Our God is Greater:
First of all we want to thank all of you for your prayers and giving towards the land for our church here in Bolivia. We are truly amazed at God’s goodness and blessing in our lives and ministry here. Over the last two months $18,476.50 has been given towards this need and has gotten us well on our way to completely pay off the land. With these recent offerings that gets us down to right at $45,000 to have the land completely paid for which is huge when you think about how far we have come over the last few months. While we are over half way to our goal, we still have a long ways to go and it might seem like an insurmountable task before us. A task like this can really stretch your faith, but we have a confidence that where there is a great challenge we know we have an even greater God. I believe that He is looking for some people that are willing to step out by faith and attempt something that only He can accomplish. In times like this we know that our God is bigger than anything that you and I could ever face and while it might seem impossible for us we know that nothing is impossible for our God. Also we know that God is owner of everything so when it seems like there isn’t enough, all we have to do is ask Him trusting that he will supply our needs. And finally God is in charge. In those times when it seems like things are not going the way we would like and we feel like we can’t do it, we know that He can and that not even the gates of hell can prevail against His church. Please pray for us as we take this step of faith trusting that the Lord will provide all our needs.
Reaching the Unreached:
It is always encouraging to see people reached with the gospel that haven’t been reached before. Pastor Lorenzo Laura and his family have been working in the northern part of Bolivia in a city called Cobija for almost nine years. They have been doing a great work and Lord has been blessing them as they reach out into other towns and villages. Their first church is named Jireh Baptist Church in the city of Cobija which is the capital of the region. From there they have reached out to another town that is a few hours away called Buyuyo. One of the men in their church went to this rural jungle area with his job and since there was no church their he started meeting with some of the teenagers and having services. From that Pastor Lorenzo began traveling to the town a couple of times a month and they have started a church there. This church has grown very quickly and they have built a small building that they are meeting in. The man that started the church is taking classes in the Bible College in Cobija with Pastor Lorenzo to prepare for the ministry and is leading most of the services. Recently they have made a couple of visits to an area that is several more hours from them to a small village where there is a tribe of people called the Machineri people. This a jungle area that borders the country of Brasil so the people speak both Spanish and Portuguese. Pastor Lorenzo and the men that traveled with him were astonished as the people were very hungry for the word and thirteen people accepted Christ. They almost immediately began to ask for Bibles so that they could begin to read. The hope is to continue visiting this village and establish a church there in the new future. We want to thank each of you that support our ministry here in Bolivia because when you do, more people like these can hear the gospel and churches can be established. If you would like to see some pictures of these churches, go to www.operationbolivia.com
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our anniversary service next week as we have our first service on our new land.
2. Pray as we plan to start service on Sunday in Quillacollo in the next few weeks. (More info to come)
3. Pray for our Bible College as we are coming to the end of our second of three trimesters.
4. Pray that the Lord will continue to raise up leaders here in Bolivia and around the world.