The month of July found us traveling into the Altiplano again to a village on the other side of Patacamaya known as Gagawallu. This village was the smallest one we have visited thus far and we took our smallest team in order to save on costs. But the night before going, I could not sleep, feeling we did not have enough prayer cover. I was up very early in prayer and Rhonda sent out an urgent prayer request over Facebook, to which many of you responded.
Our first small trial came as our driver forgot his license. The government maintains check points throughout the country where every driver must submit his license before he can pass. Our bus became quiet as all of us began to pray. Not one of us in the bus had a license to drive. But the line at the checkpoint was long and the police began to rush through the traffic. In a matter of seconds we were through and on our way down the highway and then off-road for another five or ten miles until we reached the small village. We were formally greeted by the chief officers of the village and allowed to minister to the group of about 30 children and 10 adults with music, dramas, and even a clown. Then Rhonda preached a short message of salvation and everyone present prayed with her to receive Jesus.
Then, the leader of the village pleaded with us to return in the summer, to stay for a week and teach the village more about Jesus. We have tentatively scheduled this for December (which is summer here), although we are unsure how we can get there at this time.
After a blessed meal of potatoes and Llama jerky and one egg saved exclusively for me, we began our trek back to La Paz, traveling down the very steep mountain. We smelled smoke and suddenly, the brakes on our van caught fire, but we were able to come to a stop at about a 40 degree angle and avoid any mishaps. So many tragedies could have occurred but we believe were clothed in Christ through the power of prayer and instead we had one of the best journeys yet.
Thank you to our churches dedicated to our mission
We want to acknowledge and thank the churches who have given as a church to this mission this quarter. After showing our DVD and/or keeping this mission in the hearts of their congregations Living Word Fellowship of Cleveland, Tennessee, Straightway Baptist of Steelville, Missouri and Good Shepherd Lutheran of Chattanooga, Tennessee made whole church offerings to open the hearts of the Bolivian people to the Word of God. While the months of January and February saw us spending more than we were bringing in, these donations helped us meet and exceed our budgets. Thank you and thank the Lord for you.
Movie night
In an effort to help a new church plant in the neighborhood of Miraflores in La Paz, Lovely Feet held a Friday night movie at the church. We served free Choripan, a sandwhich made of sausage and bread, to those who came to see the movie. The church regularly has about five people coming to its service, but on this Friday night we had more than forty people come to enjoy the showing of a Christian film. Nine of the new people that attended came forward after the film to receive Jesus. It was a great success and a great encouragement for this new pastor. Glory to God.
In an effort to help a new church plant in the neighborhood of Miraflores in La Paz, Lovely Feet held a Friday night movie at the church. We served free Choripan, a sandwhich made of sausage and bread, to those who came to see the movie. The church regularly has about five people coming to its service, but on this Friday night we had more than forty people come to enjoy the showing of a Christian film. Nine of the new people that attended came forward after the film to receive Jesus. It was a great success and a great encouragement for this new pastor. Glory to God.
International Interdenominational Conference
Our second conference begins the first week of September in El Alto. This one is for the people of the cities of El Alto and La Paz and is aimed at encouraging the existing churches. Our Theme “Encourage One Another” from 1 Thessalonians 5:11. We are very excited to have a team of teachers, pastors and leaders join us for this International Interdenominational Conference. Composer and Pastor Danny Lance comes to us from Georgia along with Professor of Hebrew studies, Dr. Rick Sharp; from Precept ministries in Tennessee from San Salvador Pastor Roberto Bautista; Missionary from Mexico and leader of women’s ministries Elaine Wilburn; born in Columbia, now from Tennessee, Teacher of English and Family Counselor, Astrid Lucas; Missionary to La Paz, Bolivia from Santa Cruz, Pastor Roger Vaca; Missionary to children of poverty, from Bolivia Pastors Gustavo and Doris Mercado; and our own Pastor Angel Condori, evangelist to the Aymara. We ask those who can to consider fasting for spiritual guidance and strength for this conference.
Vigil
Friday night the temperature in El Alto dropped and a rainy snow began to fall around the little church known as The Ark of Jesus. It was 9:30 pm and our band was just tuning up to begin the service. That’s right, the service was about to BEGIN at 9:30pm. It was a Friday night vigil which meant this service would last until 6:00a.m. in a building on the far side of El Alto, where the streets are not paved and there is no heat in the building.
In fact, there was no bathroom in the building! Yet, the people were beginning to arrive, Christians AND non-Christians to hear several worship bands and several young preachers. Our band would play first followed by a salvation message by our son, Tim who would begin his alter call near midnight. By that time, the building was full of nearly 100 people during the coldest night of the year. It was a blessed time in the Lord and reminds me of the words of Jesus when he said, “Why do you sleep? Could you not pray one hour with me?” These people could have!
Preaching in the Park to the children of El Alto
The second Sunday of July we traveled into El Alto again to help Pastora Doris and Pastor Gustavo with a special service to be held in a plaza close to their church, Remenete de Israel. This is a special church for the poor children of this El Alto neighborhood. No adults attend, but the children come and receive snacks and sometimes clothes from their Pastors for memorizing scripture. The children love to dance and Pastora Doris choreographs many different dances to Christian music. On this particular Sunday the children were dressed and ready to dance in the plaza while our team invited the children from the streets to come and dance with us, watch our dramas and puppet shows, sing with us, and pray to receive Jesus.
Tim preached the message about sin and service to God. Sam translated the message and we were very proud of them both. Many new children came and the crowd grew to close to fifty people, all who prayed to receive Jesus.Project – Future of Bolivia
We are beginning a special project for this outreach mission. It barely financially exists but it is the FUTURE OF BOLIVIA. The parents of most of these children are not Christians but they recognize the work of these Christian pastors in the lives of their children. They need financial help! We are asking all the churches reading this newsletter to consider giving the children of your church a mission. Ask the children of your church to support the children of this church. If this church received only $25 dollars a month it would be an amazing help.
This tiny church has four services a week because the children have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. They are dedicated and know their Bibles and their verses. The children love their pastors who have literally laid their own lives down for these children. Pastors Doris and Gustavo receive no money and in fact, use their own money to pay the rent on this building, buy food for these children and sometimes even provide clothes. Please prayerfully consider this mission. Any donations sent to Lovely Feet marked for Remanente de Israel will go straight to this ministry.
“The Road to Tarija” by Samuel McMeen
I had 2 Weeks notice on a choice to go to the national youth camp of the Church of God. In those two weeks I was thinking I might go, and then I thought I might not. I was undecided until the night before when I decided I would go.
The next day, the day we are supposed to leave, the leader of the youth group I was going with calls me up and says “It is impossible to go. There is no way in the world we would make it there.”
Two of my friends, David and Rocío, were already at my house and ready to go with all their stuff. We were very disappointed. We called David’s brother and he said “Oh, I don’t believe that. I´ll go check it out.” So he went to the bus station at about three o´clock Thursday afternoon. At 4:40 he calls us and tells us that there is a bus leaving at 5:00pm. TWENTY MINTUES!?!?! So in twenty minutes we had to: 1) finish eating, 2) decide if we still wanted to go, and 3) get our things together and get to the bus station.
We decide take the adventure and go to Tarija! We rushed to the bus station…running….running. We were told that the bus should arrive in Tarija at 5pm the next day, Friday. That is a long bus ride but we agreed. We loaded on to the bus a seconds before it departed. In fact, we weren’t even in our seats yet as the bus pulled away from the station.
At about the half way point a man told us that we were going a different route and that we wouldn’t arrive until 1:30am Saturday morning. Long story short, after 32 hours in an uncomfortable bus we arrived at Tarija in all its glory. It’s actually a very small city.
Anyway when we arrived there were about 70 people at the camp. As the day wore on, more people showed up. By Saturday night there was around 150 young adults and even more children of 12 and younger.
Early Saturday afternoon a group of missionaries from Oklahoma arrived. The wife of the leader of the group had met my mom at a women´s conference last November in Santa Cruz. They had one translator that was Bolivian and his English was very good. But because the number of youth increased they wanted to split it up, they asked me to translate. So I shined out among the Bolivian brown skin. When we were introduced, the wife of the leader asked me if I was a “Haynes”. Anyway they asked me to translate for the other missionary. So that was a surprise. After I translated we ate lunch and about thirty more people arrived.
On Saturday night a guest speaker from Paraguay preached. After he preached several churches gave specials such as: dramas, musical numbers, mimes, and one church even had two clowns do a routine. After all this we started worshiping the Lord with a live band. Kids of all ages, from 6-100, worshiped their Creator. As the night moved in the pastor from Paraguay started praying for the people and stopped the music several times to tell prophesies over the people he prayed for. As he prayed I popped out to him and he asked me to come forward and asked questions like: why I was here, what was I doing, why Bolivia, etc. after answering his questions he prophesied over me that he saw me with “little Africans”. He saw me in Africa and several other countries that God showed to him.
After the message on Sunday morning, we ate lunch everyone came together for final prayer and fellowship with the other people that were at the conference.
We climbed on the bus for another 30 hour uneventful trip. I arrived home safe and sound Tuesday evening. I was glad I went and blessed beyond what I thought possible.
Teaching English
This past week I (Rhonda) began teaching English at Fuego Celestial (Heavenly Fire) to 9 young people. This Sunday I will begin teaching the same program to a group of 20 at Jehovah es mi Guerrero (Jehovah is my Warrior). This program uses the Bible to teach English. The result is two-fold, I am able to teach about Jesus and his love for us and I am able to equip the people with basic English skills that help them in their jobs and in their future. It is a great blessing to me to have this opportunity. We are hoping that this program will bring in people who don’t know Jesus but want to learn English. I am teaching the class for free. The cost to Lovely Feet is not much…just the photo copies for the materials.
Please pray for this ongoing outreach project.
