Decisions Decisions:
One of the greatest joys that I have in the ministry is to see people make decisions for the Lord. As our church has grown, and many have made decisions, we felt that it was time to look at organizing our new church. This entails a lot of preparation since many of the people were new and some had just recently trusted Christ as their Savior. We started out having membership classes where we explain everything from what it means to be a member to why we are a Baptist Church. We also cover some of the basics of what we believe, with the goal of making sure that each person understands these things before becoming a member. In the past we just accepted people as members without going over any of these details and found out that many were becoming members, but really didn’t believe the doctrines and philosophy that we have as a church. At the end of eight to ten weeks of classes, and answering many of their questions and doubts, we had a good group that was interested in becoming members. In preparation for the service we also planned to have baptisms since several had never been baptized. This was what we covered in the first lesson on membership, that each person must be saved and baptized to be a member. On that Sunday we had the baptistry (a small pool) ready in the churches yard for those who were going to take this step of obedience. We were very excite that there were eight in total that were baptized including Titus our son. For the organization service we had a legal book with our constitution and statement of fait in the front, with a place to sign afterwards. So far we have had close to twenty that signed the book as founding members of the church. We will leave it open for a couple of months for anyone else that makes the decision to be a member. We praise the Lord that this new church has been established and we pray that the Lord will use it greatly.
Saying Goodbye,,, For Now:
One of our greatest desires as missionaries is to help train people to serve the Lord. That is what we do on a regular basis here in the ministry, but with a program that our home church has, we have had the opportunity to do the same with American students that are preparing for the ministry. It is a program where students that have finished their class requirements, spend six months on the mission field, doing their internship. They can choose from different countries around the world where we have missionaries serving. The idea is that they can get hands on preparation for the ministry in things like cultural adaptation and church planting. Well, for the past six months we had intern Andrew Wilder with us learning and helping in the ministry. During his time here he spent most mornings in language school learning the Spanish Language. Then in the afternoons we would spend time together going over mission’s books that he was reading. He also spent time helping in the church in different areas like children’s ministry, youth ministry, outreach ministry etc. Not only do I believe it was a great time of learning for him, but he was a great blessing to us while here. The last few weeks, before his departure, he was able to travel to several of the main cities in Bolivia to see the different cultures and the need for the gospel. Well, like most good things they must come to and end. Andrew is now back in the US and is making preparations for the next step the Lord has for him. He will now be choosing a mission field and starting to raise his support to be able to return to the field and start his ministry. Please pray for him.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for Andrew as he seeks the Lord’s will for his life.
2. Please continue to pray for the little girl Maite, as the parents decide whether to do Chemotherapy.
3. Pray for our upcoming youth camp the first week of January.
4. Pray for our Christmas activities at the church.