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Starting a Church Behind Enemy Lines

A Place to Meet Secured! Four Baptized! 30 people attending this infant church regularly! A call to buy land! A marriage saved! New Christians learn we are “Saved to Serve”! Countless witnessing opportunities! Biblical Counseling opportunities! End Time Classes announced!

All the above is what GOD is doing at our brand new church started behind enemy lines on January 12th of this year! May it be known: God is more powerful and gracious than most of us really understand!


A Place to Rent Behind Enemy Lines: We have finally found a room for Iglesia Bautista La Palabra de Vida (Word of Life Baptist Church) to meet in! We found a small one room storefront, ground level, which is brand new. It sits directly across from a large Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and a Catechism class complex. We have no fear, because God led us there!

As you may remember from our last letter (Posted on www.baptistsinecuador.org , we needed to find a place fast, or we would be on the street. (See below)

Persecution?: Nothing serious. Just a tomato thrown, and some unfriendly stares, and music blared at us during the sermon, along with some homemade cherry bombs which set off car alarms (4 times), making preaching ….an intercultural experience!.

Please pray that we might be a strong beacon of light as we are surrounded by spiritual darkness. This is why God has sent us there: to proclaim the TRUTH of the Gospel in the land dominated by the enemy.

We now have about thirty (30) regular attendees! Praise God for His power in drawing people toward Himself! It sure is invigorating to preach to a crowd bigger than five…which is how we started out just over 4 months ago!


A Call to buy Land: It has been a long search. The little property available to rent is usually not available to us, because people think that they will have the curse of God fall upon them for renting to a church which is not what they believe to be the traditional, correct religion of their forefathers.

For this reason, we are going to have to consider buying property at a future time. It is only by the grace of God that we found what we did.

And we have another “problem”: We are packed out to capacity where we are at! Therefore, it is evident that another move will be imperative, shortly.

We also need more rooms. One isn’t enough. We want to start a nursery, Childrens’ Church, and Sunday School.


We will only be able to purchase property with your help!
I have a team searching the classifieds in the paper. And land alone is EXPENSIVE! Two hundred (200) square meters of commercial property sells to the tune of $40,000. Although we have found new houses in our area which sell for $40,000, most are $60k and above. An option would be to turn a house into a church. It would require some tearing down of walls etc. but it would work.

A Marriage Saved: Our friends, Roberto and Narcissa, have had their marriage on the rocks for quite some time. It was a very serious situation, because there was one of the the worst forms of unfaithfulness involved. Multiple times. The are both divorced from former marriages.

And the couple had not been speaking for months. A number of us had spent hours-upon hours trying to counsel them. And we were rejected. So we came to the point of giving up. But God’s power used His Word which we had shared with them….it started to sink in gradually. Roberto asked “Could you counsel my friends’ marriage the way you counseled me? It is working.” We both rejoiced at the power of God.

4 Baptisms: Along with 18 discipleship classes weekly, and at least 30 saved. We have had opportunities to witness with receptive people every single day! I have even invited special speakers who have touched hearts, and God has changed lives. GOD is at work!

SAVED TO SERVE!: Saved to Serve is our theme for the month. As I have preached from Matthew 10, and Ephesians 2:10, we have learned some principles for ministry which we are trying to apply. Last Saturday we had a minga which everybody here knows is a work day. God is teaching these babes in Christ to serve him, sacrificially, as a natural result of their salvation! Praise God!

Web: If you haven’t seen the pictures we posted last month on our personal “missionary Page” (click on the button) at www.baptistsinecuador.org , please check them out now. We will be updating them, removing some, very shortly.

Weeklies: If you would like to be on our weekly update, or we missed you and you haven’t been added yet (oops, sorry!) please respond to this email and simply state something like “David, put me on the weekly list” and I will do it immediately. Thank you so much. We’d love to put you on the list!

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Prayer Requests:

My long time friend Fernando Torres and his wife Doris Segovia are very interested, and have come to church four times in the last month and a half! From the first day we reunited, he shared that he wanted to get his life right with God, and to know Him in a real way. We have directly and specifically shared the Gospel with them on various occasions. Our hearts cry out to God for their souls. Fernando tells me “I know what to do, David. I want to get saved., I just have a few hang-ups I am working through.” Please pray for him as he has been deceived by the Eastern Mystical Religions. He has told me “I am going to come to church now as much as I can. My wife really loves it too!” What an answer to prayer! I hope they ask Christ into their hearts soon!

Fabian Sanchez, is a good friend I have gotten to know through Sonia’s sister, Alexandra. He is also seeking God and hoping to straighten his life out. He owns a pharmacy and enjoys his work but he feels something is missing.

I told him he was right. What is missing is a personal relationship with Christ. After sharing for hours on numerous occasions, I asked him “if you were to die right now where would you go?” He replied “Heaven.” I asked him how he knew. He replied because he has placed his faith in Christ. “Did anybody else contribute to your salvation?” He replied “No.” I said “Does Mary contribute to it?” to which he replied that he loves Mary and does believe that she helps in the redemption process. Back to the o’l drawing board!

Workers: Our partnering family, the Beelers, have returned to the USA for four months. We have Sharna Graves, a single lady missionary helping us . But she is leaving today for three months. We thank God for the help, and we are going to miss it!

The lack of US help forces me to start what I have always been enthusiastic about: involving nationals in the entire work of the ministry. Although our brothers and sisters from this new work are new Christians, they can contribute allot in looking for property, painting, taking the offering, praying etc. It is touching to see brand new Christians at work for God! It goes along with our monthly theme: Saved to Serve. *Prayer request: Wisdom

Support: We are still under supported. Please pray for this real need.

End Time Seminar: We are going to start a two month seminar in our home titled “Are We Living in The End Times?” . Most unsaved people I have spoken with here are interested in knowing what God’s plan for the future of the world is, and when might the end of the world be. *Please pray this will be a tremendous evangelistic tool, and a spiritual strenghtener for many people.

Property: I restate that this is a real need here in this community. What precious little property is available is not favored to be rented to Baptists or anyone who isn’t from the established religious system here. Rent is unbearably high for this economy. So owning property is the way to go. Please pray that God might raise the funds necessary to purchase property for His glory!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Remember: we can’t do it without you!

Please email or write to us any time.

May God bring us to higher ground as we partner with each other for His Glory!

Your missionaries;


The Murrays
David, Sonia, David, Andrea, Joshua


Please send correspondence to :

David Murray
Casilla 01-05-1842
Cuenca, Ecuador, South America

Please send all contributions to :

Baptist Mid Missions
Acc#703819
P.O. Box 308011
Cleveland , OH , 44130-8011