Greetings

Brothers and Sisters, blessings to all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like always, we would like to thank you all for all your support and your prayers. We really need this support in order to serve our Lord in the field.

Update on Baby Moises

Many things have happen during this new term for us, and as long I remember in the last news letter we shared with all of you about baby Moises. We had the opportunity to take care of Moises for two and a half months as transitory parents, until he found a family that could take care of him and love him. The Lord provided him a beautiful Christian family from the city of La Paz, they have been looking for a child for four years and now they have been blessed with Moises. We thank God for the time we spent with Moises he was a blessing to our family.

Academics and Practical Work

For many years the Seminary wanted to know why many students could be good academically but failed their practical work at the church. The director of the Seminary invited us to form a work team to deal with this issue in February of this year. This team became in charge of integrating academics and practical work at the church.The first step we agreed on was the task to create a system to get students through the process of assessment, placement and practice. The bigger challenge has been to create or to design a set of admission tests for the new students and an assessment test for the regular students. We had to spend long hours and days of work searching, creating and documenting until finally we came up with something meaningful for the process. After that, then we started testing the students, again it was a lot of work not only because it takes three hours for the students to finish, but also the process of grading and interpreting each test. After we had the test results ready and recommendations for each student, we invited all the churches in Cochabamba to meet with us to tell us what their needs are so we could match needs with the gifts we have in the students. It has been hard work, but we see the results already. Churches are beginning to work with the seminary more directly and with defined goals of ministry. We still have to do a lot but the most difficult part is done. We have students gifts, talents and vocations matched with the needs of the churches that will help us continue with our vision of training quality Christian leadership for Bolivia.

The Fruits of Volunteer Work

As you already know, we had the privilege to have two volunteer groups, one in November and the other in January, The discovery team was here in November, and they helped us a lot to get ready the first part of the construction work for the carpentry shop. Then, the next group from West Virginia was here in January lead by Pastor Mark McCloy he also brought some leaders from South Parkersburg who contributed with their gifts and contributions to this mission project. They helped us to put together a carpenter center, and a green house for the students to plant vegetables, fruits, and flowers. The results of these projects are as follow:

-The carpentry shop has now received work orders and is producing some significant income that will benefit the students at the seminary. Moreover, now that we have the carpentry shop, we have been able to construct fences, tables and chairs for the Seminary campus making it look great!

-The green house has become an inspiration to also raise funds for the seminary. We are now engaged in operation geranium. We are in the process of planting 1500 geraniums as soon as they are ready, we will campaign in the churches of Cochabamba and ask the members to take a geranium to pray for the seminary and donate five Bolivianos ($0.60) to support students evangelism activities. If we are successful, this could very well be a pivotal point of production and support for the seminary.

New Projects in the Horizon

As we continue developing leadership at the seminary we also continue discovering many needs that we would like to share with you praying God will speak to your hearts and move you to become a hands-on volunteer in Bolivia.

The need to re roof the houses for the married students at the seminary is a priority that will take a group of volunteers about 10 days of work to accomplish.

Redesigning a dorm building to convert it into an elementary school at the seminary in 2006. This was a dream that we have been contemplating for a while and that the Seminary board gave the green light to start. We will need at least four groups of volunteers to accomplish the remodeling and conversion of rooms into classrooms. We hope to accomplish this in several steps and each one of the steps is very important.

We are in need of elementary teachers that are willing to spend ten months in Bolivia from February to November. They could be retirees or resent graduates willing to gain experience. The teaching is completely in English and our goal is to reach the middle and upper class in Cochabamba with an English Christian school operating at the seminary campus.

We need volunteers to help us teach Pastors Clinics of enrichment and renewal. These clinics involve spending at least 10 days in Bolivia. Experience and theory is integrated so pastors and leaders are invited to come.

We are praying about starting a Post Modern church in the city of Cochabamba. If you are involved in this kind of ministry and want to start a mission project here in Cochabamba, then, God may be calling you.

We need Old Testament and New Testament professors to teach intense courses in February and July. Translator will be provided.

Prayer Concerns: We ask for prayer as we continue working together here in Bolivia.

-Iris is immersing in a new womens leadership program.

-Mario and Ben have received two wonderful clown outfits hand made by a wonderful sister of Elizabeth Church in West Virginia; pray for them, as they will start helping Iris in an evangelistic project with students at the seminary.

-Mario continues his trainings around Bolivia pray for safe travel and fruitful ministry.

-Please also pray for people to serve in our Missionary Partnership Team core particularly in West Virginia and Pacific South West.

-Pray for the Bolivian political situation as they continue negotiations on the future of the country.

Celebrations

Finally, next month the First Baptist Church in Cochabamba will be celebrating 100 years of Ministry, we will have as guests John and Lisa Simmons from West Virginia and Dr. Jose Norat from International Ministries. They will be participating in this important event in the history of Baptist work in Bolivia and particularly here in Cochabamba.It is a good life because of Jesus!

The Moraleses in Bolivia