May 2023 Prayer Letter
The past month has been extremely busy. We have so much happening at the moment that I don’t think we will be able to fit it all into this letter.
At the beginning of April, we were focused on our publishing ministry and shipping material to churches. We sent 2,000 lbs. of scripture and tracts to the city of Cochabamba. A pastor there has been using a lot, not just within his church ministry, but he has also been going into the local school and handing out scripture to each child and teacher there. We shipped 7 sets of Sunday school material and other scripture to other places. Some of this went into Argentina and, for the first time, we shipped material to Uruguay. This means we have now been able to put scripture into 7 countries of South America! We appreciate Help Missions South America for being a huge part of making this happen.
We are preparing for a medical team that will be here in July. I know it sounds early but when you have 60+ people coming for a visit you must start working ahead of time. We need to reserve enough hotel rooms and prepare for meals and transportation. The most complicated part is obtaining the legal permissions for the team to practice medicine here. They will be here for 1 week and we expect to treat over 1,000 people. Even more importantly, each person will receive a one-on-one presentation of the gospel before they leave the clinic. Lord willing, we will be using the local school building that is just 2 blocks from the church we are currently working in, Vida Eterna. This will be an ideal way to let the local area know of the church’s new building and location. We are working hard to finish all the construction projects before then so that the church looks presentable. We decided to put up the front wall instead of leaving it open as we have done in the past. It is looking great, and we hope to have the windows in soon.
A 40-year veteran missionary to Bolivia passed away last year. At the request of his stateside family, we have been in contact with the churches he started here. There are three churches that are in great need of help and are at risk of shutting down. However, we are already so busy with our 3 churches, and planning our 4th church plant, that we don't know how to add these struggling churches right now. We are still assessing the need, but I do ask that you help us pray for discernment as we decide if and when we take on any oversight of these three ministries. We will trust God to guide us in this situation.
Normally, we try not to put many personal wants or needs in our prayer letters. There is too much happening in the ministry to leave room for personal information too. However, we would ask that you pray with us for Jessica. She had surgery on both knees almost 2 years ago and she has been doing great until recently. When we last left the states, the surgeon said she would probably need surgery on her hip too, but it could be 2 years before we had to think about it. That was about a year ago. She has been in such pain these last few weeks in both her hip and knees that she cannot complete normal tasks that she does on a regular basis. We consulted virtually with her stateside doctor. He had us do x-rays and MRIs and then put her on a treatment plan with the hope of holding surgery off for a while. She is still in pain, but the treatment is relieving some of it. Please help pray for her healing and for wisdom on how to proceed.
We thank you again for being such an integral part of the ministry here in Bolivia. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to do what God has called us to do.
