November 2016

Another 2 months have come and gone very quickly and it is again
time to write you and let you know what God is doing in Bolivia.
These last couple of months have not been quite as full as the rest of
the year, but we have still remained busy.
The last couple of months, we have been able to fill the pulpit of a
national pastor. It is the church we were attending when we arrived to
Santa Cruz. He has some supporting churches in the states he needed
to visit and asked us to cover for him in his absence. He has some men
he is training, but didn't feel comfortable yet to leave them in charge
for that long. I have not only been able to fill the pulpit each week but
also been leading classes in his Bible College.
We have also been looking into buying land for a new work. Land is
expensive here but less expensive than it was in La Paz. It will cost us
about $30,000 for a 3,000 square foot lot. We have looked into several
lots and found one that we planned to buy (seen above). It was in an
area that I feel will grow a lot in the next coming years. It is on a main
bus route for that area. It also had possible available lots beside it for
future expansion. However, on the day we went to purchase it, we just
couldn't get peace about it and backed away.
While looking for land, I was a bit discouraged. I had thought about
us being here for several years now but not having done yet what we
set out to do. Our original goal was and still is to start/plant a new church. But as I thought through these past years, I was also
reminded of what Paul told the church of Corinth. He said that he
had planted and Apollos had watered, but God gave the increase. I
was then reminded that while my desire has been to plant, God has
allowed us to water. It excites me to know we have not done our
will but I believe we have done His will. His will is perfect and if
He wants to continue to use us for watering, that is what we will do.
We are just happy to be used.
We have been very busy these last few days preparing for our
first real furlough. We arrive in North Carolina late at night on the
18th of November and will remain till February 8th. Lord willing, I
will be preaching the homecoming service for our home church that
Sunday and then leave for Florida the next day to preach in a
missions conference. Our first 1-2 weeks will be very busy with
meetings and Thanksgiving day.
We have scheduled to visit several supporting churches during
our time in but if you would like us to visit and update your church,
we still have a few dates available. If we are not able to visit this
time, don't forget that we are only returning in February for
Bolivian residency requirements. Lord willing, we will finish the
residency paperwork around April and we will return to the states
somewhere around May to finish out our furlough. We would love
the opportunity to come by and thank all our supporters and also let
them know what God has done THROUGH them.