God’s Harvest:
I praise the Lord for how He is blessing our ministry here in Bolivia and especially in our new church in and area of the city called Pacata. We have had quite a few visitors lately and a couple of new families that are now attending the church. Some of them are already Christians but several of them are not. It has been amazing to me to see how through the preaching, the messages have seemingly been specifically directed toward those who are not saved. This is surprising most of all because we preach through one book the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. I obviously believe that it has not been a coincidence that we have touched on things in the preaching like forgiveness, and being satisfied in the Lord and being prepared for His return. We have one family in the church that have been attending since the beginning but during the last several invitations they raised their hand with interest in salvation. We were not able to speak with them at that time but set up a time to visit them at their house to talk with them. After having a great lunch we began to answer some of their doubts that they had about the Bible from a Jehovah’s Witness friend that has been talking with them. They were truly concerned about their salvation and what would happen to them when they died. I was able to share the gospel with them and both trusted Christ as their savior. This was a great blessing and we would like to ask you to pray for them, the Teran family. Also, please pray for another new couple, Fernando and Adriana that are not saved yet.
Coach and Player:
One of the things that I have leaned in the short time I have in the ministry, is that ministry done the right way, is a lot of work. Especially in missions because I have found that you are basically playing two different positions at the same time. In most cases, we would be more like a player, that is doing the job of a pastor; preaching, visiting, discipling, meeting with the people and leading the ministry. As our ministry has begin to grow and advance, I find myself needing to spend more and more time as a coach meeting with the pastors that we have and even some of the Bible college students that are interested in ministry. The difficulty is, I can’t just do one or the other. I have to continue being player as we start the new church and coach as more and more pastors are prepared for the ministry. This is a great challenge but a great joy at the same time and really what the ministry is all about. Our ultimate goal with the church that we are starting is to have people trained that can can take over those responsibilities but when that happens, we will be looking at starting all over again. As these responsibilities continue to grow more and more I have had to learn a few important lessons to be able to do both. Not that I am perfect at it, or even that it has gotten easier, but here are a few things that might help.
1. Plan your Time Well
If you don’t plan well, at the end of the day you will have accomplished very little even though you were busy.
2. Focus on Whats Most Important
– While visiting the sick is very important, spending time in a future pastor might be a better investment.
3. Never Loose Sight of Your Purpose
– As missionaries, our main goal is to train pastors and leaders not be pastors. While we must do both, our priority should be with those that are in the ministry or preparing for the ministry.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our first ever pastor’s retreat that we will be having this month.
2. Pray for the new families in our church that have not trusted Christ.
3. Pray for our third trimester in our Bible College that we will be starting this month.
4. Pray for the men in our Bible college that are preparing for the ministry.