Youth Blessings - (Part II)

This time I want to share with you two more examples of young people that have decided to accept God´s calling to serve Him. I am thrilled to perceive how they are growing and the way in which the have changed and decided now to take a step of faith and follow Him.

David Fernandez – From “Emanuel” Church

David is a young guy who is at his third year of Agronomy at university. However, since last year he has felt God is calling him to full time ministry. After going to CIMA he felt God confirmed him to get prepare for ministry, therefore, he decided to study theology and stop his studies of Agronomy. However, since we will be able to reopen the University studies of Theology with the Evangelical University, he will be studying there at nights (one subject for five weeks) and, at the same time he will continue his Agronomy career. He is a quality young guy with a lot of potential, he is very influential among hi peers and he is a resonsible person.

• Praise God for David and the process He has been working in his life. I am so glad to see him decided to serve God and to be willing to get prepare for it.

• Pray for him, he has a lot to learn on being an example and leader. Pray for his studies both Theology and Agronomy and for his time management.

• Pray for his family, his mom is a wonderful Christian lady who fully supports him and is very happy for his decision. Pray for his finances as he tries to study and pay the bills at the same time.

Danyig Zurita – From “Jesucristo Vive” Church

Danyig is a young woman who has finished her career in Administration and even though she had some good job opportunities she has felt God was leading her into serving Him and trusting Him. She knows she cannot study theology in Bolivia because she cares too much about financially support her family. She works too many hours and handles a lot of family responsibilities. The Grace church in Uruguay invited her to do a one year practical ministry serving at church and studying theology at a Seminar in Montevideo. It was a very hard decision for her to make, but I am very glad she finally trusted God and decided to dedicate this year to the Lord and see what He has in store for her. In March she arrived in Montevideo and she is already studying theology with Alex and Deltha at the seminar. What a wonderful blessing is to see these young fellows taking steps of confidence in God despite what the world can offer them.


• Thank God for Danyig and her decision to serve God and trust Him despite what the world could offer her. There are many in her family and relatives that do not understand what she did, but I am so excited because I know God has great things in store for her.

• Pray for Danyig Pray she will be fine and God will provide everything she needs to be there. Financially, she has saved money to live in Uruguay for some months, her church is supporting her and us as missionaries too, however, she took a huge step of faith since she is not going to work there and she doesn´t know exactly how God is going to work it out for her to be in Uruguay for a year studying theology. It is a period of trying for her.

Four Years in Bolivia!

Well, the time has gone by so fast I cannot even believe it! I am done with my four-year time in Santa Cruz and I am getting ready to get back to the United States for furlough. However, I won´t get to the States until June or July, 2010. I will have to wrap things up in Santa Cruz and it will be hard to say goodbye to all the people here.

2009 – Activities/Ministries

After a busy year I am happy to complete the many ministries in which I was involved.

High School Ministries

Last year I was involved with the Henry Prince High School in the counseling area; this was an interesting ministry, although it was complicated getting it done the way I wanted to, because I didn´t really know the students. However, it was great to help out the School staff and to counsel some students, many of them with very complicated problems in their lives.
I also taught at San Simon High School for two semesters, but I ended up quitting before the end of the year to concentrate on CIMA (I explain what it is below).

• Praise God for the great opportunity of being part of many students´ lives.

• Pray for the school, that it can continue to be a light in the Bolivian community, bringing hope, wisdom and good counsel to the students there. It is desperately needed!

Youth Ministries

What a year I had leading the two youth groups! I heard many times that it was hard to lead a youth group. Well, imagine how frustrating it could be “trying” to lead two! I had some help from both youth groups, but it is difficult to get the group where you want it. Imagine, I could only be at each youth group meeting every other week (they meet every Saturday night). The highlight of the year was the many discipleship courses that we finished. I have had around 30 youths from both churches taking the courses, and many of them took more than one course.

• Praise God for His faithfulness in letting me finish another year full of challenges but with lots of blessings and excitement.

• Pray for the youth groups, since they do not have any idea where they will find a leader to take over when I leave.

Youth Blessings – Our Present and Future

I want to mention four people who have helped greatly in my ministry in whom I have deposited a lot of hopes that they will continue to grow and turn out to be great leaders. They already are good young leaders, but I know their potential is much greater, and I pray that they will become the instruments God uses to bring about a revolution in our mission.

Darwing Rivero and Nieves Pinto “Lulu” – From “Jesucristo Vive” Church

These two are so in love that I do not remember seeing one without the other one. They have dated for several years and now they are committed to get married. In fact, this will happen in 2010, God willing. They are excellent leaders with much potential. Darwing is the worship leader, he sings well, he is already a deacon and a youth leader in his church. “Lulu” has grown a lot in the past years especially considering she has been a Christian for just 5 years. She is now a deacon at the church, a youth leader, and the Secretary at the National Committee of our Mission in Bolivia.

• Praise God for these two wonderful lives, for their commitment to serve Him and for their love.

• Pray concerning their future marriage.

• Pray for their lives as examples already and pray for their growth in developing their potential and becoming influential leaders in our mission.


Miguel Mendez – From “Emanuel” Church

Miguel is very smart young guy. He is just 22 and is already a doctor! In 2009 he had a very complicated year, since he was doing his internship, which required him to be totally concentrated in it. I have missed him a lot in our youth group! As a spiritual leader he has already been at the National Committee of the MEB and he is a leader in the church (has already been the vice-president) and youth group. After going to Uruguay to participate in Teenstreet a couple of years ago, he got in contact with some Christian doctors there who are part of an international Christian Association of Doctors. Later, he was part of the Association in Bolivia. I am excited for him, since he is already the first president of this Association in Bolivia which is already growing in number and recognition. They are already doing a lot of ministry, helping in schools, teaching on health issues, including sex, from God´s point o view.

• Praise God for Miguel´s life. What an example of a man fully committed to Him and ready to use his gifts and knowledge to help others.

• Pray that Miguel will continue to develop his qualities as a leader. I strongly believe that God has some wonderful things for Him as he develops spiritually.

Lilibeth Ortega - From “Emanuel” Church

Lilibeth is the daughter of Santos Ortega (pastor of Emanuel Church). In 2006 she went to Uruguay to be involved in Teenstreet and there she heard of the OM ships called “Doulos” and “Logos Hope” which are missionary ships that travel all over the world sharing God´s love for people. She was so challenged by this that she decided that this could be her future ministry. She felt this was an impossible dream, but she trusted God could make it real. Therefore, she contacted the OM people to see what she could do to make this dream come true (remember Bolivia is isolated from the sea, and there are no Bolivians on the ships!). In 2009 she came to a decision to look for support to go to Ecuador to do the training necessary. I am pleased to see that her dream is about to come true! She went to Ecuador, did the training, and will probably be on board the ship (not sure yet which one) by September 2010. She plans to make a two-year commitment. However, she needs to work hard to start raising funds to do this.

• Thank God for her life, for her pursuit of a dream, and for trusting God even when everything seemed impossible. It is exciting to see what God is doing in her life, and the example she is setting for others.

• Pray for her, the funds she needs, her visits to churches, the last months with her family, and for her spiritual life.

CIMA 2010

The greatest highlight of the second semester of 2009 is that there will be around 30 young people from our different churches both in Santa Cruz (about 4 churches) and Cochabamba who will go to this missionary conference in Cordoba, Argentina, which is the South America version of “Urbana” in the States. There will be over 2000 youth from many different countries of South America. The conference will take place from the 16th to the 22nd of January. I am looking forward to seeing God work in the lives of these young people. In addition, there will be a two week practical opportunity for those with time and money to help in missionary activities. Around 10 of our young people will proceed to 6 different countries of South America at the same time (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia). If you want to know more about CIMA visit their website at www.cima2010.com.

• Thank God for CIMA! Thank Him for raising leaders who organize and put together such a big event. Thank God for the many people who anonymously support the event. I am part of it as a volunteer leader, and I cannot believe the huge amount of work and effort that is put into organizing it.

• Pray for the youth who will be challenged to change not just their lives but their perspective. Pray that they will trust God and decide to walk according to His will. Pray they will be part of a revolution bringing change to the Latin American societies. God can use CIMA to make big things happen. I strongly believe that!

High School Ministry

This year I have started helping at the Henry Prince High School which is a school run by our mission. I am a counselor having an opportunity to impact some youth especially those with problems in their studies and families. I am enjoying this ministry even though I am getting used to it because I did not know any students at the beginning of the year.
Since I knew I was going to work at Henry Prince I turned down my other ministry as a Christian Education teacher at the other school, named San Simon. However, the principal asked me a number of times to reconsider my decision and to make myself some room to help out with at least some classes. I decided, then, to help teaching just five classes and again this is something I really enjoy but it takes time from me because it is far away.

• Pray for the number of students I have the chance to be in contact with, many of them have serious family problems. There are so many that live without their parents because they left to Spain or somewhere else overseas.
• Pray that I can be of any help to them. That I can offer positive and especially godly advices to them. That they can see a good example and someone they can trust and be open with.
• Pray for my time managment, days go by really fast and many times I find myself with little time to prepare my classes. Pray that I do not perceive this classes as a burden or just a job commitment but as an amazing opportunity to influence these students to turn their lives to God.

Youth Gropus - Discipleship Courses

I am still leading, or trying to lead, both youth groups (Jesucristo Vive and Emanuel) and we have had some great meetings, we are more organized that in the past and we have year goals in every area of youth ministry. We are hoping, by the end of the year we will be able to perceive how far we were from the goals we had at the beginning of 2009.
There is a third youth group that wants me to lead them, however, that is obviously imposible for me. This church is in great need, therefore, I just committed myself to go some random Sundays to teach the youth some doctrine during Sunday School classes. On top of that, I included them to the two discipleship courses I have started.
The courses are “The Mind of Christ” by Hunt and King, and “Believing God” by Beth Moore. Both are wonderful studies and I have over 10 students in each course. In “The Mind of Christ” I have youth from 3 different churches something that I love because they can share and build relationships. Many of them are leaders in their churches and they will be the leaders of the mission in the very near future, therefore, it is essential they build strong bonds.

• Praise God for the authors of both discipleship courses, the materials are amazing and they have everyone of us hooked and committed to continue our studies. We are all learning a lot and it is so neat to perceive the youth enjoy these studies.
  
• Pray for the youth that are studying with me, they are showing already a lot of potential and some of them are leaders in their own churches. I pray they can trust God enough to let Him guide them and lead their lives and future.