October 2019 Update
What a blessing and joy it is to be able to serve our Lord and Savior. He has been great to us and we bless His Holy Name! We are undeserving of the great privilege to serve Him! Since being back in the states, we have seen the special hand of God work in our lives seemingly extra. He has supplied for us multiple times when we had not even asked for help. We have been able to see His hand at work in our family. What an honor!
We are excited that in this month our church, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, in Bolivia will be celebrating it’s very first anniversary! So many of you took part and helped to make this dream a reality and for this we are truly grateful. The church is doing fine and is continuing under the leadership of their pastor, Francisco. They have planned a special service for their first anniversary. Our fellow laborer and missionary Kenneth Ellzey will be preaching for them in a conference that weekend. He also preached the very first service in the church. His whole family was instrumental in helping us in the first days of this church. This anniversary will be the church’s very first missions conference and we are excited to see what God does in their hearts towards the great commission. Please continue to pray for this church’s spiritual growth as well as their physical growth by way of new souls being won. Lord willing next month we will have photos of these services to show you.
We continue to ask you to pray for the political situation in the country. I would like to ask you specifically to mention this in prayer during your services on Sunday, October 20th. This is the day of the election. That day everything is shut down, churches are legally not allowed to gather and the people are required to go vote. There have been several instances of protests against the current president in multiple cities, even in the ones where he has been known to have more influence. In our city of Santa Cruz, there was a protest of approximately 1 million souls that gathered in the center of the city. Most of these have been peaceful demonstrations. We have heard of some violence but thus far not as much as we had expected. However, I have heard stories from both sides promising to rebel and fight if their side loses this election. Please continue to pray for our people and the country of Bolivia.
As we have been stateside visiting churches, my family has not been able to join me in most of our services. This is because the changes have been very hard on Ellie with her autism. She has struggled more since we have been back than we have seen in a couples of years. For her sake, we made the decision for my family to stay in one stable environment while I go visit churches. Would you please pray for our little girl and for our family? It has been hard to watch her like this. It is also very hard for me to travel without them. I am accustomed to being with and serving with my family every day. Our family is very close and being apart like this makes is very tough.
I am excited and look forward to sharing with you how the first anniversary goes at the church. I can hardly wait! Thank you for all you do with us and for us!
