Serving a Barrio with Hope and the Gospel - El Recreo is the newest church plant of the IberoAmerican Ministries (IAM) Team and is located about 20 minutes from Guayaquil, in a low-income barrio. This community deals with tremendous economic and social problems, such as juvenile delinquency, gangs, and drug addiction. Among other infrastructure problems, El Recreo has inadequate sewage and sanitation facilities adding to the challenges that families face in the area. 

An IAM Chilean missionary couple have been serving El Recreo since 2003, developing relationships and trust among their neighbors and the people of the community. They began working with children and teens while sharing the Gospel with their parents. In July 2003 Chilean and North American mission teams completed a two-week evangelistic outreach, the fruit of which included 18 baptisms and the beginning of El Recreo as a functioning church.

The current meeting place for the church body in El Recreo.

Purchasing Property to Expand the Church
Regular weekly church attendance is more than 40 people, not including the 75 plus children who attend activities on Saturdays and the many other church-sponsored events during the week. El Recreo has also established a feeding program for the neediest children in the area to ensure that they are fed on a regular basis. The church is at a crucial point of growth and is looking to purchase property as well as remodel the building it has used for worship and outreach over the years.

Just behind the current meeting place, the walls of the future are beginning to form.

Financing the Vision: $75,000
In 2008 the church in El Recreo was blessed to be able to purchase a large piece of land and begin construction, completing Phase 1 of the El Recreo vision. The vision of this church will be completed in three phases and includes the building of:

• A multipurpose center to minister to the people of El Recreo
• A school
• A multipurpose sports court
• A cyber cafe (for generating operating funds)
• A “comedor”, or cafeteria, for feeding the most needy of the area
• A church building

Vision Phases

Phase 1 = Purchase the land and begin construction (completed praise the Lord)

Phase 2 = Complete the multipurpose court, cyber cafe, and church building/auditorium

                 (to be used also by the future school)

Phase 3 = Remodel and construct new school classrooms.

Estimated Costs

Phase 1 = Complete

Phase 2 = Estimated $75,000

Phase 3 = Estimated $75,000