Joy in San Ignacio

I spent this weekend with the Jovenes in the small town of San Ignacio de Moxos, about a three hour drive to the west of Trinidad. There is a sister church there, Fuente de Vida that hosted our group for the weekend. We had prearranged to do an evangelistic activity with the Jovenes of that church. God worked a miracle. We spoke with the pastor there who said they had been praying for us for some time, for the Lord to send some people to help them spread the good news around San Ignacio.

Friday night we arrived, met with the Jovenes there and taught them how to use the EvangeCube, a cube with seven images depicting the message of the Gospel. We shared with them how to use it, describing each image and then quoting the verses from the Bible, most of them well known (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:8, John 3:16, 1 Peter 2:24, John 14:6). The next day we paired up one Trinidad Joven with one San Ignacio Joven and went out to share the Gospel using these EvangeCubes.

Before we ever left, I had had very negative feelings about the trip, wondering how effective would it really be? I know people in the US are generally very closed off to hearing people talk in the format of door to door evangelism, for that reason we seek more creative methods. I was also reminded that San Ignacio is the cultural capital of the Beni, that many people are stubborn and stuck in their ways and traditions that have been practiced the last 329 years+.

Friday night however, just from the presentation that Milton, our adult pastor gave on the EvangeCube, one of the girls in our group accepted the Lord! Milton told us later it was a good sign. The next morning as we paired up, I ended up with someone who knew the cube well, which was good since I was very uncomfortable since I had not practiced it much and my Spanish was not good enough to explain things thoroughly. So, we agreed that I would read the Bible verses and he would do the explanation of the cube.

The first home we went to, we spoke to a little girl, probably about 8 or 9 years old. After listening to the message from the cube, we asked her, "do you want to know the Lord?" She nodded and I thought, WOW, it works! The next house we went to, we spoke to a young man, probably about high school or university age. As we were talking, his cell phone rang and I thought, "oh no, we've lost him for sure, he's distracted" To my surprise again though, when he came back, he heard the rest of the message and when the key question came to accept the Lord, I could see the understanding in his eyes as he said, "yes". And so it went house after house, we visited 12 homes in total that morning and EVERY person we talked to accepted the Lord!!!! I was riding a spiritual high and thinking, "I hope every pair is having this much success!". As I found out later, my partner was also nervous about going out and doing this and I think the Lord used our weakness as His strength, just as Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 12.

As we rejoined the group at lunch and we shared our experiences, my partner and I had the most success along with Milton the other leader of the group with 12 new sons/daughters in Chris each. In total, 74 people accepted the Lord that morning in our efforts and we planted seeds in many more too!!! The Lord is faithful and each time situations like this arise, I am reminded just how often I forget who exactly it is I am working for and that this God we serve is in fact all powerful. We serve an awesome and ACTIVE God who is working in our midst and this mission in San Ignacio is direct evidence!

The next morning in church, it was pouring down rain, so there were few people there. As a result, Milton who was scheduled to speak, rather than giving his prepared message decided to have us go up and share with the folks who had come about our experiences. As I heard each of the Jovenes share about their time it was clear all of us had doubts that the Lord overcame. We told the church it is now their responsibility to follow up, pray for and disciple these new believers.

I am riding a spiritual high right now, so floored by what happened. This is affirming my desire to convert the Jovenes group into a more missions focused group and I plan to present to the pastoral council my proposal on this.

Water saga, trip to San Ignacio

Well, once again, I have been reminded that utilities are a blessing and that I too often take them for granted. This time it was our water that went out. Friday the water company turned off the water to the neighborhood because allegedly quite a few homes in the neighborhood had not paid their bills, some have held out as long as five years!! As a result, they were forced to turn off the water to get their money and because we have a neighborhood system, not home by home, everyone was affected, including those of us who have been paying. It was definitely inconvenient, but I am reminded that I am blessed to be living in a house where we have running water, some homes in the city do not have this luxury and have to haul water in buckets every couple of days. But, thankfully, the water was turned back on last night and I enjoyed every minute of my shower this morning.

This weekend, I am planning to lead the Jovenes on a trip to San Ignacio de Moxos, where we'll be teaming up with a sister church to share the Gospel with the people of the town. We'll be using our EvangeCube's that we were recently trained on. Please be in prayer for God to open the hearts of those who we'll encounter and for seeds to be planted in everyone. Of course this whole trip is still not 100% certain because of the rain factor, it poured yesterday (torrential downpour) and the road between here and there is not paved meaning if gets really muddy it is impassible. Pray for the rains to be held back until Sunday when we return.

Bolivia to become a "closed" country?

Last night at Bible study, Ademar, a member of our church's pastoral council spoke about Elijah in relation to his prayers as written at the end of James 5. Of course in those times Elijah spoke to people who were idol worshipers, most notably of Baal.

Later Ademar spoke about a seminar that he went to as part of a YWAM conference two weeks ago. At this seminar was a lawyer, who also is a Christian. This lawyer was saying the new proposed constitution in Bolivia should scare Christians because it will make the religion of the Incas a state religion. It makes provision for freedom of religion, but "in accordance with the spiritual beliefs of the state". It also states that Bolivia will "decolonize" and that the indigenous peoples will have ultimate authority because it is their land. This Inca religion will be taught in schools and holidays will be made to observe special rituals.

The ancient Inca religion worships a mother spirit called Pachamama, which the Incas (now modern day Quechuas and Aymaras) believe lives on the earth. The Pachamama requires burnt offerings, sacrifices (of llamas usually) to sustain her favor over the earth and protect it. Occasionally though, humans are sacrificed, even to this day, especially in the construction of large buildings to bless them. This lawyer that spoke said he knew of four buildings specifically in La Paz that had been built on top of a human sacrifice and had heard of many more. Many families also put llama fetuses (which are widely available in the Altiplano) in the foundations of their homes. This religion involves a lot of very spiritual practices, and is more spiritual than the Hindu or Buddhist religions.

This lawyer went on to say that Christians in Bolivia should be up in arms about these provisions protesting and speaking out against them and not waiting for the constitution to pass and then protest. But sadly, many Christians are too entrenched in other things to take notice of these disturbing realities.

Watching Election Night from Bolivia

Well, this is a historical night for me: I'm watching for the first time a US presidential election from the outside looking in. Due to logistical errors, I never received a ballot to vote, so it's also the first election I haven't voted in since turning 18.

I'm about to turn in after watching all the major networks give Obama the all important state of Ohio, I am confident he will be the 44th president of the United States.

It is amazing that only forty years ago we were in the midst of a civil rights movement (ten presidential terms) and now we are electing an African American as President. By no means has racism disappeared, but I think as people in my generation grow up, we are to put in MLK Jr.'s words looking to "the content of their character". My generation is a more tolerant one, I know probably because we are living in an America with a larger international presence. I know I have personally grown up with people from a dozen different countries that have influenced me in one way or another and help me to realize that the world is much bigger than the USA.

How this outcome will directly affect my work here in Bolivia, I think it will improve relations with Latin America and the US as a whole. Obama is not nearly as abrasive as Bush is and I think many Latin American leaders will relate more to him being a left leaning politician. I am hopeful next year that Morales will warm up to him, realize he's not Bush and reinitiate relations by resending ambassadors to each country. I know not talking will solve nothing.

As some of you may have heard, it seems Bolivia is however moving in the opposite direction. Just yesterday, Morales announced he is booting the DEA from Bolivia, which means the US government will have no presence in Bolivia apart from the consulates and embassy (which are without an ambassador). You may remember USAID was booted a few months ago. Some are saying Bolivia could turn into the next Colombia and become the center of drug trafficking in Latin America and with Morales' ties to the coca industry, it could happen. I hope not though.

But the thing that I continue to remember and am so grateful for is my first allegiance is not to the United States of America, but to the Kingdom of God. I'll take Jesus any day as my leader.