Welcome to our Blog! We are missionaries with Campus Crusade for Christ in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Our purpose is to serve Christ by working with national believers to reach people in every language group and every level society with the Good News of the Gospel. Thanks for visiting!
Please write us: RBBolivia@aol.com
This week has been a fantastic time with the team from National Community Church from Washington, DC. Our daughter and son-in-law, Sarah and Dustin Hanks are members of the church and both had planned to come with the team. As it turns out, Sarah is expecting a baby in January and they decided that it might be better for her to stay in the U.S. We have enjoyed having Dustin with us this week.
These guys from DC are amazing. They are professionals, mostly, and ready for anything. We have built a church floor, ministered in schools and neighborhoods, climbed the Inca Ruins, and had a few sicknesses. We have seen a lot of people express faith in Jesus this week.
And, wow, these guys know how to blog! World champions. GREAT PICTURES. Here is the link to a much more complete story of what's been happening.
This week I have been in Quito, Ecuador and Ayacucho, Peru working with our JESUS Film coordinators in both countries. In Quito the national director of Campus Crusade took me up the new gondola lift up the side of the mountain on the west side of the city. The top of the ride is at 13,300 above sea level.
We walked around awhile and I saw a sign offering horse tours that would go farther up the mountain. I rarely do tourist things when I travel, but decided to go for it. I rode with a guide up to 15,100 feet, to the base of the Rucu Pichincha volcano. Horses that work at that altitude are a special smaller breed.
This morning I arrived in Ayacucho with my friend Carlos Olano. We met some of the volunteer pastors who are leading the Quechua Ayacucho project, targeted to Quechua Ayacucho speakers and their Spanish speaking children.
Tonight we drove about 20 minutes outside of the city on a dirt road to a hillside village at about 10,000 feet elevation. The JESUS Film team was there before we were, but were having trouble making the projector work. The village has no electricity, so about 15 Quechua men and boys gathered around the projector and generator in the dark to try to figure out the problem. They were amazingly patient and calm as the minutes stretched into an hour of waiting. They worked on it together with no real sense of time. In the end the problem was solved and people gathered to see the story of JESUS.
Thank you Grace for sending a team to Bolivia. Together with Christ Fellowship in Miami, Windermere Ministries in Orlando, and National Community Church in DC you are making a mark for Jesus in Bolivia in 2007.
In fact you are leaving a legacy. With the Grace Team alone, hundreds of people have heard the Gospel one on one, through group presentations, and through the JESUS Film. Hundreds have made the life changing decision to receive Christ as Savior. You have helped to plant two new home churches and have left wonderful structures for them to meet in.
Jeanie and I and the whole team of Bolivian staff and volunteers thank our Great God for leading all of our teams to share in the ministry He has called us to. As you return to the U.S. may He be your constant Guide, Companion, and Teacher as you take the same Gospel to a lost and dying people. We love you!
Thursday. The team has one more ministry day in Montero and everyone is holding up great!
Every day the team from Oregon has been ministering to children through puppets, music and crafts. Today the kids decorated little pouches and made toy fishing poles. This is a picture of Stephanie leading songs with Amelia, one of our Bolivian volunteers. (That's Andy in the background).
After the kids activities we have been showing the JESUS Film. This is photo from this evening. The film presents the story of Jesus from the book of Luke. It gives people a chance to understand more about the life of the Savior, either just before or after they have trusted Him.
Tomorrow we will lay the brick floor for the second tent. The tents are used for the new home groups that are forming in two new neighborhoods.
After that we'll go back to the neighborhood in the afternoon for more house to house evangelism and children's activities.
Today is Day 4 for the Grace Team from Oregon. They have been out sharing Gods love door to door using the Four Spiritual Laws, they participated in a JESUS Film showing tonight and did VBS activities and small group Bible study in the new tent structure for one of the new church plants. This photo was taken this afternoon.
Please pray for continued good health and strength as we move into the second neighborhood tomorrow.
The Grace team is doing great! Here is a picture from our training time together with the church we will be working with in Montero.
This morning we woke up to cold and rainy weather - about 52 degrees Farenheit. The school we were planning to visit this morning with the puppet show cancelled classes! We had a great time of prayer and praise and are looking forward to sharing God's love in a children's home later this afternoon.
A mission team from our home church from Oregon, Grace Community Church in Gresham, arrived this morning after 23 hours of travel. We let them rest about an hour and a half before lunch and then a quick tour of the downtown plaza in Montero.
This afternoon we started training on how they will be sharing the Good News of the Gospel using the Four Spiritual Laws. In Spanish! They will have volunteers from our campus ministry and the local church working alongside.
Tomorrow they will be sharing the puppet show at a school, putting up semi-permanent tent structures, doing a childrens Bible school, sharing the Gospel door to door and showing the JESUS Film. Please pray for the team that God will give them extra strength and good rest.
They are tired, but we promise a good night sleep tonight.
Last week we were working with a team of Chiropractic physicians to help plant a church in a town in the campo called La Porfia.
I was sharing the Great News of salvation by faith alone, by grace alone with a couple of men who were watching the construction of the new church building. As I shared with them, we got through the part of God's love - they agreed; then I talked about our sin -and they also agreed that we are are all sinners. I moved on to the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross on our behalf. Again, they knew that story.
Last, I shared our need to receive by faith God's free gift of salvation and eternal life. By way of illustration I asked them each if they had ever received a wrapped birthday or Christmas present. I often use that illustration to show people that all we do is receive the gift - that we don't work for it.
Each man replied no, they had not ever received a gift. But, I insisted, as a child surely you received a gift? Again, No.
How do you explain the concept of a free gift to someone who has never received one? We talked further and I explained what it might mean to receive the free gift of salvation and one of the men prayed with me to receive Christ as Savior.
Please pray for the new church in La Porfia. Pray that God will use the ministry of the church to bring the free gift of salvation into many homes.
We are home again in Bolivia after a hectic 3 weeks in the USA. We went to South Carolina for Patty's graduation from Furman University and then on June 15, her wedding to Luke Tolbert. We came home thrilled with our new son-in-law, nostalgic for our little girl, and sorry to be thousands of miles away from our grown children. The number one sacrifice all of our missionary friends mention is the separation from family.
Here is a link to a video I just posted of the graduation and wedding. We're pretty proud of Patty!
Our young adult group is growing! Last Saturday 24 men and women came out to our meeting. Every week we have some new people and I try to meet with all of the new men over lunch during the week following the meeting.
This week I met with Pepe on Tuesday and Marcos on Wednesday. Both are about 30 years old, single but in relationships. I met with Pepe, and we had a good time getting to know one another. I learned from his story that he was living with his girlfriend. I shared the gospel with him using the Four Spiritual Laws. When I came to the end of the booklet, his response was that he was sure he had Christ in his life. That made the challenge to receive Christ a little redundant.
We talked some about God being the author of life and the One who sets the standards of right and wrong. Pepe is a great guy, but the issue of sin is definitely not clear to him yet. We’ll spend more time together in the weeks to come talking about the holiness of God and His standard of perfection. Only when we understand His holiness does our need for a Savior come into clear focus.
The next day (today, actually, as I write this) I met with Marcos. We spent 45 minutes or so just chatting. He has almost completed his degree in English and works for a Tour company. Like Pepe, he is one of the nicest guys you could hope to meet. He lives with his younger sister. His parents have long since split up.
As I shared the Gospel with Marcos, I was thinking about Pepe and really wanted to make the issue of sin clear with him. I really emphasized why we need salvation. As I came to the point of decision in the Four Spiritual Laws booklet, I read him the prayer, but then explained again that it was a matter of faith in response to God’s offer of grace. We talked again about sin. He said that he wanted to pray to receive Christ. Again I explained that it was a matter between him and God, that God was calling him to repentance.
He responded, “Ron, I know I’m a sinner. I want to pray that prayer right now.” So he did, right out loud. We were both overcome with joy. I shared more with him from the Bible what it means to know Christ. My favorite thing to share with a man who receives Christ is John 1:12. I explained that since he had received Christ, he had a right to be called a son of God. I asked him who his Father was, Marcos responded, “God is”. I told him that 36 years ago I prayed to receive Christ as well, so God is my Father, too. Then I asked him if we had the same Father what that made us. A big smile spread across his face as he answered, “BROTHERS!”
Please pray for Marcos as he grows in Christ, and for Pepe that God will continue to draw him to Himself.
Well, about the time we read about warm tempertures in the U.S., the temperature begins to drop in Bolivia! This morning we had a low of 51 degrees, with 14 mph winds from the South (that's where cold comes from in our part of the world south of the equator). It is a hard time for poor people here, because no house has central heating. Coats and blankets are always scarce.
For us, it's kind of fun to feel the cold and think of life back home. Our new house out in the country has a wood cookstove that has stood idle through our first months - summertime - in the house. This morning Jeanie decided we would fire it up. As I left for the office, smoke was coming out of the chimney, the kitchen was warming up and Andrew was scrambling eggs!
We'll enjoy it while it lasts. On Saturday the forecast is for clear skies and 86 degrees.
Ron and Jeanie Burgin Campus Crusade for Christ, South America
Hi from Bolivia!
We had a great Easter weekend in Bolivia. Andrew and I went with about 35 friends from our local Campus Crusade ministry out into the campo to show the JESUS Film in a couple of small villages. Jeanie stayed home with some other Easter weekend responsibilities (breakfast on Sunday at the churchJ).
Conditions were interesting! We stayed at the ranch of some friends. It was a nice house, but it had very little water. What little came out of the tap was very rusty. Fortunately, Andy and I brought 4 five gallon containers of water from home. It’s a good thing we did, because there was no other available water to cook with. The bathroom facilities were nice, just no water. So, we worked out a two bucket system: one to dip from for “showering” and another to empty into the toilet to flush it. Everyone was responsible to fill the buckets outside when the finished with the bathroom.
Have you ever heard of a “peto”? It is a particularly aggressive Amazonian wasp. I was with several of my guys when I found a nest of petos in a tree near the ranch house. I thought it would be a good idea to throw a brick at the nest. You have never seen a bunch of Bolivian guys run faster! Meanwhile, I stood and looked at the petos as the nest fell to the ground. Within a couple of seconds one of them stung me on the forehead with such force that it felt like someone hit me! Over the next 24 hours my forehead and left eye swelled up. The pain was like no Oregon yellow jacket sting I have ever felt.
To get between the ranch and the villages we had to ford a river in the jeep. It is four wheel drive, but it was a little bit of an adventure each of the 10 crossings. Andrew and the college guys thought it was a lot of fun. I held my breath each time.
On the Saturday afternoon Andrew showed the guys how to play American football in the river. I explained the rules, which the Bolivian guys find hilarious compared to soccer. The hardest rule for them to understand was: no tackling after the ball is dead – incomplete pass, runner is already down, etc. They really liked the tackling part. Here is a video in the river (the same river we had to cross 10 times).
We showed the film on the soccer field opposite the little Catholic church. The local community leader gave us permission to use the benches from the church! Here is Milton Andy carrying a bench for the showing.
That evening 25 adults and 15 children made decisions to follow Jesus as their Savior. I shared with two boys, Jose Patricio and Rodrigo. They were 10 and 11 years old. As an American, you would look at them and think they were about seven. They are very small. I asked them if they were sure that if they died that they would go to heaven. They weren’t positive, but wanted to know for sure. I explained how they could know for sure, and each of them prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.
We were working with a local pastor who has been in the area for about 6 months and he will be following up with the new believers.
For the last 4 or 5 months I have been building relationships with a bunch of university guys. They are mostly students of English at the state university in Santa Cruz. We get together Saturday evenings for Bible Study, prayer and fellowship.
They have really blessed me by their willingness to learn from God's word and by their faithfulness to show up every week. We are going through a study now on Bibilical manhood. There is not much in this culture that gives a Christian man hope. As we learn together what God made us to be as men, they are really encouraged. As John Eldredge wrote in "Wild at Heart", God did not create us to be "nice guys" but courageous, even dangerous Men of God.
I wish you could meet Luis, Marco, Humberto, Ernesto, Ever, Eden, Jesus, Luis, Renato and Darling. These guys are going to be mighty men of God in Bolivia.
A couple of weeks ago our Bolivian neighbor Daisy invited Jeanie to come to a painting class. The ladies from the neighborhood are learning to paint on fabric. They make tablecloths, pillows, and a lot of other things.
The ladies were there to learn to supplement their family income by creating salable craft items. Jeanie was there to meet the ladies! I think her work is beautiful!
Exciting things are happening here as three men from Orlando have come down to work with my Bolivian colleagues to record the Quechua and later, Aymara versions of the JESUS Film audio version.
We'll be using the new audio version to do initial follow-up among new believers in groups forming following presentations of the JESUS Film.
The photo is of Herbert Ogeda, the Quechua language voice actor who played Jesus.
Please join us in praying for the technical details of the recording and that God would use the recordings in a tremendous way in the lives of millions of Bolivians.
Perfection. I am thinking of perfection in the American sense of wanting everything to work properly, the first time, consistently, and without maintenance. The joke around our house is that I am "Tech Support". In Bolivia we require a lot of tech support; for cars, computers, pumps, roofs, etc., etc. The trade off we have come to is that Jeanie manages the household in tough circumstances, but I do all the Tech Support. Fortunately these days my young associate, Andrew, is becoming quite adept at Tech Support.
The ongoing pursuit of perfection in all things mechanical means spending a lot of time visiting the mechanic. After a while we come to a new trade off: perfection vs. time spent pursuing perfection. Am I willing to accept a certain level of ongoing low level imperfection in order to have time to do the ministry God has called us to? Our radiator leaks a little. Back in the U.S. I wouldn't tolerate that. Here, well, I am sort of resigned to checking the water level every couple of days.
When I think of my personal life, can I afford the same luxury of tolerating and accomodating a low level of sin - imperfection - in my life? God tells me in his word:
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." I Pet 1:14-16
and again:
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Rom 8:13
What seems expedient in the physical world, i.e. tolerating imperfection, doesn't seem to be profitable in the spiritual world. God has a higher standard. Fortunately for us His higher standard is accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Well, anyway, that's what I've been thinking about this week. I'll write more later on some exciting new developments in the ministry.
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.
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.
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.
My job has changed in the last six months to include JESUS Film Distribution representative. The JESUS Film is a 2 hour film on the life of Christ that has been translated into more than 950 languages. I had a great week last week in Peru last week helping to get the JESUS Film Quechua project off the ground.
Our first major hurdle for the Quechua project is personnel. To accomplish the goals of the project, i.e. to effectively reach a people group and assure the beginning of a real movement of multiplication and church planting, we need the right man to direct the project.
Both our national director, Jorge Mariaka, and our AOA Director, Rolando Justiniano, have recommended Carlos Olando. I first met Carlos 10 years ago in Colorado. He and his wife joined CCC staff about 20 years ago. He is very effective in building networks of pastors. He is very relational, and a real pleasure to work with.
Last week Carlos and I traveled to Ayacucho and Huanta in the interior of Peru to get a feel for the project. We met with several pastors in both places. They were all excited about the project and the possibility of equipping pastors and church leaders to expand the ministry.
Carlos will come to Bolivia in early January for 10 days of intensive training in the new church planting and multiplication strategy we are using. While he is here we will work on a strategic plan that will include to main objectives:
1. Saturation. This aspect of the plan will use the JESUS Film in partnership with churches to saturate the area with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
2. Pastoral equipping. The majority of pastors have no formal training. Our process includes five week-long modules that equip them in:
-Evangelism and Multiplication -Bible Study Methods -Building a disciple-making church -Developing Leaders and launching disciple-making ministries -Managing and multiplying disciple-making churches.
I also talked at length with a young Quechua man, Isaias, who works with the JESUS Film project. Isaias grew up in the Amazon area of Peru and has been on his own, away from his parents since he was eight. He has finished high school and a year in a technical institute. His dream is to become a pastor. I think he will play a key part in the plan to reach the Quechua people.
Prayer requests: Pray for Carlos as he begins work on the project. Pray for God’s wisdom as we work out the target population. There are many sub-groups of Quechua peoples. Pray for a productive time planning and training in January.
