May 2018
Children under thatch roof
We have finally made it back to Bolivia after our time in the states. We appreciate those of you that prayed for us during our trip and our transition back. Ellie has done better with the transition than we were expecting. She does somewhat shut down when we are around a lot of Spanish speakers. However, she has started picking up a couple of words. Daniel is the one that struggled a little. He was young enough when we left for furlough, that he didn’t really remember a lot. It took him a good week or two to really get settled in. In our first week, we had to take Daniel to the Emergency Room. He was playing outside, fell on his chin and bit all the way through his lip. He is ok and has healed nicely.
We have only been here a few weeks but we have been very busy. There were several things we had to work on when we first got here. Our truck had a bad battery and some hoses that had rotted in our absence. The house also had some issues in need of repair.
Then the next week, we had some visitors from the states come spend 10 days in Bolivia. They came to do a conference about the mission of God (speaking on Missions). We had about 30-40 pastors and leaders from around Bolivia and from Argentina come for this. I interpreted for them in their classes and when they preached.
We have taken charge of a church here in Santa Cruz. The Bolivian man that started it is a missionary. He will be gone for 2-3 months as he goes to report to some of his supporting churches. We are planning to help keep his church going until he is able to return. This is great for us because it gives us some time to get a few things settled as we prepare to start our new work. We have already been making plans with the family that is planning to work with us. Please help us pray as we get this work going. We want to try to make sure it gets the best start possible. We need God’s help in a great way.
The last church we helped before leaving La Paz, is now preparing to start a new work. A man within the church has some land, which is very rare in La Paz, and wants to start a work there. We had a church that decided to help them buy new bibles and print hymnals for them. We have the bibles purchased. We only lack getting the hymnals printed. It is exciting to see this work multiply and to see others reached.
We also had some of our John and Romans taken to Argentina recently. At a conference there, they were handed out to about 12 pastors that will be taking them into different parts of Argentina. We are reaching other parts of South America from right here in Bolivia. To date, we have had them sent to Peru, Chile and Argentina. We are printing another set for Bolivia right now. We are prepared to start printing another set and will hopefully be adding Paraguay and maybe Uruguay to this set.
There is a lot of work that still needs to be done here. We are in need of laborers. Please help us pray Matthew 9:38, that God would send more laborers. Maybe God might choose to send you!
Thank you for praying for our family and our ministry here.
