After Galo Izquierdo and his team of church planters walked into a jail in Ecuador six years ago, hundreds of its inmates would never be the same.
The team’s work is intense. The 5,600 prisoners live in 23 separate cell blocks. In order to give all of them an opportunity to hear the gospel, each church planter preaches five or six sermons every Sabbath. But the results of their labor are amazing!
“So far, we’ve baptized more than 900 people,” Galo said, with a beaming smile. “The jail is like a mine, a people mine, because the prisoners are so hungry to hear about Jesus.”
Your support of Global Mission enables a pioneer named Juan to work with the church planting team and makes Bibles and Adventist literature available to the prisoners. “We brought 50 Bibles to the jail last Sabbath,” Galo said, “but as soon as we delivered them, we received requests for many more!”
Some of the converted prisoners have joined the church planting team in ministry. One of them is Mr. Guerrero, an ex-hitman who had killed 87 people. He was so depressed, he was planning to commit suicide. But when he accepted Jesus, Mr. Guerrero found abundant life. Now he helps his fellow inmates discover life in Jesus, too.
An ex-convict named Marina, who also accepted Christ in prison, wrote Galo’s team a letter. “I’m involved in a prison ministry in Brazil now, and I’m so happy. I lived 60 years in the world without God. The year I spent in jail getting to know Christ was the best year of my life. I am so grateful you shared Him with me!”
Thank you for supporting church planters like Galo and his team all around the world. Please continue to pray for them and for the thousands of people they’re reaching out to with the love of Jesus.
[Pictured: Galo Izquierdo, center, with some of his church planters. The Global Mission pioneer, Juan, is on his right.]
To read the story of Ruth, an ex-convict who found Jesus through the ministry of Galo’s team, see page 22.