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Restorative Touch

Recently, OM Ecuador finished its annual medical clinic. This year's medical outreach was held in Zaruma, Ecuador. While the clinic focused on medical attention, God worked to bring another type of restoration to some people's lives.




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Mission school begins

Fourteen students from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru participate in an intensive mission training to gain insight and skill for cross-cultural work.




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"Glad you are here to talk with us"

OM Ecuador team members work with people living with HIV and AIDS in a children's hospital in Guayaquil.




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A time for harvest on Santay Island

OM Ecuador experiences God’s awesome hand as they witness the transformation in people’s lives on Santay Island.




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God has His way in southern Ecuador

OM Ecuador team members and volunteers see God open doors and protect the team during a recent trip to the highlands of Ecuador.




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Taking sports ministry to the next level

Three hundred people interested in sports ministry gathered in Ecuador in April for a forum organised by the Coalición Internacional del Deporte.




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Three men taking big steps

After ministering for many years on Santay Island, the OM Ecuador team saw three men come to Christ.




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It’s not just about the fish

A team of 18 people from Guatemala recently joined forces with OM Ecuador in an outreach to the little-evangelised southern parts of Ecuador.




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Robbers flee in the name of Jesus

Members of OM Ecuador are robbed when arriving at the weekly prayer meeting. But the robbers flee upon hearing the name of Jesus.




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Fruit on Santay Island

After many years of ministry and much prayer, men are coming to Christ on Santay Island in Ecuador.




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Not just a pair of glasses

From a bus break down to the relentless spread of a stomach virus: nothing deterred the medical team from carrying out Gods work.




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Fighting human trafficking in Ecuador

Human trafficking grows like a cancer in Ecuador. Boris and Fernanda Salinas are destined to fight it.




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Impacting survivours of trafficking one climb at a time

“I climb in the name of the young women we serve,” said Boris Salinas, who will participate in a Freedom Climb event on 26 April.




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OM Ecuador Medical Brigade: A narrative of change

God heals physical and spiritual lives during OM Ecuador’s 2014 Medical Brigade in the Saraguro Canton region of Ecuador.




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Impacting lives, changing a community

OM Ecuador's annual mission school (ECTM) impacts 13 lives, while changing one community.




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Impacting youth in Cañar

“Jesus really died for me?” asks one child during a recent outreach in Cañar, where OM witnesses God impact many through sports and Bible study.




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Honouring the Lord, answering the call

Dr. Eddie and Jeanette Moore share testimonies and lessons in faith as newly appointed OM Ecuador interim country leaders.




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Salvation comes while waiting for healing

OM Ecuador team member Candy Arteaga shares a story that demonstrates how God leads us to Himself, even while we wait for healing.




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Taking the leap

The lives of children in a small Ecuadorian community are changed through the love of an OM and short-term team during a week of VBS.




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While in His presence

The figures of impact were impressive during a recent medical outreach in the indigenous region of Guamote in Ecuador. But only because He showed up.




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Shoulders to work alongside and to cry on

Carmita from the city of Pedernales and Rosita from the community of La Estancia acknowledge God's work through the OM teams sent to their people affected by the earthquake.




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Bringing hope and love to children

Candy Arteaga, serving with OM Ecuador, brings the love and hope of Jesus to children in a local hospital.




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No one too small to be a mobiliser

Nathan Schmutz, an OMer working in Latin America, shares how a five year-old girl embodies OM's new mission statement.




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Awakening Latin America

Doulos had a transforming impact on Latin America and its church. To this day, it is remembered as the initiator of the mission movement in Latin America.




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A Child's answered prayer

Jean Pierre's prayer was answered during a Christmas celebration with OM in La Estancia/Simón Bolívar which was impacted by the 2016 earthquake.




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God instead of a gun

A story of God's grace and the life changing transformation of Juan and his family in Santay Island, Ecuador.




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Impact from near and far

Manta, Ecuador :: Logos Hope's volunteers visit an area affected by the 2016 earthquake and share hope with children there.




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Clowns bringing Good News

Guayaquil, Ecuador :: Logos Hope's crewmembers visit children living with HIV, to tell them about their value in God's eyes and the power of prayer.




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St. Damien of Moloka'i

The Catholic Church remembers St. Damien of Molokai on May 10. The Belgian priest sacrificed his life and health to become a spiritual father to the victims of leprosy quarantined on a Hawaiian island.Joseph de Veuser, who later took the name Damien in religious life, was born into a farming family in the Belgian town of Tremlo in 1840. During his youth he felt a calling to become a Catholic missionary, an urge that prompted him to join the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.Damien's final vows to the congregation involved a dramatic ceremony in which his superiors draped him in the cloth that would be used to cover his coffin after death. The custom was meant to symbolize the young man's solemn commitment, and his identification with Christ's own death. For Damien, the event would become more significant, as he would go on to lay down his life for the lepers of Molokai.His superiors originally intended to send Damien's brother, a member of the same congregation, to Hawaii. But he became sick, and Damien arranged to take his place. Damien arrived in Honolulu in 1864, less than a century after Europeans had begun to establish a presence in Hawaii. He was ordained a priest the same year.During his ninth year of the priesthood, Father Damien responded to his bishop's call for priests to serve on the leper colony of Molokai. A lack of previous exposure to leprosy, which had no treatment at the time, made the Hawaiian natives especially susceptible to the infection. Molokai became a quarantine center for the victims, who became disfigured and debilitated as the disease progressed.The island had become a wasteland in human terms, despite its natural beauty. The leprosy victims of Molokai faced hopeless conditions and extreme deprivation, sometimes lacking not only basic palliative care but even the means of survival.Inwardly, Fr. Damien was terrified by the prospect of contracting leprosy himself. However, he knew that he would have to set aside this fear in order to convey God's love to the lepers in the most authentic way. Other missionaries had kept the lepers at arms' length, but Fr. Damien chose to immerse himself in their common life and leave the outcome to God.The inhabitants of Molokai saw the difference in the new priest's approach, and embraced his efforts to improve their living conditions. A strong man, accustomed to physical labor, he performed the Church's traditional works of mercy – such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and giving proper burial to the dead – in the face of suffering that others could hardly even bear to see.Fr. Damien's work helped to raise the lepers up from their physical sufferings, while also making them aware of their worth as beloved children of God. Although he could not take away the constant presence of death in the leper colony, he could change its meaning and inspire hope. The death-sentence of leprosy could, and often did, become a painful yet redemptive path toward eternal life.The priest's devotion to his people, and his activism on their behalf, sometimes alienated him from officials of the Hawaiian kingdom and from his religious superiors in Europe. His mission was not only fateful, but also lonely. He drew strength from Eucharistic adoration and the celebration of the Mass, but longed for another priest to arrive so that he could receive the sacrament of confession regularly.In December of 1884, Fr. Damien discovered that he had lost all feeling in his feet. It was an early, but unmistakable sign that he had contracted leprosy. The priest knew that his time was short. He undertook to finish whatever accomplishments he could, on behalf of his fellow colony residents, before the diseased robbed him of his eyesight, speech and mobility.Fr. Damien suffered humiliations and personal trials during his final years. An American Protestant minister accused him of scandalous behavior, based on the contemporary belief that leprosy was a sexually transmitted disease. He ran into disagreements with his religious superiors, and felt psychologically tormented by the notion that his work had been a failure.In the end, priests of his congregation arrived to administer the last sacraments to the dying priest. During the Spring of 1889, Fr. Damien told his friends that he believed it was God's will for him to spend the upcoming Easter not on Molokai, but in heaven. He died of leprosy during Holy Week, on April 15, 1889.St. Damien of Molokai was beatified in 1995. Pope Benedict XVI canonized him in 2009.



  • Saint of the Day

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Fascination with Figures - Bookkeeper needed!

Since 1 June 2011, OM Belgium has been without a bookkeeper. Since 1991, Andrew Bridges (UK) has served the OM Belgium as bookkeeper, but due to his son's education and Andrew's poor health, they have decided to return home.




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Expressions of God's love

OM Belgium and OM Arts creatively connect with the local community through drawings, song, poetry and flowers.




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Community outreach leads to new church

A new church in Tienen begins as a result of an OM outreach done in partnership with a church in Leuven.




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An opportunity to share Christ at Easter

For a young family in Belgium Easter provided a great opportunity to invite neighbours to church.




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Sharing Christ in Belgium

Personal friendships combined with special events prove effective in sharing Christ with Belgians.




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‘Sweet’ music in the ‘sweetest’ town in Belgium

Offering concerts in private settings in Tienen, Belgium, proves effective in connecting with youth.




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Living out faith in a Red Cross uniform

Two OM team members experienced the bombings in Belgium firsthand as Red Cross volunteers.




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Website & social media lead to ministry

Milena found mission opportunities on OM Germany’s website, which led her to share the love of God in Belgium.




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fACTOR: mentoring volunteers in Belgium

Relationships, mentoring, fun, practical work, spiritual growth and learning to love others are all part of OM Belgium's fACTOR programme.




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Pieces of the puzzle

A suitcase sermon illustration helped Fredi understand what God had in store for him through full-time ministry with OM.




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Combining personal passion with ministry

Ride2Transform allows teams on two wheels to pedal far and wide, praying and sharing the love of Christ in least reached areas in Europe and Africa.




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Colombian returns to begin OM's work in her native country

Martha Ardila spent several years serving in OM's ship ministry. This year, after visiing the OM Andean Region headquarters in Ecuador and being commmissioned, she returns to Colombia to official begin OM's work in her native country.




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Relief for Colombian flood victims

Nearly two million people have been affected by the recent flooding in Colombia. The torrential rains that hit the country in the past few months caused its worst flooding in 40 years. Over 240 people have died and many had to leave their homes behind, especially along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. OM Colombia is helping out with relief work.




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Colombia calling!

Though it’s one of the smallest teams in OM, OM Colombia, lead by Colombian Martha Ardila, makes big plans for the future.




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Joy cannot be imprisoned

OM Colombia and the Bolivar Prison Fellowship partner to bring Christmas joy to the inmates of the San Diego Women’s Jail in Cartagena last month.




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Remembering those in prison

Martha Ardila, representative of OM in Colombia, and volunteer Lourdes Arnedo recently started offering workshops in prisons in Cartagena.




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Freedom for the prisoners

OM Colombia sees lives change as inmates of the prison in Cartagena, Colombia, learn about God’s love and work to better their lives through crafts.




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Our actions leave their mark on society

The Gospel is primarily about relationships that impact, influence and are relevant, states Pastor Hugo Echeverri, a representative of OM in Colombia.




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Spiritual and physical freedom

Adela, a lady from the women’s prison in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, was baptised during the encounter called ‘Woman, you are free’.




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Bienvenido a América latina!

Santa Marta, Colombia :: Logos Hope is welcomed to a new region of the world, where the ship's community is adjusting to a new language.




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Thinking outside the box

Santa Marta, Colombia :: Logos Hope's crew moves programmed events off the ship and on to shore.