Looking toward the Year to Come:
As most of you already know the first day of 2012 this year was a Sunday so we decided to have a special service casting our vision for this upcoming year. Our goal was to show them the major activities and projects we are planning and to encourage them to pray for their church and also get involved with what is going on. To give you an idea, we are planning a Couples Retreat in February, and in April we are going to have a special evangelistic activity. The 1st – the 8th is Holy week here and one of the biggest holidays for the Catholic Church. It is a week when the people focus on cleansing themselves of their sins especially committed during Carnival. They have processions and mass almost every day, ending things up on Good Friday where no one eats red meat all day. They think that for their extra effort they can find forgiveness and cleansing from sin. It is a time when the people are more focused on their spiritual need and with that we are going to reserve one of the covered soccer courts in the area and have a video and preaching time, inviting all the community. Then in May we are going to be having a leadership conference and in June our annual Youth Conference. In August we will once again have a special activity for the celebration to the Virgin of Urkupiña and in October we are looking at having a medical campaign with a missions group from the states. Finally in November and December we are going to have a special time focusing on end times for 2012. Along with presenting our calendar I preached on “Lift up Your Eyes unto the Harvest” showing that the harvest is plenteous but what we lack are laborers. We pray that this will be a year that we see many come to Christ and many surrender to serve Him and above all that all we do would bring honor and glory to His name.
The Results are In:
The first Sunday in February marked the time for everyone to bring back their little piggy bank houses where they have been saving money for our building project. I didn’t know exactly what to expect or how the people were going to respond but we were trusting the Lord to bless. As the people began to arrive with their houses the ushers opened them to count the money that the people had given so that we could give everyone a total and so that they could take the houses back with them at the end of the service. By the time the service was over and everything was totaled up there had been over 1500 bolivianos given which is a little more than $220 which would be equal to two months salary for a normal person here. I am very proud of all the people of the church and grateful to the Lord for how He blessed. This is just the first month and we had several new people asking if they could also take a house with them and begin to help with the project. We would like to ask you to continue to pray for this great need and for our ministry here, that we will be able to raise the funds necessary to buy land for the church and build a building.
Our Jerusalem:
At the beginning of this year we presented a plan to our church to reach out to our Jerusalem. Part of that plan is to give a gospel tract to fifty thousand people or roughly thirteen thousand homes around our church this year. We have calculated that there are around 21 to 25 homes per block so that would be fifty blocks every month or six hundred blocks in a year which would be right at thirteen thousand homes. We are encouraging the church to come out the first Saturday of each month so we can cover fifty blocks in the month. This past Saturday Beth and I and all the kids went out visiting together. It was a bit of a challenge with all three of them but also great to see how excited they were to pass out gospel tracts. Please pray for this ministry of our church that we can be faithful in taking the gospel to those who have never heard.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for all of our activities that are planned for this year.
2. Pray for our building fund project and the activities that we are doing as a church to reach our goal.
3. Pray for our Couples Retreat that we will be having this month.
4. Pray for the men that will be studying in our Bible Institute this coming year.