The Gospel and Staff Retreat

Thank you.

Thank you for praying, because this weekend our entire school staff met together in downtown Quito including teachers, maintenance staff, guards, board members, student teachers and all their spouses. It was a beautiful thing to see North Americans, Ecuadorians, Koreans, Columbians, Brazilians, Argentineans, Palestinians, Canadians, and third-culture kids (people who grew up on the mission field that really stutter for a moment when you ask, “where are you from?”), and they all were gathered in one dining room.

My friend Ricky, an Ecuadorian intern from the chaplaincy office, worked hard last week with gathering prayer requests from members of the leadership team, as we planned together about sessions for the retreat time. God led us to plan a worship gathering, which would include nothing but God-glorifying music, prayer (biblical, gospel believing, written prayers, in English and in Spanish) and the reading of Bible verses that bring out truth from the storehouse of all truth.

Saturday night was incredibly encouraging. People praying for one another in English and Spanish, a sort of “unplugged” worship music set with only acoustic guitars, a saxophone, and a Cajon’, and lots of people obviously enjoying the worship of God through prayer and word.

Sunday morning, we cranked it up a bit more adding some wind instruments, a few more strings, and a full drum set this time, and it was glorious to see everyone singing out and praising God, from multi-denominational backgrounds, multiple age groups, cross cultural married couples, all in one room.

Then, God allowed an opportunity for us all to look together into an incredible passage in Hebrews 12:28 through 13:21 as we talked about “Risk, Challenge, and the Ultimate Goal.”

I was so encouraged to hear from so many people today about how this passage spoke individually to people’s hearts all across the room on Sunday morning in a variety of ways. His word is good…and He is faithful to answer our pleading for Him to glorify Himself through His word.

May we all have grace for receiving a “kingdom that cannot be shaken…”

Blessings,

Chris and Vickie