January 2013
Year End Roundup:
As you can imagine the end of the year is a crazy time with tons of activities. This year was no exception. First of all we finished a series that we were doing on Sunday’s about the end times. As most of you probably heard, the end of the world was supposed to be December 21 according to the Mayan Calendar. This is a subject of much interest here, and something that many were really concerned about, so we took advantage of the opportunity to teach our people what the Bible says about those things. We started with the rapture and taught all the way through the final judgment. We had a great response and several made professions of faith. Also for Christmas we not only had our Christmas play that the children and teenagers did but we also had a teen banquette where they had close to 100 in attendance and three or four professions of faith. One of the other things that is commonly done here is to have a Chocolatada where they serve hot chocolate and fruit cake (which the people love). That was on the 23rd in the morning and the Christmas play was that night. The hot chocolate sounds great thinking of the cold that we normally associate with Christmas but here it is actually summer with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s. They still like it so who am I to complain about getting chocolate. Also as a side note Christmas is celebrated a little different here. While we normally go to bed early on Christmas Eve (the children anyway) and celebrate Christmas morning, they celebrate Christmas Eve at 12:00 midnight with a meal and gifts and then Christmas morning and day or pretty much normal.
Special Giving:
One of the things that is very sad for me is that many here in Bolivia don’t celebrate Christmas and even don’t like Christmas. I think much of that kind of attitude would come from the extreme poverty that many live in. While we know that Christmas is not about getting gifts, this is what sticks in the minds of many of the people and children. As a special project, this year the church decided to give gift baskets to some of the families of the children that come to Patch Club on Wednesdays. Many of these families are very poor and the children that come don’t even have proper cloths or nutrition. The response of our people was amazing and in all we were able to give four different baskets. They brought mostly cooking supplies like cooking oil, sugar, flour etc. and prepared them in a basket. For many of these families this gift truly made a difference and allowed us to show our love not only for their children, but also for them. Our prayer is that this will open a door so that we can show that we are not only concerned with their physical need but also for their spiritual need.
Witness:
The Our Generation Summit is one of the most exciting conferences about missions that takes place each year in Pigeon Forge TN. This year we were able to participate in the Summit and I can say that it was one of the best I have been to. I think there were over thirty missionaries participating from all over the world, some of which have already been on the field, and others that will soon be on the field. There were missionaries from South America, North Africa and South Africa and several parts of Asia and Europe. It was amazing to hear how the Lord is blessing all over the world. Along with the missionaries, there were over three hundred registered and others that came just for the night services. Even more exciting than those missionaries that were present to teach and preach, were the many decisions that were made and those that surrendered their lives to serve the Lord as missionaries.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for this upcoming semester in our seminary.
2. Pray for those that made decisions at the Our Generation Summit this year.
3. Pray for the people of Capinota and Irpa Irpa where the church is that we are visiting.
4. Pray for the many areas of our city of one million that don’t have solid Bible preaching churches.