New Grandson

Jeanie and I are now Grandparents! Wesley Paul Hanks was born at 2:33 PM, Saturday, January 26, 2008 in Washington, D.C. He is 8lbs. 12oz. and is 21 inches long! The proud parents are Sarah and Dustin Hanks.

January newsletter

Dear Friends,

The pounding rain started about a week ago and has continued for several hours every day since. Everything feels damp. Children play in muddy flowing streams. Cars and taxis break down in deep water. Hidden potholes "swallow" the undercarriages of vehicles large and small. The poor neighborhoods always suffer the most. This picture was in our local newspaper this morning. Please pray for the people here and especially for the pastors and Christian brothers and sisters who are struggling with the high water.

Hundreds, maybe thousands, are experiencing scenes like this (photos from El Deber newspaper):














This is a photo of Andrew's school today. I got a call this morning that the rising water had moved into some classrooms. The principal closed the school at noon for the rest of the week. Please pray that the buildings suffer little damage and that classes can resume next week.


The ministry continues in spite of the rain! Today Daniel, one of our university disciples and JESUS Film volunteers left for Argentina. He is going to live with his aunt and uncle in Tierra del Fuego at the very southern tip of South America. He is going in search of a job to be able to help his parents and sisters here in Bolivia. There is no Campus Crusade in Tierra del Fuego, and God has given him a vision to start a ministry among students there. We loaded him up with materials and a lot of prayer. Please pray for Daniel as he heads out in the power of the Holy Spirit to help connect lost people to their creator.

I took Jeanie to the airport this morning to travel to Washington, D.C. to be with our daughter, Sarah as she and Dustin expect our first grandchild. Her due date is January 26. We'll keep you posted on the progress. Please pray for Sarah and Dustin as they await the birth. Please pray that WESLEY will be born strong and healthy.

Jeanie and I love you and value your partnership with us.

In Christ,

Ron, Jeanie and Andrew

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8:31-32

Happy New Year at the Villa Rosita

It's January and university students in Bolivia are in the middle of summer break. We want to keep the momentum going, however, so we had a day in the sun - with morning rain - at a local hotel resort called the Villa Rosita. There were about 30 students who came out and we talked about discipleship from Matthew 4:

• Jesus is the one who calls us.
  
• He calls us with a purpose, to make us fishers of men.
  
• Those He called followed Him immediately.
  
• There was and is a cost to discipleship.

What a privilege to see God build a new generation of Christ-followers! Here's a slideshow/video from the Villa Rosita. Blessings!

Thanking God at Christmas

2007 has been an amazing year for our ministry. About 18 months ago, I began a Bible study for university men, many of them students of English. By January, 2007 I had about a dozen guys involved. Early this year the guys asked if we could include college women in the group. Funny how that worked out.

I recruited some young professional women to work with me, Patricia and Paola. Working together we have seen dozens of young people commit their lives to Christ and we are averaging 50 in our weekly meeting.

Last Saturday we had our first annual Christmas dinner/party and served 80: About 60 of our students and 20 family members. We praise God for his faithfulness to build a movement here among College men and women.

Here is a short video of the dinner. I trust you will have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The kids from Talita Cumi

On Sunday we had the joy of entertaining two of the kids from Talita Cumi, the children's home near our house. Jeanie is on the board of the home. Once a year the kids all find families for a day so that the 24/7/364 staff can have time together for planning. Beatriz, 17, and Juan de Dios, 5, spent the day with us. We went out for pizza and a movie (Disney's Enchanted) and then home to make a cake. Here is a picture of Juan de Dios helping Jeanie clean up.

Juan de Dios has only been at the home for five months and everything is an adventure for him. He had hardly been cared for with an absent mom and a father just out of prison. He is missing his front teeth, but from decay, not because they fell out normally. Nonetheless, he is one happy boy. You should have seen him doing cartwheels, a recently acquired skill, through the lobby of the movie theater!

Please pray for Juan de Dios and all the kids at Talita Cumi.

Ron

Polarization in Bolivia

The last several days have brought fear, confrontation, and uncertainty in Bolivia. Rather than try to explain the situation, I'll give you a link to an article on the democracy center's blog. The democracy center is run by a left-wing American who is usually anything but objective. Intestingly he gets it about right in his analysis this time. If you have a few minutes you can read about what's going on here in Bolivia. Then please take time to pray. Ron

Thanksgiving here and there

We celebrated a good old US Thanksgiving with about 70 folks from the American missionary community here in Santa Cruz on Thursday. We had turkey and stuffing, pumpkin pie, and everything except Grandma's "green fluff" jello.

Meanwhile back in Gainesville, Florida our grown children and their spouses all got together at our son Stephen and his wife Rachael's home for the holiday. We are so happy to see that they are staying close.

A story of courage

I want to tell you about my good friend Alfredo. He is a small young man, 25 years old. Two weeks ago we celebrated with him as he successfully defended his thesis and graduated from the Gabriel Rene Moreno University. He has been a leader in our student movement since it began about a year ago. Alfredo has been with us on mission trips and has a heart for leading people to faith in Christ. He leads the fun time at the beginning of our big weekly meetings. Since his father died 12 years ago he has helped his mom raise his four younger brothers and sisters. In the last several years she has been in poor health and has depended on Alfredo's teaching job to bring in most of the family income.

Last Sunday night he called me just before I was to leave on a trip the next day to Uruguay. He was sobbing. His mother had just died of pneumonia in the public charity hospital in Santa Cruz. I told him I would meet him at his house. When I arrived a few friends had gathered to wait for Alfredo and his mother’s remains. I comforted the younger kids and waited with them.

The old Toyota station wagon arrived with the casket and we carried it from the dirt street up the embankment to the house. The kids had cleared out one of the two rooms in front of the house and the morticians went to work. They did all of their work right there at the house. The neighbor ladies asked the kids to get their mother’s best dress and shoes. Someone scrambled to find shoe polish. After about an hour, the work was done and the room was open for visitors.

By midnight there were around 40 people sitting quietly in the yard. I slipped some money into Alfredo’s pocket and prayed with him, then left for home and my trip to Uruguay. I phoned my Bolivian Campus Crusade staff friends to give them the news and they assured me that they would be there to support Alfredo. The service was held on Tuesday and a dozen friends from the student group and dozens from their mother’s church were there.

Jeanie and I went to visit the kids yesterday. Alfredo and his sisters showed me albums of photos they had put together and were doing pretty well. His fourteen year old brother Noah hung around quietly in the background. Alfredo is committed to keeping the family together in the coming years. His sobs have given way to courage as the younger kids lean on him for strength. Please pray for Alfredo, because for him youth has come to a screeching halt. He is the man of the family now.

JESUS Film Movement: Brasil

Hi from Sao Paulo, Brasil. I am here with 20 leaders from all around South America thinking and dreaming together. They all work with the JESUS Film project to reach lost people in their countries.
As we move toward the future we remember fondly the picture of two men and a burro taking the projector, generator, and JESUS Film out to the villages. In some countries we still do exactly that!
In most of urban South America, we need to think through new, effective strategies to reach people using DVD's, new films, Internet, etc.
It is thrilling for me as the JESUS Film leader for South America to learn from the creativity and energy of these national leaders.
Please pray for our leaders in South America as they continue to seek new and relevant ways to reach lost people with the Good News of Jesus Christ,

Ron

Going to the Dogs

Hi from Bolivia,

A few months ago some friends of ours had an unplanned litter of puppies. The mother is a boxer and the father, well, maybe a poodle. So the puppies are Boxerdoodles. However, now that we have one of the puppies (not house trained yet) Jeanie says she is a Pooboxer. She is almost 4 months old, black with white trim and really gives 7 year old Lizzie a run for her money. We named her Sheba. The video gives you an idea of what life in the living room is like.

Great retreat weekend

Hi from Santa Cruz,

First off, we had a tremendous weekend with about 60 young people from our ministry together at a retreat just outside of town. We shared a lot of the CCC basic discipleship messages like: How to be sure you're a Christian and How to experience God's love and forgiveness. About 9:30 pm on Saturday, the heavens opened up and we had several hours of hard pounding rain. It was so loud that we had to give up on any kind of conference sessions. Like a lot of buildings here, the conference center has a tin roof. The GREAT news is that the rain washed away the smoke!

On the morning the conference was to begin, I was up early and went into the bathroom in our house and found THOUSANDS of mosquitos. We had some spray, so I gassed them and closed the door. The floor and counters were covered when we went back in. Who knows where they came from. That night Jeanie went home to take care of the dogs. The storm that brought the rain also burned out our computer monitor and the water pump. I guess the lightning got pretty close!

Speaking of discipleship, I found a great article by a missionary with International Teams, Woody Roland. He describes some the barriers to effective discipleship in Latin America. His points are right on target. If you have a few minutes, follow this link and read the article.

Barriers to Discipleship in Latin America

Blessings and thanks for your prayers,
Ron and Jeanie

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

FIRES IN BOLIVIA
"Hundreds, possibly thousands of fires (locations marked in red) were burning in South America when the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead on September 25, 2007, and captured this image.
The most intense fire activity was in Bolivia, where fires are concentrated in the Santa Cruz Department, in the southeastern part of the country."

That's the news from NASA. The news from our house is that the smoke is intense. Coming home from the office today the sun was completely blocked out and it was dark earlier than normal.
It's not too smoky in the house, but outside is bad. Bolivia has no real fire fighting capablity, and the president is preoccupied entertaining Iranian dictators. The only solution will probably come with the rainy season in a month or two.

Magdalena: Released from Shame

Last week I was in Cartagena, Colombia for the religious broadcasters convention for Latin America. I was there to premiere the new film we are working on called Magdalena: Released from Shame. The film presents the gospel story from the point of view of Mary Magdalene. The producers really wanted to reach women who are oppressed around the world. It really struck a chord with women here in South America.

We had a couple of goals, one was to distribute 1300 free DVD's of the film to participants, but more than that to encourage them to use the DVD to reach women for Christ and to start new small groups of women. In addition we showed the film on the big screen to an audience of several hundred.

I was anxious to get the reaction of the women who saw the film. Here is a brief video of some of their responses. Their excitement was plain to see:



I'll keep you posted as we distribute the film more widely throughout South America.

Ron

Bernadette Todd in Bolivia

Dear Friends,

Last weekend found us in separate countries, thousands of miles apart involved in very exciting ministry projects. While I (Ron) was in Cartagena, Colombia (I'll be writing about that separately), Jeanie was hosting some friends of ours from Miami, Bernadette and Jeff Todd.

Bernadette was here in the summer of 2006 and came again to share her story with students and families. She suffers from muscular dystrophy to such an extent that she has very little movement in her body. But, as she is fond of saying, she has her voice! And she uses her voice to tell people about God's goodness and his love.

Here is a video that our Campus Crusade team put together of her time in Bolivia last weekend:


Please pray for the folks that made commitments to Christ as they heard Bernadette's story. Pray as well for Bernadette and Jeff as they continue to minister together.

Ron

Spider, Stove and Birthday

Hi from Bolivia,

This month Andrew celebrated his 15th birthday with Mom and Dad and then later with some friends. He got a new guitar that he's already playing pretty well. It's hard to believe that Andrew is growing up so fast. We are really proud of him.

Behind him in the picture you can see the gas stove we bought when we moved to Bolivia in 2003. It works OK, but one of the things Jeanie missed from her range in Miami was the delay timed cooking feature. She used to put Sunday dinner in the oven to turn on while we were at church so that it would be ready when we came home. She has missed that a lot lately because we have a lot of young people at church that we like to invite home with us.


You can buy that kind of electric stove here, imported from the U.S., but they are very expensive, about double what they cost in the U.S. Well, God in his goodness brought some missionaries to town from Cochabamba who had just the stove that Jeanie had in mind. We bought it and brought it home this week. Not a big thing, but it will make life and entertaining more enjoyable for Jeanie. We donated our old stove to the Campus Crusade ministry center. Anyway, on the left is a photo of the new stove.



Last, here's a photo of some wildlife that Andrew found on the shower curtain this morning:

Settling back in

After an intense time of graduation, wedding, mission teams (6), and a lot of travel (Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Orlando), I think life is going to settle back down to normal for a few weeks.

The big change in our lives involves school. Andrew is back at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center beginning his freshman year at the high school. He is really enjoying it so far. The other big change is that Jeanie is now working as a teacher at the school. She has two classes, freshman English and first year Spanish. Because the high school is very small, she only has VERY small classes: one in the special English class and four students for Spanish. She says reviewing the basics in Spanish really helps her. I can tell you her accent is great!

This morning is the big kick off brunch for the women’s bible study that Jeanie helps to lead. They are expecting about 50 ladies this year. Thanks for praying!

National Community Church

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.

Blessings,

Ron

Ecuador and Peru

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.

Tomorrow it is back to Lima and on to Santa Cruz.

Ron

Thank you Grace Community Church!

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!

Ron, Jeanie and Andrew

Songs and JESUS Film

Hi from Montero, Bolivia!

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.

Thanks for praying for the team,

Ron