Reaching the Jungle:
From the time we arrived to Bolivia we have been working with a sister church in the north, in a city called Cobija. Cobija is a smaller town with about 75,000 people and shares a border with the country of Brasil. If you travel outside of the city you will notice that it is surrounded with thousands of acres of jungle and hundreds of small towns and villages. The Laura Family has been working their for almost twelve years and the Lord is blessing their ministry. This past month I was able to travel with Andrew, our intern that is here, to teach on the family for them. I taught on Thursday and Friday night to their Bible College students on varios aspects of the family like, good communication, and how to handle our finances. Then on Saturday I spoke at the mother’s day banquete on God’s forgiveness and how we can forgive others. Then on Sunday we finished out the conference with two services touching on the importance of marriage. It was a great blessing to see the heart of the people and their desire to serve the Lord. Each day we ate breakfast and lunch in the home of one of the members of the church and I was overwhelmed with their hospitality and generosity, in spite of being very poor. Several of the families lived in simple wooden houses with dirt floors but the food they served was prepared with much love and was delicious. In one of the houses, we sat down to eat lunch and the families daughter didn’t want to eat. When we asked why, her mom told us that the chicken we were eating had been her pet and they killed it to prepare the meal. This was the sacrifice that they made to be able to serve us in their home. It was also encouraging to see the people in the church that have a desire to serve the Lord and take the gospel to the people in their area. Three of the families want to start churches in different towns that are several hours outside of Cobija, where they are from or where they have family. I pray that the Lord will continue raise up laborers and these men can reach many with the gospel.
Reaching Mothers:
Here in Bolivia we celebrate Mother’s Day on the 27th of May. In Bolivia and in Latin culture in general, mothers are the central figure in the family. Here Father’s Day is not that big of a deal but when Mother’s Day comes around it is a huge celebration. Every year we have several activities to recognize the mothers of our church and also give the people an opportunity to invite other mothers that are not saved. On the Saturday before Mother’s Day, we had a special banquete where the men of the church prepared a meal of grilled chicken, Fettuccini Alfredo, rice, salad and desert. We also had special music, a short drama and games followed by a lesson that my wife taught to the mothers. In all, we had almost fifty people present with seventeen mothers, three of which we first time visitors. It was truly a great time and most of the visitors said they wanted to come back and visit again.
Reaching Bolivia:
This month we started a new semester of classes in our Bible college here in Cochabamba. We are teaching five classes including, Doctrines, Pentateuch, Pastoral ethics, Counseling and Homiletics. I am excited for those who are taking classes and pray that the Lord uses them greatly. In the near future some of these men will be going out to start new churches in different areas here in the city and from those areas raise up more men and women who want to serve the Lord. Our desire is to see many churches started and many people trained to reach out across Bolivia with the gospel.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for Pastor Pablo who is pastoring in Quillacollo because he has been in the hospital sick.
2. Pray for Pastor Isaac as he is still recovering from a broken arm that is not wanting to heal.
3. Pray for the students in our Bible College and that the Lord will raise up even more laborers.
4. Pray for our upcoming youth conference the end of this month.