March 2021 Prayer Letter
We write to you once again with an update on the ministry here in Bolivia. The country here is starting to open up more and more. There are still some limitations but for the most part, things seem about normal for us. We continue to be required to limit the number of people in our churches. We are also required to use face masks and other “safety” precautions. However, we are able to have most of our services as normal. After the long year we have had, we are thankful for this.
We have finally been able to start scheduled visitation again as we get the word out about the church and its new location. We have already had some visitors come including a man who brought his children. Before leaving he made a profession of faith. Praise the Lord! Several others have mentioned that they would come. Unfortunately, we are still not able to hold larger events at the church since we are only allowed to use 30% of our square footage right now. While our new building would normally be large enough, this has made it seem very small. We have thought about extending the roof another 8 feet which would give us about 50% more space. At the moment, we don’t have the extra finances for this expansion, but it is something we are praying about.
As you may remember, we received a container last August loaded with almost half a million scripture portions and over 1 million tracts. That material has been going fast and I believe we will be completely out by the end of June. This being the case, we are preparing for another container. We have 10 pallets of scripture portions and 4 pallets of tracts already promised for this second container. We would love to add some full Bibles if we can find them. The scripture portions will not be ready until sometime in September so that allows us time to raise the finances for shipping. We appreciate Brian Fox from Help Missions South America for assisting us in raising the shipping cost, which we expect to be about $14,000. He has already raised $4,700 of this expense.
Speaking of the scripture container, we have a prayer request for you. We have been working with a local Christian bookstore owner who has graciously allowed us to use his business as a way to get our containers in country. However, we are only allowed to have literature shipped in under this umbrella. We are looking into the possibility of using the legal representation of our mission board here to be able to start receiving other items as donations. For example, we could receive used chairs, gospel tents, or other items that the local churches could use, and not have to pay customs to let these needed items in. Would you help us pray about this? It would be a great blessing to the local churches and to us if we could make this happen.
We finish this prayer letter with another prayer request. Some of you may remember in October 2019 we asked for prayer for Bolivia due to political unrest. The long-time and newly re-elected president then was forced out by the people due to suspected fraud. Through succession, a lady was sworn into office as interim president. This past October another election put a new president in who was from the same socialist political group as the man who was ousted. This month, that socialist party started arresting and imprisoning many of those who stood against them in 2019, including the interim president. This political persecution is causing another civil uprising in our country. Please pray for Bolivia. As of this writing, we do not feel ourselves to be in any danger, but we are watching the situation very closely.
As we minister here, we understand more and more why Paul instructed the church to “pray without ceasing.” Through them, with God’s help, we can overcome the trials faced in this life. We greatly appreciate your faithful prayers for our family and the ministry in Bolivia.
