Bolivia Summary / Boy Scout Trip

Thanks for praying for our Bolivia trip last week. In spite of all the travel complications (the rest of the team got home about 24 hours late after spending a night in the Santa Cruz airport), God blessed us richly—

· 5 new churches planted
· 91 local believers worked with us and saw first hand a simple, effective church planting model
· 675 professions of faith
· 690 follow-up discipleship contacts (102%)
· Approximately 200 received eye glasses as a result of Philip’s Eagle Scout project, and most of the said “Si” to Jesus when our team shared the Gospel with them after they had received their glasses

You prayed us through a “ends of the earth” ministry. Now we need your prayers for our “Jerusalem” ministry.

Philip and I are involved in a Boy Scout troop. In fact, Philip now is the Senior Patrol Leader (sorta like the president of the Troop). Philip and Trevor (who went on the Bolivia trip with us) and the rest of the Troop left Saturday morning, about 14 hours after we got home. Both are a bit under the weather from the exhaustion of the Bolivia trip. I am flying to Albuquerque this morning to meet them.

This is a high adventure trip through New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma. They visited Carlsbad Caverns, and we’ll be fly fishing, rock climbing, white water rafting, canoeing, etc. on this trip.

Please pray for us—

· Healing for Philip and Trevor in the midst of this challenging, but fun, trip
· Safety
· For us to be lighthouses of God’s grace and love
· For open doors for us to share the love of Christ

Here’s a short online slide show of their launch last Saturday, plus where they’re headed.

Troop 751 High Adventure Tour

Thanks for praying.

Mike Jorgensen

All of Tokyo Comes to Christ

Yesterday Kyle went to a new village named Tokyo. After the first house, a terrible sand storm blew in—so bad they couldn’t see the next house.

“Do you want to leave?” Kyle asked the translator. “No,” she replied, “they haven’t heard here yet.” So they ducked behind a wall to break the wind and prayed the storm would stop. It did, less than a minute later.

After a few more homes, they could see a thunderstorm coming across the mountain ridge. They prayed again and continued. Later they could see a horseshoe of rain surrounding them, but none in the village.

They met Javier (in picture next to Kyle), who told them to go see the mayor of the village, a necessary protocol here. As they shared the Gospel with him, he interrupted and said “my whole village needs to hear this. Can you come back tomorrow? I’ll ring the bell . . . everyone will come.” They agreed and headed back to their team’s evening meeting in another village.

As they arrived in the main village the next day, a man on a bicycle was waiting. “The village is waiting for you.” Kyle was surprised because it was hours before the scheduled meeting, but he and some of the team hurried on.

As he entered Tokyo, they rang the bell to call the village to meeting (click on picture below to see an example). 40 to 60 assembled at this traditional call to come together. Kyle began sharing, but midway through the presentation his translator stopped translating and started passionately preaching about the pain, sacrifice and love of Christ for them. Kyle was stunned, but not by her taking over. He sat speechless as he understood every word she was saying in Spanish, which he could not do before or after those sweet few minutes in the presence of God!

Quechua Call to Meet

When they asked who would like to receive Christ as their Savior, the entire village assembled on that mountainside raised their hand and prayed to receive Christ!

As Kyle tearfully shared this with our group, he told us “I came out of obedience to a call for my daughter and me to come, but I never expected to be blessed like this.”

God is answering Your prayers powerfully! Please keep praying!

Seeing the Light / Eye Clinic

Our son, Philip, collected and processed donated eye glasses for Bolivia. Today we were blessed by distributing many to the residents of Villa Alegria, a Quechua village overlooking the airport of Sucre.

Click below to see a short slide show of the happy recipients in the midst of other pictures of our trip here.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wow in Sucre

Wow! God answered your prayers powerfully over the past 24 hours.

Many Quechua have made professions of faith. Yesterday LS, Lindsay, Leah, Kyle, and Matt did some relationship building on the soccer field. As they started to play, some young ladies asked if our group wanted to play them. Well, let’s say that the little Quechua ladies in skirts beat the pants off the e3 team! But many responded to the Gospel after the game, and 35+ came to the evening meeting, where another 10 professed faith in Christ.

Leanne´s grandmother has stabilized and may be improving. Thanks for praying for her and their family.

See some more praises in the posts below.

Prepared People

Many people trusted Christ in the Judicial District. Yesterday Enzo and I went to find the team working there. We looked and looked and looked, but we couldn´t find the team, so we decided to go to another area. Before we could catch a taxi, a lady hurried up to us. "Are you the people wanting to rent the apartment?"

"No, but we'd love to talk to you about why we're here."

Nora was the first of many to pray to receive Christ in that upper class neighborhood! God prepared her heart before we arrived. We thank the Lord we couldn't find a taxi quickly! And as she prayed to receive Christ, we saw the team rounding the corner on the street down the hill.

3 Generations in Sucre

Today I went to visit the area in which James, Mike H, Amanda and Glenda. 15 year old Amanda has a spiritual grandchild here! This morning she trained (first picture) 13 year old William and several other kids to share the Gospel. Then William went out and shared Christ with 13 year old Victor, who received Christ (second picture). Amanda to William to Victor--3 generations!

Team Sucre NEEDS Your Prayers

Team Sucre has had more than the normal challenges. Big delay getting here because of weather in Miami. Several churches did not show up that had committed to work with us. Our local coordinator is out of commission because of surgery. Translators from Sucre did not show up (so we especially praise the Lord for the ones who came from Santa Cruz to help us!). The grandmother of Leanne (one of our e3 leaders) had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.

In other words, there are many, many opportunities for God to display His glory here as He answers prayer! So please pray for us!

Below are pix of the pastors and translators working with our team! We are working in 5 areas with 4 mother churches.

Jason, Joyce, Tracy, Sarah, Abi, Troy and Elaine met a 12 year old girl yesterday when they visited their area to prayer walk. She asked “are you the ones who sent the boxes?” God already had prepared her through the Samaritan Purse Christmas boxes! Pray that God will direct all our teams to the people He already has prepared to believe in the Good News.

Sucre is the home of the Bolivia Supreme Court. Also, the commission writing the new constitution meets here. Sam, Leanne, Philip, Trevor, Hal and Woodlyn have a unique opportunity. They are working in the “Judicial District” where many lawyers and judges live. It is one of the highest class areas any teams of mine have ever worked. It will be difficult getting to the key leaders that live in the magnificent homes in that area. Pray for God to open doors to the hearts and minds of this strategic group of people.

The team of Joe, Taylor, Chandler, and Mike R were prayer walking last night in their area. They stopped to talk to a Quechua lady. She invited them to come back today to speak to about 15 ladies who are attending a cooking class. Pray for God to introduce us to many “persons of peace” through whom we can reach groups of people.

James, Mike H, Amanda and Glenda are working in an area that overlooks the huge soccer stadium here. Pray that God will so change lives here that people will be more passionate and enthusiastic about the Lord than they are about the national focus of soccer.

The Tickets

I get a lump in my throat every time I look at a new short video our son Philip and his buddy Nathan made. Click here to take a look at it.