January 2023 Prayer Letter
We are thankful in this new year for all that the Lord allowed us to see Him do last year. We saw Him give safety during travel and during protests. He provided for the needs of our churches and for the communities around them. He has done great wonders.
Our church had extra reasons to celebrate this Christmas! As if celebrating our Savior’s birth wasn’t enough, the week before Christmas, our new building was far enough along that we were able to move our Christmas activities onto our new property! On Christmas Eve, we had a children's activity with about 200 people present. It consisted of a short service of singing along with a gospel presentation, then each child received a small meal and a gift. The next day we celebrated Christmas Day with our first service in the new building. Our people have prayed for this for so long and it was wonderful to watch them realize that God answered their prayers. As we dedicated the building, I had them go stand around the wall and touch it. I reminded them that we cannot always see how God answers our prayers, but this time, not only could they see it, but they could also even touch it. We are still working to install power and doing other projects around the building, but this was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to teach them God can and will answer their prayers.
As of this writing, we are now preparing to have 2 Vacation Bible Schools during the month of January. A family from our home church is coming to visit and will be helping us with the first one. My hope is that this Bible School will not only be an opportunity to reach these young children with the gospel but will also help our new neighbors come to know us better. At the end of the month, our family is planning to help our first church plant, Mount Carmel, have their a VBS too.
Many have asked us about the protests here and how they have been affecting us and the ministry. At the New year, there is the saying, "Out with the old and in with the new." And that is how the protests have been for us. The protests I have mentioned in previous letters were "paused" due to the holidays and because the citizens received a compromise to what they were seeking. We have seen results from the community meals we provided. Each church has new visitors continuing to come after experiencing the care that the church had for them during that trying time. We have also seen some of these visitors saved. In our current church we saw a whole family saved. The mother and her children have been faithful since that day. We rejoice in how God can take a trial and turn it into a blessing.
That was the “old” - we are now in a new protest. A few days before the New Year, the federal government arrested the governor of our state in a very violent manner. He is accused of terrorism due to his leadership role in the 2019 protests when the then-president stepped down. This automatically started new problems in our state. Within minutes, people broke through airport security and started searching planes because they believed the government would fly him out. They were correct but it happened by helicopter from a different location. The citizens immediately started protesting again. This time, the police repressed the citizens with tear gas and arrests. The police have also been burning private property among other malicious acts. This has caused the citizens to fight harder against them and problems have grown. The streets near the police headquarters have looked like a war zone. So far, our family has barely been affected. There is a blockade between us and our church, but we can cross another way to get there, it just takes a lot longer on the rough terrain. We avoid the area of the city where the fighting has been, and we avoid marches. This has proven to keep us safe so far.
We appreciate all of you who have reached out to us to make sure we are ok. Thank you for praying for our family and for our churches. Please do not cease to pray for us and the ministry here in Bolivia. You have a greater impact than you will ever know on this side of eternity.
