Category: News

WOW!

What a day as well as days leading up to our Mother’s Day Celebration with 100 kids and 30 moms.

It was fun. The craziness came in combining this with getting blood samples for the annual health check-ups for the sponsored Compassion kids along with dental screenings. Many were poked, some tears shed, teeth brushed, kids sang and danced, a puppet show, crafts for moms, games for kids and then we ate a feast (mostly) prepared by Tim, Kevin, another dad and a few older teens.

All in all another blessing filled day at the Puerta de Esperanza – #GodIsGenerousToOurHearts

CRAFTS FOR MOMS

CHECK-UPS

DENTAL SCREENINGS

GAMES FOR KIDS

PUPPET SHOW

This year as many in the past, we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day outside the United States. For many of you this would be very out of the ordinary but we have come to accept this as the norm. The truth is that wherever we are, if we have Christ in our hearts, we have something to be thankful for. We North Americans believe that the Thanksgiving holiday is ours and ours alone. To a certain extent this is true to the history of our country but Thanksgiving is at the center of our Heavenly Father’s heart and the family of God reaches beyond the borders of the United States of America. Our desire is that each of you would be surrounded by God’s love as you too remember how great a life we have under his care–HAPPY THANKSGIVING–give thanks abundantly.

We have much to give thanks for this year as we reflect on God’s faithfulness in our lives. We recently celebrated seven years in Ecuador. How fast time passes when it seems like yesterday we just arrived , my how God has blessed us with so much to be thankful for. The ministry of The Door of Hope has grown tremendously this year with the addition of Compassion International, Bible Institute involvement, home Bible studies, youth group and continued growth in the church and the community as well as the necessary construction to keep up with growth in ministry. God is so faithful in our lives as well as the lives of those He has entrusted us to minister to.

Recently in our worship services and in our weekly Bible study we have been working our way through 1st Peter. It is not by coincidence that as we study we find Peter’s letter addressing the issue of us suffering for our relationship with Christ with His suffering. We have had our share of persecution, broken relationships, trials, tests, abuse, of much and of little; and the list goes on but through all of this we at The Door of Hope count all this suffering as a great honor. We can rejoice to be worthy of such suffering because we are in relationship with Jesus our Lord and Savior. Take a look at: 1st Peter 4:12-13

We also want to take time to thank God for your faithfulness in ministry with us here at The Door of Hope. You are very important to us and God for it is through your prayers and support that God is able to continue to witness through us His love for the people of Ecuador. Thank you for answering Gods call to help. May God richly bless you, your family and your ministry.

To God be all the glory and honor and praise and may He receive our abundantly thankful hearts,

Your missionaries Tim and Daina Datwyler –Kevin and Esther too

Expect a full newsletter in the coming weeks, thank you for your patience.

Vacation Bible School – Starts Today!

-By Daina
So exciting!! VBS starts today at the Puerta de Esperanza. Please pray for God to fill us up and flow through each volunteer and child. Personally feeling overwhelmed and a bit unprepared but I have faith God will do mighty and life changing things this week. Thank you all.

Youth making name tags

Snack time, chocolate dipped fruit

Music time for the 3-6 yr olds

Games, crossing the red sea

Better one of games

Puerta de Esperanza opened a Compassion International project here in Chaquibamba.

The project opened with 54 sponsored children that were transferred from another project that closed last year, in July we will be adding another 35 children ages 3-8. The kids come to the church 2 times a week: Thursdays after school and Saturday mornings.

We could use prayer for God to provide people to help as tutors and coordinators, and for sponsors for the new kids.

This year at Door of hope ministries we were blessed to celebrate our 7th annual Christmas party with the families of Chaquibamba.

We played games,worshiped, watched a skit performed by the youth from the community and shared dinner together. All of this is made possible by YOU our supporters,Thank you!!

Alejo as a clown

Christmas party games

Christmas party worship

Christmas party worship

Food after Christmas party

Kids at Christmas party

The youthgroup Christmas skit

Youth skit team

We have just celebrated one year as a church body. On September 11, 2011 we started regular Sunday services. It has been a
very exciting year of new beginnings for celebrating old traditions.
November- we celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time although this is not an Ecuadorian tradition we introduced it as a Christian tradition.
We learned to look for and give thanks to God for His provision in our lives no matter what the circumstances.
Christmas- we introduced the advent calendar and what each Sunday signifies leading up to Christmas day. We held our first Christmas
Eve candlelight service and learned how God brought His light to this world through His Son and that we need to SHINE for Jesus.
Easter and Passion Week- the traditions of Passion Week are very familiar here but this time much more moving in the new light of the
freedom that many now have in Jesus. We celebrated with foot washing service, Good Friday service, Saturday with our children and Sunday
morning celebrating the resurrection of Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Just a few weeks ago we celebrated the first baptisms. We invited another local church with 4 of the 12 who were baptized so we
had 8. It was a great and emotional celebration of new birth in Jesus and commitment to becoming part of the body of Christ. Thank you
one and all for partnering with us through your prayers and finances to help grow the Kingdom here in Chaquibamba.

Baptism Testimonies:
After being baptized we asked “How do you feel “?
Inez “I feel happy inside no matter what is going on outside”.
Yasira “I am free”.
Yadira “I feel the love of God in Me”.

We were truly blessed in the beginning of August by a visit from a team of 12 from Ooltawah UMC (The E Team). They came with open hearts, open arms and lots of energy. They needed all of that to keep up with the Puerta de Esperanza (Door of Hope) youth group. The team (12) and our youth group (27) worked together with us and the ministry leadership team to build playground equipment for the children,
dig a reservoir, move brush, learn English and Spanish, play games, laugh and cry together as we learned about King David’s victories and failures.
After three days of very hard work we all boarded a bus and headed out on a grand adventure. The destination was kept a secret until all were on the bus, then it was announced that we would be going to a place called Mindo which is in the cloud forest region. The activity though was still a secret for the moment , it was enough just to be together going anywhere.

Once arriving in Mindo we proceeded to a place called “Canopy Adventures” which has cables suspended above the tree tops and over deep ravines. The youth were in awe of what they were getting to do. After all had past the 14 cables we went down to the river for a quick swim and lunch. Daina asked one of our youth afterwards “Was all the work worth it?” And they responded “What hard work?” We are trying here at The Door of Hope to make an eternal impact on the lives of our youth. They have so many dreams and desires but little hope of seeing any of them come true. We are trying to help them see that through a relationship with Jesus that there is hope. We have been so blessed by our partnership with Ooltewah UMC as well as many other churches. The Door of Hope youth were impacted with eternal blessing that can never be measured or seen fully this side of heaven.
Thank you E Team and all those from Ooltewah UMC who supported them and support us.

Recent Mission Mobilization Conference in Quito, Ecuador. What a blessing to discover God’s heart for the nations.

Just this past Sunday, 11 people ages 18-60+ graduated the first level of which is a certificate for basic theological studies. It was a long-term investment, and all are ready to continue being growing, learning disciples of Jesus Christ. FLET (Foundation for Latin American theological studies) President, pastor Freddy Guerrero, preached an excellent and challenging message to the 75 people present. You will be hearing more about our growing involvement with FLET. Thank you for praying for thousands of Ecuadorian lay persons who are dedicating time and effort to Go out prepared.