January 2026

News:

• New Year: We can hardly believe a new year is here! We are looking forward to how God is going to work through Pate Ministries and our partnerships this new year.
• Norwegians: Andrés has contacts with an organization in Norway and we have a group of young people from Norway helping out with Pate Ministries through our leader Andrés. They are a huge help and it is wonderful to see hardworking Norwegian young people working for the Lord.
• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We shared the reason we celebrate Christmas, Jesus, with all of our Bible clubs in December! We will also gave out a small bag of toys with a craft for them to do at home.
• Youth Bible Club: We will also celebrated the Christmas story with the youth.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: Gary, Dena, Andrés and our future missionary, Rebecca Carrion, along with a team from Restoration Baptist Church in Jacksonville, visited the clubs the 2nd week of December to share the reason why we celebrate Christmas and gave out small Christmas gifts. When you are at sea level, it is difficult to go up to 8,700 feet of elevation to work, but God helped us.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We had over 400 people attend our last outreach prior to Christmas. It was standing room only, all the way to the highway. They all heard the Gospel before receiving a small gift.
• Sunday Bible Study/Worship Service: We are having about 35-50 people attend the services each week, not including the visiting teams.

Big News:

• Family Visit: Our daughter, Heather, her husband Tom, their children, Hannah, Jacob, and Abby came to Ecuador to spend Christmas with us. It was an amazing time and the fireworks on New Year's Night were absolutely spectacular! All private fireworks.
• They helped us serve our neighbors with food gift packs
• They helped us share the gospel and served as Mary, Joseph and the stable animals for the telling of the gospel story of Jesus birth as we held a special Christmas party for 70 of our neighborhood children.
• New Ministry Center Property: We have finished building up the foundation with over 900 loads of dirt. The steel for the amphitheater has been delivered, a guard sleeping shack has been erected, and the footers are being poured. In the 2nd week, the steel will be erected. Much of the construction will slow during January, but will ramp up again in February. We are so excited about the new facility.

Bigger News:

• Projects for 2026
• Begin the construction of the new ministry center!
• Start small group and one-one discipleship classes.
• Welcome new missionary, Rebecca Carrion for two-year commitment, hopefully beginning in June.
• End of Year Report: If you did not receive our end of the year update, you missed some amazing stats. I am always amazed on the final numbers from the year. If we were not required to keep track of how many people are served by the ministry for our Non-Profit status, we would not record the numbers. God be glorified in all He has done in 2025 through Pate Ministries and our partners! He is a recap of the stats.
• 27,403 kids (2,284 kids per month) in attendance in19 Kid’s Bible Clubs. (Coast/Mountains).
• 15,024 children (54.8%) memorized weekly Bible verses.
• 36 youth (average) in a bi-weekly youth Bible Club. 
• 8 ladies (average) in a weekly Cuenca ladies Bible Club.
• 387 ladies were in attendance in the 7 Special Coastal ladies Bible Clubs.
• 2,868 adults were in attendance in the Kid’s Bible Clubs.
• 45 people (average) attend the weekly Sunday Night Bible Study. 
• 90 young mothers (average) attended the monthly young mother’s program.
• 11,585 people were in attendance in the Tuesday Night Community Evangelical Outreaches.
• 52 families, in 5 communities participated in the Agricultural and Chick Projects.
• 1,670 people were seen in the weekly clinic.
• 1,197 people were served in other projects and outreaches.
• 37 short term mission teams, with 520 team members, and 4 interns were hosted.
• Gave out hundreds of Bibles.
• Helped many families and individuals in need.
• Acquired land to build a new ministry center.
• Served more than 300 people in a dental/medical clinic.
• Held adult and children’s English as a foreign language classes.
• Welcomed two new missionaries, Mike and Jeannie McGilliard to Pate Ministries.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for the construction of our building.
• Pray that God will send us additional national E-team members.
• Pray for Andrés and Gary as they work on the property and make huge building decisions.
• 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.
• Pray for our E-team as they travel home for Christmas.
• Pray for Rebecca Carrion as she raises funds to come to Ecuador to serve full time for two years.
• 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.