July 2018
Click here to see a small video of the outside of the property.
It is a great time to be serving the Lord. No matter whether you are in the USA, Bolivia or anywhere else in the world, it is a great day to serve Him. He is worthy of our time and service.
The last couple of months have been busy and productive. We are still keeping a church for a national pastor that is in the states visiting supporting churches. This month, we poured the floor for his second floor. We poured the whole floor by hand, by lifting 2.5 gallon buckets up about 15ft. That made for a long day.
We have also been busy in our own ministry. We have been looking for property for our church. We looked into several pieces of land and most of them just fell through for one reason or another. We had one lot we kept going back to. It stayed on our hearts and minds since the very first day we really started looking. A few weeks ago, we approached the owners and agreed to buy it! It is about the same size as the other lots we looked at but this one already has a house on it. We were able to purchase both the house and the lot for about the same price we were looking to buy just a lot. You can click on the image above for a small video of the outside of the building, If that doesn't work you can find it on the July prayer letter page of our website, reachingbolivia.com.
The purchase didn’t come without it’s challenges though. We had the money transferred from the states to our account here in Bolivia. As we were receiving it, the bank here asked us what it was for. When we told them it was for a church, they refused the money transfer and sent it back to the states. We spent a few days hoping and praying the money would go back as they promised. I spent hours upon hours in the bank pressuring them. Being in a corrupt country leaning towards socialism, I wasn’t assured it would be done. Once the money was returned, we had to go a different, more expensive, route to get the money here. But praise the Lord, it is done. Thanks to generous supporters, we had already raised all the finances we needed for the original purchase. Due to the bank issues, it did cost us $1,200 more than we had planned. We had to borrow this amount to buy the building. But in the end, the property is ours and will be ready soon to have services. We are very excited about this. This has been a desire and dream for us for several years now.
The house is divided in half. There are 3 bedrooms and a bathroom on one side, then a kitchen, bathroom and living room on the other side. Our plan is to take out the wall and bathroom between the kitchen and living room to make our auditorium. This will make it a wonderful church building! As of now, we believe we can do all of the remodel work needed for just $2,500. That isn’t bad to do everything we need in order to make it into a church building.
Besides a little bit of remodeling , there is a great need outside too. We need a wall around the building for security. This is very common here and is very needed. We do not know yet what this is going to cost.
On a more personal note, we want to mention that Ellie is doing well. Thank you for continuing to pray for her. She is still not where she needs to be, but we have seen great improvements in her since we started her therapy. Please do not stop praying for her and for us as we try to help her.
Again, thank you so much for everyone that has helped thus far in the land project. We realize we could not have done this without the help of others. Thank you for your prayer and financial support.
