The older we get, the longer it seems to take to recover from
International travel, however a week later, by the grace of God we reconnect
with the land of our fathers, our culture and continue to put our hand to plow
and not look back. I believe we
accomplished all of our objectives during my recent trip to Bolivia with our
Pastor, Dr. Tim Myers. First and
foremost, we want to bring God glory in all that we do and to that end we went
to encourage the Church and Pastor Miguel Sanchez at Cochabamba (El Camino
Missionary Baptist Church) to consider and pray about a strategy to reach the
lost and to plant more Churches. The
Church was planted in 2006, in a city of 1.9 million people but has made no
appreciable effort to reach the lost and or send out Preachers to plant more
Churches. It’s often been said that the
greatness of a Church is not in its seating capacity but rather it sending
capacity. The Church is as doctrinally sound as you will
find anywhere in the world but is lacking burden and vision.
Statue
Market
Len & I
Mission Team
We can teach and develop a vision with them
but the burden for the lost is something that God is going to have to do in
their hearts. In addition to encouraging the Church to move
forward from where they were a year ago as the Apostle Paul taught the Church at
Corinth, we also went to encourage Bro. Darrell Roberton who is a new Missionary
to Bolivia. Bro. Darrell and I spent
hours together talking about where he is in His ministry as well as lessons
Terry and I have learned from our years in Africa. He is going to do a great work in Bolivia
but he is in those crucial and difficult foundation laying years as he learns
the language and culture. The Church hosted a three day Bible conference
where I was able to teach the Pauline methodology for Church planting as well as
using examples and illustrations from the work we did in Kenya and Uganda. We challenged them to reach the sea of
humanity in Cochabamba as well as some thirty other ethnic groups within their
own country (many of them unreached).
Each day we would go out into the city and give out John & Romans
which the people gladly received. It is
one thing when people receive the word of God but it is a blessing when you
return to see them sitting down reading it.
Tracts
Even though the people of Bolivia are heavily indoctrinated in
Catholicism they are still open and hungry for God’s word which means the Church
and Missionary has endless opportunities to preach and teach the good news of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray
for the people of Bolivia and specifically that the work there will reach its
potential for the glory of God. Our hearts are still very much on the
foreign field in so many ways and while I do not feel God calling us to Bolivia
at this time I believe it is place that
we will able to travel to encourage our brethren there on a regular
basis.
Our priority remains the Church
plant in Florida as well as Kenya/Uganda Church development and as Terry’s
health is vastly improving to the point where I believe she will be able to
return to Kenya one day to say goodbye to the people she dearly loves. Remember, she was not afforded that
opportunity when we medivac her out of East Africa. One of the biggest blessings of my trip was
that while I was thousands of miles away on the foreign field getting the word
of God out on the streets of Cochabamba, our folks at the Florida Plant were
faithfully serving the Lord doing the same thing at the annual Blueberry
festival in Brooksville, Florida.
Terry
Grandson Kason
Terry
and team of faithful servants gave out hundreds of gospel tracts during the
festival which lets me know that our folks are developing into Disciples of
Christ and a Church family that carries out the Great Commission with or without
the presence of their Missionary Pastor.
The Kenya/Uganda front brought news that Pastor Jackson from Lake
Victoria has gone home to be with the Lord.
The news of the death of a Saint is always met with mixed emotions, part
of me praises the Lord for His grace and mercy through Pastor Jacksons radical
salvation transformation from a drunken fisherman to a preacher of the gospel
and then there is the reality that his children: Electra, Lokey, Hillary and my
namesake Carlitos are orphaned.
Jackson
My namesake....Carlitos
If you
recall Pastor’s wife died some months back.
We know God’s grace is sufficient and believe that Sis. Rose, Pastor’s
Mother who is a faithful member of the Church will raise the children in
faith. A team of Pastors from Mt. Elgon
will be traveling tomorrow to help make the burial arrangements for Pastor
Jackson. Please continue to pray for His
children as they stand by the graveside where they will have buried both parents
in less than six months. Thank you for
allowing us to share this continued journey of faith.
