Murray and Sheryl Greenwood (serving with SIM in Ecuador)
Murray is an experienced Board Certified Pediatrician and honor graduate of Dallas Theological
Seminary, dedicated to teaching others to accurately understand and apply the Scriptures. His
wife Sheryl is a Physician Assistant, Certified Childbirth Educator, & experienced Bible study
leader. Their three children are Tabitha (12), Elizabeth (10), and John Michael (8).

What will we be doing?
We have moved to Ecuador to serve as long-term medical missionaries in the underserved rural
Loja province in southern Ecuador. We will do part-time medical work primarily via mobile
clinics, and we will do part-time Bible teaching and training. It is our hope to eventually be
involved in mentoring Ecuadorian health professionals and pastors.

When?
We are in Ecuador right now, as of July 2006.

How long?
Our first term is 3.5 years on the field, then 10 months on home assignment in the USA.
It is our hope and expectation that we will invest many years in Ecuador, and we believe
it will take many years to achieve the goals we have set.

Why?
There is no question that the Bible overwhelmingly declares God's heart for the lost in
all nations, and His desire that they may turn from their sins and be reconciled to Him
through Jesus Christ. It is our desire to demonstrate the love of Christ to needy people
and to help them establish a growing relationship with God through faith in Christ alone.
We aim to train up new believers and eventually to be involved in sending out Latin
American believers as missionaries to areas closed and hostile to American Christian
workers. We believe this is a strategic way to invest our lives toward the fulfillment of
Christ's Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20).

What do we need?
We need a team of committed supporters who will stand behind us with regular financial
contributions and with prayer. This mission work is funded entirely through voluntary
contributions from concerned people who want to invest in reaching Ecuador for Christ
through a ministry of practical compassionate care. We are excited to report that we
currently have 97% of our monthly required support pledged. SIM is a respected,
long-established international mission agency and an IRS- recognized tax-deductible
charitable organization. To invest in eternity by giving toward this ministry, contact
murray.greenwood@sim.org

Why a “language and culture acquisition” year?

To truly make a lasting impact here, we must get to the heart issues, the core beliefs that affect people’s actions, decisions, & relationships. Obviously, we must be truly fluent in Spanish, but that’s only a start. Here’s a revealing Ecuadorian reply to a North American’s concern over a murder that was ignored by authorities: “Whatever you do will only make things worse. Forgive me for saying it but you do not understand this country. You do not understand its people. You think that because we have houses, cars, and clothes like yours, because we talk of democracy and freedom, because we read your books, borrow your money, buy your goods, that we are like you.
“But we are not. We look like you, sometimes we talk like you, but we do not think like you. The difference, Senores, is not great but it is important. If you do not see it, the things you do in this country will be wrong. You will only make trouble. Your motives will be good but you will always be misunderstood. You will try to make friends and find only enemies. You will be disappointed. You will condemn this country, or you will make fun of it. You will go home and say that everything is ridiculous, that everything is hopeless.
“But who are you to say, you who have never understood us? Senores, try to understand…. Look at our people, our history, our land. Do not worry about [events] that are not your affair…”
From Culture Shock: Ecuador by Nicholas Crowder, Portland OR: Graphic Arts Ctr Publ Co, 2001, p. 11: (quoting Walker Lowry: Tumult at Dusk: Being an Account of Ecuador, San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, published 1963, now out of print)

Answered prayers:
Thanks for praying!
Answered prayers:
For suitable housing here
For finding the right dog
For the kids’ adjustment to Spanish-speaking school
For Olivia and her interest in learning more about the Lord and the Bible
For our safe travel
For getting our gear through customs intact without difficulty
For getting my medical credentials translated & certified and returned to me safely
For getting our official “censo” (Ecuadorian ID) without difficulty (amazing story)
For safely retrieving all the textbooks and personal gear we left here during 2005 visit
For the sale of our Texas home
And many other blessings and specific answers to prayer

What’s It Like Here?
Loja is high in the mountains very near the equator. That means you can get a serious sunburn in 15 minutes of sustained direct exposure. But because of the elevation, the air is generally cool, ranging from the 40’s to the low 60’s at night and from the upper 60’s to 80’s in the daytime.

No homes have Air conditioning or heat, and most are directly open to the outside air. Windows and doors rarely have screens, and bathrooms have skylights that double as ventilation shafts for the home. Which is a good idea since you can’t flush toilet paper.

Many homes have classic colonial style with tile roofs, but newer buildings have flat roofs with pieces of rebar sticking out because one never knows when they might get enough money together to add an additional floor to the house. It is not uncommon to have a dog bark at you from a rooftop as you walk along a street.

We came prepared to thrive despite cold nights without heat, we have generally reliable electricity and water supply (we don’t drink tap water without boiling it first), and we are never threatened as we walk the city streets (not true in other larger cities).
Merchants generally are kind and patient with our halting Spanish, and many seem to even enjoy the opportunity to help us practice and improve.

Nearly every city block has a pharmacy, a cell phone store with phone booths, a bakery, and a tienda selling junk food and necessities like eggs and milk. Eggs are sold individually and carried home in a thin plastic bag. Milk and cooking oil are sold in plastic bags.

Murray totes our drinking water on his shoulder from local tiendas in 20-liter jugs.

Yellow taxis outnumber the other cars on the road. A taxi ride anywhere in city limits costs $1. There are basically as many lanes as car-widths, and it is not unusual to see someone turn right from the far left lane amidst traffic.

Using luggage cart to lug heavy tanks of propane home for cooking/gas water heating using a device called a califone that uses a gas flame to directly heat the water as if flows through the pipes. This is a tremendous blessing because many older homes have no hot water at all anywhere in the home (which explains why showers are not popular) or many use what we call a “widowmaker” to heat the water in the shower. This is a pair of electrical wires running to an electric heating element directly heating the water at the shower head as water runs through it.

Trash trucks and gas tank trucks play music like IceCream trucks in the US; people needing tanks of gas (used for cooking and water heating) run out when they hear the truck coming. Unattended trash cans are fair game and disappear, so many people wait ‘til they hear the trash truck coming to run out with their trash can—there is about 1 minute between the time you first hear the truck and the time it has already passed by.

Men in fluorescent orange jumpsuits sweeping the streets with handmade brooms of sticks tied together.

No naturally occurring horizontal surfaces here in the Andes; over 200 steps lead up to one missionary home.

Skin color and racial heritage determine social status and job opportunities; indigenous descendants of the Incas and other tribal groups are darker-skinned and excluded from higher-paying jobs.

Majority of people work hard but have little hope of improving their lot. Many workers make $6-$8 dollars for a day’s labor. This explains the incredible number of pharmacies: when a person has an illness they go to the pharmacy, ask what to take for it, and then buy ONE DAY of pills. If they think it helps, they return the next day for more medicine. And so on until they think they are well. Pharmacists’ eyes pop when I ask to buy an entire bottle of medication. Convenience is the primary means to attract customers, which is why there’s a pharmacy on nearly every block.

Typical house in Ecuador:
Our well-educated Spanish tutor lives in a comfortable home with concrete floor and tin roof attached to wood beams visible from inside, a single room functioning as kitchen/dining room/Spanish classroom, and a separate outdoor toilet. She has no hot water in the home.

Here, wood is for decorative flooring, NOT for structural support. Buildings are made of concrete beams and pillars, concrete floors and stairways, with plaster-covered brick-and-mortar walls (structural, not decorative brick). We get astonished looks from people when they hear that US homes are built (structurally) of wood with decorative brick veneers and wall-to-wall carpets (unthinkable here).

Bathrooms have skylights which are designed to allow free air-flow to the great outdoors (to serve as ventilation shafts in the home, since there’s no A/C or central heat, and since toilet paper can’t be flushed). Which means you can literally freeze your buns if you go to the bathroom at night during a blustery gale of 45 degree wind.

Getting to the Mission Field: Our Journey
Early 1980’s: Murray and Sheryl separately make deep personal commitments to devote our lives to the service of the Lord as a response to God’s gracious love and God’s heart for the lost;
1984: Murray’s first major international missions experience: Panama x 2 months
1984-1988: Murray attends UT Southwestern Medical School, mentored by Jack Cooper MD
1985: Murray attends Int’l Christian Medical/Dental Student Assn (ICMDSA)Congress in Egypt
1986: Murray attends ICMDSA conference in Mexico
1987: Murray spends 10 weeks in a mission hospital in Taiwan, Republic of China
1987-1989: Sheryl trains as Physician Assistant in grad school at UT Southwestern, Dallas
1988-1991: Murray’s pediatric specialty training in southern California (UCI/CHOC); brief occasional medical mission trips to Mexico
1989-1990: Sheryl spends 2 months at mission hospital in Liberia, West Africa
1990: Murray and Sheryl get married, mutually agreeing to serve God in missions if He allows.
1991-1993: Murray’s first pediatric practice with William Sears MD in southern California
1993: Our first child, Tabitha, is born. We decide to move closer to family in Texas while we finish paying school debts, get more practical medical experience, and take seminary courses.
1992-1999: Murray and Sheryl both take correspondence seminary courses studying the Bible
1994-1999: Murray serves mostly Spanish-speaking patients in indigent clinic in Austin TX
1999: Murray and Sheryl make medical mission trip to rural Guatemala with Mary Shaw
1999-2004: Murray attends Dallas Theological Seminary, Master of Arts Christian Education
1999-2005: Sheryl completes mission agency Bible training requirements
1999-2006: Murray serves indigent youth in Parkland’s school-based health centers
2001: Murray studies ministry in Latin America on-site in Guatemala
2002-2003: Medical care/mentoring trips to Mexico with UT Southwestern medical students
2004: Murray and Sheryl explore various mission opportunities and decide on SIM
Nov 2004: Murray/Sheryl are formally accepted as SIM (Serving in Mission) missionaries
2004-2006: Greenwoods make final preparations (home sale, ministry support development…)
July 4 2006: Greenwoods fly to Ecuador to begin year of language/cultural acquisition

Mailing Address:

Murray Greenwood
Casilla 802
Loja
Ecuador

MAILING INSTRUCTIONS:
If you send a package, it will greatly help us if you keep it less than 2 kg (less than 4 lbs), ideally less than 2 lbs, to avoid customs duty hassles when it gets here.
Limit the size to a shoe box, or padded envelope if possible.
Put all contents into zip-lock bags (to help keep the rats out).
List items on the customs declaration with alternative words that a non-native English speaker may not know.
For example instead of writing “clothing” say “apparel”, or instead of “food” write something like “nutritional supplements” or “consumables”. Other great ones are “educational materials” (“Braveheart” qualifies for its historical content); “devotional supplies” (eg “Chariots of Fire”);
If there is an item with a price tag on it, such as a piece of clothing, remove it, wash it, & list it as used on the customs declaration. Remove original packaging if possible (enclose instructions).
Some suggestions include: powdered spice mixes like taco seasoning or ranch dressing; General Foods Int’l Coffees (Hazelnut, Orange Cappucino, Café Vienna are favorites we can’t get here; caffeinated is fine); DVD movies (previewed ones are OK; we enjoy classics that have less issues with nudity and profanity); Christian music and easy listening or classical Audio CD’s/cassettes (again, used is ok), gum, flavored herbal teas, Starbucks decaf coffee (can’t get any decaf here), chocolate in ziplock (remember surface mail takes 2-3 months at non-controlled temperatures), books in English for the kids.