April 2025

News:

• Pate Ministries Team House: We have hosted six mission teams in our new team house. Everyone was excited about the team house. Gary was a little worried about having privacy, but so far everyone has respected our privacy. Having a team house has saved us so much time and also allowed us to have more fellowship.
• Bible Clubs:
• Coastal Bible Clubs: We have been giving out school backpacks in our Bible clubs. We have to keep them guessing on when they will get them so those who they are inviting "to get a backpack" will have to keep coming. We don't tell them when we are giving something away as the whole country will come out.
• Mountain Bible Clubs: We will be visiting the mountain Bible clubs in April to encourage the leaders and re-supply the clubs.
• Young Mother's: Jeannie and I taught CPR and the heimlich maneuver for adults, children, and infants. The mother's were so attentive and gave great return demonstration. Veronica is helping their heart spiritually and helping them help their heart and others, physically.
• Tuesday Community Evangelistic Outreach: Despite summer and the rains, our numbers are running over 300 per outreach.

Big News:

• Special Women's Event: Ladies from Clanton, Alabama held a women's event with a great Bible story, craft and refreshment in each of our communities. The women of these communities came out in droves and listened intently to the gospel binging shared.
• Fútol: We showed the Fútbol (Soccer) game Ecuador vs Chili on the big screen for one of the Tuesday night outreaches - it was a full house of wild fans - it was a no score game.

Bigger News:

• Birthday's: We celebrated Gary's and Veronica's birthday with pizza and cake. Ecuadorians have a tradition of biting the cake, but when the birthday person bites the cake, they smash their face in it.
• Rain: The rains have slowed down and the sky has been beautiful. One of our communities lost a major bridge, but it was temporarily fixed.
• Medical Clinic: We had a mother bring in two children to the clinic. The 2 year old little girl had a fever, was listless, and had rapid shallow breathing. Jeannie and I assessed that she was in respiratory distress and strongly urged the mother to take her to the hospital immediately. She was prayed for by the team, and we prayed that she would be taken to the hospital as most of the patients do not take our "go to the hospital" advice. Praise the Lord, the mother heeded our advice and went to the hospital where the little girl was held most of the day and treated. The mother met us at the Bible club in her community the next day to say the little girl was better and "thank us" because the physician told her that her daughter could have died if she had not gone straight to the hospital.

Special Prayer Request:

• Pray for our E-team member, Rebecca to get her Fiancee US immigration appointment, all to go well, as the visa has been approved, and to start the process to move to the States to Marry.
• 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.