Thursday, November 2

Guayaquil: the cool city

My wife and I, along with our two children, live and serve in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador as Southern Baptist, International Mission Board missionaries. While these images are extremely selective, showing mostly the attractive tourist side of our city, hopefully they will stir you to pause and pray for the 9 out of 10 people in our city who have yet to meet the Savior. Our goal is to see 500,000 new believers in the coming five years. Hopefully the Lord will use you to help us reach our goal by either:

1) praying more for us,
2) giving liberally to the Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering (this is one time it is OK to be a liberal!), or
3) coming personally on a mission trip to help us.

GUAYAQUIL: Ciudad Super Chévere



P.S. For those who have ever been to Guayaquil, you are probably wondering about being designated as a "cool city." Anyone visiting or living here knows that year around HOT is a much better descriptor! The "cool" comes from the original Spanish title of the video, "Guayaquil: Ciudad Super Chevere." which literally translates as "Guayaquil: a super cool city."

13 comments:

Darrell said...

I thought they named the place after you Guy! I guess I was wrong! :)

Thanks for the education! It will enrich my prayer for you all.

Hey what is the Cooperative Program and Lootie Moon Christmas Offering?

What could folks only speak english do on a mission trip?

J. Guy Muse said...

darrell,

The Cooperative Program and Lottie Moon Christmas Offering are the two primary ways that Southern Baptists finance their missions programs.

S. Baptists churches voluntarily decide on a percentage of their collected offerings to be sent to the CP. These in turn are portioned out to a set percentage for the various missions/ministries. About $0.50 of every $1 received on the national level goes for foreign missions.

The LMCO is a yearly offering collected by S. Bapt. churches for foreign missions. 100% of what is collected goes overseas.

If you or your church would like to give, write me personally and I will send instructions on how to get your offering to the right place.

As for mission trips...we like to have groups of 8-12, of which 2-3 speak Spanish. They will usually be involved in several settings during the 7-10 days they are here. Our main thrust is church planting, so they would come with an understanding they would be visiting homes in the expectation of finding POP (persons of peace). See our previous entry for the way we work according to Luke 10 pattern.

David Rogers said...

Guy,

Here in Spain, guay = chévere = cool. If something is really cool, we say "es el guay de Paraguay." I suppose we should add in, "el guay de Guayaquil" as well.

In Summer 2005, I spend 3 days in Quito. I loved it. But, now I see what I missed by not making it down to Guayaquil. Oh well, there's always next time. Who knows? Maybe the Lord will open that door sometime soon. I'd especially love to observe first-hand what the Lord is doing there among the house churches.

Blessings,

David

Darrell said...

To tell you the truth Guy I am going ask God to make it possible for me and others to come. He will have to act in a God sized way...but why not? The opportunity to help, learn, and experience what God is doing there is extremely appealing!

We will see what God will do!

J. Guy Muse said...

DAVID--Interesting about the term for "guay" there in Spain. They also use the word "bacán" here as well for really something really cool. Most people that visit Ecuador either go to Quito or the Galapagos Islands, few ever make it Guayaquil, but we welcome those that do. Love to have you come visit sometime so that we can repay the visit there in Spain which has always been one of my dreams.

DARRELL--Pray about it and if things work out, let us know and we can plan something for a future date.

mic said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kevin, Somewhere in Southern America said...

Well, that's cool. In Lima it's vacan, bravazo, pala, and yes, "cool."

J. Guy Muse said...

ANTONIO & KEVIN,

Hey, I like this Spanish lesson learning all the new words for "cool". It is interesting to hear what different Spanish words are used from country to country to express contemporary thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Hermano "Chavo",

Soy un hermano en la iglesia "hogar" de Dr. Darrell. Yo lei todo su sitio de internet. Ojala que venir en el verano por una semana, si es el deseo del Senor. Yo naci en Vietnam pero hablo y escribo en Espanol (mas o menos).

!Ciao!
El Duke

J. Guy Muse said...

Hno. "el duke",

Gracias por su visita y por haber leido algunos de los artículos en el sitio. Visítenos cuando guste. Bendiciones.

Corazon Latino said...

Loved the video. Makes me miss home even more! It looks so warm and sunny :-) Guayaquil is Cool indeed>

J. Guy Muse said...

CORAZON LATINO--Yes, it is warm and sunny with clear blue skies these days. Of course the video shows only one side of the Guayaquil we know, but still it is "home", the only thing lacking is you guys being around the corner from us! BTW, your grass hasn't been cut since you left, Primo has found a good steady job and can't come around like he normally does for the yard work. :)

mic said...

Guy, I had to delete my comment apparently the word that is simular to guay is a not so good word after all. so great to live in a country with such a deverse language, where something is okay in one part and very bad in the other. We'll never quit learning.