The Birth of a Church:
There is nothing more exciting than the birth of a child. When Beth was expecting our first, I remember that several people told me that it would change my life. I responded to them with the typical, “Yea I am sure it will” but had no idea how much it really would change everything. From the excitement, to the fear of not knowing what to do, it was a rollercoaster of emotion. I am so thankful that the Lord allowed us to have all three of our children and each one is unique in their own way, but truly a blessing to us. A similar thing happens when a church is born. There are even similar emotions of excitement and fear of not knowing how things will go, or will people actually come. That is the way we felt when we started our second church here in Bolivia. For a good while we had been praying for an area of the city called Quillacollo, where there are close to two hundred and fifty thousand people and almost no gospel witness. We started having services in the home of a family that lived in that area, that was attending our church. Soon we had close to twenty coming on Thursday nights and a few months later we decided to step out by faith and start the church. Over the past four years the Lord has greatly blessed them, and Pastor Pablo Rojas and his family, as they lead the church. As you read in our last prayer letter, we are currently seeking to help them purchase land so that they can have a permanent place to have services. I am excited to announce that we now have $1500 that has been given, that gives us a good start to the $20,000 that we need for a downpayment. You can also have a part in helping this young church take the next step in their growth. If you would like to help, please let us know by writing me at ktwbmw73@gmail.com, and send any offerings to Vision Baptist Missions, ℅ Bolivia Land Fund, P.O. Box 442, Alpharetta GA 30009.
Connected:
Have you ever had a time when you couldn’t get something to turn on, like a lamp or television? What should be the first step when trying to figure out why it is not working? We should first check and see if it is “plugged in”. When we see a person that has problems in his or her life we should ask the same question. Are the plugged in? Not to the wall socket but to Jesus Christ. That was our goal with this years youth conference. We wanted each person to be plugged in, or connected to Jesus in their lives. This starts with those that don’t know Jesus as their Savior. We wanted them to be connected to Him as their only hope in this life. Also for those who are Christians but maybe not living a life that is dedicated to Him, we wanted them to be connected in an intimate way and walking with Him on a daily basis. We were praying to have more visitors this year and new people to attend. Everyone worked really hard inviting and preparing for the conference and the Lord blessed each night. For the first service we had close to 110 and several people that were dealt with about their salvation. The second night we had over 120 and several that made professions of faith. On the last night we had almost 150 and in total for the three nights we had close to ten people that were saved. Praise the Lord.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our urgent need to raise $20,000 to secure the land for our church.
2. Pray for the church in Quillacollo as they go through this transition.
3. Pray for Bolivia as we will be having elections for president in a few months.
4. Pray for our VBS that we will have this month.