Dear Beloved Friends, Partners, and Fellow Followers of Christ,
Grace and peace to you from the One who holds all things together — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We write to you today with hearts overflowing with gratitude, with stories worth telling, and with the quiet, unshakeable confidence that God is at work in ways that continue to astonish and humble us.
Seminary Update: The Mystery and Majesty of the Trinity
There is perhaps no subject more breathtaking, more intellectually stirring, or more spiritually necessary than the doctrine of the Trinity. This month, we had the profound privilege of opening that magnificent theological treasure before our seminary students here in Ecuador. To speak of God as Three-in-One is to stand at the edge of a vast and luminous ocean — the waters stretching endlessly beyond what the eye can see, and yet inviting us to wade in deeper still.
Each student received a personal copy of God, a book written by Timothy, as both a resource and a calling. Their assignment? To take what they have received and pour it out — teaching the material to a small group of their own choosing. What a beautiful picture this is of the Kingdom at work: truth received, truth shared, truth multiplied. Like a single candle lighting many others, the flame does not diminish — it only spreads.
We are eager to see what God will do as these students step into the role of teacher, trusting that the Spirit who illuminated the Word to them will go before them into every living room, courtyard, and gathering place where they choose to open these pages.
Seminary in Perú: Faith Tested, Faith Confirmed
Now, dear friends, we must tell you about Perú — because this story deserves to be told slowly, savored like a passage of Scripture that reveals more the longer you sit with it.
Pastor Patricio and Timothy traveled to Perú to teach a group of seminary students on the sacred and urgent subject of evangelism — the beautiful commission to carry the light of Christ into the darkest corners of the world. What a fitting theme it would turn out to be, given what lay ahead on the journey itself. We traveled by a mixture of plane, automobile, and bus, each leg of the trip a small act of trust, a quiet surrender to the God who goes before us.
And then came the moment that made everything feel very real.
Picture this: two o’clock in the morning, the Peruvian desert stretching out around you like a vast, silent cathedral under a canopy of stars. The bus — the bus that was supposed to stop in Chiclayo — passed right by without pausing, carrying its passengers onward into the night. There is a particular kind of faith that is forged not in the comfort of a sanctuary, but on the side of a highway in the middle of the night, when plans dissolve and the only solid ground beneath your feet is the unchanging faithfulness of God.
The driver, moved by something — perhaps mercy, perhaps Providence wearing a very ordinary face — let them out along the highway. And there, in the vastness of the Peruvian desert, Timothy and Pastor Patricio did what believers have always done in uncertain moments: they looked up, and they trusted.
A bus appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. They flagged it down. And here is where the story becomes something that can only be called provision in its most precise and personal form. The change received from the first bus fare — given in Peruvian soles — was counted out and found to be exactly enough. Enough for the second bus back to Chiclayo. Enough for a taxi to carry them to the school. Not a sole more than needed. Not a sole less.
“My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 4:19
God knows what He is doing, dear friends. He always has. His provision is not accidental — it is intentional, intimate, and gloriously sufficient. The desert did not swallow them. The darkness did not define them. And the teaching was delivered, the students were reached, and the Kingdom advanced — one faithful, midnight step at a time.
The After-School Program in Zabala, Ecuador: Seeds Taking Root
Closer to home, we are rejoicing over the beautiful fruit we are witnessing through the after-school program we are helping to support in Zabala, Ecuador. Our church has wrapped its arms around the children of this neighborhood, and the results — are wonderful. There is something profoundly holy about investing in a child, about speaking worth and wonder and truth into a young heart still tender enough to receive it fully.
We are seeing lives touched. We are seeing community built. We are seeing the Kingdom of God made tangible in the laughter and learning of children who now know they are seen, known, and loved.
And yet, as with all living things, this garden requires tending — and tending requires resources. We humbly and earnestly ask for your prayers regarding God’s provision for this ministry. Funding is needed to sustain what the Spirit has so beautifully begun. If God places it on your heart to give, please reach out to us directly. Every gift, great or small, is a seed sown into eternal soil.
He Is Faithful
From the seminary classrooms of Ecuador to the midnight highways of Perú, from the laughter of children in Zabala to the quiet prayers offered in your homes on our behalf — we are reminded, again and again, that we do not walk this road alone. You are with us. And more importantly, He is with us.
Thank you for your love, your prayers, your partnership in this great and glorious work. We carry you with us into every classroom, every desert highway, every child’s bright and searching eyes.
To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine — be glory, now and forever.
With deep gratitude and abiding love,
Timothy, Angelita, and the Downing Family
