This past week a man from our church named Jorge and I, were able to travel to the north of Bolivia to the city of Cobija. We were invited on a special mission’s trip to visit one of our coworkers that has been working there for almost ten years. Our goal there was to not only preach in the church there in Cobija but to travel to several different villages in the jungle where they are starting churches. Our first day we arrived in the morning and after lunch we got everything together to travel into the jungle. The first part of our trip was to the town of Buyuyo which is about two hours out, where they have a church already established. We picked up the pastor that works in that town but headed out again for another two and a half hours into the jungle to a small town called 18th of November. Because we got a late start, and the roads were really bad due to the rain they have been getting, we didn’t arrive until about 9:30 pm. As soon as we arrived, the generator that supplied the town’s lights failed for some reason and there was total darkness. It took them about an hour to find a small generator and connect a small light on their soccer court so that we could have service. Everything ended around twelve midnight and we headed more than two hours back to Buyuyo where we spent the night. The next day we spent the day in Buyuyo, fishing a little but mostly getting eaten alive by bugs. Even though we were using bug spray they had a good feast of us. That night we had service there and afterwards we headed back to Cobija. The next afternoon we left for another town only about an hour from Cobija called Mugren. It is a town of about 100 families but one of the towns leaders is a Christian and has asked for a church to be started. We visited most of the people in the area and had a service in their open air meeting hall. There were more than forty people that showed up and more than ten that made a profession of faith. On Saturday we had a special couples meeting at the church in Cobija where we talked about how to resolve problems that we face. On Sunday we had services finishing up that night before we returned home on Monday. For me it was really eye opening to see how many towns and villages there were where the people want to have a church but there are not enough workers to go there. We had a great time visiting with the Laura family and seeing how the Lord is working through them in this area. The only bad thing about the trip was the extreme heat and of course all the bug bites that I ended up getting while there. Please pray for the Laura family and the great need in the northern part of our country.
