Women on Mission – May Update

First Baptist’s senior pastor, Ricky Powell, spoke about mission work in Ecuador with Pate Ministries when Women on Mission met May 12.  “In every church I have pastored, I have been active in missions praying, missions giving, missions going, and missions sending,” Pastor Ricky began.

In addition to his six mission trips to Ecuador,  Pastor Ricky said he also helped plant a church in Brazil, has been to the Bolivian jungle to minister with missionaries there, has been to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and he has been to Haiti where he helped start an orphanage.

Pate Ministries’ focus is conducting Bible clubs for children in areas where there is no evangelical church.  From these efforts, local churches are planted by raising up Ecuadorians who minister when the Pates are not there.  The “E Teams” also work with the Pates as translators and handle logistics.

 

On each trip to Ecuador (first to the Andes mountains and on his most recent trip to the coast of Ecuador) Pastor Ricky has helped with the Bible clubs, doing whatever task is assigned to him, helping lead people to understand they can have a personal relationship with Jesus.  By reaching children, they hope to reach entire families.

Pastor Ricky said the coastal church, located in an area with “a significant surfing presence,” is growing.  Some of the E-Team members there came from earlier Bible clubs.

The Bible clubs may range from 25 to 85 children in any given place.  Women on the mission team work with mothers and infants.  Pastor Ricky said Bible clubs meet each week at the same time so that the community knows when to come.  In addition to passing out invitations to the Bible clubs, the mission team distributes Gospel tracts each week and invitations to movie night featuring an episode of “The Chosen.”  Movie night is open to people of all ages, after which Gary Pate preaches the Gospel.  One night a week is dedicated to reaching teenagers.

 A mission trip to Ecuador is being planned for March 21-27, 2026, and the goal is to have 15 people from the First Baptist congregation participate.   Pate Ministries has purchased and renovated an abandoned hotel to house mission team volunteers, allowing the ministry to put more money into ministry versus accommodations.

Next month Jerry and Liz Claxton will share about their years of ministry in Israel.

After retiring from a U.S. government position in 1994 the Claxtons opened a Christian bookstore in Savannah.  In 2000 Jerry was called to fulltime Christian ministry by Southside Baptist Church in Savannah, and it was there that they were called to the mission field by the International Mission Board.

The Claxtons spent seven years in Israel out of 12 total years in the Middle East, counting government time. Since retiring from fulltime ministry in 2016 they have returned to Israel a number of times either to work or to take groups to tour the land.

Women on Mission will meet Monday, June 9, in the Buchanan Hall at First Baptist.  Following a covered-dish luncheon at 11:30 a.m., the speakers’ program will begin at noon.