Good Friday:
This past month we had what is one of the most important religious celebrations of the year for the people here in Bolivia. It is known to many as Holy Week, which comes a couple of months after Carnival. Carnival is the celebration where most people loose their inhibitions and indulge in many different sinful activities. Then comes Holy Week where mostly the Catholic people reflect on their past sins and try to make up for those sins by religious acts. They have special meals and visit several churches for Mass among other things during the week. This time ends on what is known as Good Friday where there are processions with what is called Stations of the Cross. This is where a group from the local Catholic Church walks around the neighborhood stopping at several members’ houses where they have prepared a shrine and there they act out part of the crucifixion of Christ. This year we had a special activity for Good Friday showing an evangelistic film at the soccer court in our neighborhood. We passed out invitation and hung up flyers the week before and many people showed interest. It was a blessing to see the people from the church arriving early to clean things up before the activity started. Along with the movie we served a special drink called Api and fried pastries that are filled with cheese. I am really proud of our people for all their hard work and participation to reach out to our community. We had a great turn out with over a hundred people present with a large part of them being visitors that had never been to our church. Please pray for us that we can faithfully reach out to our community with the gospel.
Special Day:
This past month was a very special for us and especially for our daughter Taylor. We had baptisms at our church followed by the Lord’s Supper. This is always an exciting time both for those that have made a decision to follow the Lord and for the people of the church who get to see them. At first we had three people that were going to get baptized so I set up a time to meet with them to go over salvation and the meaning and purpose of baptism. By the time the day came for the meeting we had one person that couldn’t come because of a death in the family but three others that had decided to take the plunge. So we had five total that were baptized, but the best part was that one of those getting baptized was our daughter Taylor. She had asked several times about getting baptized but we wanted to make sure that she was ready. After talking with her about both her salvation, and if she understood the purpose of getting baptized we agreed she was ready. I was very proud of her, and all of them for that matter for this important step in their spiritual growth.
Vision Baptist Seminary:
Our desire from the time that we arrived in Bolivia has been to train up national leaders for the work here. For several years now we have had classes at night because that is when most people could come. We are now working to organize the Vision Baptist Seminary where we will offer two courses of study, one being a certificate that they can obtain studying part time at night, and the other will be a full bachelors taking full time classes both during the day and at night. This semester I am teaching three classes and they are taking one class by correspondence. Little by little we are adding classes to the schedule so that soon the students can take a full load each semester. We are also offering three semesters per year instead of two so that they will be able to finish their studies in a little less than three years taking a full load. Right now we have two students studying full time and three others that are taking just the classes at night. We are really exited about what the Lord is doing and at the same time praying that He will call more people into the ministry to serve Him.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our youth conference coming up at the end of June.
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 government as they continue to pass more laws to control the churches here.
4. Pray for the church in Cobija Bolivia and their new work in the town of Buyuyo.