Tonight was the last night of our Financial Conference and the Lord gave us two great services. This morning we had Sunday School and then the morning service. The Lord blessed us with many visitors and 99 in attendance with 5 professions of faith. Tonight we had a great group with many of the same visitors returning and one lady that was dealt with and trusted the Lord. It was amazing because we had almost as many (94) at night as we did in the morning. Many made comments about how much they enjoyed the conference and how much it helped them with their finances and spiritual lives. We praise the Lord for the opportunity to get to know our speaker Jose Zapata and see how God is using him. We had probably close to 30 visitors over the three days of the conference so we have much work to do in the upcoming weeks.

Yesterday we started our II annual conference on Finances. As our special speaker for the conference we invited Bro. Jose Zapata from Peru to be with us. He has been in management positions in several different companies including two banks. He has a tremendous knowledge of finances and has been teaching on the subject for many years. Our conference is from Friday to Sunday with a special business breakfast on Saturday morning. We were able to invite many people from businesses,schools, and friends and family to participate. Each service has been a tremendous blessing with tons of visitors and decisions. Friday night we had around 70 people for the first service and then close to 80 in the breakfast this morning. Tonight we thought the attendance would be down because of it being Saturday but we ended up with the highest attendance with more than 80 present. Tonight was a special service with 5 people receiving the Lord and many people making decisions to get out of debt. Tomorrow will be the end of the service and we are expecting a great day in the Lord. Pray for these last three services that many people make decisions for the Lord.

Subscribe to Operation Bolivia by Email

Many times Holidays can be interesting times for missionaries. Especially living south of the Equator. Thanksgiving is not a holiday that is very common here in Bolivia and most people have no idea what you are talking about if you mention it. We are fortunate enough to be able to get frozen Turkey here even though it is almost three times what it would cost in the states. Also the weather is not exactly Thanksgiving weather getting up in the 80’s during the day. Even though there are differences we definitely have much to be thankful for. The Lord has blessed us greatly here in the last three and a half years. He has given us a wonderful church, family and friends to share with. Everyone here including Titus enjoyed the excess of food that always comes with Thanksgiving as you can see in the pictures below.

Subscribe to Operation Bolivia by Email

We praise the Lord for the group of young guys and gals that we have at our church. One of the things that we have always kept in mind from the time we arrived is that we are here to train leaders who will continue in the ministry in the future. Recently we had a special meeting with some of the young people of the church to talk about plans for this coming year and our time of furlough that we will be taking. We have much to do to get things in order and the people ready to take many of the responsibilities. We had some great fun and of course food but most importantly we had a great time talking about what the Lord has prepared for them. Please pray for this group of young people that the Lord will do a special work in their hearts and lives.

Subscribe to Operation Bolivia by Email

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.

November 2009 Prayer Letter

Impacting our World:

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:

1. Pray for our paper work that has been sent. We still have not heard anything.
2. Pray for our couples meeting that the Lord will strengthen and work in their lives.
3. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as we prepare for furlough next June.
4. 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.

Subscribe to Operation Bolivia by Email

Here is a video that I took of Titus the other day. I guess at one point we probably all did something like this. He makes it look so good.

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.

Subscribe to Operation Bolivia by Email

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.

http://visionbaptist.com/blog/2009/09/28/world-evangelism-today-with-matt-allen-1/