We’d like to tell you about a couple called Angelica and Lazarus. They're part of the church here in Los Vergeles, and have been for about a year. Angelica came first apparently, then Lazarus - after stubbornly sitting in the bedroom whilst Angelica let the bible study be held in their house - eventually started joining in. We've been getting to know them since we arrived. Angelica is a really bubbly, friendly lady. Lazarus is a little quieter at first until you get to know him, but he's equally lovely. They have three girls, and two boys, Brinky the youngest turned three on Monday, he's named after his bouncy personality! (Brinky literally means bouncy).
Last Sunday they were baptised on the same night, and they were the first couple to be baptised together in the new mission centre (our church). There’s more to the story though. Lazarus works at a house as a guard in the slightly richer end of Los Vergeles, so he's on night shifts. He was hoping to take off the time for his baptism then go back to work whilst another guy took over his shift. But it got to the time to go and the other guy hadn't turned up. He couldn't leave the house unguarded because they would fire him. But he was already late for the service. So, trusting that God would honour his motive, in wanting to be baptised as a symbol of his fairly new faith, he (somewhat recklessly and bravely!) upped and left the house, leaving the gates unlocked and unguarded, to go to his baptism. At this point we were all wondering where he was and why he was half an hour late to his own baptism!
So Angelica and Lazarus got 'dunked' in the huge tub at the front of the church, then as soon as he'd done his bit Lazarus left and sped back to his work. When he got there he could see a man pacing outside the gates, obviously looking for him, and he was worried that he might lose his job. But when he went up to the house, the man just said 'ven' (come in) and led him into the house. This was the first time he had ever been asked in, normally he just does his job guarding it outside. But he went in and they had a plate of hot food for him, they didn’t ask any questions, but thought he'd simply ran home to change his trousers or something and didn't even realised how long he'd been gone.
The Ecuador Action Team are working alongside BMS long term workers Peter and Vicki Butchers in their work in Guayaquil. If you are interested in serving overseas with BMS World Mission click here for further information.