children. It is five year program, starting with foundations of "Who is God and Who is Jesus."

Big News:

• La Florida Bible Club: We are so excited to let you know that we have been visiting the La Florida Bible club that we turned over to the church leaders and they are still going strong!

Bigger News:

• From Bible club student to Bible club leader: Our plan of building disciples to take over the work of sharing the Gospel in the communities is working to the Glory of God! Here is the latest Testimony - 4 years in the making: Meet Dyana. Dyana was really young when we started our Bible club in Belén. After about a year of coming to our Bible club, I remember as if it was yesterday, she said (in Spaish), Ms. Dena, I want to do what you are doing. I told her that she could be a missionary just like us here in Belén and that she needed to study her Bible and pray that God would give her a calling. Fast forward to a six months ago. I am so excited to say that Dyana is doing what we are doing. She is the leader of the Belén group under the discipleship of Jeny and Gonzalo. Now that is something to Praise God about! Merisol was also in our Belén Bible club and is helping Dyana. Jeny is also discipling 4 other young ladies and 1 young man.
• The Coast: We are set to go to the coast and do six or seven Bible clubs in the Coastal fishing villages in December to kick-off Pate Ministries Bible Club expansion to the Coast.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Pastor Juan Loja's Church and leaders as they figure their next steps in finding a Pastor.
• Pray for our election and recount process. President and our leaders of the United States and Ecuador.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• Pray for protection for our village children and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

Updates:

• Bible Club Project: We are getting closer to releasing our Bible Club curriculum.
• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Teams: We are starting to book short-term mission teams for the Spring of 2021.

October 2020

No Greater Love! 1 John 4:9

“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.”

News:

• COVID: There had been several COVID cases in our villages. The police were stationed outside the houses for 14 days to prevent anyone from leaving or entering. We definite have it much easier in the United States.
• Pastor Juan: Our dear friend and pastor, Juan Loja passed away on September 19, 2020. Pastor Loja was a great mission minded pastor and started many house churches. He will be missed. Please pray for his family, his congregation and his house churches.
• Ecuador Trip: Our September trip to Ecuador was an amazing success. We took several pastors and ministry supporters for a five day trip. We were able to give over 600 children and 110 adults a Gospel baggie with a lesson, memory verse, craft and snack, plus 5 pieces of chocolate bread with a sermonette entitled "Jesus is the bread of life" attached. We were also able to get all 24 supply suitcases in country with no issues. With 30 teams cancelled for this past year, we had no way of getting supplies to Ecuador.
• More planing trips: We will take two more trips to Ecuador with small teams in November and December.
• Catchy name: We are still looking for a catchy name for our Bible club curriculum. Please submit your name idea to Pateministries@gmail.com. The winner will win a Pate Ministry "Jesús Salva" long or short sleeve dry-fit shirt. It needs to be a name that can be used World-wide. The concept is to teach people how to do Bible clubs in their community or use it in churches or house church that are not reaching the children. It is five year program, starting with foundations of "Who is God and Who is Jesus."

Big News:

• Ecuador return: We plan to return to Ecuador, full-time, in the beginning of January.
• Bible Club Project: We are getting closer to releasing our Bible Club curriculum.
• Cochapata Ministry Center: Jeny and Ganzalo's ministry and church building is finished. We will be ordering the chairs soon.

Bigger News:

• The Coast: We plan to go to three Coastal fishing villages in December to kick-off Pate Ministries Bible Club expansion to the Coast.
• Bible Clubs: We are hoping to go back to in-person Bible clubs in December, meanwhile, we will keep doing the drive-by Gospel baggie distributions.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our President and our leaders of the United States and Ecuador.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• Pray for protection for our village children and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

Updates:

• Leslie: Leslie has finished her college degree. She has always been told that she has a full-time position with Pate Ministires when she finished her studies, but she feels God is leading her in a different direction. We hate to see her go, but want God's best for her. Please pray for her future endeavorers.
• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Teams: We are starting to book short-term mission teams for the Spring of 2021.

September 2020

There is Peace! John 14:27

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

News:

• Ecuador is relaxing some of it's strict COVID-19 restrictions, however, we still cannot meet in groups to do our Bible clubs as in the past.
• We are still in the North Florida area at this time. Our calendar for sharing about what God is doing in Ecuador through Pate Ministries in services on Sunday mornings is completely filled though January 3rd. We still have openings for Sunday evenings and Wednesday nights. Our plan is to return to Ecuador the first week of January.
• We have new ministry and ministry training videos on our Pate Ministry Youtube channel. Check it out, especially the video on "Miguelito" to see how your donations purchased a little blue story book Bible that impacted little Miguel and how his faith impacted his mom and his doctor. See video below.

Big News:

• We were able to provide Carlitos with three tubes of burn gel that he needed with your help. We have also purchased eight more tubes that we will take to him in January. Thank you for your help with this expensive burn healing gel.
• We have completed 42 lessons in our "portable Bible Club project" in Spanish and 21 lessons in English. We still need a catchy name for this project. Wining name wins a long sleeve or short sleeve Pate Ministry "Jesús Salva" dry fit shirt. Send us an email with your name for our Bible club curriculum project.

Bigger News:

• The distribution of lesson packets is still going forward in a mighty way. In three of our villages, the children can no longer go to the area in which we held the Bible clubs to receive their lesson packet, due to fear from the leaders of these villages, however, we have been going up and down dirt roads or areas in which there are no roads to find the kids to give them their packets. With this drive-by distribution, we have actually had more kids than we ever had in our Bible Clubs. Most are waiting for us so they can receive their Gospel packet and say their memory verse. So the Gospel is going forth, getting to more children and getting into their homes! See video below.
• Pastor's Gonzalo's church is almost complete in Cochapata!
• Because of your continued giving, our E-team has not missed a paycheck durning this time.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our President and our leaders of the United States and Ecuador.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• Pray for protection for our kids and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they minister in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will continue to provide the ministry's financial needs.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued prayer and financial support.
• Teams: We are starting to book short-term mission teams for the Spring of 2021.

July & August 2020

There is Joy: Psalm 30:5 (b) "...weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

• Ecuador is still in a perilous time with COVID-19. Things were easing up a bit in Ecuador, but quickly deteriorating. We have provided food for several families that have reached out to us in dire situations. We are still working on doing more food distributions with the government.
• We have several families in two of our remote villages that have COVID-19. The government has placed armed guards and police around their houses to prevent them from going outside or anyone coming in for 14 days.
• We are still in the U.S. and do not know when we will get back to Ecuador. It is not beneficial to the ministry for us to be in Ecuador and have to sit in an apartment and only be able to go out once to twice a week for a few hours.

Big News:

• The Gospel is going forth during this time in which the Bible clubs cannot meet! The lesson packets that the E-team have been distributing (Bible lessons, crafts, craft supplies and a snack) to the children in our villages has been a huge success. Some children have been pooling their pennies to get a truck taxi for $1.50 and 12 kids pile in the cab and bed of the truck taxi to get to the location to say their memory verse and get their next Bible lesson packet, then they walk up to an hour and a half home.Pastor Gonzalo continue to work on their church/ministry center in Cochapata.
• COVID-19 Training with Teach to Transform; Dena and the E-Team participated in a Zoom meeting to learn about a training module for training on COVID-19 for our communities. We hope to use these modules to train our local leaders in the churches and house churches so they can teach their communities and share the Gospel at the same time.
• Things have opened up here in the U.S. for Gary and I to be able to share about what God is doing in Ecuador through Pate Ministries. We have been able to share in pre-recorded messages, live streams and live services.

Bigger News:

• We are so excited to announce that our "Bible Club Lesson in a Box" project is off and running. The first 42 lessons have been written in Spanish and are being translated in English right now. We are working on the next 100 lessons. This will be a huge part of our ministry expansion to provide Bible lesson materials to our current villages and house church villages to start their own Bible clubs. Each lesson will include a teacher overview, a history, an objective, the lesson (written at a level that anyone can teach it), a practical application, a memory verse and a prayer. The material will also include a game or activity idea, song ideas, visual aides, a craft and supplies for the craft. We even have a group in Honduras that would like to use the materials to start their own Bible clubs. Our long term goal is to put the materials up on our website for anyone, anywhere to use to share the Gospel. We have had this idea for several years, but have had no time to write it.
• Kid's are sending Andrés photos of their finished crafts via WhatsApp.
• Check out our Pate Ministries Youtube channel as Andrés has been working on new videos and posting them to the youtube channel.

Need: We are looking for an RV, Class C or motor home. We are traveling more and more to share about Pate Ministries and raise ministry support for the work in Ecuador. It is a great expense for hotels and food costs when traveling from Sunday to Sunday in churces away from where we domicile. With an RV, we could park it at a church while we are domicilled in the U.S. and when we travel to various churches, it would allow us to cook rather than eat out and stay on church property or in a Walmart parking lot at no cost rather than stay in a hotel. Do you know anyone that has an RV they haven't used in a while, who might be interested in donating it to the ministry for a tax credit or selling to us (at a very good price)? Please email us.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our President and our leaders.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• Pray for protection for our kids and their families and that they will come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
• E-team: Pray for them as they endure COVID-19.
• Pray that we will hear God clearly on when to go back to Ecuador.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will provide the ministry's financial needs, which is normally met through the financial support in the form of donations from our individual and church supporters. Our full-time Ecuadorian staff cannot afford to lose their saleries and are being paid as they work from home. Also, all of our ministry expenses are still having to be paid during this time of crisis.

Updates:

• Support: We thank you for your faithfulness in continued financial support during this crazy time.
• Teams: All of our teams have been cancelled for the remainder of 2020.

June 2020

There is Peace! Philippians 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our President and our leaders.
• Pray for Peace and Unity in our country.
• E-team: Pray for them as they endure COVID-19 and Civil unrest threats.
• Pray that we can get back to Ecuador soon.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will provide the ministry's financial needs, which is normally met through the financial support in the form of donations from our individual and church supporters. Our full-time Ecuadorian staff cannot afford to lose their saleries and are being paid as they work from home. Also, all of our ministry expenses are still having to be paid during this time of crisis.

News:

• We are monitoring the situation in Ecuador daily through Andrés. Things are easing up a bit in Ecuador, but slowly. It is still going to be awhile before we can travel back to Ecuador with out 14 day quarantining in a hostel, in the city of arrival and being able to move freely in Cuenca. It doesn't benefit the ministry for us to go to Ecuador and have to sit in our apartment, so we are using wise judgment on when to return.
• Gary and I are staying in the Jacksonville area until we can get back to Ecuador.

Big News:

• Pastor Gonzalo continue to work on their church/ministry center in Cochapata.
• In some of our villages, in which there is a small church or house church, the leaders are still meeting with some of the children to tech Bible lessons.
• Gary has been able to meet with a few pastor's and record some video for streaming over the computer for some churches.
• Linda has completed over 30 lessons as part of our ministry expansion to provide Bible lesson materials to our current villages and house church villages to start their own Bible clubs.
• Dena, Andrés and Linda will be taking training through Teach to Transform (TTT out of Kentucky) on all aspects of COVID-19 from a medical and Biblical perspective. This is hopefully another tool that we can use to go into schools and villages to share the Gospel.
• Andrés is also working on a hand washing program to get into more villages too.

Bigger News:

• The E-team is working on putting packets together to include Bible lessons that Linda created, crafts, craft supplies, a little Gospel story book and a snack. They will take the packets to our villages to pass out to the children individually so they can self study the Bible lessons in their homes. This will get the Gospel into their homes! Also, they will create the same, but in boxes for the house churches that are still meeting in small groups.
• The E-team participated through a government program to receive small food bags and deliver them to our villages and other villages. We added more food to the bags and gave Gospel tracts too. They were able to witness to the Government officials that went with them for the distributions.
• The first week of June, Andrés was able to visit a few of our villages and take them snack items that we had in our office and see some of the kids. They kids were so excited to see hi.
• Check out our Pate Ministries Youtube channel as Andrés has been working on new videos and posting them to the youtube channel.

Updates:

• Itineration: All of our meetings and church speaking engagements were cancelled for Spring Itineration. However, since things are easing up here in the U.S., if you are interested in doing a live stream, Zoom call or face to face meeting, we would love to share what God is doing in Ecuador, while we are stuck here in the U.S.
• Teams: Most of our teams for July - October have cancelled due to the COVID-19, which is to be expected. When Ecuador opens up the borders, we will go back and make sure it is save for teams to return, that our vendors are still available and that the villages are willing to have foreigners coming into their villages.
• The Coast: The expansion of the Bible clubs to the Coast is on hold for now. We will re-evaluate the expansion after we know it is safe to go to the Coast and after a period of time to re-connect with our Andes villages.

May 2020

There is HOPE! II Chronicles 7:14 "Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land."

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the safe health and wise decision making for President Trump.
• Pray the people of the U.S.A and around the world to be well.
• E-team: Pray for them as they are on lock-down (basically house arrest).
• Pray that we can get back to Ecuador soon.
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will provide the ministry's financial needs, which is normally met through the financial support in the form of donations from our individual and church supporters. Our full-time Ecuadorian staff cannot afford to lose their saleries and are being paid as they work from home. Also, all of our ministry expenses are still having to be paid during this time of crisis.

News:

• The ministry is still going on the best that it can. The E-team is doing great things for the ministry's future and Gary and I have been making future plans and he is always on the phone sharing about the ministry.
• Gary and I are staying in the Jacksonville area until we can get back to Ecuador.
• We don't have any idea when we will be able to get back to Ecuador. As soon as the borders open and it is safe to go back, we will be on the first flights available. We are monitoring the situtation in Ecuador daily through Andrés.
• Ecuador is still on lock-down, but the severity is lessoning.

Big News:

• Pastor Juan Loja's house churches are still meeting, but in smaller groups
• Our villages in the rural areas are doing well and are not affected as severely as those in the cities.
• Our 2nd grandchild, Jacob was born. Mother and baby are doing well.

Bigger News:

• Our E-team and their families are well during this difficult situation.
• Andrés, our E-team leader is making cool videos of our song that we sing in our Bible clubs. He is adding the motions and the lyrics in English and in Spanish for our teams to use as training videos. He used his neighbors boys and his sweet girls in the video to demonstrate the motions and his lovely wife Veronica to video. You might say, it was a family affair. These videos will help our teams learn the songs and motions in advance. He also communicates daily with our remote village leaders and contacts.
• Linda has written individual lessons from our lesson plan for the year, along with the crafts to go with them for when the Bible clubs can safely begin again. She is also working on Bible lessons for the Bible club curriculum for new Bible clubs and for other remote villages in which we cannot get to on a weekly basis. This was a huge desire of mine, to have curriculum for the future.

Updates:

• Itineration: We are not able to get into the churches or meetings that were arranged for our Spring itineration, which is to be expected. Gary is still doing all he can by making phone calls to our supporters and Pastors to share about what is going on in the ministry.
• Teams: Most of our teams for May, June and July have cancelled due to the COVID-19, which is to be expected. When Ecuador opens up the borders, we will go back and make sure it is save for teams to return, that our vendors are still available and that the villages are willing to have foreigners coming into their villages.
• The Coast: The expansion of the Bible clubs to the Coast is on hold for now. We will re-evaluate the expansion after we know it is safe to go to the Coast and after a period of time to re-connect with our Andes villages.

March and April 2020

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the safe health and wise decision making for President Trump.
• Pray the people of the U.S.A and around the world to be well.
• E-team: Pray for them as they are on lock-down (basically house arrest).
• Financial Support: Please pray that during this time of crisis with COVID-19 that Christ will provide the ministry's financial needs, which is normally met through the financial support in the form of donations from our individual and church supporters. Our full-time Ecuadorian staff cannot afford to lose their saleries and are being paid as they work from home. Also, all of our ministry expenses are still having to be paid during this time of crisis.

News:

• Gary and I were able to exit Ecuador with our intern, Colby, just hours before the borders of Ecuador shut down travel by land, sea and air - it was a miracle.
• Ecuador is on lock-down (house arrest) with a type of Martial Law for 30 days.
• We are safe with our daughter and son-in-law, but most of Gary's church services have been cancelled, rightly so, under the circumstances.
• No 2nd grand-baby yet, still waiting for Jacob.
• It's Gary's Birthday day on March 30th.
• We raised a good bit of funds to purchase socks for our "Precious Feet Project" in which each child will receive 6 pairs of socks in June. It's really cold and socks are a luxury.

Big News:

• Pastor Juan Loja gave us an update that they used Samaritan's Purse to help start 9 Bible Clubs on their own. The people in the house churches are running these Bible clubs, modeled after our Bible clubs.
• The money was raised to help Pastor Gonzalo to build a church building. Some of the steel and concrete pad was already done by him. He and Jenny are currently working in many of the 14 villages in his area with Bible clubs for kids, youth and adults and also making house visits.

Bigger News:

• In May, Andrés and his family and our other full time E-team member are going to the Coast around the Olón area to search out churches (only a few) and leaders to help us start Pate Ministries Bible clubs on the Coast. It will be the first ministry of it's kind on the Coast. They will stay for approximately 3 weeks. Please be in prayer for this new work on the Coast. We need additional funds and additional people.
• While the majority of the E-team will be on the Coast in May, we are preparing all of our Bible clubs to run the Bible Clubs. We are providing them with everything they need from supplies, cookies, juice, the lesson plan and crafts to run the clubs. Please be in prayer for their willingness to host these Bible clubs in May.

Updates:

• Love and Friendship Dinner: We had over 36 ladies with either their spouse, boyfriend or best friend to a wonderful dinner. Pastor Santiago and his wife Blanka shared a wonderful Gospel message.
• La Florida Bible Club: We are still getting updates that the ladies of the church in La Florida are continuing do hold the Bible Clubs on their own. Praise the Lord.
• Itineration: We had a great time of sharing all a crossed the United States for Winter Itineration and we also attended a Marriage Retreat put on by Family Life, A CRU ministry. I highly recommend it. It is worth investing in your marriage.
• The E-Team: They did an excellent job holding down the office and all of the Bible clubs while we were on Itineration. Praise the Lord for them.

January and February 2020 Updates:

• We celeYour 2019 Contribution Statements will be in the mail in just a few weeks, but if you need it sooner, please call or email us.
• Our Winter Itineration calendar is completely full with speaking engagements to sharing about Ecuador missions with Pate Ministries.
• Our 2020 Short-term mission team and Intern calendar is completely full and the 2021 calendar is filling up too. We are excited to see how God is going to work through these teams.
• Last month, the E-team and our friends with the Cuenca Gideons passed out New Testaments and celebrated Happy Birthday Jesus Celebrations in all of our Bible Clubs. We gave out a bag that included a pair of sunglasses, a baseball caps, a small toy and candy. We had record number of children come to the Bible clubs, as they knew we would be giving out Christmas gifts, but that's ok, because they all heard the Gospel of Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas!
• We were able to share ministries supplies and Christmas gifts with several other local ministries, including the Coast, during the Christmas season.
• We are gathering funds and supplies for our next year's clean feet sock project and the back pack projects. You can provide a child with a pack of 6 pair of socks for $8.

December 2019 Updates:

• You can help support Pate Ministries when you shop on smile.amazon.com and select For the children Inc., as your charity and then shop, shop, shop!
• Our 2019 Pate Ministries Christmas card and end of year ministry update letter has been mailed out. I am overwhelmed to see the number of children and adults that God used Pate Ministries to share the Gospel with this past year, many seeds were planted, tilled and are growing; looking forward to 2020 and to see the harvest. Look for your copy of the end of year update. If you are not on our mailing list, please sign up on our contact us page.
• While we are Stateside to raise funds for the ministry, Andrés, Leslie and Linda are keeping the Bible Clubs running.
• This month we are celebrating our annual Happy Birthday Jesus celebrations in each of our 14 Bible Clubs. We share with the children that the birth of Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Christmas and what that means to us. We celebrate His birthday with a birthday cake and give the children a gift. It's a great time.
• We were able to supply bathroom supplies (toilet, sink, etc.) to the house church where our San Antonio Kids Bible Club meets. They did not have a bathroom and had to go down a hill to use a neighbor's outhouse. They were overjoyed to received the items needed to construct their own bathroom. Your donations helped to bless this house church.
• The Gideons are passing out New Testaments Bibles in each of our Bible Clubs over two weeks during our Happy Birthday Jesus Celebrations! Our good friends and missionaries, Sharon and Rick La Bouef are heading up the Gideon camp in Cuenca.
• Some of our staff, Andrés and Leslie (with their church) hiked over 5 hours into a small village to share the Gospel and give out the ministry and humanitarian items this month. Your donations helped to provide some of the ministry and humanitarian items.
• Our good friends and E-Team member, Rebecca Carrion and her husband Jose, made it safely, with all of their possessions to South Carolina. Please wish them a blessed transition in their new endeavors .
• We are gathering funds and supplies for our next year's clean feet sock project and the back pack projects. You can provide a child with a pack of 6 pair of socks for $8.