This past weekend we had a group of young people travel about four hours to the jungle area here in Bolivia for a fun / evangelistic trip. They arrived in the afternoon and began visiting nocking on doors to invite people to a presentation of the gospel by painting in the main plaza. In all there were 5 people that trusted Christ. The next day they were able to visit a zoo and some other attractions before coming back home. Pray that we might one day be able to start churches in many towns like this one throughout Bolivia.
These past two months we have been talking about impacting our world with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is easy for us to get focused on the temporal or just what is immediately around us instead of the whole world. We have a narrow vision of things. When we speak of missions what we must realize is that we are called to impact our world and everyone in it. This past month we had our third mission’s conference in the church. We had as our special speaker Miguel Murillo from Arequipa, Peru. Miguel is the pastor of the Hunter Baptist Church, which is the first church that Bro. Austin Gardner founded when he started his ministry in Peru. He is also the director of the Macedonia Baptist Bible College located there in Arequipa. It was a great blessing to have him preach and challenge our people about World Evangelism. Our conference started on Thursday and went through Sunday night. Each night we had videos, special music and great preaching. Many responded to the invitation and we were able to exceed our faith promise from this past year. On Sunday morning, we had more than a hundred and close to seventy on Sunday night. During the invitation several people raised their hand for salvation and two accepted Christ that night, while another guy asked to come by to talk to me later. On that Tuesday he came by, and when we started to talk he said that he wanted to know how to live his life different in a way that would please the Lord. I explained what Christ did for us and how that He came to give us a new life. When we finished, I asked if he had any questions or doubts. He told me that this was exactly what he had been looking for. Afterwards he prayed and trusted Christ. When we finished he said that felt great and excited about the decision he had made. Pray for Geraldo and our church that we can do more for missions every year because we know that this church is a product of missions.
13,000 a year:
During our mission’s conference this year and while talking about how to impact our city and world with the gospel we came up with a plan to reach at least 13,000 houses a year. Acts 1:8 gives us the pattern of how we are to reach from our Jerusalem to the uttermost all at the same time. Starting with our Jerusalem we want to have a Bible preaching church for every 50,000 people in our city. That would be the equivalent to around 13,000 houses. Each year we want to make sure that the people in our neighborhood receive a tract that tells them how to be saved. Every church that is started will have the same goal until each person has an opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved. Besides our normal visitation, we are planning the first Saturday of each month to go out as a church to reach our goal. That means we have to visit a little more than 1000 house each month. We have had a great response with three groups the first time and five the second time. As more people get excited and involved, we hope to have around ten groups that go out the first Saturday of each month. Pray for our church that we can reach our Jerusalem and the world with the gospel gospel.
Special Meeting:
One of my favorite subjects to teach or talk about is the family. Possibly because I realize what a great need there is and how many families are falling apart. At the request of several of the couples in the church, we are starting a couples meeting with the goal of helping unify and strengthen them as a family. We have about 6 o 7 couples that are meeting right now with many more interested. One of the guys that comes with his wife gave the testimony that they were at the point of getting a divorce and didn’t know where to turn. They went to their former pastor and he told them that he didn’t do counseling or that type of thing. He said how thankful he was that he found a place where they could get help, grow, and learn. It has been amazing to see how much these couples have grown as they now walk holding hands, hugging and snickering like newlyweds. Please pray for the families of our church because we know that they are its strength.
Prayer Requests:
Pray for our paper work that has been sent. We still have not heard anything.
Pray for our couples meeting that the Lord will strengthen and work in their lives.
Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as we prepare for furlough next June.
Pray for our upcoming financial conference the 27-29 of this month.
This past week we had our third mission’s conference in the church. We had as our special speaker Miguel Murillo from Arequipa Peru. Miguel is the pastor of the Hunter Baptist Church, which is the first church that Bro. Austin Gardner founded when he started his ministry in Peru. He is also the director of the Macedonia Baptist Bible College located there in Arequipa. It was a great blessing to have him preach and challenge our people about World Evangelism. Our conference started on Thursday and went through Sunday night. Each night we had videos, special music and great preaching. Many responded to the invitation and we were able to exceed our faith promise from this past year. On Sunday morning we had more than a hundred and close to seventy on Sunday night. During the invitation several people raised their hand for salvation and two accepted Christ that night and tonight another guy came by to talk to me about salvation and he trusted the Lord. We pray that we can do more for missions every year because we know that this church is a product of missions.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars and make your reservations. Only ten days are left until the group registration deadlines for the Our Generation Summit. Be sure to go to www.ogsummit.info and register your group today. You can get as much as 30% off and free admission for group leaders, if you register your group by October 15.
I would like to encourage you to check out the World Evangelism Today broadcast with Pastor Austin Gardner and Matt Allen missionary to Papua New Guinea. What an amazing interview to hear about life in this country where people still live in such primitive conditions. Just click on the link below and listen.
Well just got back in from our new meeting we are starting for couples. We met tonight to talk and plan and have the inaugural service. The goal is to help strengthen the families of the church and invite new families to the meeting so they can get to know the others and come to church. Tonight one of the men that came spoke up and said “I really thank the Lord for this meeting. In our old church we were about to get a divorce and our pastor told us he didn’t do counseling or things like that.” How many other couples are at the same point with no one to help them. We are hoping in the next few weeks to start a second meeting to involve some of the other new families of the church. Please pray for these meetings that we can reach many couples for His honor and glory.
Today we had a rather interesting day. We had two visitors that normally wouldn’t be considered welcome. We had two young Mormon guys that came to visit and normally I wouldn’t even have answered the door but I thought that I would at least share the gospel with them. They started out by saying the difference between us was the prophets. I quickly told them that the difference was not the prophets but that they try to be justified and get to heaven by works while we believe that it is only by faith in Christ. When I showed them that Galatians teaches us that no man is justified by works they didn’t know what to say. By the end the one guy said that even though I made him doubt he trusted the feeling that God had given him that Mormonism was right, which was what I had read, that he would say. As he left I gave him a tract that said “Are you 100% sure”. He looked at it and said no I’m not 100% sure but I hope to be. Pray that the Lord might use His word to break through the darkness that shroud many hearts.
Today was the third anniversary of our church here in Bolivia. It is truly hard to believe that it has been three years. The Lord has blessed us so much and worked in the lives of so many people in the time that we have been here. Today was a great day and we had an extended service because if the special music, testimonies and of course blowing out the candles and eating the cake at the end. Today was also part of a special holiday here which is the anniversary of our city Cochabamba. In spite of the holiday and many people traveling etc. the Lord blessed with around 130 in the service with many visitors. The church was completley full and because it is now close to summer time it was very hot with that many people in one place. With all that the Lord has done in these few years we can’t wait to see what He has in store in the years to come.
These are the cakes that some of the ladies in the church made.
Tonight we had a great youth meeting at the church. Jorge’s brother Alonso is here to speak for our anniversary service and spoke tonight to the young people. We had a very good turn out with about 32 present and six or eight visiting for the first time. After the message during the invitation 4 young men raised their hands and after being dealt with they trusted Christ as Savior. Pray that the Lord will continue to raise up young leaders here in Bolivia.
