Gadgets are good

Hi from Bolivia!

I just finished a couple of intense days of meetings with our Bolivan Campus Crusade leaders, leaders from JESUS Film and representatives from Hosanna Ministries. We are working on a comprehensive evangelism and follow-up strategy that churches can use.

They brought us samples of a revolutionary device the size of a brick that looks like a radio. It is not a radio! It's called the PROCLAIMER and it comes with a flash memory chip containing the whole bible in dramatized audio format. It has a speaker that will easily allow 100 people to listen. It has three power sources: AC power, solar power, or crank.

We plan to use the device with poor congregations that partner with us to show the JESUS Film. The new follow up groups for people who come to Christ at the film showing, will gather once or twice a week to listen through the New Testament.

We will be working with new groups in Quechua, Aymara, Guarani and Spanish.

Gadgets are good! (But God is GREAT!)

Ron

The extremes of life

Hi from South Carolina!

Jeanie, Andrew and I are here in South Carolina to celebrate our daughter Patty's engagement to Mr. Luke Tolbert of Greenwood, SC. As a violin major at Furman University, Patty is required to perform a senior recital. We all attended the recital Tuesday evening. She was amazing (even if her dad says so)!


On Monday we went with the whole clan to visit Biltmore in Asheville, NC. It is the largest private home in the U.S. I have to say the contrast in wealth between that house and and average U.S. home is about the same as the contrast between the average U.S. home and the average Bolivian home. The house was beautiful in every respect.

In the end, however, the only thing that matters is our relationship with Christ. Whether you are the poorest Bolivian or a Vanderbilt, you'll have to give an account to your Maker someday. We'll be on our way back to Bolivia on Friday.

Thanks for your prayers for the country. In the days we have been away, things improved and then got worse again politically. Please pray for our friends Dan and Daryl Collins and everyone who lives in Cochabamba, the focus of unrest these days. Pray that Christians in Bolivia will be strong in the strength of the Lord.

Blessings,
Ron

Pray for Pastor Johnny

In our Christmas letter we mailed back to the U.S. I mentioned Pastor Johnny:

"I want to tell you about Johnny. He is a pastor of a small church in El Alto. For the past two years he has faithfully attended our T-Net pastors training. He has learned to use the JESUS Film to win people to faith in Jesus. He has learned how to follow up new believers and help them grow. He has learned how to build spiritual disciplines into their lives so that they can become Christ-centered multiplying disciples.

Johnny is determined to develop leaders in his church who are multiplying disciples of Jesus Christ. More than that, he wants to train other pastors to do the same. This morning while I was in a meeting, we got a phone call from Johnny. He has organized three groups of pastors, 25 in El Alto, and 10 each in different outlying areas to come together to be trained. We’ll help him, but he’ll do a lot of the training himself. It is because of people like Johnny that we love serving in Bolivia."

Two days before Christmas Johnny was attacked near his home. He was choked and was unable to speak for nearly two weeks. He lost his cell phone, wallet and his identity card in the attack. You would have to live in Bolivia to understand the magnitude of his loss. He has been forced to move his family because of threats on their lives.

Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that a key leader would come under spiritual attack. Please join us in praying for God's strength for Johnny and his family as he recovers, and as we seek ways to help.

Ron