David and Sonia Murray - Missionaries to Ecuador

God is making an impact here in Cuenca. Although our team has been
depleted down to single missionary Carlene Piper, and my family, the
work continues as strong as ever! We are seeing progress, and God is
blessing. People are getting saved! And others are being discipled.
What a privilege to work here in this area of extreme religious
conservatism, as we see God’s power rescue people out of
spiritual darkness!

Here are some of the headlines:

Andres Gets saved!

What a privilege it is to share Jesus’ offer of salvation to people
who have never heard the Gospel Message before! Andres is a young man
who is a friend of the family. He comes from a broken family and a
rather difficult life. He used to be in the group “todos
somos asasinos” (We are all assasins) which was a brutal
street gang. Thankfully he has left that lifestyle.

He has been coming to my house in an effort to gain knowledge with which
to quench his thirst for a relationship with God. I explained God’s
simple plan of salvation to him the first hour of our meetings.
Before our meeting was completed, he asked Christ into his heart! He
is now faithful in our church plant, and he desires to grow! For me
there is nothing more exciting on Earth.

Sonia’s Uncle Cesar Asks Jesus into his heart before his major surgery!

Perhaps you remember reading one or more of my prayer letters regarding
Sonia’s Aunt Enriqueta, and her husband Cesar, who live almost
four hours away from us in Guayaquil. (Aunt Enriqueta became a
Chrisian abot a year and a half ago, when she visited us here in
Cuenca.) And perhaps you have looked at www.ecuamurray.org
and have seen a picture of
me standing beside and older gentleman who is about half my height.
(See the “More Pictures” area ) Cesar may be small in
stature, but his personality is that of a giant. I have never met
anyone quite like him. He is the type of person who has stood up to
men twice his height and physically put them in their place. He was a
fighter, a womanizer, a drinker, a smoke, a father of children he
doesn’t even know, and extremely prideful. He even loved
to brag about how he battled in the Vietnam War. According to Cesar,
Cesar is a hero, a conqueror of many rivals.

He had formerly rejected much talk regarding the Gospel. Even when he
was lying down in the hospital bed with his arm numb and his face
twisted to one side (due to his stroke), he talked like he would live
another 50 years, having no immediate need of God in his life. But
God worked on his heart in that hospital bed! I shared the Gospel
with him over the phone and although he was elusive at first, he told
me that he was ready to give me his full attention the night before
the operation. I shared the saving Gospel with him for about a half
an hour that night. The next day he had apparently taken the info I
gave him to heart. Sonia’s sister, Alexandra, and Cesar’s
son from another relationship had visited him. As they shared the
Gospel with him he affirmed that he had learned all about this the
night before, and that he was ready to ask Jesus into his heart, for
forgiveness of sins and for eternal life. He did exactly that,
moments after expressing his desire.

I am so glad he is a Christian now! The human side of me just can’t
believe it! It is amazing to comprehend how loving, forgiving and
attractive the Lord really is. He died for the whole world, which
includes my uncle Cesar!

He will be serving our Lord and Savior for the rest of his life and for
eternity, singing His praises and giving thanks for His mercy. How
sweet it is!

God Gives Our Ministries a Boost!

As our team has been depleted, it became necessary to sell a piece of
property we had in Santa Isabel-about 1 hour from Cuenca where we
live. With the money from the sale of this property, we have been
able to boost many of our ministries:

We are donating $18,000 to the church I had a small part in helping
start as a student back in 1990. It is called Grace Baptist Church
(Iglesia Bautista La Gracia) This is a needed boost, so that they
might obtain a piece of property, and cease paying high rental fees.
They are working towards total independence as they are now a
nationalized church. This financial help will bring them to that
point of independence. And BMM in Ecuador will be afforded the
opportunity to concentrate on planting new churches and leading more
people to Christ!
We are using over $8,000 of these funds to install the septic system
and water system at camp. We are also using monies received in the
form of donations from various churches in the US. The total we will
sped at this oint will be around $10,000. Sewer:
Our original sewer system was an obvious temporary set up. It was
designed for a single family home, not a camp filled with happy
campers. It had become completely destroyed over the years and so
this provision of funds came at a very urgent time. It is now
fixed…under budget! Water: We were trucking in
water at $50 per truckload. People had searched over the years for a
water supply. It was declared to be an impossibility-no water was to
be found in this high desert. Imagine our delight after much prayer
-God revealed the location of a spring to us…..on our
property! The neighbors tried to hide it from us and steel it from
us. But God allowed this to work out for His glory and in His
perfect timing!
Donations to churches: We have decided to donate the remainder of the money in
equal portions to the remaining three BMM churches here in Cuenca.
This includes our church plant (Iglesia Bautista Trinidad), a
decision I had no argument against! So Faith Baptist (Iglesia
Bautista La Fe) , New Life Baptist (Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva) and
our church plant (mentioned above) will receive $2,500 each. This
comes at a very necessary time, as prices here in Cuenca are often
higher than they are in the USA.

Church Property Fund Increased!!!

As you know (from reading www.ecuamurray.org and my prayer letters) we
have a church property goal of $60,000. Now that we have received
this $2,500 donation, our total saved for the purchase of property is
$4,726! This is very exciting! I know that we have not yet reached
even 10%, but this figure means something very special to me:
Progress! Please consider being part of the solution.
We can get there as Ecuadorians and Americans work together as a
team, for God’s glory in church planting.

Note*
Perhaps many of you consider making special Christmas or New Year
Budget one-time donations. As you seek God’s will in this area,
please consider this vital need of ours. You could have
a part in establishing a church here in this hard-line Catholic City
of Cuenca , Ecuador. You can personally be used of God here in Cuenca
Ecuador. You may not be able to serve here daily in person, but
you can make a lasting impact for God! Believe me, we
need you!

Sonia and I donate, sacrificially, every month to this cause. Ecuadorians
do too. We can’t do it alone. So we are just asking you
to come alongside us.

Camp is Being Developed:

Please pray for me that God might grant me wisdom. I am working on
developing the camp in a way that will generate much more use. It
is a tremendous Evangelism tool. People here in Cuenca are so
conservative (and worried about what people will think) that
they will not step into a Baptist Church until they are really,
really ready. It is very difficult to make that happen, although it
eventually does happen.

But going to a Christian day camp is not a problem for Cuencanos. People
come by the dozens, and they hear the glorious saving Gospel message
preached! After they get saved it is still a challenge to come to
church, but they eventually make that decision as they learn the
importance of it through discipleship.

Therefore I am dedicating a good chunk of time developing a three year plan for
camp-a plan which has high usage in mind.

Again, I ask that you pray for wisdom and energy which is so vital when one
is in charge of several ministries.

Counseling Continues for many:

I have had the privilege of helping various individuals and couples
through biblical counseling. Please pray for me (wisdom) as I share
these biblical truths with others, and also as I plan to teach Pastor
and lay leaders these principles of biblical counseling in a seminar
which I am planning.

Church Planting Ministry:

Our church plant is now meeting in our house. This will help the church
plant save money as we do not have to pay rent at a different
building. It is allot quieter here than it was on the busy,
commercial avenue. It is wonderful to have everybody here in the
house, although it is quite challenging at times too. As I wrote
before, people do not readily step across the threshold of a church
at first. As they grow in the services in our house, we trust that
God will prepare them for the move into a formal church building in
the near future.

Although some of our people have moved to a bigger church and others have
returned to Pentecostalism in my absence, we still have a good group
attending (brand new believers-rather than trans-plants) and it is
great to be sharing God’s Word with them. We have a big group
on Wednesdays, and sometimes a completely different group on Sundays.
We are working on getting the two groups together at both services!

We are starting a college age ministry next week, which will surely be a
tremendous opportunity. May God use this to save souls here in
Cuenca!

Checho & Lorena:

One of my hunting buddies is named Checho, which is a nickname for Cesar.
He is a young man of 25 years. He has a wife, Lorena, and a baby boy
named Mateo (Matthew). They have been coming faithfully to the
Wednesday Night services. It is really amazing! They listen SO well
and they ask questions which are well thought out. I am not sure if
they have asked Jesus into their hearts yet, but I know that they
have raised their hands showing a desire to do so. They are a real
blessing for Sonia and me, in that they show a real interest in the
Lord, and are hungry for His Word. Please pray for them, as we will
be speaking directly with them about their salvation etc. soon. I
trust God will draw them to Himself, and make mature Christians
someday.

New Misionaries for our Team:

We are praying that my Brother in Law, Fernando, and his family will
make it back to Ecuador as missionaries in the near future. They have
joined BMM and are currently on deputation. Apart from his years of
service as an assistant Pastor here, he was also the Head-Pastor at
Iglesia Bautista La Fe (Faith Baptist Church) for over a year. He has
a tremendouse passion for souls-especially his Ecuadorian paisanos.
Please pray that he will raise his support for his family of 6 as
soon as possible.

Perhaps God is calling you to join the team. Please let me know!

WEBSITE:

•Created to serve you, one may go to www.ecuamurray.org
to see many new exciting
photos of the Camp, Cesar, Andres, Qui-Que, and many other disciples,
Wed. Night Services, and Ecuador in general.

•Check out the picture of my new “house guest” and a
possible future target city for church planting.

•You may even see a picture of yourself on the website in the “Find
Yourself” area. (If I was at your church, you may be on the
website!)

• You can even sign our guestbook to let us know you love us! J

•Missionary Committees: You can find pictures of our family for your
bulletin board in the family section. (And you don’t have to
risk cracking your camera lens!) And I have all of my prayer letters
from the last few years archived in the prayer letter section.

•Check out the progress of the building fund, the vehicle fund and many
other projects we have going on in the “Support” section.

Personal:

•Sonia and I are doing well as we learn and grow in the Lord, and serve Him
as a team.

•The children are growing at an incredible rate. David is being home
schooled which is a real blessing.

•Sickness: Yes, but you do not want to know the details, trust me.

•Vehicle: It is still running.

•Support: We could use your help.

•Christmas Gifts: Some of you have already sent in Christmas gifts for us so
that we will be able to use it on time. Others may be doing that in
the near future. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR GENEROSITY! It touches
our hearts. We operate without a spare nickel, so these financial
gifts are so appreciated! Our children are grateful for this.

We count it a tremendous privilege to serve here on this particular
battlefield. Please pray that God will direct our team to invest our
time, and money, and prayers, in ministries which are not simply
“something good to do”. As BMM in Ecuador, we wish to
expend our efforts in vital ministries which will bring forth MUCH
fruit for the Master. Please pray that He would use us for His glory,
and that many souls will be saved as He establishes His Church here
in Cuenca, Ecuador.

May God Bless You Richly!

Your Missionaries;

The Murrays (David, Sonia, Dave, Andrea, and Joshua)

Sending Church: Merrimack Valley Baptist Church, Merrimack , NH

Snail Mail: Sr. David Murray , Casilla 01-05-1842, Cuenca , Ecuador

Mission Board: (All Donations mailed here, please) Baptist Mid
Missions, Po Box 30801, Cleveland , OH, 44130-8011

Online donations: www.bmm.org