I’ve noticed that most of my blogs tend to be more about lessons that the Lord is teaching me than about the actual things that we do here on the World Race, so I wanted to take time to talk a little about how ministry looked this month.
We arrived in San Jose de Campamento early in the month after several days of traveling. We rolled up to a little yellow house late at night with our host Giover (Gio for short) and were shown our living quarters for the next week and a half. We quickly grew to love the family we lived with. A woman named Noemi moved to Bolivia as a missionary from Cuba years ago and married her husband Wilder there. They have two beautiful sons, Wilder and Denar.
Ministry with Noemi and Gio looked like walking around the little village and inviting everyone we saw to our church services happening almost every night. We got to meet so many new people, practice our Spanish, and spread the Gospel all at once! I found it amazing how everyone new each other in this tiny village. We would simply say, “We’re meeting for church at Juanito’s house at 7:30! We hope to see you there,” and everyone we talked to knew about Juanito and showed interest in coming. Not everyone we invited came, but so many did! We were in awe of the Lord as we watched several kids, teenagers, adults, and even the elderly in the community give their lives to Christ throughout the time we ministered there! We got the opportunity to pray for many people including a man named Julio with a severe skin disease. He became a believer shortly after he contracted this disease because he wanted to be healed. It was beautiful to see how the Lord had healed his soul, but also believe in faith for healing in his body as well.
Side note: This little church plant in the backwoods of Bolivia is exploding, and Juanito will soon become the lead pastor of the church there! Please pray for Juanito, his village, and the surrounding communities.
Every night Daniel would play the guitar and our team would sing a couple of worship songs. Then one of us would share our testimony and either Gio, Noemis, or Juanito would preach. It was such a beautiful thing to watch!
We said goodbye to our new friends in San Jose and made our way to San Ignacio to start the second leg of our Bolivian ministry. We lived with a family including a couple (Vladimir and Maritza), their parents (to be honest I’m not sure whose parents they were, but they were hilarious and some of the sweetest people I’ve ever men) who we just called Abuelo and Abuelita, and their two kids Serita and Israel.
We only spent a week at this ministry site, but we did a bunch in the name of Jesus! We preached sermons and lead worship. We led a “kids’ camp” which just consisted of games, songs, and a hilarious reenactment of the story of David and Goliath (shoutout to Katie for using her gifts for the Lord! Kids ministry isn’t for everyone, but she’s amazing at it).
One day we went into the middle of town and sang songs and let our ministry hosts preach to the people of San Ignacio. We handed out tracts and invited people to the church services. That night we had a special service to kick off their new youth program. I got the honor of preaching the very first message of their new youth group! I shared about the power of the blood of Jesus and the fullness of life that we have access to by Him, and two boys (ages 12 and 14) gave their lives to Christ! Honestly the whole World Race was worth it to me just to see those two boys cross from death to life right before our eyes!!
We visited homes and worshiped together as a team every day. We laughed about the mosquitoes and the pet pigs. We ate new foods and tried new drinks. Just so you know, chachi (aka: corn water) isn’t the tastiest drink but when it’s hot outside and it’s the only cold thing available we can stomach it. We played Phase 10 and blasted music while we cooked (thanks speaky). A young couple from the church took us around the area for our adventure day to see a plaster quarry that is now a really cool cave, to ride paddle boats in a piranha-infested (but really pretty) lake, and to hop on some seesaws and let out our inner child. We fervently prayed over a man with stage 4 cancer who has battled his disease for over 6 years. We sang songs of praise with this man and his wife as we all (including him and his wife) cried out to God for healing. We shed tears with them and prayed for nearly an hour at his bedside.
We struggled through physical hardships.
We loved the people around us fiercely.
We fought through the mundane to find joy in the Lord.
We prayed when we didn’t know what else to do.
We dug into the Word together to find answers to hard questions.
We challenged each other to grow.
And because of the love shown to us by our Father, we named ourselves Team Ahava.
Ahava is a Hebrew word for love. It’s the kind of love that sticks it out to the end. It’s the kind of love that says, “I’ve seen your crazy, and I choose to love you anyway.” It’s the kind of love that we fought for this month, and it’s the kind of love that Jesus shows to us.
Thank you Grace, Daniel, Katie, and India for who you are and for always pursuing Jesus. You inspire me to love bigger and to fight harder for the things I believe in. I ahava you guys. Here’s to another month of ministry!!
