August 2023 Update
Jungle Sunset from new church location
August is a milestone for us and our ministry. It was 10 years ago this month that we officially moved to Bolivia. It has definitely been a blessed journey. Over the ten years the Lord has allowed us to "rescue" 3 churches and plant 3 other churches. We have also been able to facilitate the distribution of almost 1 million scripture portions, a few million tracts and several thousand full Bibles within Bolivia and throughout South America. What a joy to be in His service but the journey is not over. There is still more to be accomplished for Him than we could do in a lifetime.
Previous to this year we have only helped with an occasional medical team - maybe one every few years. However, this year we’ve already been involved with two. After our medical clinic in July, within a week we started helping to prepare for a medical clinic being hosted by a missionary friend of ours. Since the team flew into Santa Cruz, we helped with the logistics of receiving them. Then all of us flew to Riberalta, a small city close to the border with Brazil, where this missionary is working. The goal was to help boost their church that was started last year and to get the word out about the new church (below see a sunset photo from the church land) they plan to start on August 20th. This time I worked as an interpreter for one of the providers. Over 4 days, this clinic was able to treat 1,300+ patients and several of them made professions of faith. Please pray for this missionary and the two churches as they reach out to those who were helped during the clinic. Now we are preparing to possibly assist another missionary here closer to us with 2 additional medical clinics!
I have recently had several opportunities to preach in other churches, more so than in past years. One opportunity was very interesting. The 6th of August is Bolivia's Independence Day. This year Bolivia celebrates 198 years of freedom from Spain. One of the local churches invited me to preach for their special Independence Day Service. When I arrived that afternoon (after our normal service) I saw 9 booths and a large crowd gathered in front of these booths. Each booth was decorated to represent one of Bolivia's 9 states, and each was serving food typical to that state. Our family was able to try several foods we had never eaten before from around the country. This event was originally started a few years ago as an activity within the church but it has grown into something that several of their neighbors join in on. It was a great way to share the gospel with people that otherwise may never have attended.
To finish out, I (Robert) would ask you to pray for my health. I am the one in the family who almost never gets sick. However, the last few months have been different. It all started in June but here we are in August, and I am still struggling. There have not been any serious problems. Just small things that keep making it difficult to keep up. I think part of my issue is that my immune system became low and with so many long days and activities, I just haven't been able to fully recover. I have another team of 16 coming in from our home church next week and then we will go straight into another medical clinic. Being so busy makes it difficult to slow down long enough to get well. Would you help pray that I can fully recover very soon?
After more than 10 years of writing prayer letters we once again want to close by saying thank you for your continued support both financially and prayerfully. We fully believe God has used you to make possible what has been done in Bolivia.
