Sources: HCJB Global, God's Fuel: The Story of John Douglas Munday

Known to many as "Don Juanito," John Douglas Munday died Saturday, June 6, in Quito, Ecuador, at the age of 80. A funeral service and burial was held the following day in Quito.

Born Jan. 24, 1929, to Edwin and Jessie May Munday in Victoria, B.C., he later left his home country for a lifetime of missionary service. After several months with missionaries in Peru, he arrived in Ecuador in 1958.

An English teacher, Munday was commissioned as a missionary from a Plymouth Brethren assembly known as Victoria Gospel Chapel. During two decades he directed the orphanage, Diospaj ?an (God's Way), for boys. Diospaj ?an offered a home and hope for orphans.

A friend, HCJB Global retiree Kay Landers who authored his biography, wrote, "For many years John Munday collected discarded and broken bits of humanity from the streets of Quito. Like the Lord he served, John did not despise the bent reed nor did he extinguish the flickering candle of those whose lives had been cruelly battered by their families and the horrific external circumstances into which they had been born."

Following his time at Diospaj ?an, he continued to serve the Lord as an independent missionary. Describing Munday's years in Ecuador, Christian author Elisabeth Elliot, the widow of one of the five missionaries speared to death in the Ecuadorian jungle in 1956, wrote of him, "He offered up his life for the helpless. He suffered for them, with them and because of them. I think John may be numbered among those mentioned in Hebrews, 'of whom the world was not worthy.'"

Munday was renowned for his humor as well as his compassion. Amid long days of caring for children, he also hosted a program, "Llamada Desde los Andes" (Called from the Andes), that aired on Radio Station HCJB.

"God gave me much when he gave me wise, loving and godly parents," Munday wrote in his autobiography. "He didn't give me a wife, but he did give me secondhand sons and daughters."