Update On First Service

Good Day From Bolivia,

We were going to wait until our next prayer letter to update you on our first service. That letter is not due until next month and we just can’t wait that long to share what God did.

With it being our first service, we had no clue what to expect. We had no way of knowing if anyone would even show up. Our service was scheduled to start at 9:30am. We arrived about an hour early to prepare some last minute things that needed to be done. When we arrived, we had about 15 people standing outside our gate waiting to get in. This was a great encouragement as we drove up.

From the moment we drove up and opened the gates, there was a steady stream of people that lined up outside our door. In the end, we had about 200 souls inside that little house. We only have 70 chairs for adults and 20 chairs for children so many people stood there the whole service. It was an amazing service.

I want to say that fellow missionaries, the Ellzey family, were a great blessing to us. Kenneth preached for us, his wife Brooke helped in the nursery and with food, his daughter Kinsey ended up teaching the class with the children, her and her brothers helped in many other ways as well. We couldn’t have done near as well without their help.

Most or all of those people got to hear a true presentation of the gospel for the first time today. Several said they were saved. About 5 came up after the service asking for more information about how to be saved. It was just a wonderful experience.

The day didn’t go without it’s issues though. There were two main issues that came up.

One issue was Bibles. We had 40 Bibles that we used as gifts to the first 40 families that arrived. We ran out and had many people ask for one that didn’t receive one. It was very sad knowing there were people wanting God’s word and we didn’t have a copy to give them.

The other issue was space. This was a good problem to have but it became a dangerous situation. Because there were so many people there, we split the children off into a Sunday School room and taught them in there. But the children kept coming. By the end, we had about 80 children in that small room in 90*+ weather. They were all sweating profusely by the time they got out. It became scary because it was so hot in there. We had many people say they were coming back next week, so we have to figure out a way to fix this problem. As of now, we are looking at trying to put a big tarp in the back yard. This will give us a temporary fix until we can figure out how many will be coming back on a regular basis.

Please pray for us in the coming days. Our work is just beginning. We have the space issue to figure out. Looks like we are going to need more chairs. We have a lot of follow up visits to make. Plus the normal stuff for preparing for our next service.

All in all, if we never had another service, if we never did anything else, all this was worth it for the souls that were saved. For those that prayed for us, helped us and/or gave money towards the building it was all worth it knowing souls were saved. Because of your sacrifice, there are a few more souls that will never have to see the flames of an eternal Hell. No matter what part you had in helping, it was well worth it and thank you.