Special Request:
I wanted to give you and update on the request that I made in our last months prayer letter. I wrote that the Bolivian government had stopped giving missions visas, needed for someone to come as a missionary here but then I heard that they were still giving them. Well I have now had it confirmed that the government is no longer giving any type of visas for missionaries, volunteers or humanitarian aid workers. That means that technically from this point on, no one will be allowed to come to Bolivia as a missionary unless something changes. We have been speaking with some friends who have a lawyer that helps with these types of situations to see what alternative there might be and it looks like the only possibility would be to come on a work Visa. To do this an organization in the US would have to have an agreement, recognized by the Bolivian government, with an organization in Bolivia and that person would come as a worker. All of this is very concerning to us because there is still such a great need here and it is now going to be even more difficult of someone wants to come. Please pray with us, that the door to work in Bolivia, and for others to come will stay open.
Special Christmas:
I hope that you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and happy new year celebrating all the blessing that the Lord has given. I would also like to thank many of you that sent special Christmas cards and offerings this past month. In times when you are far from family and friends, during the holidays it is really encouraging and a great blessing to receive these special gifts. We also had a wonderful time with our church family here celebrating the birth of our Savior and the new year. As we have mentioned several times before, Christmas is a little different here not only because of customs but also because it is usually 90 degrees outside. On the Sunday morning before Christmas the churches here have a chocolatada which as you might can imagine includes hot chocolate served with a type of fruit cake. Then on Sunday night our kids did a Christmas play, but in a different way. We hung a large white cloth in front of the stage with a light shinning on it from the back and the kids acted behind the curtain. It turned out much better than we could have imagined and everyone was really impressed. Then for new years we had a cookout with some of the people from the church that lasted to right at 12:00. At midnight the whole city was filled with the sound of fireworks going off nonstop for almost thirty min. We thank the Lord for His blessings and are trusting for many more this coming year.
Special Thanks:
As you have been hearing a lot lately about the need for our land here in Bolivia, I would like to say a special thanks to everyone that has helped us towards reaching our goal, especially those that gave a special offering for Christmas. As you can imagine this is a great burden for us and as the time quickly approaches for us to have the land paid off, we are praying to get it taken care of as quickly as possible. Our goal is to start building in the next couple months so that we can be out of our current building and on our own land by March at the latest. This is a big step of faith considering that we still haven’t finished paying for it. The drawing plans are already done and we hope to present them to the city for approval in the next week or so. Please continue t pray for this great need that the Lord will provide for us paying off the land and also for the construction.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for the visa situation here and that the Lord will do a miracle and the doors will stay open.
2. Pray for the any visitors that we have had a church lately, that we can reach them with the gospel.
3. Pray for our new church in Quillacollo
4. Pray for the Laura family that is working with us in the northern part of Bolivia.