Almeidas in Mission

Christmas with our enlarged family

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Wed, 21 May 2014 02:12:00 +0000

Christmas and New Year's season in 2013 was a time of many activities, between concerts at the kids' school, special activities at the church, and the special dinners of these days that we spent together with the married couples who are students at the seminary, and could not go back to their places of origen due to their kids' school.

Christmas Dinner

New Year

There was still time for a visit to one of our favorite places in Ecuador - the city of Otavalo - where we were received by two of our students of quitchua background at their house, and we finally had for the first time "cuy" to eat ("guinea pig").

Peguchi Waterfall - Otavalo

Our hosts

Cuy

Learning to cut the cuy

Significant Events in 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Thu, 15 May 2014 21:27:00 +0000

After a long time of silence, we want to re-establish, once again, contact with our readers and highlight a few events that marked the life and ministry of our family in the year 2013 which happened after our last published article in this blog.

We are thankful for our readers' patience during this time in which we have not published any additional news. Our ministerial responsibilities, and the whole learning process of our new functions both as president and administrator of the seminary has limited our time to keep this blog updated. But here are some of the most significant moments of the second part of 2013.

Golden Anniversary of the Pires family

In July of 2013, God gave us the privilege to be with Liliana's parents in Cape Verde to celebrate together with the whole family their 50th wedding anniversary. Fernando had the honor of conducting the ceremony as master of ceremonies, while Rev. Gilberto Évora was the minister conducting the renewal of vows for the Pires couple. The ceremony took place in the beautiful Mindelo Church of the Nazarene in Cape Verde.

50th Anniversary Celebration

During this time we had the opportunity to reestablish connection with some churches from the Cape Verde District where we had the opportunity to preach and share about our ministry in missionary services.

Missions' service in Mindelo

Distinguished Visitors at STNS

We had the privilege of hosting several events during 2013. Twice we received the Latin American students enrolled in the Doctoral program DMin of Nazarene Theological Seminary of Kansas City, USA. This group has representatives from the two Latin America Regions. South America and Mesoamerica. This is a NTS initiative that opens the opportunity for students to study in their own home regions without the need of moving to the US. STNS and SENDAS (in Costa Rica) were the approved institutions to receive this group of students.

Doctoral Students

We also had the joy of meeting and hosting the first president of STNS, Dr. Wilfrido Canales. Despite the little time we had together due to the responsibilities we both had to fulfill, it was great to meet him a bit better and listen to him preach in one of our chapel services.

Dr. Wilfrido Canales in Chapel

First and Current President

Another important guest was Dr. Alfonso Ropero. During the time of promoting his new Theological Dictionary, he reserved some time to be at STNS and share a conference about the "Bible in Post-Modernity".

Dr. Alfonso Ropero

VIII AETAL Continental Theological Conference

STNS is one of the affiliated institutions of the AETAL, the Associação de Educação Teológica de América Latina, as such we had the opportunity to participate at a Theology Conference with Latin American theologians serving in different institutions and with different theological backgrounds. We shared about theology, theological education, and the relationship between the church and the academia.

Attendees

Group of Participants

XXV 2013 STNS Graduation: Lic. Liliana Almeida

The academic year ended with another graduation ceremony. This was the 25th ceremony that STNS organized in its history. The theme for the ceremony was "Servants with Clean Hands and Pure Hearts", thus focusing in the minister's character that concludes his/her studies at STNS.

STNS Leadership Team

The tradition of South American seminaries is to name the graduating class after a person selected by the community to be honored by his/her ministry among students, and/or contribution for academic or ecclesiastical development. This year Liliana was the person selected to receive this honor from STNS.

Entrance of Faculty

We praise God for the 21 graduates of the 2013 Graduation, two of which were graduates of the Masters program that took place based on a partnership with our sister institution from Costa Rica, SENDAS. 5 of the graduates came from the ETED program thus concluding their ministerial studies through our Theological Education Extension Centers in the North Andean Field.

2013 Graduates

São Paulo District Missionary Conference

Although these highlights have been focused on STNS, both Liliana and Fernando keep involved with the Regional Ministries of Nazarene Missions International and Missionary Mobilization, respectively.

Missionary Service

Before the end of 2013, we participated in a Missionary Conference of the São Paulo District, Brazil, which took place at the Valinhos Church. Approximately 50 leaders including pastores, NMI Presidents and people interested in serving as missionaries participated of the event. The purpose of the event was to make known the NMI ministry and some of the resources available for the local churches, it was also a time to make known the missionary needs of the denomination in the world and how as Christian in local churches one can be involved in missionary projects, and at the same time, it was an inspiration time to listen to God through preaching and devotional times with a missionary focus.

Worshiping Congregation

Speakers and District NMI President

These are the highlights that we would like to share with you since our last article. Shortly we will be sending more news about current events that are marking our lives in this new year. Stay tuned for our next article!

Reconnecting with our readers

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:19:00 +0000

It was about time to update the news of the family and our ministry. It's incredible what God had done with us, to the point that sometimes we feel like we are on a roller-coaster. But the most incredible things is that He has been right there besides us in the middle of all the activity, and His faithfulness has been more noticeable than ever.
These first months of the year have been months of much activity. We will do our best to bring you up-to-date:

Beginning of the school year at the seminary: In January, we started our new school year. We received new students from Colombia and Ecuador, and also for the first time in some time we also got students from Peru. In residence, we have a group of approximately 30 students. We are thankful to God for each one of these that has arrived, and that the Lord is still raising people to prepare themselves for ministry. Please pray with us for resources for students' scholarships as many of them come from a background of financial challenges.
Change in Leadership: It was also in January that we got the news that our seminary rector had resigned and that he would be leaving the institution by the end of February. We started praying for the transition, knowing that God had the institution in His hands and he would certainly not let it fall with this change.
District Assemblies in Bolivia: At the request of our Regional Director, Fernando had the privilege to travel once more to Bolivia to chair the District Assemblies in Bolivia El Alto and Bolivia La Paz districts. These are two phase 3 districts. It was a special time of personal challenge and for the Bolivian church in these assemblies. We felt blessed by God in this opportunity to serve Him once more in this Country.
Bolivia La Paz District Assembly
Cross-Cultural Orientación (CCO): In February we had the opportunity to visit the church in Indaiatuba in São Paulo, Brazil, where we were able to minister the CCO to some brothers and sisters who have shown interest in serving in missions. This is a basic training focusing on the dynamics of culture and cross-cultural communication, an explanation of the process to become a missionary in the Church of the Nazarene, and it's also an opportunity for the participants to gain further self-awareness about themselves. We had a group of 32 attending and 11 of which had a personalized interview in which we gave an orientation based on the individual's needs. We are now to the point of getting to the last steps of the process of sending one of these individuals to serve in Africa as volunteer missionary.
CCO Participants - Indaiatuba
NMI Convention in Guayaquil, Ecuador: It was a great privilege for Liliana and Fernando to serve the Costa District in Ecuador at the District NMI Convention. Liliana was chairing the Convention while Fernando had the opportunity to preach. It was a blessing to see these Nazarenes committed with the missionary work at the global scale. This district, through a new initiative, was able to triple the amount of offerings sent to the World Evangelism Fund. God continues to raise the means to further His Mission..
New Challenges: March was Fernando's birthday, and as if it was a birthday gift, we received the news that the Board of Regents of Seminario Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano (STNS), had elected him to become the new rector for the institution for the period of two years. This was totally unexpected to us... it had never crossed our minds that this would happen, but God knows how He does things, and the only thing we did as family was to respond to the call and say: "Here we are, send us."
Rector's Installation Service

Rector's Installation Service
South America Rectors' Council and Doctorate Classes: During April we hosted to important groups. The South America Council of Rectors meets once a year to share what is going on in each of the theological education institutions on the Region, as well as to receive new inspiration for the work that each of us undertake. This year, STNS was the host for this group and it was a great honor for us to have such a distinct group among us. During this event we also had the installation service for the new rector of STNS. We also hosted a group of Latinamerican students who are working on their D.Min sponsored by Nazarene Theological Seminary, Kansas City, USA.
South American Rectors

South American Rectors
ETED Directors Meeting in Colombia. ETED stands for (in Spanish) "Theological Education by Extension". During the final days of April, Fernando traveled to Colombia to have a meeting with the TEE Directors of the Country in order to motivate, give orientation and challenge them regarding the work of our Extension Centers in Colombia. Each of the districts was represented by its director, which besides presenting a short report, allowed us to work together some steps towards the future of TEE education in Colombia. We explored opportunities for formal and informal education. It was also a good time for companionship and for the leadership of STNS to get a better grasp of the realities faced by the TEE Centers.

TEE Meeting - Colombia

These first four months, as you can see were of great activity, but we were able to see God's hand in all things, directing, motivating, and renewing our strengths. God is faithful and will continue to be faithful!

Fall Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 22:42:00 +0000

Fall has arrived and with it so have come several important events for our family and for our ministry in Ecuador. One of such events was the Fall Festival at the Alliance Academy International.

Choir

High school students, besides the normal classes, can choose some of the classes they take. This year, Nicole chose to be a part of the AAI Choir. After auditioning, she was selected and soon practice started which resulted in the beautiful Fall Festival presentation.

Concert Band

The Festival lasted about a hour, and besides the choir, the concert band, jazz band and Ensemble (a select group of voices) also participated.

Jazz Band

The choir performances don't end here, though. In a few weeks we will have the Christmas Concert and besides the high school choir, it will also feature the participation of elementary classes. Later in the year we will also have the Spring Concert.

This made us go back in time a few years, when in the beginnings of our ministry Fernando was in the charge of conducting the church choir, and Liliana was part of the choir, and this was one of the first ministries that we developed.

Here's a short excerpt of the performance (if you can't see the video, please click here):

Celebrating 5 years of ministry in diversity

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 04:30:00 +0000

Two weeks ago we had the great joy of participating in the celebration of the 5th anniversary of the church that we chose to be a part of here in Ecuador. - The Comunidad Cristiana Nazarena Restauración (CCNR).

It was a full week of celebrations with activities for the youth, teens, men, ladies and children. Each group represented at the church had its special time to express its celebration for the 5 years of this church's ministry.

Children's Celebration Program

In the context of the celebrations there was a time for a short choreography presentation by a few little ones whom Nicole our daughter coached. This has always been a ministry that has been very dear to her heart and God used her to bless these little ones and also the congregation.

Pastor Jean-David

The church's pastor, Rev. Jean-David Larochelle, made of this time a very special time for the people who are members of this community. In the services on both Sundays we saw a congregation of over 200 people coming for the celebration.

One of the highlights of the celebration was the service when all the nations represented in the congregation presently were recognized. The diversity of nations has certainly been one of the sustained values of this church. We, thus, had nations represented from Europe, Caribbean North America, Africa, and other Countries of South America.

Nations Represented at CCNR

Liliana carrying the flag of Cape Verde

Fernando carrying the flag of Portugal

This celebration was a time to challenge the church to re-affirm its identity and to express it in the context of the community itself, but also in the context in which each member is immersed. In the opening service of the celebration, the church's pastors and some invited preachers preached about the Biblical images of the church. On the second Sunday service, pastor Jean-David focused his challenge in the text from Isaiah 6 and challenged the church to live holiness in a missional way.

Leadership Team of CCNR

These 5 years were also a celebration of God's faithfulness who, throughout the challenges lived individually and collectively by the community has always been the "ever-present help, in trouble." (Psa. 46:1)

We praise God for this Nazarene community and for its ministry and local mission of a global reach.

Ministering in the Costa Norte District

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:21:00 +0000

It has been almost two months since we got back from our home assignment in Cape Verde and Portugal. This was a wonderful time to visit the churches, share about our ministry and challenge each local church to continue to faithfully contribute for missions.
Our first visit, after arriving back in Ecuador, was to the Costa Norte District of Ecuador. It's a small district, still in the earlier stages of its development. This trip took us to the cities of Santo Domingo and Quinindé.

Rev. Jefferson Estevez and Family

We had marked on our calendar, before our departure on home assignment, a meeting with the National Coordinator for Missionary Mobilization, Rev. Jefferson Estevez, so that together we could think on strategies to develop this ministry nationwide in Ecuador. It was a wonderful time of sharing and to getting in touch with the needs of this national coordinator to move forward with this ministry.
Besides this meeting, we had the privilege of preaching at a NYI event that took place in the beautiful city of Quinindé. We had already heard of this local church of the Nazarene through the contact we have had with young members of this church who are students at the Seminário Teológico Nazareno. Young people arrived in buses from different cities. This was a special time to receive from the Lord and to consecrate to Him our lives for the ministry that He has prepared for His children.

NYI Group in the meeting

Worship Team Leading the Youth

Preaching Time

Response to the Challenge

After this energetic youth time, we were able to have some brief moments of fellowship with the local pastoral family. We received an open invitation to visit this church at another opportunity.
We spent the night in Santo Domingo and had service the next day at pastor's Jefferson church. The church is going through a remodeling process as they are building a second floor because they were running out of space for Sunday School. The church was committed in investing its resources and labor in the improvement of its space. It was great to see the commitment from the youngest to the oldest in this effort of better accommodating the spaces for continuous growth.
After a challenge from God's Word, once again the people came to Him in prayer and searching for His presence in their lives.

We hold this District and these two churches very dear to our hearts and hope we can be a blessing to them again some time in the future.

Promoting and Doing Missions in Cape Verde

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:14:00 +0000

In our last post we shared about our experience in promoting missions in Portugal, as part of our home assignment in our Home Country.

But we couldn't leave untold the story of our amazing experience in Cape Verde. As you may know, Liliana is originally from Cape Verde, thus this time it was in our hearts the desire to share about our missionary ministry with the district that saw her grow up.

Missionary Services in Mindelo

We had a wonderful time in the Cape Verde islands, where we could share about our ministry in the following churches: Mindelo (3 days), Palamarejo (1 week), Monte Sossego (1 Sunday), Ribeira Bote (1 Sunday). We felt very welcomed and were blessed by the pastors and members of these churches. We had great opportunities to share about the ministry we are developing as missionaries in Ecuador. We were so sorry that we could not stay, due to other agenda commitments, for the big celebration of the District Assembly which started just one day before our departure to return to Ecuador.
Besides these missionary services at these churches, we would also highlight the wonderful time we had in Santiago Island at the Palmarejo Church. We had a mix of services: Holiness, Youth, and Evangelism. We had the opportunity to preach evangelistically at 3 preaching points that are being opened by this church, in open-air services, in which we saw God's moving through the many decisions made for Christ in these evenings.

Evangelistic Team: Porto Mosquito

Decisions in Salineiro

It was also contagious the enthusiasm we saw in the leaders and youth that accompanied us for these three evangelistic services, as well as at services we held at the mother church.

Opening Service: District Assembly

We are thankful to the district and to the pastores and missions leaders of these church who received us with great love for this home assignment. We felt very blessed with your support to our ministry and your love and care demonstrated towards us, and we hope we were also able to be of blessing to you.

See more pictures of our home assignment in Portugal and Cape Verde here.

Promoting our Missionary Work

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:27:00 +0000

Last June 15 we arrived in Portugal for our Home Assignment time. This is a time when we are informing the local churches of our district about the ministries that we are developing in South America - our current field of missionary service.

Costa do Sol Church

This time we will take 3 out of the 6 weeks to visit the churches in our sending District, and the other 3 weeks we will visit the churches in the District of Cape Verde, the District of origen of Liliana.

On our first Sunday in Portugal we visited our local church - Costa do Sol. This is the church that sent us to the Mission field 8 years ago. It was great to greet the people there and share a time of fellowship with the youth group after the service.

On our second Sunday we visited the Central Church in Lisboa. We were able to visit with old friends and also saw many new faces in this church which in a very practical and close way supported us as we started in our ministry career, and is still partnering with our missionary service in Ecuador and South America. Sunday afternoon, we visited the church in Alcoitão. A church with which we got involved in supplying its pulpit during a time of pastoral transition while we were the pastors of the Mercês church. We have these brothers in our hearts and continue to pray in a very special way for our colleague Quim Lima and family who is going through a very difficult time with his health.

We still have services in three more churches. Next Sunday we will be at the church that literally saw Fernando growing up, then we will be at its daughter-church, and lastly we will return to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area for our last service.

Besides speaking at these services we will also be ministering two training workshops for NMI ministry and in this way also give our share part of support to the development of the ministry of the church of the Nazarene in Portugal.

During this period of intense travel and ministry we would appreciate your prayers for the whole family.

Honoring our Host Country

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Sun, 27 May 2012 22:47:00 +0000

This weekend we had an extended weekend due to the national holiday of the Pichincha Battle, which was decisive for the formation and establishment of Ecuador as a sovereign Nation.

As part of the official celebrations, the President of the Republic decreed that on this date, schools would hold the public acts of pledge of allegiance to the flag of Ecuador for the students in their last year of high school.

The ceremony at the Alliance Academy International, the school that André and Nicole attend to, was made with great solemnity. Besides the presence of the school's authorities, we also had the official representation of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, through the branches of the Air Force and National Police.

The ceremony started with the entrance of all the flags representing all the Nations that are represented in the school's community. Nicole proudly took the flag of Portugal. We became aware that there 34 Nations represented at the school.

The ceremony continued with the students in their last year of high school pledging allegiance to the flag of Ecuador. They first did this collectively and than individually. For those students with a different nationality, they would simply bow before the flag in respect for the Nation of Ecuador instead of pledging their allegiance.

It was a beautiful ceremony in which, once again, we felt a high sense of patriotism in the South American nations. This same feeling we felt also previously in Argentina in the public acts celebrated in the schools.

Celebrating the 40th Church Anniversary in Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:30:00 +0000

In March we celebrated the entrance of the Church of the Nazarene to minister in Ecuador, with all of the Ecuadorian Church. Representatives from all six districts got together in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador for this great celebration.

We were honored with the presence of the international leaders of the denomination and with the presence of the pioneer missionary couple of the Nazarene work in Ecuador - the Swain family.

It was a memorable and emotional time. We heard a little of the history of the moments of the opening of the work in Ecuador when the Swain family would go out to the streets with the accordion and would start playing and soon they would have children around them, soon after they would start a Bible study with their parents, and later on an organized church was born. This made me go back to my childhood and teenage years when we would do evangelistic gatherings in the city park and my pastor would also start playing the accordion and we would end up with a wonderful open-air service.

This was also a time to recognize the work of the Bustle family leading the development of Global Mission for the past years. We also had a special moment of seeing the first generation of pastors and church planters in Ecuador to pass on the baton to the new generations so that they continue the work of expanding the ministry of the church in this Country.

What a greater way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the church, than with an ordination service with the presence of Dr. David Graves our Jurisdictional General Superintendent.

On sunday, several of the church of the Costa District joined the celebration at a gymnasium to celebrate a great closing service of all the celebrations. It was a time to celebrate, challenges, and fellowship at the Lord's Table.

We left the event blessed and challenged to keep on moving forward with the conviction that much more and greater years are ahead of God's Church in Ecuador.

Ministering in our Ecuadorian local church

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 23:19:00 +0000

After visiting several churches in the city, we have almost for sure defined that we will be congregating at the Comunidad Cristiana Nazarena Restauración. This is a church very close to the center of the city, and that its membership is composed of people from different nationalities and the pastor Jean David Larochelle is a very good personal friend and an outstanding preacher.

In the beginning of March we had the privilege of opening a new series of sermons about the 7 churches of Asia Minor in the book of Revelation, in this service Nicole had the opportunity to participate with a special music along with our "adopted son" from Argentina, Samuel, who for about a month was visiting us in Ecuador. Here's a short video of this special participation in the service.

Celebrating in Otavalo

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Two months have gone by since our last post. It's time to bring you up to date.. In February we decided to take advantage of the Carnaval Holiday (not to enjoy Carnaval, as you might have thought :-) ), but to have a couple of wonderful days of celebration of some important events for the family in the city of Otavalo.
We took advantage and with one stroke we celebrated Liliana's and Fernando's birthdays, and our wedding anniversary (this year we reached 20 years of marriage, in five years more we will celebrate our silver wedding anniversary).
This was a time to enjoy as family in this beautiful city, very rural and well-known for its crafts and indigenous culture.
We were able to walk through the city center and its famous flea-market (it kind of made me remember of the flea-market in Praça de Espanha in Lisbon, Portugal in the 80s and 90s) and we also enjoyed the time by the lake San Pablo which is very close to the city.
Here I leave you with some pictures of the place.

Volcano Cotacaxi

Lake San Pablo (Volcano Ibambura)

Disciples in Ministry arrives in East Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:38:00 +0000

About a month ago we had the opportunity to travel to the East of Ecuador, to the city of Macas, to present the regional vision for an integrated discipleship system (link to page in Spanish).
It was an amazingly beautiful trip winding down the road through the mountains until we reached the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon.
The purpose of the trip was to share with the leaders and the lay people of the Austro district the vision of every church member becoming a minister (servant) in the ministry that God has conferred upon him/her to serve the body of Christ. More than 50 people came for the event, we shared with them God's desire for every active member of the body of Christ, and gave them the opportunity to offer themselves to God for the ministry He has given them.
Following a general presentation of the various ministry for which discipleship and equipping materials were developed, we had a presentation of 6 introductory workshops in the following ministries: NYI, NMI, SDMI, Compassion, Communications, Ladies.
Our brothers and sisters were very encouraged with the possibilities of involving themselves in a ministry according to the gifts received from God, and were already willing to schedule a second training event which would be more focused in the ministry they were willing to commit to.
The previous day, despite the long 8 hour journey, we arrived for a special meeting with the pastors to get to know them and challenge them to capture this vision of involving every member in their local church in active ministry. It was a blessed time to share about the ministries and challenges of this particular region of Ecuador.
This was another initiative to challenge all of the South American Nazarene constituency to "Live out the Great Commission"

A challenge for Missions

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:44:00 +0000

Last December we travelled to Guayaquil in response to an invitation from the Ecuadorian National NMI Coordinator to visit her church and a church-type mission in another town.

This sister invited us to take a Missions' challenge, and what a blessing it was to arrive at a church with very limited financial resources, that is just starting its services to the local community, but that from the very beginning is concerned in teaching and challenging its members to think beyond the local needs.

The trip was longer than expected thus we did not arrive in time for the worship. But the brothers of the church had a presentation about the topic of compassion, taken from the life of Jesus. We were blessed by remembering that our Lord had as part of His mission on earth to respond to the spiritual, social and physician needs of human beings.

At the end we gave them a challenge based in Acts 1:8 having them remember that our mission is not limited to our Jerusalem, but that God has sent us to the whole world. During the sermon Liliana shared the story of her church and how it is living the great commission with a global vision and a local action.

We ended our visit with a time for social sharing with the brothers and sisters of the church and we were able to tell them of some of our experiences. When we returned to Guayaquil it was really late, but we felt that it was well worth it our time investment and presence with these brothers and sisters in the church.

Starting up a New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:19:00 +0000

It has been a while that we have not updated our news, but I think it's still in good order to wish everyone of our followers a much blessed year of 2012.

January started full steam ahead, full of activities. Since the 16th our clases started at the Seminário Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano (STNS). God has blessed us in an incredible way by sending us a group of 26 students in residence, and the great majority of these are starting their first year of studies. We have students from Ecuador and Colombia. Unfortunately we have no one from Venezuela in residence this time.

The range of services of STNS is not limited to residential students though. The majority of our students are spread out through the 17 district decentralized education centers, and we also have students participating in virtual education classes through the internet.

The start up of this new year brought some news to everyone:

Greater intentionality in character formation. Character development is one of the fundamental points of the educational philosophy of the Church of the Nazarene for its ministers. We are implementing some new systems that will allow us to be more intentional in this area. Some of these include: Mentoring groups, times for the development of spiritual formation habits (namely we designated a date for an institutional time of prayer and fasting, we are closely following up on the development of personal devotional habits of each student, etc.).
Improvements in the services offered to the students. We have as a goal for this year to complete the replacement of floors in the dorm rooms. We also received some help for a project to replace some of the kitchen elements that have already completed their due time of service.
Two new teachers teaching. Both Liliana and I are teaching our first courses at STNS. Liliana is teaching "Introduction to Sociology" and I teaching "Church Leadership and Administration", both these courses are being taught in this first teaching block.
Greater intentionality and focus in equipping students for church planting. All of our students need to be involved in new church planting projects under the direction and pedagogical supervision of STNS. This will help them to develop practical skills not only to pastor an existing church on the district they are from, but also to have a vision to plant new churches.

We ask for your prayers for this new group of students that has arrived to STNS. That God may use well this time to work in their individual lives, and that He may use every member of the faculty of the institution as a tool to develop the leaders that He needs for His Church.

Please see more pictures here.

Missionary Conference and Special Service in Riobamba

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:12:00 +0000

Before the end of October we had the opportunity to share at the Sierra Centro District Missionary Conference. This event was designed to motivate the local leaders of NMI of the district.
This event was planned by the National leadership of NMI. It was a time for praise, worship, motivation, and consecration to God's service, so that He uses us in fulfilling the mission.
This was a weekend trip in which we got to know a bit more of the natural wonders of Ecuador. We passed real close to three very well known volcanos in Ecuador: Cotopaxi; Tungurahua; and Chimborazo. We arrived just in time for the opening service with a tremendous challenge of consecration.
The following day, Liliana and I shared three training workshops for NMI leaders which are part of the Regional initiative Disciples in Ministry.
NMI leaders from the city of Riobamba and from other parts of the district came for this conference, some of them traveled more than 10 hours to arrive at the event.
It was a special time not only for discovering more about this ministry for the local church, but also of consecration to God and the Mission He has proposed to us.

On Sunday, we visited the Bella Vista Church of the Nazarene in Riobamba. It was a time of blessing and again of missionary challenge. The church is pastored by a friend and colleague whom we met in Argentina, and whom as soon as we got to Ecuador, called us inviting us for a missionary service at his church. It was a special time of consecration and re-discovering the mission of the church and our role in the development of such mission.
On this same weekend, the pastoral family was blessed with the arrival of a new member. It was great to share these moments of joy with the pastoral family.
See more pictures of these events and of the city of Riobamba here.

First Weeks in Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Time goes by real fast. It has been three weeks since we arrived in Ecuador, in which many important events happened.

Week 1: Nicole and André did all the testing and interviews to be admitted to the new school the Alliance Academy International. It was a week in which we went to the school every day since one or the other of our kids would either have an interview or had to take a test. But by thursday of that week we had the response of the admissions committee. They had both been admitted to the school and would start classes the following week. During this same week we registered our visas with a government office. We started to drive a car, or better to say, a "tank" through the streets of Quito, and at least we can get to 3 shopping centers, and to the kids' school without getting lost. On the saturday we relaxed and went to visit the museum and monument of "Mitad del Mundo" (half of the world)- it's worth to check the pictures. On Sunday, we visited our first church in Quito.

Week 2: The kids started classes and the parents started to know better the Seminário Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano where they will be working. We had interviews with the rector and he explained to both of us our new jobs and what were his expectations, then we had individual interviews with all of those who will be serving along side us. Fernando is taking the responsibility of being the seminary's administrator and Liliana will be working on developing the relationship with donors and friends of the seminary. Liliana also had his first experience to go to a street market and learn that she had to negotiate the prices for vegetables and fruits. On saturday there was special event of DIM - Disciples in Ministry of the Sierra North District. We were able to help our missionary colleagues with the logistics of the event and were introduced to the pastors and district leaders of this district. On Sunday, we visited our second church in Quito - Cotocollao.

Week 3: We started working in "Full" in our new assignments, learning more and more about the way the seminary works and starting to take action in the assignments entrusted to us. Liliana did her second trip to the market and she is really getting the hang of it in negotiating prices. On Sunday, the family visited the third church in Quito - since I had to travel to Brazil to attend to Regional business, this is the church that is right next to the property where we live.

We are now feeling more accustomed to the new city, but we still have a great need, for which we ask your prayers. We need to sell our car in Argentina so that we can buy our car in Ecuador. We are so very thankful for the kindness of the Ecuadorian Mission which is letting us use a van for our transportation, but this is not the ideal for many reasons. Thus we ask that you to pray with us for a buyer for our car to come up as soon as possible.

Arrival in Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:30:00 +0000

After many struggles with the documentation , we can finally say - We have arrived in Ecuador!

However, our trip was not uneventful. Our trip from Argentina to Quito, would take us through Santiago, Chile and Guayaquil, Ecuador. The check-in went fine in Argentina and supposedly our bags would go through all the way to Quito - which was an important aspect of our trip especially thinking that we had 6 bags total + the carry-ons).

The trip went normally, until we got to the city of Guayaquil, one of the important cities of the Ecuadorian coast. The pilot started to say that we had bad weather in Quito, and thus we had to wait a little bit to see if the weather would clear out. In the meantime a flight assistance came by counting the passengers and their families. One hour later, we finally got the notice - the Quito airport was closed due to bad weather!

We all had to leave the plane, do immigrations in Guayaquil, and get our luggage, yes… all 6 bags and it was already 1am when we finally were able to clear the whole process of immigrations and customs.

The airline took care of everything, but the part of the ground transportation was terribly organized, and because of that we had to haul around 6 bags and carry-ones, from one place to another, until we were able to find the bus that we were supposed to get on.

When we got to the hotel, very good one I must say, we were still able to eat since we had had no dinner, the only thing was that it was a meal at 2am and we were thinking more in bed than eating. But since it was there prepared for us, we decided to eat and we were even able to eat an amazing ceviche of shrimp as it is prepared in Ecuador.

While on the bus, the airline employee told us that we could rest well and have a late morning until 10am of the next day, since only around this time they would start to re-schedule everyone to go to Quito. He even told us to enjoy all the hotel had to offer… as we say in Portuguese: "He would have done better by keeping his mouth shut!" At 7am we got a call in the room (of course we were sound asleep), and we were told we had to rush immediately to the airport. It was another rushed day starting, as you can imagine, and with the 6 big bags and carryons again. And to make things worst, no ground transportation was provided - it was more of the style "every man for himself".

We managed to arrive at the airport, do the check-in, and around noon of the following day we made it to Quito. We were very well received by our new direct supervisor, the Field Director and his wife.

We arrived at our new home to rest about 3pm, after having a good lunch with our new missionary colleagues alongside whom we're serving in Ecuador.

Our move was not without challenges, but we feel very blessed and with great expectations for what the Lord will do in us and through us in our new ministries.

A much expected move… but too sudden!

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:17:00 +0000

In my home Country we used to say that life takes many turns. Nothing could be more true! We experienced this last week.

After almost a month of delay in the process of our move to Ecuador, which was actually making us very anxious, last week on monday we went to the Ecuadorian Consulate in Buenos Aires to present all the documentation they were requiring for the visa. This time all was in good order, but they said we would have to wait to see which date the visa would come out. They said they would call us.

As a very pleasant surprise, on tuesday we got the call from the Consulate saying that our visas would be ready on thursday.

As a result of this news chaos installed in our home: goodbyes, time with friends, running after the last documents for the shipment (yes… I did at least three trips to capital in this week), sell the last things, close suitcases, buy the tickets, take more and more trash out in order to empty the house (yes… I know this seems insane to leave in such a short-notice, but we did not want our kids to miss another week of classes).

But we didn't leave without eating a great Argentinean Asado cooked by our friend Ever, in which we finally tried the famous "chicholines". This was a closure with a golden key of our last night in Argentina. And as we say in Argentina… "let's give a hand of applause to the Asador".

It's true that we had been waiting for a long time for the day of our move, and all of the sudden, in the space of 4 days, since we learned of the visa being issued, we left Argentina.

We left some pending issues and ask for your prayers for the sale of our last things, one of which is our car, since we cannot purchase a new car in Ecuador before selling the car in Argentina.

Our things are leaving!

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 02:34:00 +0000

Last Wednesday the day started really early. It was the great day to pack our stuff for the move. The moving company came in really early, and after we showed them around what had to be packed, they immediately started packing stuff.

It was a day spent running back and forth, searching for things that needed to go, separating the things that had to stay, and trying to keep the process as much organized as we could.

The truth of the matter is that the team that came really surprised us. They started around 9am and before 4pm they were already leaving the campus on their way to the deposit where our things will be stored until all the processes are done with customs. They packed 282 cubic feet in more or less 5 hours, since we took a 1 hour lunch break.

Now the only pending thing is the documentation for the visa. Without it we cannot travel, and we cannot start to process the shipment through customs. We have 30 days of free storage offered by the moving company, but we would rather spend this time with our shipment on the way to Guayaquil (port of entry in Ecuador), rather than having it sit in storage.

We ask for your prayers through this process. The document that was missing was not ready, as had been promised, last Friday, and we were given a delay for having it for another week.

We are exploring a few other options to see if we can get the document any time earlier or accelerate the process for issuing the visa in the passport. Please pray, that we find the best solution to this problem. We really need to start our trip over to Quito due to our kids schooling needs, since the school year already started.

We are confident in God's promise:

"But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard" (Isa. 52:12, NIV)

At the same time we believe that our God is the owner of time and space and He oversees over all earthly authority. We trust that in His time, He will move things around so that we are able to leave in peace, and tranquility, leaving the things pertaining the current assignment solved, and being ready to take on the new responsibilities.

Thank you for supporting us with your intercession!

Two Strikes

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:35:00 +0000

Fernando arrived from the USA about two weeks ago, and we already got two strikes in our attempts to score and get the visa to Ecuador.

We went to the Consulate with all the documentation and soon we discovered that some papers were missing which we need to have taken care of in Argentina, and we needed to have some documents corrected in Ecuador. What can we do? There's not much we can do… we only have to respect and be patient with the authorities of this new Country we will be living in.

No doubt that this is frustrating, and causes some emotional and physical distress (as we live about 35 miles away from the Consulate and have to "fight" the traffic each day we have to go), but we are still confident that God is in control and that it is He who has the control of times and not us.

For now, we can only wait and pray that God will open all the necessaries doors in Ecuador so that as soon as possible we can receive the needed corrected documents in our hands, so we can start the visa process with the Consulate in Argentina.

We invite you to join us in prayer these days!

Enhancements on the Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Hello there dear readers.

Just wanted to point out a few new features on the blog that may be of interest to you.

Some of you may have already noticed that we're offering two subscriptions options: 1) One of these options is by registering your e-mail in this page; 2) The other option is to subscribe to the blog's feed via your favorite RSS reader. Both these options will allow you to be alerted whenever a new update is made to the blog and this way you will be sure not to miss any updates. Using the first option you will receive an e-mail in your inbox with the update text. The second option will put this blog's feed along with all other feeds you might be following.

The other feature I want to mention is that you can now choose to have the page of this blog translated via Google Translate™ to Spanish, French or German. It won't be as good as a dynamic translation, but it will do well for those who can't understand English very well.

You can also follow the blog's using your google ID, through Google Friend Connect.

Hope these are helpful features to you.

Great Time at Children's Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:00:00 +0000

During our visit in Philadelphia, we were invited to participate at children's camp and be the missionary "in residence".

This was the first time we accepted this responsibility at a Children's camp. We never felt very comfortable with it, and this time, since the family is not together, I felt a bit more uncomfortable. Liliana is the one who usually is a better communicator with kids.

But these were wonderful awesome days. It was great to see the chidren's interest in missions, about other Countries and Cultures, and about what it means to be a missionary. I ended up speaking 8 times in 2 days for different groups of children.

The theme for the camp was "serve", thus it was easy to make the definition of a missionary fit the theme as someone who is serving the Kingdom of God in another Country.

In the last day, I even signed shirts for the kids, as the campers wanted to take them home as souvenirs of the camp. We pray that God will make these days memorable and of great challenge for the children of the Philadelphia district.

Thank you for making me feel part of your family during these days.

See more pictures here.

First Activities for the Move

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:49:00 +0000

15 days have already passed since we published the news regarding our move to Ecuador. Also many things are happening already in these days.

First, it was with great joy that, after a small setback, our daughter arrived safely at home. As reported earlier, she traveled to NYC (the quadrennial youth congress) in the USA. For the first time she traveled alone only in care of flight attendants. All went well, and she had a big blast at the Congress. On her way back, that's when the setback happened, the volcanic ash cloud came back over the city and her flight was delayed for 12 hours. Fortunately, the airline took good care of her and took care of everything for her. She stayed in an awesome hotel at the Houston Airport, and 12 hours later, we received her with great joy in Buenos Aires.

Liliana was the one who was waiting for her, since at that very moment, I traveled to the USA where I will be in the upcoming days for a time of visiting churches. It was great to be so well hosted by one of our LINKS districts - the The Philadelphia District.

But the preparations for the move cannot stop. Thus Liliana and the children are beginning the selection process of what we will take and what sell or give away. We have already received the bids for the move and have submitted them for approval. We also sent to the new school the paperwork required to register our kids and had interviews with the Directors of their current school. We also started to complete the forms required for our visa which we will need to take to the Ecuadorian Embassy upon my return to Argentina.

If you think we already did a lot, this is really a small drop in the bucket compared to all we still have pending to do in order to be ready for the move in September.

As we move along, I will report our progress, please keep praying for us.

The End of a chapter... The beginning of a new page.

noreply@blogger.com (Fernando Almeida) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:37:00 +0000

As advanced in my previous post to those who follow us, we are living a critical time as a family. It's time for moving to new ministerial assignments! It's the closing of a chapter of our ministries and the opening of a new page where God will continue to write about His powerful acts through our ministries.

After serving for six years in Argentina, the time has come to say goodbye to this Country and to the people who received us so warmly and lovingly. The time has come to go through the famous "Culture shock" that missionaries go through each time they move. It's time to say goodbye to friends and brothers who hosted us and lived, together with us, different experiences in these last six years of ministry.

We are thankful to God and His Church for all the opportunities of ministry that were given to us in Argentina. We are grateful for our colleagues and for the friendships we developed during this time.

In the beginning of September we will be moving to the city of Quito in Ecuador, from where we will continue to serve and develop the Regional ministries that are under our responsibility (Missionary Mobilization in SAM and NMI in SAM), and besides this we will be serving the Seminário Teológico Nazareno Sudamericano in the areas of administration and teaching.

We will be joining a team of three other missionary families who are already living there, some of them with responsibilities with the Ecuadorian Church, other with responsibilities over the North Andean Field. And we will also be joining a team of national leaders who are already developing the work of the seminary in terms of administration, logistics and theological education.

Our feelings as family are mixed. On the one hand we will miss some friends who have become very close to us, while on the other hand, we have great expectation for what God has for us in Ecuador. Knowing that this is the direction that He desires for us at this present moment.

Please pray for us in this time of transition. There are always many details when we talk about an international move - the move itself, travel, school for the children, visas, etc.

We will publish further news and will update the blog as we live through this transition so that you can pray for us according to the specific needs we have.