This past week I was invited to preach a conference for a friend that is in the city of Coroico which is in an area of Bolivia called Los Yungas. It is a very unique place in that it is only about two hours from the city of La Paz, the highest capital city in the world at 13,000 ft elevation but it is mountainous jungle. This area is also known for the famous “Road of Death” that has been highlighted in several documentaries. As we left the city of La Paz we first had to travel up over the Western range of the Andes mountains that sore to over 15,000 ft. At one point I looked at my altitude app on my phone and it said 15,300 ft. From there we traveled down the mountain descending over 10,000 ft in less than two hours. At one point we passed the sign that signals where the Road of Death starts, which before, was the only way to get down the mountain. Thankfully the new highway was a little safer although we were still traveling on a two lane road with just a small guardrail and probably a 3,000 + ft drop straight to the bottom of the ravine. After a trip of an hour and a half, that seemed like a day, we finally made it to the bottom and started back up to the city of Coroico. It is a picturesque city that sits on the top of one of the ridges about 6,000 ft above the river below.
The pastor that is working in the church there is Santiago Ortega and has been pastoring the church for several years now. He is doing a great job and has four students from his church currently studying in the Bible College in Arequipa Peru. The focus of the conference that I preached was evangelism, encouraging those of the church to reach out in their city and the region where they are located. When I travel to different areas of Bolivia like this, I am more and more impacted by the great need and so many places towns and villages that need the gospel. There must have been hundreds of towns throughout the mountains in this area called Los Yungas, many of which have no church to share the gospel with them. Although many have perished on the famous Road of Death the greater tragedy is the many that are perishing every day without knowing the Lord. Pray for Pastor Santiago and this area that the Lord will raise up leaders to take the gospel to them.