Youth Conference 2013:
This past month we had our annual youth conference here in Bolivia. We had visiting with us Bro. Jeff Bush who is the director of Vision Baptist Missions. Jeff worked as a missionary in Argentina for 8 years before becoming the director at VBM. The Lord greatly used him during his time in Argentina and allowed them to start several churches and establish a Bible College that has between 20 and 30 students. We were very excited to have him here with us preaching the conference and knew he was going to be a great blessing. The young people worked very hard getting things ready, from the decorations to the games and skits. The theme this year was “Dare to be Different” so the entrance to the church was painted with a 3d painting on the floor of a man climbing a cliff showing he was willing to take the risk to reach his goal. Each night we touched on a different area of being different. For example the first night the focus was on “Dare to think differently” and then “Dare to live differently”, finishing up with “Dare to share (your faith) differently”. In the same way we should be willing to step out and work to be different in this world and set the example for others. The preaching was really challenging and we had many decisions made for the Lord. I am very grateful to the Lord for the young people at our church and especially for Bro. Jeff Bush giving of his time and allowing the Lord to use him.
Reaching Youth in Chile:
This past month I had the privilege to visit with a great missionary friend Jason Holt in Chile to participate in their annual youth conference. The Lord has really blessed the ministry in Chile and for me it was an honor to be part. The conference started on Wednesday night and lasted through Friday night with services in the morning on Thursday and Friday. The theme for the conference was “Identity Theft”, living our true identity in Christ. There were more than 200 present almost every night for each service and in total I think 4 trusted the Lord and many more made decisions to give their lives to serve Him. It was truly a humbling experience for me and helped me to learn that unless the Lord does the work everything we do, will be for naught. I truly had a great time while there and am very thankful to Jason and Lori for being the blessing that they were. Please pray for them and the ministry in Chile that the Lord will continue to bless in a great way.
Special Visitors:
It always amazes me to see how my wife can handle all the responsibilities at home with the family and still be as involved as she is in the ministry. She has especially worked, since we arrived in Bolivia, with the children of the community around our church. They have had many children come to the Wednesday night kids club, Sunday mornings for Sunday school and children’s church. Probably the most popular of these meetings has been our kid’s club on Wednesday night where they have had as many as 60 or more. Recently we decided to make some changes to our kid’s club and start having it on Saturday afternoons. We made this decision because on Wednesday night the services were often over after 8:00 pm and the kids didn’t get home sometimes till close to 9:00 pm. While it has taken a little while for the kids to get used to the change, it has worked out much better and has allowed the teachers to have service for an hour and a half and spend more time with the kids.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our upcoming 7th anniversary of our church here in Bolivia.
2. Pray for our children’s ministry and the homes that they represent.
3. Pray for the south side of our town that has close to 300 thousand people and no church.
4. Pray for our meeting that we are having in Quillacollo on Thursday nights.