August 2020 Update
Good Day From Bolivia,
We continue to rejoice in all that God has done in these last few months. God continues to supply for the needs of the ministry here in Bolivia. It seems as if every time we turn around, He opens another door and pours out His abundant blessings.
Bolivia is still under quarantine due to Covid-19. The borders continue to be shut to international travel. However, things have lightened up a little compared to what it was before. Now each state makes the decision on how strict they feel they need to be. Most states have started allowing a little more activity. In our state, we are allowed to drive and conduct most business Monday through Friday between 5am and 5pm. Outside of that time frame, you must stay within 500 meters of your home. After 130+ days of quarantine, our family was ready to get out and drive around a little.
Even though the restrictions are still in place on the weekends, we are finally now allowed to hold church services. Our new church still has not had a service because the pastor has been sick from lung issues and we very much would like to protect him from getting the virus. Our first church, Monte Carmelo, has been able to have 2 services so far. Pastor Francisco travels to and stays the weekend in the church building so that he can be there on Sunday morning. Children under 12 and senior citizens are not allowed to attend. Even though this is a hinderance, the attendance has been 20 adults in church! This is a great blessing! Because this church is still so new, we knew there was the possibility of having to start over. Pastor Francisco was encouraged to have that many adults return to in-person services despite the months of restrictions. We are so thankful that these new believers are staying faithful!
This month we had a great opportunity put before us. In the past, we have had a very hard time getting good, doctrinally sound, Sunday school material here. Because of this, we have been buying a printable version and sharing it with the local churches. Within the last year, a local bookstore started carrying a trusted Baptist curriculum. This month, that bookstore promoted the material for about 50% off. With help from another ministry and from our support, we are purchasing about 10 sets. These sets include everything a church would need for ages 6-14. It also provides 8 years’ worth of adult material. All of this was only $370 per set! What a blessing to be able to help the local churches and pastors in this way. We are planning to give full sets to some churches that do not have the resources to purchase the material on their own.
In our last letter, we asked you to help us pray over our scripture container. This container had 360,000+ scripture portions and over 1,000,000 tracts. We are excited to let you know we have received the material and in record time! It took exactly 1 month to receive from Miami, including passage through customs, which is known to be a nightmare. We have not had the container for a full week and have already given away 6 pallets of scripture to different churches here. We organized a group of young people to help us sort tracts and have given away 130,000 of those to churches for them to distribute. I have more promised to other churches in other states, but they cannot be distributed until the quarantine lifts a little more to allow for travel between states.
Would you help us pray about another container? We have a stateside ministry that is willing to donate 20 pallets of materials to us for another container. This last container cost about $14,000 to ship. Thankfully, the Lord provided for that need. As I mentioned about the Sunday school material, reliable resources are hard to get here. I really do not want to have to turn down this material that has been offered. Please help me pray over this.
Lastly, we ask you to once again pray for the political situation here. Due to the virus, the interim government has moved the election date 2-3 times. The former government party that was kicked out last November is increasing pressure towards the interim government. They have started blocking roads to the main cities, which obviously restricts food and medical supplies needed for Covid-19. So far, it has not affected our area too much. We live in the largest city of Bolivia that is probably 95% against the former party, therefore, I do not foresee that group trying to do much here, but please still continue to pray for us and for Bolivia.
We are very thankful that our family has not been sick during this pandemic. I know we have been around it, especially as we have ministered to the police, yet the Lord has seen fit to protect us thus far. Thank you to all who have prayed for us. We do believe in the power of prayer!
