Answered Prayers and a VBS!

Hello to all of you!

I just want to say thank you and let you know what has been going on here in Ecuador.  First, we can’t even begin to tell you how much this building is making a difference for us and the ministry here in our little town!  We had been in some pretty poor situations (as far as a place to work out of) over the last 15 years and now EVERYTHING has changed.  The sacrifice, the prayers, and the love that has been poured out over this mission is nothing short of a miracle for us and the people of this area!  I wish I was a better communicator through the written word, and that I was able to help you all see how this mission has grown and how the potential for the future has changed exponentially by having a beautiful new church building.  Thanks again to each of you who have given and prayed to make this possible! 

I am sure some of you remember our last prayer letter when we asked for prayer concerning the septic lines and such.  I can’t tell you the full drama, but we finally got some of the government inspectors to come out and show us where to connect the sewage lines and gave us verbal permission (it should be an official process with paperwork involved but they refused to do it) and we contracted a “maestro/contractor” to come and do it.  The day came and the neighbors came out of nowhere yelling at the maestro and his helper.  There were at least a half a dozen people saying, “you can’t do that, you don’t have the right to connect that here, this is our town and we own this!”  It got the the point that the maestro called me and said “Andy, I don’t know what to do.  They are about to get violent, you are going to have to come here and talk to these people.” I was working on other things that day. I stopped everything I was doing and went to the church.  I calmly explained that I was instructed by the local government where to connect , how to connect, and had full permission to connect the sewage.  They tried to yell at me and threaten me, but I simply said “please go and talk to the local government officials, because your problem isn’t with me, but rather with those who gave me permission.”  I was a little nervous without having paperwork that the government officials would lie and say they didn’t give me permission when they did.  Thank the Lord, they actually came up to the church with all these neighbors standing around and said in front of everyone, “Yes, this is exactly how and where we told the white guy to hook up to the sewage, you have NO RIGHT TO STOP THEM!”  I can’t explain how dysfunctional and crazy this all has been, but we have bathrooms connected to the city sewage lines!!!!  Praise the LORD!!!!!  Thank you so much for your prayers!

Because of the new church building and facility we were able to host our first VBS here in San Pedro.  We had twice as many kids show up than we thought would come, and it was an amazing time for all involved!  For us and the people here it is nothing short of a miracle; I can’t stress this enough!  On top of all this, Veronica, a young lady who got saved and who I had the great privilege to baptize around 4 years ago, came and told us that she was  feeling called to work full-time with the kids and  youth, but as we all know, the Lord’s will can sometimes be difficult to discern.  Veronica is 28 years old, has a master’s degree, and was making more than both her adult parents put together who both work full-time jobs.  Interestingly, she suddenly lost her job and for the time being has all the time in the world to work with the kids,  and that’s what she’s been doing!  She totally took on the responsibility of planning and leading the VBS and has started doing Sunday school with the children.  Now that is a miracle to us!  She is scared, anxious, and extremely brave all at the same time!  We told her as of now, the mission does not have the means to support her financially, but that we would pray that the Lord would make a way when there seems to be no way.  She does have a job interview coming up 4 hours away from our town and we are all just praying for the Lord’s will to be done.  Please help us pray over this situation and that whatever God’s plan is, that all involved would be obedient!!!  Pray that she would continue to be brave in following the Lord’s calling on her life, no matter the sacrifice. 

Veronica's baptism in 2021, along with her sister and future brother-in-law.

It’s so hard to put into words all the trials, struggles and difficulties and how if feels to finally be making head way.  We feel things changing.  Not just because of a building, but also because the Lord is doing amazing things in the lives of the people around us.  The people are coming up to us after the services on a regular basis and telling us how the Word is changing them and blessing their lives, people are actually showing up regularly to our prayer services (something that didn’t happen a year ago), and we are seeing fruit in their lives!  This is the greatest reward I could possibly receive!  It would be impossible without each of you and we can’t thank you enough!  

Lastly, we have another couple of prayer requests.  It is so hard to share these types of things in a way that you know how to pray, but doesn’t come off like we just want more money.  I pray that those of you that know us, know we just want to serve the Lord and see Him glorified in the ministry here.  All that to say, the city electric has been cut off at our church.  They gave us temporary electric for construction, without an electrical meter.  It is a long story, but basically it was going to cost too much to get an electrical post put in, pay for a transformer, and pay for all of it to be installed.  We opted to buy a very small solar setup because we really don’t use that much power at the church.  One, pray that it sustains us.  Two, pray that we can get more solar panels and batteries to make the system more realistic as time goes on, and three pray that we can eventually get connected to the grid.  Finally, we have big dreams of having a space for Sunday school, as well as an actual school for Christian education in English.  I don’t want to give too many details, I just ask that you would pray that the Lord would provide a way. There are so many moving parts that would need to happen to make those dreams a reality, but we truly believe the Lord is asking us to move in that direction.

May God bless each of you mightily in Christ, Priscilla, Andy, Jude, Sam, and Elena

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Please send all monetary contributions to:

Acts 1:8 Mission Society

PO Box 212

Harrison, OH 45030.

You can continue to make all checks payable to: “Acts 1:8 Mission Society” with “DVarga” in the memo section (All funds donated in this way will continue to go entirely to the DVarga family AND our mission work in Ecuador and are tax-deductible).

You can also write checks to Priscilla or Andy DVarga with "gift" in the memo section, but you will NOT receive a tax-deductible receipt at the end of the year for funds given this way.

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