January 2025

Happy New Year! We pray that God will show Himself so real and bless you and your family in amazing ways this new year!

News:

• Year End Update and Christmas Card: If you did not get our quarterly newsletter, please email us at pateministries@gamil.com to get on our mailing list. It is packed with end of the year updates.
• 2024 Tax Contribution Statements: Our bookkeeper Laurie will mail out the 2024 tax contribution statements by the end of January. Please send us an email if you do not get your tax contribution statement by the 2nd week of February or you need it prior to the end of January.
• Itineration: Gary and I are wrapping up our month of itineration by the end of January and are excited to get back o Ecuador February 2nd. We enjoyed our time with both of our children and their families, including our 6 grandchildren, despite everyone getting the terrible respiratory flu over the Christmas holidays.
• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We celebrated Christmas in our of our Bible clubs last month. We had a record number of children, so much that we ran out of Christmas gifts and had to raise the age of the smaller children's gifts. They heard the story of Christ's birth and why we celebrate Christmas, plus each person received a little gift and a Christmas bread.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: We also celebrated Christmas in all of the mountain Bible clubs last month. They will heard the story of Christ's birth and why we celebrate Christmas, plus each person received a little gift and a Christmas bread. It was so good to see how much the little children have grown since we left full time in the mountains.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: We had 460 people in attendance in the last Tuesday night outreach before Christmas. We anticipated about 600, but due to two major community events in the two largest communities, the numbers were much lower, but that is ok, God sent who He wanted to be there. They watched a movie about the birth of Christ and heard the Gospel shared on why we celebrate Christmas. Each person also received a small Christmas gift.
• Land: We are planing a series of meetings with the community this month to pave the way for our community meetings to ask for land. Please be in prayer for these meetings. It is all in God's perfect timing.

Big News:

• Short Term Missionary Team Calendar: We are completely full for our 2025 and filling up for our 2026 short term missionary team calendars. We have more churches wanting to send teams than what we have room for. I guess that is a good problem to have, except for those team leaders who did not get a date before we filled up.

Bigger News:

• Pate Ministries Team House: It has finally been announced! Pate Ministries now owns a team house in which to house our teams, and it has six (6) ground floor rooms for those who had difficulty traversing stairs. The hotel also came with a house on the property, so Gary and I are now living on the property as the teams. We have completed the renovations and are ready for our first team in February. This property will save us so much time and money for our housing costs, plus, it will also allow more money to stay in the ministry and more money to be spread out to more people in the community. We are really excited about this team house. Paola at the former hotel is involved in the community politics and she is super excited for us to be part of the community and also this will allow her some time off during low season to rest and visit her terminally ill father.
• Testimonies from the Agriculture and Chick Projects: We brought all the families that participate in our family agriculture and chick projects from the interior villages of the coast for a Christmas dinner. They shared many testimonies on how these projects have helped them with having food to eat and how they used the funds for what they sold to buy additional plants. However, most importantly, everyone who share testimony, shared how the Bible studies have brought them to Christ or a greater walk with Christ, and several shared how it has taught them to share their faith and disciple others. My friends, this is what it is all about - brining people to Christ and making disciples.

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.