September 2026

News:

• El Niño: Leaders are preparing for flooding in the next couple of months due to the El Niño. We are putting together a contingency plan for the existing ministry center since the property on both sides of us filled in their deep ditches. We know the Lord will take care of the ministry should flooding become an issue. Our team house and new ministry center construction should not have an issue.
• Agriculture Program: Sr. Polivio will be coming in the beginning of the month to teach honey production. Andrés, his family, Sr. Adult inters, Kevin and Karen, Rebecca and myself will be going also and spending the night to help and do some medical. This should be interesting as it is jungle like.
• Travel Warning: The US has issued a travel warning for parts of Ecuador, including our Provence. We are not seeing any issues with criminal or gang activity in or around the areas in which we work and live. Just like any big city in the US, when we are in Guayaquil, we know where not to go late at night.

• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Bible Clubs: Our Bible clubs are going strong. The children and the adults in attendance are learning about how to live like Jesus by studying His character.
• Youth Bible Club: The youth are studying the book of John this season.
• Sierra Bible Clubs: The leaders are doing a great job of handling the Bible clubs and starting new ones.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We are showing two episodes of the Chosen each week and should finish around Christmas. Despite the crazy summer/winter weather combo, we are still averaging 250 coming to the outreach.
• Sunday Bible Study/Worship Service: We are studying various topics this month. We still run between 35-50 people.

Big News:

• New Ministry Center Property: Each week we see new additions to the project. To say the building is a head of schedule is crazy - it is way a head of schedule, which is super exciting. The 2nd floor and steps to the 2nd floor have been poured, the walls of the kitchen, bodega (storage room), and the bathroom in the clinic, plus the clinic on the ground floor are up, the sidewalks have been poured all around, and the live-in guard/maintenance person apartment is almost complete. People in near-by communities have taken notice as they have heard that we are going to have a skateboard park, so it is great that they want to come because to use the skateboard park they have to attend a short devotion from the Bible every couple of hours.
• Team Calendar: Our 2027 calendar is almost booked up. I think we only have dates for teams in January, March, and October through November, so if you do not have a date on the calendar for next year you might want to reach out to Gary soon. We will be opening our 2028 calendar soon.
• Speaking Engagements: If you would like to have one or both of us come share with your church or small group in 2027, please contact Gary as we are working on our 2027 calendar for speaking engagements in mission conferences, churches, and small groups. We try to visit all of our supporting churches every two years to stay in front of them so we are not forgotten or replaced.
• Ministry Updates: Don't forget that you can find daily updates on our Facebook page at Pate Ministries. We are always posting the latest updates with photos and videos.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for Mike and Jeannie McGalliard. They are facing some health issues and it is taking longer than expected to get all testing and procedures done so that they can return to Ecuador.
• Pray for additional missionaries to come and join us in the work. The ministry has grown bigger than what we can do ourselves.
• Pray for the continued work on the construction of our new ministry building.
• Pray that God will build unity in our E-team.
• Pray that God will send us additional bi-lingual, called, national E-team members, we are terribly understaffed.
• 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 Sierra 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.