Mar 6, 2019 You’ll be amazed by the people he met…

Pastor William Richardson, who preached an evangelism series with our mission team in Ecuador shares about some of the people he met on that trip:

I got to be a speaker for one of our evangelism sites in Ecuador and as a pastor, I had the privilege to baptize some of the people who made decisions.

During the meetings, there was a lady who came up to me, nervously, with a translator. She said that she used to be an Adventist but became baptized as a Catholic for 12 years. Now, at the meetings, she was becoming interested in returning to the Adventist church. She asked me about about forgiveness for sin and told me about her experience. I got to baptize her on the last Sabbath! Plus, her sister who had been coming to the meetings with her was also baptized.

On our clinic day, the highway along the side of the church where we were holding our clinic was packed with people waiting. There were so many people! I was in the last room praying with people to close out their clinic experience. I met a young man who was about 16. He looked like me (African American) which is not true of most people in Ecuador. We bonded and he told me that he was from Colombia and that his mother was still there. We shared some friendly words and I didn’t even realize that his sister was a church member but he wasn’t. Then, later, one of the local pastors came excitedly telling me that this young man had decided he wanted to be baptized! The pastor and his sister were thrilled.

There was also a little boy who I was told got abused and was always in trouble. He had a behavior problem but the local church was trying to get him involved with the church and pathfinders. So while we were there, I made friends with him. I told him the story of Ben Carson and about how he was also a troubled young man but turned his life around and become and world-renowned surgeon. I tried to encourage him and give him something to remember and connect with making good decisions. And I told him that God uses our experiences to help shape us and change us.

It’s cool to meet the people, hear their stories and see each individual give their life to Christ.