MANANTIAL MINISTRIES
3 months after we were married, we were commissioned and sent out to do church planting in the southern part of Ecuador. For two and a half years we pastored a church we planted in Zamora, a city of 15,000 people. There the Lord permitted us to do outreach in a number of different villages, preaching and counseling, showing love to the many lost families of that region. We were also able to reach many couples counseling, and the doors were even open to assist a psychologist in one of the local schools.
It was also a great time of growing as a family! We were a young couple, and it was great to be serving the Lord in our first year of marriage. Also, Daniel was born after we had been in Zamora for 6 months. He is our own miracle child! My wife had several complications during her pregnancy, and Daniel was born at 36 weeks. We went to the hospital for a regular checkup, and the doctor told us that my wife was going to give birth that day. It was quite a surprise for us! I had to run home and get things ready and buy some things we still needed, we were not prepared for him to be born that day! When he was born, he weighed 2,300 grams, and was so small that when the nurse handed him to me, I was able to hold his head in my hand and his feet in the crook of my elbow. He was born with severe jaundice, no fontanel (the open space in the skull that allows the brain to grow in size), and several other not so major issues, which brought his weight down to less than 2 kilos (4 lbs). We struggled for two weeks, praying, seeking the Lord's healing. And one Sunday, when he was two weeks old, right before they were going to send us to Quito for a spinal tap and skull surgery, God moved!! He completely touched and healed Daniel, taking away the jaundice and opening up his skull in a miracle that had his doctors surprised and stunned! It was amazing to see His answer to pray, so complete and perfect, that Daniel now almost never suffers in his health. We serve an amazing and faithful God. He is good!!
Serving as a Team
After two and a half years of pastoring, church planting, and counseling inside several institutions, we started to feel like God was leading us to a different type of ministry. We spent a lot of time in prayer and seeking Gods' will as to what that would be. We wanted to focus a little more on the growing generation of Ecuadorians, prepare them to be the future Christian leaders of this country. Another thing lying heavily on our hearts, that we have come across a lot in our years of ministry here, was the preparation of the Christian leaders. We have seen so many jungle pastors, part-time farmers or village leaders that feel Gods' calling on their lives, with no biblical training but a great desire to learn and lead in Gods' word. Seeing these needs, we had been praying that God would lead us in the area that he wants us to serve here in Ecuador.
A door was opened in the home for children Casa de Fe in Shell, where changes opened up a big need for a number of volunteers in several different areas. In December of 2014, God called us specifically to assist in the orphanage, helping with translation, coordinating American teams that come down to visit and help with construction, as well as starting a Chaplain program for the spiritual teaching and growth of the children there.
It was great to be working with the children and workers at Casa de Fe, and even better to know that we were in the center of Gods' will!! In the first six months, I was very busy filling a lot of empty jobs there, and was not been able to do everything that I felt necessary for the spiritual growth of the home; and this was a constant prayer of ours. After much prayer and seeking the Lords' guidance and direction, God gave us a verse and a vision, and Manantial Ministries was born.