Love = Respect = Love:
This past Monday and Tuesday we had our second annual Couples Retreat for the church. It was the two main days for Carnival here so we decided to take advantage of the holiday and have the retreat. This year once again we had it outside of the city in a hotel conference center called Casa Campestre or Country Home and although it was in the country you can tell from the pictures that it is a beautiful place. This year we had Pastor Miguel Murillo from Arequipa Peru with us to do the retreat. We started on Sunday at church with regular services but preaching on the family and marriage and then Monday and Tuesday we had classes (at the conference center) from 9:00 am to around 6:30 pm with breaks for lunch etc. On Sunday morning we had a great crowd with the church almost full and then on Monday there were 14 couples that came for the classes and on Tuesday we had 12 couples. The interesting thing was that almost half of the couples were visitors that were not even part of the church. As a result several made the comment that they were going to come to church this coming Sunday. The main theme of the conference was “Rescuing your Marriage” where Pastor Miguel taught about how the main need for men is respect and that the main need for women is love. (Eph. 5:33) Our problem usually is that we say “When she starts respecting me I will start showing her love” and she says “When he starts showing me love I will start showing him respect” and it turns into a vicious cycle that can only be broken when one says “I will do might part even if the other does not”. We truly had a great time and I am very thankful to Pastor Miguel for coming over and being such a blessing to us.
Urgent Request:
We would like to ask you to pray for the northern part of Bolivia and especially for the city of Cobija where pastor Lorenzo Laura and his family are working. This is our sister church here that I have written about several times where the Laura family has been working for close to six years. With all the rain that we have been having recently, especially in the tropical area, there has been a lot of flooding. In a large section of the city the water reached all the way to the roofs of the houses. One of the faithful ladies in the church there lost almost everything she had. Also we would like to ask you to pray for the construction of the church there. They are in the process of adding on two rooms to the back that will allow them to enlarge their auditorium. With all the rain the construction is deteriorating because they lack putting the roof on the rooms that will become the floor for the church auditorium. With about $2500 they can put the roof on and get things secure until the rainy season passes. Would you please pray for this ministry and consider helping them with this great need. If you would like to help please let us know by sending us an Email at kwhite@goreachtheworld.org and send donations to;
Macedonia World Baptist Missions, c/o Cobija Building Fund, P.O. Box 519, Braselton GA 30517.
San Valentin:
Here in Bolivia our equivalent to Valentines Day (San Valentin) is normally in September (Day of Love) but we decided to have a special date night at church this past Friday. The ladies of the church prepared a meal and we decorated the church with candles and of course hearts. We had close to 60 people come to the dinner with several visiting for the first time. We had a few games and then I shared about how our love for spouse, as important as it is, is nothing compared to God’s love for us in that He gave his Son for our sins. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and I think I even saw a few couples holding hands.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for the church in Cobija and the funds they need to continue building.
2. Pray for our building fund project and the activities that we are doing as a church to reach our goal.
3. Pray for those affected by the flooding in Bolivia and other parts of South America.
4. Pray for our upcoming leadership conference in May.