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In this note we would like to share:
A little about who we are,
A story of evangelism and hope,
Some pictures of our ministry including our Sons' ministry,
Things to pray for and
A little about our near future plans
We have two sons. Mario Josué who is now 14 and Seth Benjamin who is now ten. They both are involved with us in ministry through an evangelistic clown team. Iris and I help our Bolivian Baptist partners in theological education and leadership development based at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Cochabamba. Mario teaches New Testament, philosophy, investigation and thesis courses and goes around the country training leaders and pastors to be better equipped for ministry so he travels a lot. Iris teaches Psychology and Pastoral Care, her ministry also involves counseling the students. In the last two years, Iris is also been teaching pre-school at the Christian School where our kids go. Since the learning in this school is all in English, it attracts a lot of the wealthy people in Bolivia. Doing this ministry has given Iris the opportunity to share Christ with kids that belong to the upper class. This is an opportunity she would not have otherwise.
The Evangelism Story…
There is a song that pre-school children in Iris' classroom sing a lot during the week. The song goes like this: "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, yellow, red, white and black they all precious on His sight..." Valentina is a four-year-old girl whose parents are very wealthy and not believers. The other day over
the weekend, Valentina and her family were having a big family reunion where they were talking about how dangerous Bolivia is turning. Valentina came up in front of the whole family with the story of how God helped David to defeated Goliath in order to save God's people, and closed her speech with the song Jesus loves the little children, then she said that as God was with David, Jesus' love is with all of them. On Monday, her mother came to the school and shared with the director what had happened. She expressed to her how happy she is to have her child studying at this Christian School and having Iris as her teacher, because since she came to school not only her child is so happy but also her faith in God is growing and helping the whole family to have faith and hope.
Things to Pray for:
At this point at the seminary, Iris and I have to prepare some courses for next semester pray for us as we do this.
The Quechua (direct descendants from the Incas) leaders of the Bolivian Baptist has requested Mario a training for their pastors and leaders towards the end of January 2003 they are about 85 in total and the funds to do this training are very limited. Mario said yes in faith, so pray that the Lord will provide $865.00 needed to do this leaders and pastors training in January 2003.
The Aymara (Original People from the high lands, they were here even before the Inca Empire) leaders of the Bolivian Baptist are praying for an extension of the Baptist Seminary (center for ministry) in the High Lands, they shared with us that they own a piece of land in Patacamaya a little town about 3 hours driving east from La Paz. Their vision is to have a center for ministry that will equip them in their own language to serve better the churches in that area. Pray for funds and volunteers to come and help build the center this year.
A Little About Our Near Future Plans
We are grateful for all that God has done with us and thru us here in Bolivia. We see the results of God's work in the life of students and churches. We are now due to go back to home assignment and we plan to be in USA in June 2003. We will be more than happy to visit you and share.
God Bless you all richly!
The Morales