A New Phase of Ministry

For the benefit of those who might not have received the July edition of our newsletter, The Prather Pages, I want to explain why Eli and I are currently in the States and give you the details of a new phase of ministry that we are beginning.  First of all, I want to make it clear that our ministry in Ecuador is not ending.  To the contrary, we believe that it is about to expand exponentially.  Let me explain what God is doing.

For months we had prayed that God would show us a way to continue our ministry in Ecuador, while giving Eli and Olivia the opportunity to be better prepared for college.  We discussed sending them back to the States to live with relatives while attending public school, but simply did not want the family to be separated for months at a time, or for them to be a burden on anyone.  We had come to realize that after the years of homeschooling, it would probably be better for them to experience the public school classroom to be sure they were adequately challenged and disciplined enough to study in preparation for college.  However, as we returned to Ecuador in May following our last furlough, we just didn’t see a way to do it. 

God had already given us a burden for training Ecuadorian pastors and we were trying to find a way to establish this work.  God suddenly began to answer our prayers by opening doors of opportunity.  It began when a missionary friend contacted us about working with him and an Ecuadorian pastor in this very area.  The pastor knew many other pastors all over the country literally begging for Biblical training.  We already had a plan, based on a successful model,  to use teams from the U.S. to come and teach pastors, and now we had the contacts we needed.  God had showed us a way to continue our ministry in Ecuador without actually living there.  We believe that this ministry will be much more effective and efficient than our current one.  If we can touch the lives of several pastors by teaching and training them, they will in turn touch hundreds and thousands of others as they disciple their congregations.  We came to realize long ago that discipleship is the greatest need among the churches of Ecuador.

After discussing our plan with the folks in the office at Global Outreach, we found out that it was possible, but would require some changes.  First of all, our status with Global Outreach will change from career missionaries to missions project coordinators.  This means that we will lose our salary and insurance, thus, we will have to find jobs when we return to the States.  However, we will still be able to raise support to continue our ministry in Ecuador.  We hope that everyone, especially our supporters, understands this important point.  We are not abandoning our work in Ecuador, although we will be living in West Tennessee.  We plan to return to Ecuador at least once every month or two to put on pastor training conferences or to work with individual pastors and churches, all with the assistance of short-term teams from the U.S.  We still need the financial and prayerful support of Christians who love the Lord and love missions to be able to carry out this work the Lord has called us to do.

We began to put this plan into practice as Eli and I arrived in the U.S. last Friday.  He will begin classes at Adamsville High School on Thursday.  I will stay with him until August 16th to be sure he is settled in before I return to Ecuador.  He will live with his grandmother until we can sell the furniture and close things out in Ecuador.  We hope our family will be reunited in the States by the end of September, if not earlier.  Olivia has chosen to continue homeschooling until January, since it is not as critical for her to immediately receive the credits toward high school graduation. 

Again, I want to emphasize that we are not abandoning our ministry in Ecuador, but are, in fact, expanding it.  We plan to continue our current work at Guadalupe mission as we return to Ecuador frequently, plus concentrate on training Ecuadorian pastors and working to meet the needs of their individual churches.  Short-term teams will be a vital part of this new phase of ministry.  We have also been praying that God would provide opportunities to begin a Hispanic ministry here in the States.  We have already seen some interest among local pastors as God begins to reveal His plan to us.  If you are interested in being a part of any of this, please contact us.  If you have any questions about these changes in our ministry, please don’t hestitate to contact us. 

We are excited about the opportunities the Lord is giving us to serve Him!  God is good!

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