July 2024 Prayer Letter
There are times in the ministry when we wait. We work and watch for God to give increase but, in the meantime, we wait. There are multiple things that have just recently progressed to the point of needing our attention after much prayer and many steps to see them come to fruition.
One advancement we see a need for is training new preachers. It is the desire of any pastor or missionary to have people willing and ready to be trained for the ministry and we are finally seeing it come to pass. There are men in 3 of our 4 churches who are desiring to get Bible training somehow. For some, attending the local bible college would be a long public transportation commute, but the local church is hoping to offset the cost by helping to pay for the classes. For others, they live too far away from the city to be able to attend the same college, so we are discussing the possibility of doing some sort of in-house Bible college training with them by video. This would also be useful for other churches that have asked for help but can’t reach the college in the city. We already know of a ministry that may be willing to produce this type of training material for anyone desiring to advance their Bible education. This type of resource would also allow us to reach even those in villages where outsiders are not welcome.
Another development that we’ve watched for some time now is that the pastor of our first church is resigning to take care of some issues within his family. I believe we mentioned this in past prayer letters and have been waiting to see how God would lead in this situation. Pastor Francisco has continued pastoring while giving much attention to the family in hopes the issues would be resolved but sadly, they have not improved. With the sentiment of this being our first church, we are saddened, but we respect him for trying and we also believe it is the right decision for him, his family, and the church. It has been difficult for us to stand back and watch this take place without stepping in, but we believe this is best for the church. They are an autonomous church and need to be allowed to operate as one. We would ask that you help us pray for the church and the pastor during this transition. He is doing his best to help them through this time. He has 2-3 families he is talking to about being able to take the church since there are none from within who are spiritually mature enough to take the pastorate.
Another advancement is that of the Bible for our Guaraní people in Ivitipora. When we took the church almost 2 years ago, we found many of the people did not own a bible in their language, though it existed. We immediately went to purchase some and found there were only 55 available in print. We divided these last Bibles between our church and another Guaraní church and still did not have enough for our people. We began investigating how we could get more through the local Bible society which owns the copyright for printing. They told us they didn’t think any more would be printed. We asked if we could print them, and they denied our request. We then asked if we could buy the copyright and they practically ignored us. We have investigated many different routes to get the Guaraní Bible printed to no avail. However, just last week, we received written permission from the copyright owner to print John and Romans booklets. They are going to allow us to print 300,000 John and Romans and we can’t wait to get started! We are already lining up logistical meetings to get this project going. Please help us pray for wisdom. Also, please help us pray that God would use this to open the hearts of those who own the copyright to allow us to print full Bibles. There are 230,000 Guaraní Bolivians who have NEVER had God’s word in their language. Most have never even seen one, much less owned one and we want to change this.
Lastly, by God’s grace we have 50% of the funds received or promised for the Bolivia vehicle project! Sometimes God works at lightning speed! We are grateful for each one who has responded so quickly to this presented need. We would ask that your church continue to pray about this and perhaps consider helping us replace our ministry vehicle.
We praise God for the progression we have recently seen. It may not always be easy to wait on God’s timing, but we know it is for the best. Thank you for your continued prayers on our behalf.
