What would Jesus ask me?

Wow - Back home in Santa Cruz after a week or so in Gainesville, Florida. We were awaiting the birth of our second grandchild: Leah Rose born to Stephen and Rachael. She is beautiful!

Jeanie stayed the extra day to see the long awaited Leah Rose (nearly a week overdue), but I came back on schedule to be with our son, Andrew and get to work. Two hours after getting through customs I was leading a Bible study for 24 university students, both men and women.

We eat pizza and divide into small groups to learn more about Jesus. We'll do the same with a different group of students today. This week we studied the story in Luke 10 of the man who asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus' reply includes the story of the Good Samaritan.

I was struck by how Jesus answered his question with a question based on all the teaching God had already provided the man: "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"

How often do we cry out to God with a question or doubt (or even a challenge) demanding an answer? I wonder if we shouldn't be still and listen to Jesus' question in reply:

"Child, do you remember my faithfulness last year?"
"What did I show you yesterday in the Psalms?"
"Son, do you already know the right thing, the thing that honors Me?"

I am going to be listening more for His question.

Ron

On Baby Watch in Gainesville

This week Jeanie and I are in Gainesville with our son and daughter-in-law, Stephen and Rachael, awaiting the birth of their first child. We had a beautiful Resurrection Day service at their church and then dinner at the home of friends. Here is a picture of Stephen and Rachael just a few steps down the patio of their friends house.

Jeanie shows Magdalena

This past week we had a group of 34 from LSU with us in Santa Cruz. We did campus ministry, door to door evangelism, and high school outreaches.
On Tuesday evening, Jeanie had planned an outreach for Bolivian women at our church. This is Holy Week and people are more aware than normal of the reality of Jesus' death on the Cross. The women showed the new film from the JESUS Project called Magdalena: Released from Shame. More than 120 women came to the event and the girls from LSU helped with comment cards and conversation after the showing. It was a great success and many of the Christian ladies were moved to purchase the DVD to show in their own homes and churches.

Overall the team from LSU, together with our staff and students presented the Gospel to more than 1500 people with more than 600 praying to trust Christ as their Savior!

One of the last of a generation

I am in Curitiba, Brasil for a Call2All conference. The conference challenges Christians, churches and organizations to adopt one of the last unreached and unengaged people groups. The worship has been amazing, once you get used to the Brazilian style.

Last night Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM, spoke. His message of vision and commitment to a cause really struck home with me. He is one of the last of a generation of leaders who founded organizations and movements in the post-war era, including Bill Bright. I have the impression that my generation has largely kept the light burning after these fellows have cast the vision. The current and coming generations will have to do much more to trust God for revival. We need new ideas, new structures, maybe a break with the past. I am excited to see it coming.

A Wedding in our Leadership Team

This weekend Paola and Christian were married. Paola is a Bolivian staff member and Christian is an associate staff member from Switzerland. They have been dating for a year or so. For Christian it was love at first site. It took a little longer for Paola. :)

Here are a couple of pictures, first of the bride and groom, then of the parents meeting for the first time.

You know what's exciting?

I'll tell you what's exciting: Having student leaders who are growing and taking charge. I have been leading two men's groups on Monday and Tuesday every week for a year and a half. This week my two disciples, Dennis and Darling, will start taking over. I'll still be there for a while, but they're ready! Each group has 8-10 men. I'm thinking that after that, I'll start over with a new group.

I'll tell you what's NOT exciting: Jeanie just sent me a note saying that we're going to be confined to the house on Saturday, by government edict. We are in the midst of an epidemic of Dengue Fever, about 40,000 cases so far. It is a mosquito borne illness that can be very severe, even fatal (about 40 deaths so far). We are using lots of insect repellent - graciously left behind by our Christ Fellowship team from Miami last summer. The enforced closure of the city is for the purpose of cleaning up around our houses: eliminating trash and standing water that can be a breeding ground for mosquitos.

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

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