Mission In Ecuador 2017 & 2023

What: Support missionary Sara Flores and churches in Ecuador through labor projects,
Vacation Bible School and children’s programs, assist at health clinics.

For more information or to express your interest in being a member of this V.I.M. Team please contact:
Keith Weston, team leader at: bigdub56@gmail.com
Paul Hibbard, asst. team leader at: paulgyl@aol.com
Woodbury UMC at: wumc@woodburyumc.net

In 2017 the WUMC began a relationship with the people and the Methodist Church in Ecuador through a connection with Sara Flores and her husband Dakin Cook, missionaries with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM). The church has supported ministry with the people of Ecuador through prayer, financial gifts to GBGM ministries (Advance Specials in Methodist lingo), sale of handcrafted items with proceeds going directly to Sara for discretionary use there or Advance Specials, and in 2018 a mission team of 12 (most of whom were from the WUMC) spent a week of service in churches in Atucucho and El Prado in Ecuador. But the love and service are not one way. In addition to the hospitality and the care our mission team received while in Ecuador, on several occasions of the past 5 years, we have been the recipients of heartfelt prayer from the churches in Ecuador. 

Update:  Ecuador Volunteers In Mission 2023

In June 2023 10 members of a Volunteers in Mission Team (VIM) traveled to Ecuador to support General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) missionary Sara Flores and her ministries with the communities of El Prado and Atucucho. The team was comprised of members from 5 different churches. United Methodist Churches in Woodbury, Watertown, Bristol, Connecticut, and Bayshore, New York, and the Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in Waterbury, CT.  The team provided help in three areas: 1) Providing physical labor in painting a 100-year-old barn in El Prado that serves as a center for community events, and also painting at the Evangelical Methodist Church in Atucucho. 2) Assisting at health clinics for children and adults in El Prado and Atucucho. 3) Helping with an after-school program in El Prado servicing up to 100 children.

Our time in Ecuador was filled with many blessings received from our encounters with the people of Ecuador who displayed such wonderful gratitude, graciousness, and hospitality. Included in those blessings was the opportunity to stand on the ground that was being purchased for a church and activity center for the community of El Prado and to offer prayer for the future of this church and its ministry.