Quito Medical Team Day 3

On day 3 we  left early this morning to travel 2 hours north of Quito to a small town named Olmeda.  It is located  near the base of the volcano Cayambe.  The pastor Jose Burgas was a man I met a year ago while we were at Carapungo.  He pleaded with us to come to his church last year but we were already obligated to the other churches.  I told him that if God would allow, we would come this year.  I am now so thankful that God did allow us to go to Olmeda today.

This church has been in existence for about 15 years and has struggled for most of that time.  There has been such an oppressive pressure on the church primarily from the predominate religious group here in Ecuador.  Church members have even had rocks thrown at them when they would gather together in the local park for worship. 

When we first arrived Pastor Burgos told us that they tried to burn the last medical team that came here. 

We were able to hold the medical clinic in the local school in Olmeda.  Once we set up the people slowly began to arrive.  There were 12 members of this small congregation that came to help with registration and do the evangelism.  Three young men drove a van around the small town all day to bring in the people. 

We were amazed that at the end of the day we had seen over 300 people.  All of these people who came for medical attention heard the Gospel message.  All were touched by the love of Jesus.  The church members could not quit thanking us for coming and sharing with their church.

After we finished the clinic about 5:30 we headed over to their small shack church building to see where they meet together each week to worship.  As we all gathered inside this tiny chapel, Pastor Jose again thanked us for coming and shared his vision for reaching this area for Christ. 

At the end of the day we came to be a blessing but instead again found ourselves on the receiving end of God’s blessing.  I told Pastor Jose and the members that we would continue to pray for them and if the Lord wills we would be back next year to serve alongside them.  Please pray for this church.  The name of this church in English is “House of the Lord, Heaven’s Door”.

Continue to pray for the medical team as well as we are starting to feel rather tired from 3 straight long days of clinics.  We left at 7:30 am today and arrived back at the guest house after 8 pm.  We want to remain strong as we have two more days of clinics to go.  We will be at our partnership church Maranatha tomorrow and on Saturday,