“I was sharing with my Spanish teachers something that was on my heart,” Darnelle says. “I told them I didn’t feel like I was heard, and that my stories weren’t told. They said we just needed to pray about it and commit it to the Lord. A few days later I got your email saying you wanted to write about me. The Lord answered and it was so encouraging!” .

Even before she began her life and ministry on the field, Darnelle had a strong desire to know God in everything she was to do.

“When I arrived here in Ecuador I asked God to guide me. I asked Him, where do you want me to be? Who do you want me to be with? In my first few years here I had to depend on God and trust Him. Much more than I do in New Zealand. He has now guided me to my church which is my real rock and I have an amazing team.”

During her nine years overseas, Darnelle has seen God’s hand in many situations. During one significant occasion, she saw how the use of the community basketball court had been orchestrated for them.

“Every community here has a president and you have to ask permission from them to use the community facilities. Thankfully we got invited to one of the community meetings. It’s a very strong Catholic community here. The Catholic priest wanted to start catechism classes at the same time we wanted to run our hour of basketball. We were trying to ask the president if we could have our basketball classes but we weren’t getting much support.

“Then a man sitting next to the president asked if we were part of the church up the road. We acknowledged this and he responded, ‘I have nothing but good things to say about that church, and whatever they do, I support them’. We recalled that SIM International had given us money to buy food for the community during and after the pandemic, and this man was someone we had connected with while we were giving out food. He even showed us where to find people in need in his community. God had opened another door! He went the way before us.”

Darnelle has also seen how prayer has restored relationships, even among church leadership.

“One of our voluntary pastors had moved to Spain to earn more money. His business had closed due to the pandemic. This made it challenging with the other pastor who appeared not to be interested in the situation.

We prayed for God to mend this relationship. When the voluntary pastor returned for Christmas, the atmosphere was different and the pastors were warmly reunited. There was no resentment among the families either. We were very aware of God’s timing and the Holy Spirit working through conversations,” says Darnelle.

Again, God has continued to meet Darnelle’s own needs while she continues her ministry with children and their families.

“Last year when I was doing my annual evaluation it came through that I really needed a car. So today I have two cars and neither of them are mine. One of them belongs to a teammate who had to return home suddenly. But even before she knew she had to go home, she had me driving it long distance. Again the Lord prepared the way for me to care for this vehicle for my teammate!”

Darnelle is incredibly grateful for many answered prayers and her increasing sense of dependence upon God. She says,” Please keep praying! —you are enabling the gospel to be shared through the local church and through creative and innovative ministries and outreaches.”

— Fiona Murray

Pray: • For Darnelle’s training to lead Bible studies in small groups around the different communities. Many attending these groups are not believers.