From Ecuador To Alabama: A Family’s Extraordinary Mission Legacy

When Bill McDonald felt God calling him to Ecuador during his morning prayers, he didn’t exactly get the reception he was hoping for at home.

“I went straight back home to tell Connie,” Bill recalls with a chuckle. “I said, ‘The Lord called me to be a missionary to Ecuador this morning,’ and Connie says, ‘Well, who’s gonna be your wife?’”

That was 1989. Fast-forward to today, and the McDonalds have four grandchildren born in Ecuador thanks to that one moment in their Louisville church prayer room. Both of their adult children are now full-time missionaries serving in the jungles of Ecuador, carrying on a legacy that began with Bill staring at a world map and feeling an inexplicable pull toward a country he knew nothing about.

But getting from that prayer room to where they are now—pastoring Anchors Church in Oneonta, Alabama, while maintaining a thriving Hispanic ministry—wasn’t exactly a smooth ride. In fact, it was anything but.

Building a TV Station with Bedsheets and Broken Cameras

When the McDonalds arrived in Cuenca, Ecuador in 1989, they quickly discovered that being outsiders in a city of 250,000 wasn’t going to make evangelism easy. There was no email, no fax machines—they had to call an operator just to make outside calls. Bill jokes that they once received a Christmas fruitcake at Easter, which gives you some idea of how long things took to arrive. “It was tough to preach the gospel,” Bill explains. “We were outsiders, and it was hard to get past the front door of anyone’s home.”

That’s when they stumbled across an opportunity that would change everything: the chance to purchase a television license for $50,000. The only problem? They didn’t have $50,000. Or any money, really.

“We took a sheet—we had to make sure we got one that wasn’t stained—and we had lamps we got from a local hardware store and put filters on them, and we’d burn them up in every set,” Connie remembers, laughing. “Someone brought one of their old home movie cameras, and another home movie camera, and we patched it together.”

What started as a makeshift operation with bedsheets for backdrops and salvaged equipment eventually became Unsión TV, the number one regional television station in a city that grew to over 500,000 people. They weren’t doing “Christian television” in the traditional sense—they had the best news, sports, and cooking shows available. But sandwiched between regular programming were commercials that would stop viewers in their tracks.

“You’d see this family fighting, doors being slammed, and the husband walks out,” Bill describes one of their most effective ads. “The next scene, you see the wife standing at a bridge, pulling a ring off her finger and throwing it over the bridge. Out of nowhere comes this hand that snatches that ring out of midair, and standing next to her is Jesus with her ring in his hands, saying, ‘I can save your marriage. Call us.’”

The phones would ring off the hook. Thousands called, many came to Christ, and they formed a counseling center that became a cornerstone of their ministry. The station eventually caught the attention of Ecuador’s president, who mentioned it during a televised state of the union address, calling it a model for all stations in the country. “He said, ‘They’re not for me, they’re not against me. They’re just Christians putting forth the good news,’” Bill recalls. “And he wasn’t even a believer.”

When Miracles Feel Like Disasters

Just when things were going well, Bill got a call that would test everything they’d built: “My station manager called and said, ‘The TV station’s on fire and burning to the ground.’” In that moment, watching their life’s work literally go up in smoke, Bill thought it was over. But he heard something that changed his perspective completely: “The Lord said to me, ‘This did not take me by surprise.’ Those words in an instant allowed us to move forward.”

What had been converted chicken coops became a three-story, state-of-the-art facility in downtown Cuenca. What felt like the end was actually a new beginning. This experience crystallized something Bill had been learning throughout their time in Ecuador: “Just because it’s hard does not mean you’re not in the middle of your greatest miracle.”

He points to Moses, who walked through the hardest days of his life while experiencing the greatest miracles the Jewish people still talk about today. Or Mary, who was probably wondering why being chosen by God felt so difficult when everyone was questioning her story. “Jesus had his toughest days the day he died, and it was man’s greatest miracle,” Bill reflects. “There was bloodshed, betrayal, doubt, suicide—and they were in the middle of their greatest miracle.”

Angels on the Amazon

Some of their most extraordinary experiences happened deep in the Amazon, where they’d travel by dugout canoe to reach indigenous villages that were literally at the ends of the earth. On one trip, they picked up an indigenous couple who were waving from the riverbank, wanting a ride upriver to their village.

During the canoe ride, Bill shared the gospel with the couple, and they invited him to return the next day to visit their village. When Bill and his team came back at noon as promised, the couple was nowhere to be found. Even stranger, when they asked other villagers about them, no one had ever heard of them.

But that’s when things got really interesting. A woman across the village clearing was waving them over, saying, “You’ve come to preach the gospel today.” She had been praying for over 20 years for someone to bring the gospel to their remote village. That morning, she felt the Lord tell her, “This is the day.” She had prepared lunch for exactly the right number of people and was ready for a church service.

Her husband came to Christ that day, along with their daughter. When Bill’s team returned a couple weeks later, they learned the husband had died shortly after accepting Jesus. “She said, ‘Pastor, I know this—that God waited until he could hear the gospel before He took him home,’” Bill recounts. “And then she said, ‘Pastor, no one knows this couple from anywhere, but this village knows that they were angels from God that brought us there.’”

Today, there’s a thriving church in that village, all because of an encounter with two mysterious strangers who seem to have appeared just to make an introduction.

Betty and the Power of Persistent Prayer

Perhaps no story better illustrates the McDonalds’ approach to ministry than Betty, a woman who walked into their small church in Cuenca on a Thursday night, sat in the back row, and wouldn’t even make eye contact. She was facing an arrest warrant, had been abandoned by her husband, and her children had left her. She was planning to commit suicide when someone suggested she try the little church down the street first.

That night, Betty gave her heart to Jesus. But what happened next reveals something profound about what the McDonalds had learned about ministry: it’s not about what you can do for God, but what God can do through the most unlikely people.

Every service, Betty would come to the altar with the same prayer: “Jesus, give me souls. Jesus, give me souls.” Here was a woman who had nothing, praying for souls, while everyone else was praying for stuff. Soon, Betty felt called to preach to the Canaris, a tough indigenous group north of Cuenca. Bill said absolutely not—there was no church there, and they were known to be hostile to outsiders. But Betty kept praying, “Jesus, give me Canari souls.”

Finally, Betty asked a different question: “If you’re not going to send me, who are you going to send?” “Woman, you are gone,” Bill replied, and the next week he sent her with another church member and enough money for bus fare and lunch.

On the bus ride, Betty was too shy to talk to anyone. But when a man sat down next to her and asked about the black book in her lap, she found her voice. Turns out, he’d had a dream the night before about a woman with a black book who would tell him how to live forever. Betty led him to Christ before the bus even reached Cañaris.

“She won her first Canari before she ever got off the bus,” Bill says, still marveling at the story.

Betty kept going back week after week, sitting on park benches with her Bible, waiting for people to ask about “the black book.” Within a month, over a hundred people were gathering in the park waiting for Betty to arrive.

Today, you can drive through the Pan-American Highway in Ecuador, and when you reach the top of the mountains and come to a town named Cañar, you’ll see a white church on the left hillside. Betty built it. She now pastors a church of over 1,200 people in Cuenca, still as timid and shy as ever, but seeing miracles regularly because she dedicates herself to prayer.

“You’d never pick her out of your church to do something great for God,” Bill admits. “Never ever. But watch God.”

Coming Home to Start Again

After 33 years in Ecuador, the McDonalds felt called to return to the United States. They took over Anchors Church in Oneonta, Alabama, where they’re now in what they laughingly call their “retirement project.”

When they arrived, the church was struggling, particularly during the transition and the impact of COVID-19, resulting in the departure of over 100 individuals from the congregation. “That doesn’t hurt your feelings,” Connie says with a laugh. “Yeah, a hundred left. But the Lord’s brought many of them back, and many more.”

Now they’re running a thriving multi-generational church with both English and Spanish services happening simultaneously. The kids from both congregations go to children’s church together because they’re friends from school, creating a beautiful picture of unity that feels natural rather than forced.

Their youth pastor, Nick Russell, is taking 23 kids to Ecuador this year—most of whom have never been on an airplane and don’t have the money for the trip. But somehow, every kid who feels called to go finds a way to raise the funds through selling Boston butts, construction work, and scrap metal collection.

“Most of these kids don’t have two cents to put toward a trip like this,” Bill explains. “But when they feel like this is what they need to do, they come up with the money.”

The Next Generation

Nick Russell, who grew up with the McDonalds’ son and admits they “got into a little bit of trouble along the way,” now leads a youth group that averages 60-70 kids, with over 20 showing up for 9 a.m. Sunday school.

His philosophy is simple but profound: “If you’re not praying for your students, then you can’t keep asking God to send them. You have to be willing to pray and disciple the kids that you have.” More importantly, Nick’s goal isn’t just to build a great youth ministry—it’s to see kids graduate high school and not leave the church. “I want to see people graduate and not leave the church,” he explains. “I can build an incredible youth ministry, but if they graduate and never come back to church, then what have I really done?”

That approach is already bearing fruit. One former youth student at Auburn University recently texted Nick to say that a revival happening on campus was being led by “our group”—kids who learned to be part of the church wherever they go.

Lessons from the Long Haul

After decades of ministry across two continents, the McDonalds have learned some hard-won lessons about calling, persistence, and what it really means to serve God.

“If you need direction, continue to knock on the doors and seek the Lord,” Bill advises. “He will speak to you. But when you take on a project, you better know that you’re called to it, not just have a feeling for it. Calling is crucial, because if God calls you, how can circumstances uncall you?”

They’ve also learned to distinguish between human advice and divine calling. When Bill first felt called to missions, he went to his three best friends for counsel. All three said no. Even Connie didn’t want to go initially. But then she gave him a little globe with a note saying, “I’ll go anywhere in the world with you.”

“You will always have naysayers,” Bill reflects. “But you’ve got to trust people. Don’t go to people who just want to pat you on the back and say ‘good job’—get some people who will speak the truth to you.”

Perhaps most importantly, they’ve learned that God doesn’t always call the qualified—He qualifies the called.

“We’re the least qualified missionaries,” Connie admits. “The Lord calls the unqualified. I get this picture that God calls the angels around and he looks down at people like us and he says, ‘Watch this.’” As Bill puts it with his characteristic humor: “The redneck version of that would be ‘hold my beer.’ Here, hold my Bible.”

The Message That Keeps Them Going

After all these years, all these countries, all these challenges and miracles, what’s the message that keeps driving the McDonalds forward?

“Whatever you’re struggling with or whatever you’re facing, I promise you this: there is an answer for your need,” Bill says with conviction. “Sometimes it comes miraculously at a divine moment in time, but God has also placed the body of Christ here to help us.”

He compares it to the way your right hand immediately comes to the aid of your injured left hand without considering any other consequences. “So allow the body of Christ to respond to you. Find a good church, a healthy church, that can respond with you and find God in the middle of that.” And then he circles back to the lesson that Ecuador burned into their hearts: “Your trouble may be the very middle of your greatest miracle.”

From a prayer room in Louisville to the Amazon rainforest to a small town in Alabama, the McDonalds have learned that following God’s call isn’t about having the right qualifications or perfect circumstances. It’s about showing up, staying faithful, and remembering that the hardest chapters often turn out to be the most miraculous ones.

As they continue their “retirement project” at Anchors Church, with their children and grandchildren serving as missionaries in Ecuador and their youth group preparing for their own life-changing trips to the Amazon, one thing is clear: this family’s mission legacy is far from over. In fact, it might just be getting started.  

To learn more about Pastors Bill and Connie McDonald and their ministry at Anchors Church in Oneonta, Alabama, visit www.anchorschurch.com. As Bill reflects on their journey, “Connie and I are just a small part of these incredible teams of faith. From Centro Cristiano de Cuenca to Unsión Television and Anchors Church, so many faithful servants have sacrificed much for these accomplishments. Connie and I deserve very little recognition—the unmentioned are the true heroes of the faith. I want God to receive His glory.”

Amanda Cheatwood is the publisher of Revival Magazine and founder of Revival House Publishing. She also hosts the Revival Talk podcast, where she shares conversations with pastors, missionaries, worship leaders, and everyday believers who are carrying revival into their communities. Through publishing, podcasting, and storytelling, Amanda’s heart is to highlight what God is doing in our day and remind readers and listeners alike that revival isn’t a distant dream—it starts with us. Learn more at RevivalMagazine.global