November 17, 2005

Dear Family in Christ:

Greetings to you with special feelings in our hearts. We have received several messages from PC(USA) local churches to let us know that many of you pray for us and our every day of work. That is why Gloria and I lift our words of thanks to God—because your prayer ministry is the power which sustain our lives in the middle of the battlefield where we struggle against powerful obstacles to our ministry.

Gloria and I have been in Equatorial Guinea almost two years now. A couple of months after our arrival, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Equatorial Guinea (RPCEG) entrusted to us the responsibilities of advising the Department of Lay Education and supervising the administration at the Presbyterian elementary and high school. These jobs are intended to help the national church develop trustworthy standards of stewardship of the gifts and talents of church ministers nationwide.

We praise the Lord for His presence among us because He has helped us achieve our goals day by day. It is a blessing and honor for us to share with you the good news of the construction of a new facility for this school, which is working now at its full capacity. The number of students for registered for the 2005-2006 school year has reached l,600 pupils. We wish to let you know that all this work is fulfills the purpose of this joint mission endeavor of the PC(USA) and the RPCEG.

Your prayers and support make it possible to reach out to children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every morning before classes start, the entire school celebrates a brief devotional time, with Scripture reading, singing, and prayers. Once a week all high school students are led by two pastors in a period of worship at the church building beside the school.

But ministering in Christ’s name in Equatorial Guinea is not easy by any means. As you may know from the history of Christian mission, every mission field has a story of opposition and persecution and endurance. On the evening of September 9, somebody who does not like Presbyterian High School set fire to the office of the principal and the secretary. It destroyed all the registration and academic files and many important documents relating to the history of the RPCEG.

That was a night of tears for us, and it was the beginning of strong opposition to actions taken to improve the punctuality, discipline, honesty, and behavioral standards of the school. Those improvements are key to helping each student develop his or her ethical foundation for their future professional career.

The leadership of the RPCEG is committed to offering high quality education to the children of Equatorial Guinea. That is why the synod is working closely with the Ministry of Education—in the hopes that the fruit of their labor will be a generation of young citizens capable of giving their best for the progress of their country. The Presbyterian High School has a good reputation based on its high academic standards, its discipline, and its spiritual environment, and the RPCEG wants to keep it that way.

Join us in prayers for this ministry and also for our work on nationwide evangelism. Remember in your prayers the Reverend Juan Ebang Ela, general secretary of the RPCEG. We also ask your prayers for Gloria’s health as the demanding work of the school exhausts her each day.

Many thanks for your fellowship in Christ.

Andres and Gloria

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 320