This month has been the month of anniversaries for the churches here in Bolivia. The first part of the month I was invited to preach the anniversary service of the sister church that we have, in the northern part of Bolivia, in the city of Cobija. It is truly amazing to see how the Lord has blessed them over the last twelve years as they have worked to reach out into the rural, jungle areas around them where many tribes and people groups live. One of the men from the church, several years back, moved to an area called Buyuyo. There was no church there so he started having services with the young people and they quickly grew to having thirty and forty people. With the help from the church in Cobija they were able to establish a church and now have a healthy thriving congregation in that area. They were also able to go farther out into the jungle to a village that only has electricity from a generator. They also have a small congregation there with a man that is leading the services. The church has also reached out into many other towns and villages preaching the gospel to them. While I was there preaching the anniversary I was also able to help counsel them as they are going to be having a pastor change. Pastor Lorenzo, who has worked there for more than twelve years is going to be moving to Peru to start a new work there and the church is calling another pastor to take over. I was able to encourage them during this transition to continue with the same vision that they have had from the beginning. Please pray for them and the new pastor as they move forward.
A few weeks later, I was also able to preach the twelfth anniversary service of the first church that we planted here in Bolivia. Over the past few years, since they have been on their own, I have seen tremendous growth both in the people of the church and Pastor Isaac Benitez, as he has led them. As you might remember, they have been working on their construction for the past year or two and are now almost finished with the main auditorium. Their next project is to start the foundation for the kitchen, nursery and office area, along with two more bathrooms. They also have five or six students in our Bible college, with hopes of sending a couple of them out in the next few of years to start new churches. We had great services with them starting on Friday night, ending on Sunday morning with a special service and cookout afterwards. There were close to one hundred people there on Sunday celebrating what the Lord has done over the past twelve years. Please pray for these two churches and both their spiritual and financial needs.