Does it Really Matter?

     I was talking to someone recently about the Adult Soccer outreach that I have been involved with on Thurs nights at our church. His comment was, "It doesn't really matter. None of those guys will ever come to the church anyway!" That comment has made me think, "does it really matter?"

     I think it does matter. Ruth and I have dedicated our lives to telling others about Jesus. But we don't always see the results right away. We live in an age of instant everything. So if we don't see something happen quick, we think that it isn't working, we are not being effective, or we are doing something wrong. But ministry is not really about numbers or programs or outreaches. It's about people. We do outreaches like adult soccer as a means of creating relationships.

     I feel like I was able to begin a relationship with some of these young men who came to the church gymnasium every week. Did any of them "accept Jesus"? No... but I didn't expect them to either. Relationships take time to build and cultivate. They are like plants in a garden. They need lots of care and lots of time... Eventually you see a little green shoot poke its head out of the dirt.

     We have finished up the games for this fall. But the growing process has not stopped. Growth is still taking place underground. Please pray that the seeds of the Gospel that we have planted in the lives of these young men will continue to grow until we meet again in January. Pray too that some of the men will attend some the special activities that the church has planned for the holidays.

Doug & Ruth

Trunk Or Treat Report

David Is in Charge of the Candy Stash!

     Trunk or Treat was a great success last weekend. The church was expecting about 500 children to come to the event and had prepared that many bags for the kids to use for collecting candy. Well we ran out of those bags about half way through the event. Estimates I have heard is that perhaps 1,000 kids, plus their parents came to the church.

     Trunk or Treat is a fun way to attract new families to the church grounds and get them introduced to the church in a non-threatening way. It is also a very safe way to trick or treat with the family. We had invited many of the people from the ODSL soccer league, the Adult Soccer league (Futsol) and the Tuesday night basketball outreach. Many of the church people invited their friends and neighbors as well.

Doug Awaits our First Trunk or Treaters

     This was the first time that we have been able to participate in a Trunk or Treat. We decorated our trunk with Ecuador colors, wore our Ecuador National Soccer Team jerseys, and had a soccer goal set up. The kids had to kick a soccer ball into the net before they could get a candy. The kids loved it. Even the littlest of children kicked the ball into the goal. Many youngsters returned to kick the ball into the net again. We even had a couple of boys come up and tell us that their grandpa is Ecuadorian. They recognized the Ecuadorian team jerseys right off.

     It was great to be a part of this outreach into Glendora, Azusa and the surrounding communities. The church seems to be growing again. We have seen several of our old friends return to the church in recent weeks. They tell us that this is a different church from the one they left 10 years ago. We praise God that He is once again working through Church of the Open Door and for the privilege He has given us to help with this ministry during our Home Ministry Assignment (HMA) with HCJB Global. Reconnecting with the church is one of our main goals for this HMA...

Doug & Ruth

ODSL, Trunk or Treat, Church....

Several Games Are Played at the Same Time

     In my last post we talked about the adult soccer league that Daniel and I are involved in at Church of the Open Door. Today I want to tell you about the church soccer league for kids up to 12 years of age. We call this outreach ODSL, which stands for Open Door Soccer League. The league games and practices are played at a local school in a neighboring community. Our son David plays in this league.

     We have many kids from the community and the church who participate in the ODSL games. The city doesn't have a soccer league for these age groups, even though it is largely Hispanic. So we get a lot of enthusiasm from the parents who are looking for a local league for their kids. 

Keep Your Eye on That Ball!

     This is a great opportunity for Ruth and I to meet other parents and hopefully get to know them in a nonthreatening environment. We have already met several parents. Some are more familiar with the church than others. Some have been playing in the league for a number of years, while others are brand new this year. Ruth and I have a special "in" with many of the parents because we speak Spanish fluently. Many of the parents speak Spanish as their first or only language. Once many of them heard David speaking in Spanish, we were accepted immediately.

Team Goal... I Mean the Whole Team!

      This Saturday the church will host a celebration called "Trunk or Treat". We will be inviting the community as well as the ODSL parents and players up to the church for a fun night of games and candy. Many of these parents come from different religious backgrounds and beliefs. Pray that this will be a great way to reach out to the parents. Ruth and I would particularly like to encourage some of the parents to bring their families to the Spanish services on Sundays. Pray that we would have some great opportunities to do that.

Thanks... Doug & Ruth

Who Would Jesus Be at a Soccer Game?

     Each Thurs night, we play soccer... It's an adult soccer league that Church of the Open Door hosts and its open to men and women, ages 14 and up. We have 4 teams this fall. Our son Daniel is on the Yellow Team and I am on the Red Team. It is an indoor soccer league so each team fields only 6 players on the court at a time. We play for 8 weeks.

Red and White Teams Ready to Play

     Two games are played each Thurs night and at half time a small devotional thought is presented to the teams. Steve Quatro, the organizer of the league, has asked me to give these devotional thoughts this fall. We will be looking at who Jesus is and/or isn't and relate that to different people you might see around a soccer game. For instance...

     Is Jesus like a TV/Radio announcer at a soccer game? The announcer is very much involved in what is happening on the field. He has a "big picture" view of the game, and can even give a detailed report of what is happening, but he is not able to actually affect the play on the field or the outcome of the game. Many people think God is like that. He has set the world in motion, but is now "hands-off" when it comes to day to day activities.  He might be interested in what is happening in the world, but either can't or won't interfere.

     Many of the guys and gals who play in the league do not attend the church on Sunday morning or during the week. Probably 90 % of the team members are of Hispanic decent. So we are hoping to create some friendships with our team mates, and some bridges between them and the church as a whole.  Some will feel comfortable with the English services at church, but I hope to be a bridge to the Spanish ministries of the church.

Soccer for Adults

     Please pray for us as we seek to get to know some of these guys and gals and invite them to seek a deeper understanding of who Jesus is. Pray for me, specifically as I prepare these half-time talks. Steve has suggested that I could do the devotional times in Spanish. It may be more of a mix between the two languages. Pray that those of us who do attend the church can be a good witness of Jesus to those who don't.

Doug

On the Horizon... and Coming Soon

     I believe that God is always preparing us for the next step in our lives. I think we are constantly in a process of growth and advancement. We don't always know how our current life experiences are going to be used in the future. Sometimes it takes years to figure out why we have to go through our "trials" or joys of today. As we have faced this transition from Ecuador to ministry in the USA, we have been wondering just how God might be leading us in the future.

Soccer Outreach on Thurs Nights

    As we thought about our next two years here in California, we often thought about the Spanish ministry here at Church of the Open Door. Most of our members and attenders come for the English services, but we have 20 to 25 people who attend our service in Spanish each week. This is about the size of the church plants that we worked with in Ecuador.

     As we have become involved this summer in the church, we have seen a number of outreach ministries that could be tied a little more closely to the work of the Spanish ministry. A group of men play basketball every Tues night... probably half of those men are of Hispanic decent. There is an adult soccer league at the church that plays every Thurs night... about 90% of the players are Hispanic. Then there is soccer league for kids that the church sponsors... again 90% of the players and their families have roots in Latin America. Finally, one of the local school systems that is heavily Hispanic allows Release Time Bible Education.

More Soccer to be Had...

     These great outreaches are already reaching into the community that our Spanish congregation can minister to. So, together with the church leadership, we have decided to spend a lot of our time and energy in the next couple of years creating ties between these outreaches and the Spanish ministry at Church of the Open Door.

     Oh... we will still be working with HCJB Global. But this will take the place of the church planting ministries that we have been involved with for most of the years that we have been in Ecuador.  So the next couple of blog entries will begin to introduce you to some of these ministries so that you can be praying for us and for those we our touching through these outreach ministries.

Thanks,

Doug & Ruth 

Through the Chaos

     We recently attended a re-entry program in Colorado Springs for missionaries who are returning to the USA after many years of service overseas. They described a process of transition that everyone goes through. It goes something like this...

SETTLED ===> UNSETTLED ===> CHAOS ===> RESETTLING ===> SETTLED

     We can relate... We were settled quite nicely in ministry in Ecuador until sometime last fall (2011). I was involved with the new media ministries for HCJB Global. Ruth was working with students at the Alliance Academy International. The kids were in school. We had a daily routine that we were used. to.
     But sometime last fall we began to move into the unsettled stage as we began to make plans to return to the US. Suddenly things were not so settled. We started selling things that we couldn't bring back with us. We started making plans to hand over our ministries to others. Others began to realize that we would not be here next year to carry on with things we have been doing for years.
     Then chaos hit as school ended and our remaining time in Ecuador began to be measured in weeks, then days, then hours. So many details remained, and yet time ticked on, not waiting for anyone. Our days became a frantic race from one thing to the next as we sought to finish up everything before we left. Worse yet, things started to get complicated. I spent hours and hours at government offices trying to straighten out paperwork details. But finally the end came... we went to the airport, got on that plane, and flew to the USA.
     We have been in the resettling stage now for the last couple of months. We are in the apartment where we will stay for the next two years. The boys are finally registered for and attending school. We are beginning to see areas of ministry where we can be involved here at Church of the Open Door. We aren't quite settled yet, but it feels really good to be passed the chaos...
     Thanks for praying for us through this transition. It is good to be on this side of chaos. And now as we get resettled, we are looking forward to new ministry opportunities at our church and with HCJB Global.

Doug & Ruth

How Do You Know If You're in God's Will?

     I have asked that question many times over the years. I have asked it while passing through the darkest days in our ministry when everyone was looking to me to lead them through the emptiness and I had no idea where we were going. I have asked it when things seemed to be moving forward so fast that we couldn't keep up with what God was doing.

     Making the decision to move back to the states has been a long time in coming. I think we first started thinking about it 6 or 7 years ago. We were fighting to keep the ministry alive, our family was at the height of some very difficult struggles, and I was exhausted. We prayed about it long and hard.... I wanted to go home... but somehow I just didn't feel like the Lord was releasing us from overseas service yet. Oh, I could think of all kinds of reasons why returning would be better for me personally and for the family as a whole. But I couldn't shake the feeling that it was not time yet.

     Then about 6 months ago, with a very rosy future for ministry on the horizon, the Lord said "Its time...". Where does that come from?? I wasn't ready... I wanted to stay... We prayed about it again. This time I was convinced that we needed to go even though we were creating some amazing new ministry opportunities and needed more people to help us make it a reality.  My head was full of questions about the future.

     Confirmation of God's leading often comes after we start obeying His call. One of the biggest concerns we had was how we were going to get rid of all the "stuff" we had collected over that last 20 years? Well, the first day we posted our "For Sale"list, a young Ecuadorian man, and long time family friend, ran up to Ruth's office and asked if he could buy most of our big furniture and appliances. He was planning to ask a young lady to marry him and needed to equip their apartment. People then started asking us if they could buy our vehicles. Our house is another amazing story... We now have the signature authority that we need to clear the title and we have a couple of people interested in buying it... and we have not advertised the house or the vehicles.

     We are "hangin' on for the ride" as the Lord runs ahead of us. We don't have the future all figured out. But seeing the Lord orchestrate things for us now, gives us the confidence to trust Him with the things we don't have figured out yet. Thanks for your prayers for us. You are all a great blessing to us and we value your friendship and support immensely... Keep praying... There's lots to do still and only 2 short months to do them in...

Doug

New Media? What's New Media?

One of the things that I am working on with my new media team is the design of new web pages for the mission. Some of these sites are aimed at listeners or recipients of our ministries. Others are aimed at people who might support, serve (volunteer), or just want more information about our ministry.

We have a number of web sites that are on our list for upgrades this year. The first one was launched a couple of weeks ago. You can see it by clicking on www.hospitalvozandes.org. This page is for our hospital in Quito. It is in Spanish but you will get a feel for the page anyway. The page was created for people seeking hospital services.

My team did not create the page. That was done mostly by the marketing department at the hospital, but we were asked to review the page just before it was launched and see if there were any improvements that we could suggest. So we did and sure enough, there were a number of things that we could suggest that makes the page easier to use. Some of our suggestions will make the page accessible from smart phones. Others make it easier to find key information. Still others make it easier to update the information so that the page does not become out-dated so quickly.

We are helping our ministries take full advantage of the web.

Doug