This past week we had our annual missions conference here at the church focusing on the great harvest and the need for laborers. As a missionary starting churches I realize the importance of missions and that a church understand it’s responsibility to reach the world. My desire is that not only will I be able to start churches but that those churches will be able to raise up and send out missionaries one day just like my church does. The biggest problem with this desire is the same problem that Jesus saw when speaking to His disciples. Matthew 9:37 says “The harvest is plenteous but the laborers are few”. This can be seen all around the world in the fact that there are so many opportunities but the lack of laborers keeps us from taking advantage of those opportunities. This was our desire in this years conference and we pray for more laborers for the harvest.
I was excited to have visiting us this year, Pastor Miguel Murrillo from Arequipa Peru. He has been in the ministry for more than twenty years, starting several churches and leading the Macedonia Baptist Bible College. We wanted to take advantage of him being here so we had a busy week planned. During the day, from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, he taught two different classes to the guys that are in our Bible College and then at night we had our service starting on Wednesday. The classes during the day were an intensive study time only taking a short break for lunch and bathroom breaks. This was necessary to finish all the material in one week.
On Saturday we had an international banquete where each person brought a different dish from other countries around the world. We had food from Peru, Japan, China, Mexico and others. This was the first international banquete that we have had since we started the church and everyone really enjoyed it.
On Sunday we had our first morning service in Quillacollo at 9:30 am and then came immediately for our normal morning service at 11:00 at our current church. During the morning service we collected our faith promise cards and in total had 2100 bolivianos promised which would be a little over $300. This is a significant amount considering the average wage here is around $150 a month. If it all comes in we will easily be able to support another missionary along with the two that we are already supporting. I am very grateful to Pastor Miguel for his time and the blessing that he was to the people of our church. Please pray that we will continue to do more to reach the world with the gospel and that we will see more laborers sent into the harvest.
