Quito Day Concerts

The same weekend that Extreme Response was doing their big Christmas party, Radio Station HCJB was presenting their Quito Day Concerts in honor of the anniversary of the founding of the city of Quito. This is an annual event and HCJB has been taking advantage of the celebration to present the gospel for many years. We have done this through song, dance, and video.

I was part of the welcoming team on Sunday which greeted people at the door of the Sucre Theater and helped them find their way to their seats. Ruth and the family came for the second of the three concerts that day. Saturday also had three presentations.

We were told this year that the rules of the theater had changed and that the city no longer allowed religious activities in the theater. This put a bit of a damper on how strongly we could present the gospel, but as we talked to theater officials, it became apparent that most of what we wanted to do was not considered "religious". That was refreshing, as we see these concerts as an outreach to the community more than anything. Not looking "religious" is a good thing.

Two or More, a Christian, Latin rock style music group from the USA joined us for the concerts. The 3 brothers who form the core of the group were born in Southern Caligornia to Ecuadorian parents. The 70 member choir sang a mixture of music including some traditional Ecuadorian songs that honor the city of Quito. The gospel message was woven through the dialog of the 3 hosts whose humor kept the crowds entertained throughout the presentation, culminating in Jesus being the real present of Christmas and the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

The concerts were sold out the first day that tickets went on sale. This has happened several times in the last few years. We also have the opportunity, a few days later, to present some of our music to several government Ministers at the Ecuadorian Presidential Palace. We pray that each year we can present a clear message of Jesus Christ to those attending and help them remember that Jesus' birth is the real reason we celebrate Christmas.

Doug

Extreme Response Christmas Party

We have been very busy the last few weeks with lots of ministry/outreach activities, so I will do several updates over the next week or so to catch you up on things. On Dec 4th, the whole family (minus Rachel, of course) helped with the Extreme Response Christmas Party at the Quito Dump. Extreme Response is an organization that does humanitarian aid for people who live in extreme circumstances. They have been in Quito for several years and we have many friends who work with them, but this year was the first time we have helped with their Christmas party.

Some 2,000+ people came to the party at the dump. This would include the families of those who work at the dump pulling recyclicable materials out of the trash before the front end loaders scoop the garbage back up and place it in large, open-top semi truck trailers for transport to the landfill several miles outside of Quito. Becca, Daniel and David all worked with the games for the children. Ruth and I worked on the evangelism team, sharing the real meaning of Christmas and passing out tracts to the crowds as they waited in line. Most seemed more interested in the games, prizes and candy bags that awaited them, than in the reason for the party.

Extreme Response does several Christmas parties in and around Quito every year, but this is by far the largest one. One of those parties was done near El Tablon where we planted a church some years ago. The El Tablon church was invited to that party although we could not go. Extreme Response invites people from churches in North America to help them with this ministry eavch year, as well as recruiting many volunteers from Ecuador. Their volunteer staff can number as many as 600 for this one party at the dump.

Extreme Response works at the dump all year round. They have set up a Day-care facility for the children of the workers. Before that, the children played in and around the trash where their parents were working. Now they have a very nice, clean facility where they can learn in a school environment while their parents work.

Although Ruth and I did not see any conversions that day, we know that the Extreme Response staff will be following up with many of the families. Please pray that the seeds we have planted will be watered and God will help them grow into new life...

Doug & Ruth

Oct update

Hi All,

It has been a long time since I have updated the blog. Lots has been happening but I just ahve not had time to sit down and talk about it...

Ruth and the kids are back at school, of course. Ruth is enjoying this year as she works with her students. David (4th grade) is playing soccer now and having a great time. Daniel is working as a leader for the AWANA club that the school sponsors. Becca is loving her work at the orphanage and has made some new friends there. I am still working on social media projects for hte radio station, but I have also taken over the engineering/accounting/maintenance areas while another missionary is in serving in the Dominican Republic for a few months.

As many of you know, Becca is raising support in order to be able to go on a missions trip with an HCJB medical team next month. She needs $5,000 or so in order to be able to go. Many of you have written to her or us in order to let us know that you are helping out with that funding. We think she has over $1,000 already, but she has quite a ways to go yet. We are very hopeful that she will make her goal before she needs to leave on her trip. If you want to give still, please let us know.

Thanks for praying for us...

Doug

Summer Missions

I have had the privilege, the last couple of weeks, to spend some time with HCJB Global's summer missionaries. What's a summer missionary? They are typically college students who have completed their junior year in school and who want to spend their summer overseas as a missionary. Many times they are here to see how they might be able to use their future profession in service to the Lord.

The students this year are from all over the USA. They come from Wyoming to Boston. Several of them are preparing for nursing and are working in our hospital. One is working in administration. Another is working at the same orphanage that Becca hopes to volunteer with this next year. Two more are engineers who are helping out with clean water projects for communities that don't have a clean water source.

I was able to share with them some stories of how God has protected us while we have been here. And I also encouraged them to realize that everyone they come in contact with is in a process of knowing God. And we never really know how God will use some little thing that they say or do to bring someone closer to him. We don't always see the fruit of our labor. But God can use even the little things to bring someone one step closer to Him.

Many of these students will likely return to missions after college, not only with HCJB Global, but with other ministries too. What a great opportunity we have to introduce these young people to missions. Won't you pray for our summer missionaries and ask that God will work in their hearts during their time with us?

Thanks,

Doug

Social Media in Ministry

I thought I would give you a couple of recent examples of how social media is helping us in the ministry.

Remember the volcano in Iceland that closed so many airports in Europe? Well, as we were reporting that story during our newscast, a lady from Belgium wrote a greeting to us on Facebook. She was listening to the radio station via our Live Stream on the internet. Our news staff noticed that she was from Belgium so they read her message on the air and then asked her (on the air) if she could write a note on facebook about how the volcano was affecting Belgium. She complied and the news team again read her message on the air. All this happened very interactively and within minutes.

Another facebook note came in from a listener who listens to one of our radio repeaters in the city of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. She wrote that she was sad that she could not listen to the station right now because the repeater was off the air. Well that was news to us, so I sent the note on to our technical department. Two days later they were in Esmeraldas fixing the repeater. On their way home, a taxi driver in Esmeraldas spotted the HCJB Global logos on the side of their pickup truck. He rolled down his window and shouted, "thanks for getting the transmitter back on the air!"

Doug

Does God Know What We Need, Before We Need It?

Becca is a senior in High School this year. That makes her eligible to go on the "Senior Trip". This is an annual event where the senior class at Alliance Academy skips school for a week to go to the beach. Don't worry.... it's a school sponsored event and a tradition that all seniors look forward to.

The seniors were to leave on Thurs at 1:00 p.m. Becca was pretty excited about the trip, but as she began to pack on Wed night, she had trouble finding all of the pieces to her beach wear. She searched high and low Wed. night. The later it got, the more frustrated she became. She finally decided to call it a night, and Ruth offered to help her do a more thorough search in the morning.

I came to work the next morning. Ruth and Becca commenced the search, but they were having little success. By 10:00 a.m. they had still not found the missing piece even though they had been praying all morning that God would help them find it.

Just about that time, one of my Ecuadorian colleagues walked up to me, out of the blue, and handed me a bag saying, "You left this in Papallacta last month when you spent the night there." Indeed, we had been in Papallacta to celebrate Becca's birthday along with many of her friends. There are hot pools nearby so swim wear is a "must have" for a trip to Papallacta.

As I opened the bag, you guessed it, I found the missing article of clothing. I was amazed! I quickly called Becca and Ruth to confirm that it was indeed the missing piece they had been searching for. We were all excited to see how the Lord had answered their prayers and rejoiced together. Two hours later, they picked it up on their way to the airport.

But wait... This was not just another story about losing a coin in our house and rejoicing because it was found again. (Luke 15: 8 - 10) This is really a story about God knowing what we needed before we knew we needed it! You see, the really amazing thing about this story is that this little article of clothing had to be "en route" to us even before we started praying for it. In fact, it had to leave Papallacta before Becca even started packing on Wed night. Indeed, it most likely started its journey days before we even knew it was missing.

Now you might think, "well, you were just lucky", or "sometimes things just work out that way". But this is not the first time we have seen this happen. It has happened time and time again, especially in the last two years. It makes me remember that I have a very short field of view with regards to my future. But I have a God that sees the future clearly and orders the events of our lives in order to give us His good gifts.

Was this a faith shaking experience? No. Would we have lost our faith in God had we not found it? No. But if God wants to give us even little gifts like finding a swimming suite so we can enjoy a senior trip, then I know that He is also watching out for me when I go through the really tough times in life, and THAT is really encouraging.

Doug

Facebook in Ministry?

I got to work a little early that day. I knew it was going to be a busy day and I wanted to get an early start. I turned on my laptop computer and the radio in my office. I often listen to our radio station throughout the day, but today, listening would be especially important. We were giving away free tickets to a popular Christian concert. We had been giving away tickets all week, but today the tickets would go exclusively to fans of our HCJB La Voz de Los Andes Facebook fan page. If they were not already a fan, they could become one, but they had to write a certain phrase on our "wall" in order to enter the drawing. My job was to keep track of the people who entered the contest and write them a quick reply, confirming receipt of their entry. By the time we selected the winners, 76 people had written the proper phrase on our wall.

This is an example of how we are trying to use the new digital media technologies to touch our audience in new ways. The world is becoming more social in the way it uses technology and we hope to capitalize on that trend. Facebook is an internet based social network in which "fans" can communicate with us interactively. They can now ask questions of our radio hosts, live on the air. They can inquire as to what song we just played on the air. They can send us testimonies of how God has used one of our producers to say just the right thing at just the right time for them. We can also use the network to share news and information about other HCJB Global ministries in Latin America. For instance, we were able to share pictures from our medical team as they ministered in Haiti recently. We can also share videos, have open discussion forums, share links to useful web pages, and many more things.

We now have 5 Facebook pages in Latin America, each one with a specific audience in mind. Three of those have been launched since our return to Ecuador in late January. I am responsible for updating only two of those pages, but I spend a lot of time helping other HCJB Global staff learn about Facebook and think through ways that they might use it to better communicate with their target audience. We are certainly not experts on social media, but we are learning as we explore new ways to reach out to our audience.

You can follow our English regional fan page by clicking on the HCJB Voz Global fan button in the right hand column of this blog. Thanks for praying for us as we seek new ways of reaching out to people in Latin America with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Doug

Back in the Saddle

Hi all,

It has been a while since I updated our blog. A lot has been happening here in recent months so I thought it time to give you a brief update.

We returned to Ecuador on the 20th of January. It is good to be home in Ecuador again. The kids are back in school, Ruth is enjoying her Educational Therapy work at Alliance Academy International and I am settling into his new responsibilities at HCJB Global.

I am working on promoting "new media" opportunities within the mission, things like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. I have been running two Facebook fan pages for HCJB Global in Latin America since last October. One (HCJB la Voz de los Andes) is focused on the local radio audience in Ecuador, while the other (HCJB Voz Global) is focused more on regional and global ministries of HCJB Global. This last week we were giving away tickets to a Christian movie on the HCJB la Voz de los Andes page. A few weeks ago we had an open discussion about whether contemporary christian music is satanic or not. (Don't send me your comments on that please.) Many of our fans are from outside Ecuador. Many are from the USA, yet others are from Belgium, Italy, Spain, Peru, Argentina, and even Korea.

I have also been looking for ways to uses Twitter with our ministries. A week ago, the local HCJB radio station co-sponsored a conference for pastors. I attended the conference and sent out "tweets" every half hour or so about the lessons being learned in the conference. HCJB Global used Twitter very effectively in Jan. when we had a medical team on the ground in Haiti after the devastating earthquake there. I am also hoping to start some Twitter accounts for our ministries in Latin America.

Although these new technologies are pretty popular in western society, they are still pretty new in Latin America. We dedicated a whole hour on La Telaraña to Twitter one day. La Telaraña is tarted toward the generations who use this new media to communicate with their friends. Yet it was amazing how few of our listeners had even heard of Twitter. So part of what we will be doing is educating our audience about these new technologies. Interestingly enough, several of the local TV stations are now entering this new media field, so I am hoping that this will heightened awareness and draw more listeners to our sites as welll.

We will keep you updated on things as we progress. Thanks for praying for us.

Doug