September 2022 Prayer Letter
It is good to be home! Our furlough ended up lasting longer than we expected due to our whole family getting Covid. None of us really felt bad but we were not allowed to fly because Bolivia requires a negative test to enter the country. Our flights were mixed up due to some delays and as a result our luggage did not arrive with us. It took us another 2-3 days to receive them, get unpacked and settled in but here we are, and we are excited to be back!
We practically hit the ground running. We took those few days to unpack and then I had a 4-day pastor's conference to preach. There were about 30 preachers and fellow laborers in this conference, so we were able to pass out more of our scripture and tracts. Every pastor was allowed to take up to 2 boxes of full bibles and as many tracts and scripture portions as they wanted to carry away. We made the observation that we are finally reaching a saturation point for our scripture portions. I think we are close to saturation of tracts but there is still a great need for full bibles. Full bibles are so expensive it is hard for us to help supply these in large quantities. That is why we had to limit them to 2 boxes per church. Please help us pray about what we can do to help resolve this problem.
We are trying to visit our first 2 churches as well as get started back working in our 3rd church. Please help us pray for our first church, Mount Carmel Baptist Church, and their pastor. It seems like Pastor Francisco and his family are discouraged and you can also see this has an effect in the church. There is a definite difference between this church and the other 2 church plants. We are praying about how we can encourage and help them get back where they need to be.
One of the first things I wanted to do when we returned was to check on the paperwork for our new church land. Currently, I am uncomfortable to build until we have a few more things settled. According to our lawyer, it is in one of the final stages, but this could take another 3 months! However, we found another way that may allow us to see it all finalized in the next 2-3 weeks. It is more expensive, but that timeframe was much better. It is possible we could be starting construction within the next 1-2 months. I talked to our people about this, and they are excited. They already have some money saved up to help buy some of the doors and windows. They have waited so long for this, and it is finally within sight!
Please continue to help us pray about the medical team we will be hosting in November. We have made progress on finding interpreters but are still needing a few. At the moment, we have 14 confirmed interpreters, but we need 18-20 total. This amount will be most effective in the communication between the medical providers/support staff and the people coming out from the community to receive this attention and the gospel.
As always, our words are not sufficient in expressing our true thankfulness to all of you who pray for us and support us. But one more time, we thank you.
