Quito, Ecuador Pablo and Verenisse Landázuri

Greetings from Ecuador! My name is Pablo Landázuri and I currently pastor “Iglesia Reformada Unida Luz de Vida”

in Quito, Ecuador. I was born in Quito, the capital of Ecuador 38 years ago. Although my parents sent my sister and I to Catholic schools, we grew up nominally religious, just as the majority of people in Quito.

After finishing high school, I spent a year in Georgetown, KY as an exchange student. Then, I returned to Quito and decided to enroll in the Industrial Engineering program of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. After 4 years I obtained a B.S. and a year later a graduate professional engineering degree.

Right after college, Verenisse and I were married, and we have been blessed with three children, Martín (14), Emilio (12) and Benjamin (7). We traveled to Spain in order to work on a MBA, which I finished in 2002. Back in Quito, I started working for an American bank. At the same time, we were invited to a Presbyterian Church (PCA), where we heard the gospel for the first time in our lives.

In 2004, I was given by the Lord a deep conviction of sin and the need of the saving power of the Lord. We then decided to become members of the Iglesia Reformada “Luz de Vida” and committed ourselves to be discipled in the Word, and to serve the body of Christ with our God-given gifts and talents. I served as a treasurer and years later was declared a candidate to ruling eldership.

However, the greatest burden I had was to share the good news with the people of Quito who had never heard the gospel. I led a few Bible study groups and had opportunity to share the saving power of the gospel. By year 2008, it was clear both to myself and to our leaders in my home church that my desire to be a preacher might be coming from God. In 2010, I left my job and traveled with my family to Dyer, IN in order to attend Mid- America Reformed Seminary. After 3 years, I graduated and decided to spend one more year in Pella, IA as an intern at Covenant Reformed Church. During 2014 I was ordained and sent by the same church as a missionary to Ecuador, serving Luz de Vida Reformed Church, my own home church.

Since June 2014, I have been serving along with Rev. Emiliano Donoso at Luz de Vida. We are executing a plan worked out by both the Missions Committee of Covenant and Luz de Vida that includes several activities. The most relevant ones are the following: putting in place a Church Order (we use a version of the URCNA Church Order), setting up a Biblical and reformed liturgy for our services, starting a second service in the afternoon every Lord´s Day, catechetical preaching, training

and ordination of Elders and Deacons and signing of a form of subscription to the Three Forms of Unity for office bearers.

By the grace of God, the Council and the whole congregation have received all these changes well. We have not lost any members; rather, we keep receiving more visitors that are looking for a confessionally reformed, reverent, ordered, loving, and Gospel-centered Christian Church.

We covet your prayers. Please pray that God may be glorified as we seek to praise Him and preach His gospel in Quito, Ecuador.

In Christ, Pablo and Verenisse Landázuri

OCTOBER 2015 • PAGE 1

Missions Newsletter of the URCNA

OCTOBER 2015“Go therefore . . .teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. . . “

ItalyRev. Michael Brown

Pastor of Christ URC in Santee, CA, and member of the URCNA Missions Committee

For nearly six years, Christ URC in Santee,

CA, has overseen URCNA missionary Rev. Andrea Ferrari, pastor of Chiesa Riformata Filadelfia (CRF), the only established confessional Reformed church in all of Italy. Our mission is to establish a federation of Italian Reformed churches, something that does not exist in this country of more than 60,000,000 people. Our church and Consistory considers it a tremendous privilege to assist Pastor Ferrari in this vision. Part of that assistance involves an annual visit to Milan to encourage Pastor Ferrari and his family, to spend time with members of the congregation, and to offer help to its leaders. I have made six of these trips, and each has been a great blessing as our fellowship is renewed, our mutual trust is deepened, and our desire to make disciples in Italy grows more passionate.

This past summer, I had the honor of spending a whole month with Pastor Ferrari and the dear saints in Milan. At our missionary’s request, I preached eight times on Revelation 1-3, completing a series on Christ’s letters to the seven churches. I also spent many hours in discussion with the two elders and one deacon of the church, answering their questions about leadership, and listening to them describe the joys and struggles of their service. By God’s grace, CRF continues steadfastly in the faith, preaching Christ, teaching the catechism, evangelizing unbelievers, and making disciples.

There are three recent developments in our mission that I want to share with you, and for which I request your prayer. The first is a small Baptist church in Turin (northwest Italy), which has begun a relationship with Pastor Ferrari and expressed interest in becoming a Reformed church. In June, Pastor Ferrari and I traveled to Turin for a meeting with this church’s pastor and one of its leaders. We enjoyed a profitable day of fellowship and conversation about the future, discussing Reformed ecclesiology and what an Italian denomination of Reformed churches might look like. These men and some of the church’s members have since visited CRF several times, and recently asked Pastor Ferrari to instruct them in the Three Forms of Unity and Church Order with a view to forming a

denomination in the future. Please pray for these meetings and the future of this church!

The second development is a small group of Reformed believers in the city of Perugia (central Italy). This group has been meeting for study of the Bible and Heidelberg Catechism since June 2014. They contacted Rev. Ferrari to explore the possibility of planting a confessional Reformed church in their city. In July, Pastor Ferrari and I spent two days with them, during which time we taught Bible studies, answered questions, and met for prayer. This is a mature and stable group in need of a pastor with church-planting experience. Since our visit in July, they have begun worshiping with CRF on Sundays via Skype, and are now pursuing membership from afar with a view to planting a new church under CRF’s oversight. Please pray for these dear brothers and sisters, and that God might provide a church plant in Perugia!

Finally, two of CRF’s members, Yi and Huimin Wang, who are originally from China but came to faith in Christ while living in Italy, have moved to California in order for Yi to attend seminary. Mr. Wang’s prayerful intention is to return to Italy after his training to plant a Reformed church and plant a church among the 300,000 Chinese in the country. He and his wife are now worshiping with us at Christ URC while Yi is being trained. Please pray for Yi and Huimin that the Lord will prepare them for the future!

For more information about the URCNA mission to Italy, visit reformationitaly.org. To find out how you can help support this mission, email me at michaelbrown@christurc.org.

Yours in Christ, Rev. Michael Brown

OCTOBER 2015 • PAGE 2

PLEASE PRAY FOR: Our Mission Coordinator as he travels this month

to Divine Hope Seminary in Indiana, attends Classis Michigan, preaches in the Niagara Falls church plant

and other URCNA churches.