Editor’s note: Jim and Mary DeGolyer are part of Verbo’s founding team. After serving in Guatemala for almost eight years, they went to Quito, Ecuador in 1984, where they were instrumental in bringing revival, healings and growth into the ministry. They now live in Guayquil, but travel extensively in Ecuador and internationally, equipping the saints particularly in the area of intimacy with God and the exercise of spiritual gifts related to prophecy and healing.
by Jim DeGolyer
Times of spiritual growth and revival are sweeping through the Verbo churches in Ecuador!
In just the capital city of Quito there are now five congregations. Verbo Kennedy (named for its neighborhood ) just started a third Sunday meeting to accommodate the influx of new Christians.
Verbo Norte holds four meetings every Sunday to accommodate the 1,500 attendees, with 10 to 20 coming into a relationship with Jesus every week. This congregation sponsors the Moses Project—a tutoring program for school children from distressed and impoverished situations.
Verbo’s Largest Church Is in Quito
The largest of the Quito fellowships—and the largest of the Verbo churches anywhere in the world—with over 2,500 members is Verbo Sur, which is now considering the establishment of a new congregation to serve the burgeoning populations in the city’s far southern suburbs.
Churches are also springing up in the countryside. In the petroleum boom town of Lago Agrio in the Amazon jungle—noted for its violence and ongoing pollution from the foreign and domestic oil producers—the Verbo congregation is around 250 people.
Mission Reaches Indians
There is a new outreach in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, a large town in the foothills of the Andes Mountains and the home of the Tsáchila Indians, a tribe whose men shave the sides of their heads and shape the remaining hair into cap-like form with a grease mixture dyed bright red.
The churches in El Oro Province, in Machala, Pasaje and El Guavo work well together. They have begun an outreach in Santa Rosa, a town on the way to the Peruvian border. This is a main banana producing area.
Guayaquil Is Home to Two Verbo Churches
The congregation in Loja, a mountain town on the road to the Peruvian border, also is growing quickly and has three meetings on Sundays and running out of space. They will soon have to build a meeting hall.
In the largest city in the country, the steamy Pacific coast port of Guayaquil, the Verbo Norte congregation has grown so much that it started a second Sunday meeting and ordained three new elders (pastors).
Verbo Sur, the original and largest of the ministry’s churches in the area, just ordained four new elders to help care for its 900-and-growing members. They just moved into facilities that are being remodeled as part of a larger ministry complex.
FM Station Proves Popular
But the most active of all the Verbo Ecuadorian churches in terms of outreach is the main congregation in Cuenca, a major market town and cultural center nestled in a 9,000-feet-high valley in the southern mountains. The mother church of about 1,500 people planted one congregation on the opposite side of the city (now with 150 members) and a satellite congregation in a neighboring town.
Their FM radio station broadcasts music and Christian programs to the area. One of the most-listened-to programs on any radio station in the area is “What the Bible Says.” Various ministers and Christian leaders speak on biblical applications to contemporary practical themes such as child rearing, marriage, drug abuse, character improvement, civic responsibility, etc.
The ministry’s medical foundation, Fundación Hogar (the Home Foundation), continues to grow, providing low cost care and surgeries for those in need. The latest outreach is a home for at-risk children whom the local authorities remove from their parents for reasons of mistreatment, abandonment, or dangerous living conditions.
Finally, in Cuenca (as in much of Ecuador) a revival is going on. On a recent Sunday morning 30 people accepted Christ. Healings happen regularly. A lady who was very sick with anemia because of kidney problems was completely healed. Her doctor certified the healing but he had no explanation of how her medical tests changed so positively so fast.
These are just a few examples of what God is doing day after day, all over Ecuador, in the Verbo churches. I give Him all the praise for His grace and love!
