Cooper!

 

Cooper is sometimes lost in the crush of cute girls and big brother! We have enjoyed seeing him a couple of times this fall and look forward to Christmas with our special grandson!

Enjoying South Carolina

Jeanie and I are enjoying our furlough time in South Carolina. The greatest thrill is to be the resident grandparents for the first time in our lives. Our daughter Patty and her husband Luke live here in Camden where he is the assistant pastor at a local church. This week Patty gave birth to a new little girl, Caroline Hope Tolbert. Caroline joins Anna Kate who is 20 months old. Jeanie is in Grandma heaven.

She has been over at Luke and Patty's house helping out while I continue my work as Operations Director for Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America - thanks to my very fast internet connection.

We have been able to do a little touring around South Carolina. On Thursday we took in the South Carolina State Fair. We learned about the benefits of negative ion bracelets (no sale there) and elephant ears (we shared one). It was really a great piece of Americana to enjoy and remember as we prepare to move to Costa Rica.

Last week we visited the Kensington mansion about 40 minutes from Camden. It is an antebellum plantation mansion. The house was beautiful, but the history is also tragic as it was all built on the backs of slave labor. The older gentleman who gave us the tour was a real storehouse of local history and stories.

This week I have spent a lot of time working on a relief project proposal to bring aid to our 50 national staff members who live and serve in the countries of Central America. Heavy rains this month from a series of tropical storms, have brought devastation and misery to the area not seen since Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Floods have caused widespread damage to infrastructure, housing, agriculture, commercial interests, churches, schools, and government institutions. Total losses to the economy will take months to calculate and years to recover. God has supplied funds for emergency help to our staff in the area. Please pray for our staff and all of the people affected by the devastation.

Below is a photo from the city of Quetzaltenango in Guatelmala.

Colorado!

We have been in Colorado for a week. First we went to a returning missionary conference called Still Waters in Winter Park. We had a refreshing time thinking about transitions to our new assignment in Costa Rica and enjoying time with new and old friends. The setting was beautiful.

Following the conference we took Andrew back to the Denver airport to travel to Florida to start his new life at the University of Florida. Our older son Stephen and his wife Rachael are guiding Andy through the first steps at college.

Since Monday we have been at our Cru (we like the new name!) staff conference. Several of our staff from the Caribbean are joining us here this week:

One last photo from Colorado:

With Grace Community Church in Bolivia

We are enjoying a great week in Bolivia with our home church from Gresham, Oregon. We have been working with a local church to plant a daughter church and also with our Campus Crusade staff at the Gabriel Rene Moreno University to make contacts with new students. Here are a few pictures.

Ron

May prayer letter

Ron and Jeanie Burgin
Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America
www.Burgin-Bolivia.blogspot.com

May, 2011

Dear Friend,

What a month! We have just finished a great week here in Santa Cruz, Bolivia celebrating Andrew’s graduation from the mission school, Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. We are so proud of him! He will be attending the University of Florida in the fall, majoring in Business. My sister, Patty Burgin; daughter, Patty Burgin Tolbert; and our granddaughter, Anna Kate all flew down to Bolivia to be with us. It was exciting for them to be here and see our life and ministry. Here are a couple of pictures from this week.

Left to right: Patty Burgin Tolbert, Anna Kate, Jeanie, Andrew, Ron, Patty Burgin (AP)

As you may know, my job has grown over the last year as I have taken on the role of Operations Director for Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America. I work with a great team in the areas of JESUS Film, Administration and Finance, Communications, Fund Development, Technology and Crisis Management. The week before graduation I was with our new national leadership team in Puebla, Mexico helping them make the transition. Probably the most exciting part of my job is helping new young leaders as they lead our ministry. On Sunday Jeanie and I will go to Buenos Aires for our Area Leadership Team meeting and then later in June I'll be in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sounds like a lot of travel, and it is! Please pray for safety and effectiveness as we serve our staff, which now numbers over 300 full time national missionaries.



Working with the JESUS Film and our national ministries as they develop strategies to use its resources is a big part of my job. I want to share a story of the impact of the JESUS Film DVD and Magdalena in Mendoza, Argentina.

During Holy Week of 2010, by TV and DVD in homes, an estimated 150,000 people heard about Jesus. The impact in changed lives was so great that Pastor Bazan of the largest church in the city (4000 members) sponsored a premiere showing of the film Magdalena: Released from Shame that was attended by 2000. He and his leaders distributed 1000 DVD’s of the JESUS Film in key neighborhoods where church members opened their homes to show the DVD. The church distributed 500 more DVD’s over Christmas and they did big screen 16 mm showings with 10 projectors throughout the city. They estimate that at least 50,000 more were reached with the Gospel in December alone.

Our team in Argentina is trusting God to multiply this strategy to other parts of the country. Thank you so much for your partnership with us! God continues to do great things, and is using you and us in the process. What a privilege!

Your Missionaries in Latin America,

Ron and Jeanie

Andrew's Graduation

This is the week of Andrew's graduation. We are so proud of him! He has been named Valedictorian of his class. The year ahead brings exciting new challenges for him at the University of Florida and for us in Costa Rica.

Here is a (very) brief video slide show:

Easter 2011

April, 2011
Dear Friend,

Greetings from Santa Cruz, Bolivia. This is an exciting week in Latin America. In every country there are special celebrations of Semana Santa, Holy Week. Throughout our continent secular TV stations will be showing the JESUS Film and The Story of JESUS for Children. Right here in Bolivia thousands of DVD’s of Magdalena: Released from Shame have been or will be distributed in the coming weeks. We are planning multiple theater premieres of Magdalena in the Quechua and Aymara languages in the major cities of Bolivia. Please pray with us as millions will be exposed to the Gospel through television broadcasts, theater premieres of Magdalena: Released from Shame, and DVD distributions.

While we broadcast the Good News widely, the work is often one on one. Last week Marcelo, a young man I had known previously from the ministry at the Modern Language department at the university phoned me. We got together for lunch and he told me over and over again of his need to draw closer to God. I shared with him an Iphone app version of the Four Spiritual Laws and he received Christ that day! Please pray for Marcelo as we meet together to learn more and he begins to grow in his faith.

Probably our greatest task ahead is working with the next generation of leaders to equip them to take the reins of ministry. Two weeks ago I met with staff from Chile and Bolivia to learn about their ministries. I am so encouraged by the quality of new missionary staff coming up through the ranks.

Patricio (Pato) joined staff with Campus Crusade in Chile just a few months ago after serving for a few years as a volunteer. He will soon be taking the leadership of one of our University districts in Santiago. He is the kind of guy that people want to get know. I think you can tell from his photo why people like talking to him. Very often those conversations lead to the Gospel.

Marcelo and his wife Dita joined our staff a year ago in Bolivia. Marcelo is a recent engineering graduate from the big state university here. He heard the Gospel through one of our staff on campus, received Christ as his Savior and hasn’t stopped running since! He has created an amazing leadership training proposal for the Engineering Department that will allow him to teach leadership principles on campus while he gets to know students and builds a ministry there.

Please pray for Pato and Marcelo and hundreds of other young men and women who are responding to God’s call to reach their generation with Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

Andrew is in the home stretch of his senior year and has been accepted to the University of Florida for the fall. Go Gators! Jeanie is wrapping up five years of teaching at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center with mixed emotions: looking forward to change, but already missing the kids and her colleagues. We are looking forward to moving later in the year to Costa Rica.

Jeanie and I wish you a very Happy Easter. He is Risen!

Ron and Jeanie

Back in Thailand

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I am here for a 7 day conference along with 30 colleagues from Campus Crusade around the world. I don't really enjoy the trip getting here, but God is really blessing our time together.

One of my responsibilities as Operations Director for CCC Latin America is the area of measurements. Basically, measurements refers to keeping track of our effectiveness in the ministry: How many people have heard the Gospel, how many have trusted Christ as Savior, how many are in discipleship, etc.

These kinds of statistics are vitally important to us for several reasons. First, they tell us if the plans and strategies we are working on in the countries are effective. Second, they give us a measure of individual staff effectiveness. If a particular staff member or team is seeing tremendous fruit, we need to ask, “What are they doing? How can we multiply their experience?” Third, measuring activity and results allows us to be more accountable to our donors and leaders. We want to be sure we are being faithful with the resources God has given us, both human and financial.

Last, and most important, the Bible is very clear on our responsibility as servants to be wise stewards. In the end, our responsibility is to the One who loved us and called us to proclaim His name.

We are using some innovative technologies that allow staff reporting all the way down to the field level using the Internet. Our national and area leaders can have quick access to information to be able to make course adjustments along the way. Well, that may be more than you want to know about Global Measurements!

We are so thankful for your partnership with us at this time! Jeanie and I have had a very full February as we completed the sale of the house in Bolivia (thank you, Lord), and moved to temporary quarters in downtown Santa Cruz until September. Andrew will be graduating from High School in May and is making a decision in the coming days as to which of two fine Universities to attend: UF or FSU. He has been accepted to both.

Thanks again for your continued support! May God continue to richly bless you.

Ron and Jeanie

Magdalena in Quechua and Aymara

We have a new video production from the JESUS Film called Magdalena, Released from Shame. It has had a tremendous impact on the lives of women around the world and in Latin America. The JESUS Film project has specialists in film translation and dubbing. In fact,the JESUS Film is now available in more than 1000 languages!

Tito Ramos, my friend and director of Campus Crusade here in Bolivia would love to have the Magdalena film translated into Quechua and Aymara, the two largest indigenous languages in Bolivia. Steve Baumann from the JESUS Film came down last week and we all flew to Cochabamba to meet with Rolando and his team with the Bible Society to work out the translation and recording details. In the photo they are reviewing the script.

God is good! The recording and editing have been placed on a fast track calendar. The recording will be done the last week of February and the first week of March, with the final editing and post-production work to be done before Easter!

Please pray for all of the details and the hard work ahead for the Bolivian translators and voice actors, and recordists who will come from the U.S. Then pray as well for the impact of the film on the lives of women who need the hope that only Christ can bring.

Ron

A different Bolivia

The new government has renamed the country: The Plurinational State of Bolivia. Plurinational because there are so many different people groups.

Over New Years weekend we went out to the Trans World Radio station in Pailon. The ministry there, directed by our friends Jake and Dorothy Fehr, is directed to Spanish speaking Bolivians, Quechua speaking Bolivians and Plautisch speaking Bolivians. Plautisch, or Low German, is the language of the Mennonite colonies. An estimated 60,000 folks live in the colonies in lowland Bolivia. They have a very closed, restricted culture where people can be excommunicated for listening to the radio or reading the Bible. It is a culture where people have very little access to the Good News of the Gospel.

Jake and Dorothy broadcast to these people and the ministry is flourishing. They have many live events at the station where hundreds of Mennonite colonists will come to hear solid teaching from God's word. Among the many tools they use is the JESUS Film on DVD as well as the radio version in Low German.

Here's Jeanie with her friend Dorothy:

Jake drove us around the community near the station and I caught this Mennonite boy hiding from us in a puddle. Kids are kids!