July 2023 Prayer Letter
Medical Team
They say, “when it rains, it pours” and that has been our experience these last 2 months. What a joy it has been to be extremely busy in the ministry here. There is so much going on that it can be almost overwhelming. While it can be hard to keep up sometimes, it is a privilege to know God is allowing us to be used in His work.
A video assembled by part of the medical team we thought you might like to see. It shows the team and parts of the clinic.
The biggest news we have this month has to do with the medical clinic we just finished. After months of planning and preparing, Medical Missions Outreach brought a team of 55 medical professionals and helpers to hold a 4-day clinic in the community of one of our churches. It was a long, busy week but we were able to serve 1,764 patients in those four days. The majority were seen for general medicine, but many were also able to be seen on the optical side and receive free glasses. Each day the crowd would be so large I would have to stand on top of a vehicle for them to hear me make announcements. There were so many that needed the services people stayed in line when we closed the gate at 4pm and slept there over night to make sure they were able to be seen the next day. It was very sad that we still had to turn people away the last day. As a part of the clinic, every person was given a personal presentation of the gospel. They came looking for physical care and we also showed them the Healer of their souls. Several claimed to have made a profession of faith during the week, which was exciting, but what encouraged me even more was to see many come to church on Sunday. During the clinic, we promoted a gift basket that we would be giving away that Sunday morning. It was just a small incentive to get people interested in coming to join us for a preaching service. On Sunday morning, we had 73 first time visitors. These visitors received a message that specifically gave them another gospel presentation. At the end of that service, we had some that either made a profession during the week, or on that morning, come and talk to us about what is next for them as new believers. We presented baptism and will soon begin to speak to them about discipleship. We will also gift them a Bible. Now that the clinic is over, we still have a lot of work to do. We are planning to follow up with every individual, starting with those who came to the church and then those who made a profession of faith. Please pray for us and the people of Iglesia Bautista Vida Eterna as we continue to reach out to these people. Robert will be traveling later in the month to Riberalta to help another missionary with a similar medical clinic they are hosting. Pray for safety, good organization, and many souls to be reached with this clinic as well.
If you remember, the church was broken into a few months ago and we had to spend the money we had saved for the main doors and windows to secure the church. Thankfully, we were finally able to finish installing the doors and windows the week our medical team arrived and fully enclose the church building. This helped the building to look much better and more complete.
Now we are beginning to focus on our next scripture container. Lord willing, in August or early September we begin the shipment of 4 pallets of Bibles, 4 pallets of tracts and several more pallets of scripture portions. It should take about 2 months to receive but this time we have purchased the container so that we can use it for storage as well. In the past, we have borrowed a Sunday school room from a local church to store these printed materials so having this container will allow them to be able to have use of their full facility again.
We previously mentioned helping in a Guaraní community and trying to help purchase Bibles for their people. We have discovered there are around 233,000 people who speak this Bolivian dialect of the language, but there have been only 6,000 Bibles ever printed for them. Sadly, there are no more Bibles left and the local Bible society has little desire to print more. We have been in contact with the owners of the copyright, and they seem willing to freely give us permission to print Bibles, scripture portions and other materials in this language. They said their goal is the same as ours - to get the gospel to those who have never heard it! We are now putting our lawyers together to draw up the legal paperwork needed. We have also been in contact with a few ministries that have expressed interest in helping us with this printing project. Please pray for us as we work toward making this happen.
We are so very thankful the Lord would allow us to be busy in His service, but we are not finished yet. There is still a lot we want and need to do. Please continue to pray for our family as we strive to do all we can to reach Bolivia for the cause of Christ.
