Six Years of Great Blessings:
This past month was a very special time for our church here in Bolivia. It was six years ago that we rented a storefront building and started having our first services. We started our church by offering English classes to get to know some of the people in the neighborhood. There were close to 150 people that came to our first classes on Tuesday and Thursday and then we had our first service that following Sunday. We generally have the classes for several months ending with a special graduation service in the church giving them a certificate and taking a picture of the whole class. From those first classes we had from 30 to 40 people in our first services. Since then we have seen the Lord work in amazing ways and we have seen many lives changed. To celebrate our anniversary we had activities Thursday thru Saturday night including soccer, basketball and board games. On Sunday we had our anniversary service combining the Sunday school and 11:00 o’clock services to be able to fit everything in. There was a combination of testimonies, special music, finishing up with a special video before the message. We also invited the people of the church to bring gifts, or things that the church needed or could use. Many people brought a variety of things and after eating lunch together we sang happy birthday and blew out the candles. There were several people visiting for the first time and we had close to 150 total including children and adults. In all it was truly a special time and we thank the Lord for all that He has done over the last six years and we pray and trust that the best is yet to come.
Don’t Miss It:
In a little over two months the Our Generation Summit will be held in Gatlinburg TN. If you are, or ever have been interested in World Evangelism you won’t want to miss it. This is a unique conference held every year with a focus on missions and World Evangelism. Missionaries from all over the world will be there along with pastors and laymen from many parts of the US. There are services each day and classes for everyone from pastors, to youth pastors and even laymen in the church. The purpose is to help each person find their place in taking the gospel to those who have never heard. The command is given to each and every one of us in each of the gospel records and Acts to take the gospel to every tribe, nation and creature. It is a great responsibility that we often put off on others and as Christ said, the harvest is great but the laborers are few. I pray that you will consider what the Lord would have you do for the cause of World Evangelism. The conference is from December 31 to January 2 in the beautiful Music Road Hotel. If you are interested and would like more information feel free to write us at kwhite@goreachtheworld.org or go to www.visionbaptistmissions.com and click on the red button that says, “Register for the OG Summit on the right Side”.
How much do you like to go to Church?:
One of the interesting facts about church here in Bolivia is that unlike the US people normally won’t travel a long distance to attend church. Most people like to be able to walk to church and at the most take one bus. We have had cases when people have had to take two busses to come to church and they quite coming because it was too far and expensive. There are at times exceptions to this rule of course. One of the exceptions to this rule is a very moving one of a group of kids that come to our church. They used to live just a block from the church and would walk every Wednesday night for Patch Club. They then moved several miles away to another neighborhood, which made it difficult for them to come. Although we picked them up in our car for Wednesday nights they started coming by themselves, walking to church on Sundays. When we asked how long it took them to get there they said it was about 30 minutes walking. While some won’t come even in a car they come to every service walking 30 minutes.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for our last semester of seminary classes this year.
2. Pray for our upcoming end times campaign next month.
3. Pray that the Lord will provide the funds to purchase land for our church.
4. Pray for our city and the many areas that don’t have churches.