Missions Here and Around the World:
As a missionary, you don’t have to convince me of the importance and need of missions. When I see all over South America and around the world, how many people’s lives have been changed and family tress altered for all eternity, how can I not be focused on missions. I am missionary, working here in Bolivia because of many churches in the United States that believe in missions and while here I believe in teaching the churches the importance of them participating in missions. Just like in the US, the churches here use faith promise and mission’s offerings to support missionaries taking the gospel to the world. Our first church here supports three missionaries; Cesar Copa to Morocco, Vicente Garcia to Burkina Faso, and Juan Carlos Lopez in Chile. Not only do they support these missionaries at a higher level than the norm, they also have a great desire to support more missionaries. That is why we had a special missions emphasis this past month to encourage our people to do more for missions.
Special Speaker:
We had several special visitors with us during the week, two from the US and two from Peru. We invited missionary David Gardner to be the special speaker and he brought with him missionary intern Kason Bloom. Kason is praying about where to be a missionary while he is doing his internship and language training in Peru. David grew up on the mission field in Peru, so his life has always been missions. He did a tremendous job preaching and encouraging our people to do more for missions. To continue supporting the three missionaries that we have, we needed at least $150 a month promised. Obviously not all that is promised comes in, but it gives us an idea of what to expect. Instead of having $150 promised we had over $300 promised a month for missions this year. That means that we should easily be able to support at least one more missionary maybe two.
Special Visitors:
We also had visiting with us brother Juan Bernal and his daughter Cami. Juan’s parents are originally from Bolivia, but have live in the US for many years. Although he was born and grew up in the US, every since he was saved, he has had a great burden for Bolivia and his family. When his daughter Cami began to show an interest in missions, he contacted us about the possibility of visiting us to see the ministry here. It was great that they were able to come during the mission’s conference and see how missions is not just something for Americans but people around the world can participate. They were a great blessing to us and were able to help in the music and giving testimonies about how the Lord has worked and is working in their lives. Just as it was for me, I think it was a real eye opener to see how much of a need there is here on the mission field. If you have never taken a mission’s trip, I would like to encourage you to come and visit and see what the Lord has for you. If you would like more information about visiting us, you can go to our website at; www.operationbolivia.com and click on Bolivia Mission’ Trip right below the title. While the trip is normally planned for the months of June or July we have had groups come throughout the year.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray that we can find the right place to start meeting for our new church.
2. Pray for our Bible college classes and students as we come to the end of our semester.
3. Pray for the churches here in Cochabamba and Cobija that the Lord will continue to bless a raise up leaders.
4. Pray for the construction at our first church as they are trying to finish the bathrooms and main classroom.