Amazing ministry, Beautiful Bolivia

We had a great trip out to Comarapa, and, thankfully, our car had no troubles! That is really news after lots of breakdowns with our previous car - the Jeep Cherokee. We went out to Comarapa for our annual national Carnaval Conference for Campus Crusade. I spoke on the last day on the subject of Walking in the Spirit. The response was tremendous as more than half of the students made a commitment to a lifetime of service. Here are a few of the promised photos:

Carnaval in Monteblanco

Greetings from Comarapa/Monteblanco, Bolivia. We are about 150 miles from home celebrating the 4 day Carnaval weekend with 270 students and families involved with Campus Crusade from all over Bolivia. It has been a great time: Great worship, good messages and lots of fun!

I'll upload some pictures when we get back to Santa Cruz and "fast" internet.

Ah, Bolivia

Can I share a story without seeming critical of the country in which we reside? Chalk this up to the confused foreigner who tends to view procedures from my own US lens. As Jeanie says, "it's not wrong, it just different".

Anyhow, my driver's license (brevet) was issued in 2004 and was good for five years. Since there is no mail service here and the transit department doesn't warn you that your license is about to expire, it was good that I looked at it and happened to notice that mine expires on March 4, 2009.

Ok, so I went to "Transito" to renew it. Not so fast! First, I learned that you cannot renew it until it is expired, so March 5 would be the first day that I could renew. (Which raises the question, what if I'm stopped after it expires? I would be in trouble.) As long as I was there, I asked the requirements for the renewal. Here goes:

1. Police background check. You have to request this a couple days in advance. It is a whole procedure in itself.
2. An attorney must prepare an official request for a renewed license.
3. Medical and ocular certificate.
4. copies of ID card and present driver's license front and back.
5. the expired license itself.
6. 2 photos with blue background.

Except for point one and four, the items on the list can be accomplished at "transito", for a fee in each case. The background check form, for instance, costs $4US plus about a $1.50 tip for the guy who fills it out. I know that because I just applied for the background check to be able to comply with registration requirements as a board member of our church.

So these things seem like a lot of work to me, but to a Bolivian the procedures are just a part of life. To tell the truth, I'm not sure taking a number and waiting at the DMV in Florida is any easier. I remember driving our kids around South Florida trying to find the least busy DMV office.

Election Day - again

Ron and Jeanie Burgin
Campus Crusade for Christ, South America
http://burgin-bolivia.blogspot.com/

January 25, 2009

Dear Friend,
Greetings from Santa Cruz, Bolivia! Today we spent the whole day at home because it is Election Day here in Bolivia. The voters are deciding whether to approve a new constitution that will have lasting impact on the country. The early results show it being approved by a 60% to 40% margin, which was pretty much what was expected. As I write I can hear some fireworks in our neighborhood celebrating the new constitution. That's a photo of our president at a polling station.

Pastors and Christian school leaders are anxious as to the impact of the new constitution on their institutions. We all need to remember that God is still on His throne and at work in the hearts of Bolivians.

We were home all day because no driving is allowed. Election Day is a good day to rest and catch up. Around midday we lost electricity, which isn’t too unusual, so we waited a while for the power to come back. I usually assume it is a neighborhood outage and the electric coop must be aware of the problem. When we were still out of power after 45 minutes, I called the cooperative and they said the problem must be at our meter. We went out to check and the breaker was flipped off. I think we got carried away in our electrical consumption. We had one A/C unit going, the electric dryer, soup cooking on the electric range and the water pump running to wash the cars, plus miscellaneous computer, monitor, tv, etc. I guess we learned the limits of our electrical system. (Anyone remember the 1960’s sitcom, “Green Acres”? )

People are still very open to the Gospel. Friday while I was still in Colombia working with staff there, students in our university ministry went to the big state university here to share the Gospel with students waiting to register. Overall, 80 students heard the Gospel using the Four Spiritual Law booklet and 40 prayed to receive Jesus as Savior.

Last night at our weekly meeting, one of our students, Darling, told about his experience sharing Christ. He has taken some good-natured ribbing in the past because whenever we go on mission trips, he seems to end up sharing the gospel with whole groups of young ladies. Can’t figure that out J. Anyway, Friday he ended up talking with 15 guys and 8 of them prayed to receive Christ! He was excited. There were several new guys from the U at our meeting, including Maxim and Juan Gabriel. Please pray for these kids as God draws them to Himself.

This week we have a group of Campus Crusade leaders from around South America here in Santa Cruz to think together about how we can work effectively with pastors and denominations in planting new churches in every corner of the continent. Please pray that God would use our time together to build His Kingdom.

Thanks for your unceasing prayer and financial support of our ministry! We appreciate you now more than ever!

Your missionaries in Bolivia,
Ron, Jeanie and Andrew Burgin

Mataburros and other repairs

It is always a challenge to return to Bolivia after being away. It seems that things magically fall apart in our absence. Tires go flat, light bulbs burn out, dogs get tick infestations, etc. So... I always want to get back to the ministry, but the circumstances require me to do general "tech support" around the house.

On Monday Jeanie and Andrew came home complaining about a thumping sound in the little car. Turns out the mataburros (burro killer-sort of an additional superbumper) on the front of the car came loose and needed to be welded back in place on one side. We have a neighbor, Freddy, who is now doing body work in his yard, so I decided to ask him to take a look. (This is the same Freddy whose cow died in the field across from our house some time back. He has broadened his professional interests since then.)

Anyway, getting to and from his yard is an experience. You have to walk through the barnyard of vacant lots to get there: mean dogs, pigs, lambs, goats and lots of Freddy's relatives. They mostly speak Quechua, though Freddy and his father-in-law do Ok in Spanish as well. It has been fun to get to know them. Freddy has an arc welder and sent me on the way with a repaired mataburros in a couple of hours.

I am going to go back and offer them the Quechua version of the JESUS Film on DVD. Maybe we can watch it together. Pray that God will touch their hearts.

Home for the Holidays

Merry Christmas! We are in Orlando for the holiday sharing a couple of apartments at the Wycliffe Mobilization Center with all of our children. We are all together at Christmas for the first time in six years.

Andrew and Jeanie had fun last night decorating a real Christmas tree and we are all having fun playing with 11 month old Wesley, Sarah and Dustin's baby. Stephen and Rachael are expecting in April. We are expecting Patty and Luke in later this evening from North Carolina.

Blessings!

Ron and Jeanie

Our local police

I like to smile and wave at the folks in our neighborhood. Today I noticed a police car (whatever image that conjures up, think much smaller, much older, and with significant body damage), so I stopped and said hello from my driver side window to the officer at the wheel of the police car.

He was friendly enough, but then asked a couple of questions:
Where do you live? (around the corner)
What time do you leave for work? (around 7:30 or 8:00 am)
Then he told me, "We'll be stopping by to see you."

Now it was my turn for (unspoken) questions:
What are you up to?
What do you want from me?

From this scenario you might get a little scared about living in a police state. But that isn't what I suspect is going on.

At this time of year everyone in Bolivia gets/expects a Christmas bonus or gift basket. The police are probably expecting some kind of gift from us in return for their faithful service in the neighborhood. (Although the reason I stopped in the first place was that their presence was such a novelty.)

Anyway, we'll see what they want when they show up. They might just want $10 for gas.

Ron

Too Cute... How can we stand being so far away?

This is our daughter Sarah with Wesley, all bundled up for the Washington, D.C. late fall weather. Is he cute? We'll all be together for a week at Christmas in Orlando for the first time in six Christmases, but man, is it hard for Jeanie and me to be away from the kids.

How can we do it? Well, God gives us bonuses that carry us through. On Saturday night I was taking one of the guys home after our meeting. We had never had a private conversation before, so I asked him some probing questions about his relationship with God. He had some common, but mistaken ideas about his salvation depending on his living a good life. I shared with him the sad news that he could NEVER be good enough to please God. Then I told him the GREAT NEWS that he didn't have to be good enough. Jesus made all the payment necessary for his salvation on the cross. He prayed to receive Christ right there in my Pathfinder by the side of the road. We're meeting later this week to explore some more about the "excellencies" of Jesus (I Peter 2).

Oh. Something funny. I was so excited to get back together with him that I set up our appointment for Thursday at 2 p.m., forgetting that we are going to celebrate American Thanksgiving with some friends on Thursday at 2 p.m. Jeanie would not be amused. I changed the appointment.

Ron

Quito, Ecuador Directors Conference

This week I have been in Quito, Ecuador for our annual directors conference for South America. It was a great time of vision and planning. One of our big challenges is a transition of leadership over the coming year as our continental director of the last 20 years steps into a new role as "Elder Statesman" in a ministry to high level government and business leaders throughout the continent.

Here are some photos I took this week. I'm the guy behind the camera, so you won't see me. But I was there :)

Photoshop. Oh no.

Every year at this time we send a real snail mail letter to our friends and supporters in the U.S. This year I decided to include a new prayer card - really just a photo with some writing on it. It is something missionaries do. Hopefully it will make it to some refrigerators and people will be reminded to pray for the ministry.

The mountain is an hour or so from our house. I love the colors on the sheer cliffs. The mountain is real. The people and the sky have been photoshopped. (Jeanie just commented that the people, although photoshopped, ARE real).

Little did I realize

Two years ago I started a men's group for university students. It grew. The guys wanted to include girls. The group grew even more :) And the men in the initial group kept growing spiritually.

Our vision was to build the group around the Win Build Send basics of Campus Crusade for Christ, but with a special emphasis on using the JESUS Film to help pastors plant local churches. We are really seeing the fruit! This past weekend we sent 24 students and staff to Cochabamba to partner with pastors from the UBB Baptist denomination to help reach their neighborhoods with the Gospel.

This coming weekend we are sending film teams of students to Yacuiba in the South of Bolivia to work with a Free Brethren pastor to plant new groups. Also this weekend, Ever Castro, one of my key men is leading another group of 50 young people from his church to Sucre, taking a JESUS Film equipment set with them.

The joy of seeing these guys and girls go out, at their own expense, to share the Good News is tremendous! Thanks for praying and giving to make this possible!

Ron

Training in Brasil

After months of planning and preparation in Brasil, we have launched a pilot project partnering the JESUS Film and the Faith Comes by Hearing audio New Testament. The project is called the End to End Partnership. This week we have been training national church planters to use these effective tools to reach people with the good news of Jesus and disciple them in small groups, embryonic churches, using the audio bible - the Proclaimer device.

Our first of three trainings took place in Northeast Brasil, in a region called the Sertao. It is a starkly beautiful region as you can see from this photograph. The people of the region are among the poorest of Brasil and among the least reached with the Gospel.


My role was to explain the vision of the project and the role of the national church planters in testing the concept over the next 10 months. If the initial test with 200 proclaimers is successful, i.e. if the church planters have a higher percentage of people who remain in the new churches as a result of the new discipleship training, the plan will be to expand the program dramatically.

Here a couple of our trainees learn how to use the proclaimer.

In the two day training, the partner church planters learned how to use the JESUS Film effectively to reach people with the Gospel, how to use the Proclaimer in follow up sessions to listen through the New Testament, how to effectively lead a small group and ask good questions, and how to monitor and report the results of their efforts. We all left the trainings encouraged and very hopeful.

Please join us in praying that God will do a great work in Brasil in the End to End Partnership.

We have decided not to participate in the crisis

"There cannot be a crisis today, my schedule is already full." Henry Kissinger

The governors and the president of Bolivia continue in crisis negotiations to avert a political meltdown in the country. But meanwhile, life is pretty normal.

Yesterday our 14 student leaders gathered for the regular lunch meeting, and we are planning our upcoming mission trips.

I am leaving for Brasil on Saturday to attend a couple of training sessions for pastors. We are implementing a new strategy using the JESUS Film for proclamation, and Faith Comes by Hearing audio versions of the New Testament for follow-up with the goal of planting new baby churches. The big difference with this new END TO END Partnership is to see whether we can successfully equip national church planters to use the tools we have developed. The tools have worked well for our Campus Crusade staff, the time has come to multiply their impact. Brasil, along with India and Nigeria have been selected for the initial test.

By the way, while we are not fighting roadblocks this week in Santa Cruz, I am fighting a chest cold. I broke down today and went to the neighborhood doctor. He did the usual BP, temperature (had to remind him on that one), physical exam and the stethoscope part. After we finished he determined I needed a dose of penecillin, just in case. I got about 8 cc's in the posterior. He said I'd be fine to go to Brasil. Total office visit and prescriptions: Bs. 66 (a little less than $9). Uh-oh! I forgot to get a receipt to turn it in to my U.S. insurance carrier, Blue Cross - just kidding.

Good summary in the Economist.com

Hi from Bolivia,

School was cancelled again today, although Jeanie went in to get some grading done. I ran across an article in the Economist.com that gave a great summary of the situation here. I would recommend it to you.

Blessings,
Ron

Follow this link to the story.

Back in Bolivia!

All American Airlines flights to Bolivia have been cancelled for the last week. I found myself stuck in Orlando with the earliest possible reservation for Sunday September 21, but that flight itself was subject to cancellation.


The alternative I found was to travel from Orlando-Miami-Sao Paulo, Brazil on American and then from Sao Paulo to Santa Cruz, Bolivia via AeroSur, a Bolivian airline. It took 24 hours, but I'm home.

Jeanie and Andrew are fine, and the school is operating, but there is a lot of nervousness in the country. Last night the opposition governors signed an agreement to dialog with the national government and its president, Evo Morales. The agreement brings at least the possibility of a truce. Please pray that God will bring a just peace to this country.

Stranded in Florida

Hi from Gainesville, Florida.

I am stranded here with all American Airlines flights to Bolivia cancelled. Jeanie and Andrew are in Santa Cruz with plenty of food and gasoline. The political unrest is nowhere near our house, but with things heating up, I need to be there. Please pray that a flight would open up soon for me to go home.

Ron

Here is an article from google that is a pretty good summary:

Tense, fearful feeling grips Bolivia's economic heartland
14 Sep, 2008, 0741 hrs IST, AGENCIES
SANTA CRUZ-BOLIVIA: Santa Cruz, Bolivia's most
economically vital state, was in the grip of fear and suffering fuel
shortages over the weekend as a conflict pitting it and other rebel
regions against the leftwing government deepened.

Hundreds of cars lined up in front of service stations around the
city of Santa Cruz - capital of the state of the same name - waiting
for limited deliveries of gasoline and diesel. Drivers slept for hours
in their vehicles to receive a ration of 10 liters (2.5 gallons).

Families also lined up to fill compressed gas cylinders needed for
cooking. Around the state, trucks transporting food and goods
were held up at roadblocks manned by anti-government
protesters. The unrest was also affecting Santa Cruz's airport.
Passengers arriving on the few flights still going to Bolivia during
the crisis found a blockade at the road entrance to the facility
prevented taxis from getting through.

Cellular and land telephone lines were patchy at best, with the
biggest operator, state-run Entel, badly affected by the ransacking
of its offices in the city. But with most residents of the state
backing conservative governor Ruben Costas in his struggle with
President Evo Morales, there was little overt violence.

There was, however, fear. Eugenio Ondo, a street vendor in an
indigenous district that was one of the few enclaves dominated by
pro-Morales sentiment, said the normally busy market where he
was working was "empty, no activity." "There are provocations
every day, every night," he said, as he sold a cup of caramel and
cream to a customer.

Nearby, another vendor, Jose Luis Garcia, explained that the
outlying neighborhood was being harrassed in the evenings by a
rightwing group called the Youth Union which has ties to the
governor and other opposition figures. "People are afraid that the
Youth Union will come here from the town to burn everything," he
said.

In several places around Santa Cruz, mainly Entel and
government offices, the scars of rampages that have shaken the
city this week were evident. The glass exterior of an Entel building
with transmission equipment was pocked with jagged holes where
anti-government militants had thrown rocks.

A street away, offices for "agricultural reform" were closed with
burnt furniture stacked outside and the place sealed with yellow
tape declaring entry to be prohibited. Someone had scrawled
"Evo Murderer" on a wall. Government vehicles belonging to the
office were nearby, all their windows smashed and their panels
badly dented.

The center of Santa Cruz was calm, with people reading and
sitting on benches in the main square. But around them, usually
busy shops were empty, with a few shuttered. A Christian concert
exhorting peace was the principal animation in the city on
Saturday.

A few hundred people, some clutching Bibles or flags, marched
up to the stage to hear the band appeal for an end to the violence
between tropical tunes dedicated to Jesus Christ.

Random funny event

This morning I have been working away in my office in downtown Santa Cruz. My office is on the second floor overlooking the street. They are remodeling the house across the street and the guys like their music loud. There are lots of styles of music in Bolivia. I confess it can get annoying.

Two minutes ago I looked up suddenly as I heard the strains of John Denver singing "Sunshine on my Shoulders". I laughed out loud. My irritation went away!

The sound and the fury

Bolivians like their music and their celebrations LOUD. There is a whole cottage industry here with home delivery of rental amps and huge speakers. Families host parties for quinceaneras (15 year old coming out parties), birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and weddings.

Tonight the sound is intense inside our house as some neighbors a block away celebrate a wedding. Now, in the U.S., we would be righteously indignant, maybe call the police, or at least the president of the homeowner's association. Not here. This is how you celebrate. I took the dog out for a walk and the hosts of the party invited me in for a drink and some dancing. I passed, but congratulated them on the wedding.

The sound thing cuts both ways. Every Saturday evening we have our campus ministry meeting in a neighborhood in town and we have pretty loud music with drums, keyboard and electric guitar on the back patio, with preaching and loud singing, 60 voices strong. No one has ever complained. Can you imagine the response to our group in a U.S. neighborhood. Every Saturday evening?

Have a great evening!
Ron

P.S.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. Macbeth, act 5, scene 5

Death of his Saints

Psa 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

The last several weeks have seen the homegoing of two precious brothers in the Lord.

Our good friend Earl Gosvenor lived a rich, full life. Together with his wife Joan, they have been a constant encouragement to this missionary and countless others. In their 70's they came to Bolivia as part of a mission team, and the children flocked to Earl's side. He was a precious man.

We saw Earl and Joan just a few days before his death and had a chance to pray with them. Death is not easy and we could see that he was weary and sorry to be leaving his loved ones. At the same time his confidence was sure. Please pray for Joan as she adjusts to her new life.

_______________________

At the end of July, a faithful missionary with the JESUS Film project in Brasil lost his life. Here is his story:

Valdi Daniel lived in Brasilia - Federal District and worked for Campus Crusade in Brazil for ten years, specifically in Jesus Film Movement, On July, 29th he was returning from a evangelistic project in Minas Gerais state, when a bus which was trying to avoid a hole on the road, hit his car in a frontal crash. He passed away immediately, leaving his wife, Luiza Daniel and his sons Tiago Daniel and Jeferson Daniel.

Valdi was a pioneer of Campus Crusade Movement in the Brazilian Northern Region, specially Pará state. He was a man that did not fear obstacles or new frontiers to spread the Gospel. He traveled a lot, always with this purpose in his heart. He called himself an "Jesus' Office Boy" [Office Boy is generally the first job a boy gets in Brazil doing all kind of things in a company, usually things no one else desires to do]. He loved personal evangelism and never lost opportunities to share about Christ. He trained thousands of Christians teaching them how to multiply, performing the same task as his.

For sure, a huge void now exists in Brazil, considering one of our warriors has left this world. Our comfort is to know that he is with the Lord, and our task is to depend on God and in his consolation.

Technology catches up with the Vision

Ron and Jeanie Burgin
Campus Crusade for Christ, South America
http://burgin-bolivia.blogspot.com/

August 5, 2008

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Santa Cruz. We are home again after our time in the U.S. and it feels good. The house was well cared for and the dogs were healthy - covered with ticks - but healthy. School starts for Jeanie and Andrew on Monday.

Today is a big day for us: Jeanie and I are celbrating our 30th wedding anniversary. What a joy it is to see all that God has done in our lives. We are planning a special getaway to celebrate.

We are back up to speed in the ministry, working with students and the JESUS Film project. Bolivia is part of Andean South America where there are many indigenous languages. The JESUS Film has been produced for dozens of different people groups and languages. Sadly, our distribution efforts over the years have not been 100% effective in getting out to those people groups.

With the advent of multi-language DVD's, direct student volunteers and an installed base of DVD players in even the most remote villages, God is beginning to do a great work.

Over the past 4 months we have produced multi-language DVD's for Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and Bolivia. The Bolivia version, for example includes 8 languages. The response to the DVD has been overwhelming. Our Campus Crusade staff have never before had masters for these languages available for duplication in their countries.

Here in Bolivia, we have a group of university students who are part of our JESUS Film movement. Some are only one generation removed from indigenous communities. I took the Bolivian DVD to my Monday Bible study with university men and challenged them with Paul's words from Romans 15:20-21 to take the Gospel of JESUS where Christ has not already been named, to make it their "holy ambition" to be a part of movements everywhere.

As the men, including Dennis pictured here with his little brother and sister, gathered around the portable DVD player, I watched their faces light up as they saw the story of JESUS play out in Quechua with Spanish subtitles. Dennis said, "I have to take this to my grandparents". Tomas, another student is from an indigenous Quechua community east of Santa Cruz and wants a copy. Cesar was fascinated: his mother is Quechua and his father is Aymara. Both languages are on the DVD. Cesar took my copy of the DVD with him to show his family. What a difference it will make to hear and see JESUS in their heart languages!

For many years we have looked for ways to take the JESUS film to the people groups. It seems that our technology has finally caught up with our vision! God has given us

• missionary university students with a vision for planting groups,


• a transferable technology: the DVD player,


• and an inexpensive ($3) multi-lingual DVD with a clear message of hope.

For years we have been looking for missionaries to go to the indigenous groups. It turns out the "missionaries" were in universities all around us!

Please pray that God will raise up hundreds of missionary university students who will be willing to step back into their culture of origin and plant seeds of hope and movements everywhere.

Thanks so much for your partnership with us! It was great to see so many of you while we were home on our brief furlough. We appreciate your continued prayer very much.

Your missionaries,
Ron, Jeanie and Andrew Burgin