August 2022 Trip Update
I know this letter is being sent earlier in the month than some of our others. We have several specific prayer requests we would like to share with you.
In our previous prayer letter, we said it should be our last correspondence from the states. We were scheduled to leave on August 3rd. We had everything pack and said our goodbyes to our families, then the unexpected happened. Our whole family ended up with Covid. We found this out when we went to do the required testing to enter Bolivia. Jessica and the children had been battling some cold-like symptoms but nothing severe. Both Jessica and Daniel had been tested just days before as a precaution and both tests came back negative so the required tests coming back positive was a surprise to us. So far, we are all doing fine with mild symptoms, but we are all disappointed because we were ready to go. To keep from losing our tickets, we had to go ahead and reschedule our flight with the airline. With about $1,000 of unexpected costs as a result of this, we are now supposed to fly out on August 23rd. While we may be disappointed, we are confident that this did not surprise our Lord. We want to be back seeing Bolivian souls saved and the church built, and we know He does too, yet He allowed this anyway. We are trusting Him to do what is best for us. Please pray for our family that we can recover quickly so we can get back to Bolivia.
We also ask that you help us pray about a container we are hoping to send to Bolivia. As you know, we want to build a mission property which would include a warehouse to store scripture for distribution and other supplies. We are still a ways off from this ultimate goal so we are considering shipping a container that we will keep for this purpose until the warehouse is built. We have found one for about $5,000 that is taller than a normal container and we are investigating the requirements for getting it into Bolivia. Please help us pray for wisdom as we move forward with this plan.
Lastly, would you help us pray about a medical team we are hosting in November. We have helped host this same team in the past, but the group will be larger this time. So far, we are expecting 35 medical professionals as a part of this team. This requires a lot of preparation on our end - getting permission from the government for the clinic, securing a location large enough and the required permissions from customs to bring in supplies. At the moment, our biggest obstacle is finding enough interpreters. We barely had enough for our last clinic and several of those have since moved away. Would you help us pray for more interpreters and the other logistics for this clinic?
We greatly appreciate your faithfulness to pray for our family and the ministry in Bolivia. Lord willing, we will soon be back home in Bolivia and settling in to accomplish the ministry goals we have planned.
