(a recent prayer letter received from Jeremy and Andi Eulberg, Bolivia)

Ministry Update

Thank you as always for praying for us and financially supporting us in our ministry. God has been so good to us, and we are so grateful for each and every one who reads our newsletters and prays for us and for the ministry!

We’ve had a busy couple of months. Much of which is just normal ministry activity, but also some different special events.

In May, we had a family focus in La Cruz where we preached the messages on the family, encouraging our people to focus on God in their marriages and in raising children. It was a good month with different special speakers, and ending with a weekend conference.

In our Hora Feliz ministry in Artesanal, we rented a building at the end of May and began meeting there on Sundays (adult service) and Fridays (teen meeting). We are still meeting at the local cancha for kids ministry because we are able to draw a bigger crowd there. The building has been a big blessing, especially as we are in winter here and it is cold at the times of our meetings. Additionally, it helps us to be able to have a place for special meetings. We were able to purchase some sound equipment for the building and we have a speaker inside for the meeting, plus one outside so people walking by can hear the music and preaching.

The first week of July, we hosted two events at the new building in Artesanal. We had a ladies meeting where we taught baking classes, and at the same time we also hosted a VBS led by our teens. We were able to rent the building next door for the VBS and hosted the ladies in our church. It was a small group of ladies every night, but those that came were ones we had been specifically praying for. The teens did a great job each night with the music, games, and crafts at the VBS, while Mario (our ministry partner in this ministry) taught the lesson each night.

Mission Trip

In early July, we joined with two other churches for a mission trip to the tiny village of Naurenda. This was born out of a desire to offer some kind of opportunity to our church to serve God in missions and fulfill the Great Commission outside of our small area. God opened the doors for this in a way that only He could do.

So the village of Naurenda is a community of Guarani Indians that is about a four hour drive from Tarija. In February they, along with several other communities in their area experienced a huge natural disaster when a flash flood came in the middle of the night and wiped out part of their village, as well as several others around. Many lives were lost and much material and livestock were lost in the event. The stories are heartbreaking.

Until this happened they had been very closed to anybody from the outside coming in. A church had tried in the past and community leaders asked them to leave. After the flood, the community leaders decided that God must be judging them for not allowing the church to come in. As it turns out (isn’t God good??!!) we have two ladies in our church in Tabladita who are from Naurenda and their families still live there. They speak Guarani and have a heart for their people to know Jesus. With their help, we reached out to the leaders and they asked us to come. In fact, they told us that they are the largest of 36 villages in the area and that what goes in Naurenda goes for all of the other villages as well. So God blew the door wide open for ministry in a new area.

We took a team of around 25 people from three different churches and spent four days in Naurenda and one of the nearby villages, Tomatirenda, which had been completely wiped out by the flood. We helped in leveling land for three widows who lost their homes in the flood. We hosted VBS for the kids. We held services at night for the adults. We passed out food, We did our best to love this group, including sharing the gospel with those who had been through so much.

What we found in speaking with many of them is that there was absolutely zero knowledge of the Bible. That was different for us because being a Catholic nation, we are normally ministering to people who have some understanding of God and the Bible. These people had none. Absolutely zero.

At this point we are praying and will be meeting with the pastors of the three churches involved to see what ongoing ministry there would look like. Having met the people and seeing the need, we can’t let it go and just say, “see you next year.” But the logistics of a ministry four hours away over very rough terrain are difficult as well. Please pray with us for this need, and that we could be faithful to what God has put in front of us.

Please Pray

• Please continue to pray with us for the various ministries here.
• Pray for the church in Los Chapacos, IBB La Cruz, that the existing members would be faithful in attendance and be growing in their faith and love for the Lord.
• Pray for our church, IBB Artesenal, that the teens would embrace the challenge we’ve given them to be leaders in the church and community. Pray for adults in this ministry. Pray for the discipleship ministry here that it would continue and grow.
• Please pray for the new ministry opportunity in Naurenda that God would give us wisdom and direction. That He would help us clearly and effectively share the gospel at every opportunity and that He would help us win souls for Him.