Hello Brothers and Sisters.
May the grace and peace of our God be always with you. We are preparing ourselves to start a new journey in our lives. Our flights to Santa Cruz, Bolivia are for the 23 of February. We had left our baggage with the Perez family there before going to Ecuador and we need to pick up our things and then we will go to the place God has assigned to us for, hopefully. the next 15 years (God willing).
Juan: We want to share with you some of the things we have been doing with the church. We had a three day men’s seminar with the church in Cuenca, Ecuador. It was titled: “Men, where are you?” with the theme taken from Psalm 8:4-6. The purpose was to motivate the men in the church to grow in their responsibilities with their families, in the church and in society. I was invited to speak on Men in the the Kingdom- inspired by a book from author Tony Evans. God wants men to walk under His lordship, be connected and active in His kingdom, and not deviate from the purpose for which we were created. We were made to be faithful in our responsibilities and fight with dedication as we walk through challenges and adversities in life, trusting in God.
I am doing some zoom classes with the youth in Sucre. One of the topics that we have talked about was Jesus among all types and classes of people using Mark 2:13-17. Christ was in the middle of people who thought of themselves as just and good and also was with the people who were despised and marginalized, like the tax collectors, prostitutes and those with bad reputations. We, as Christians, many times believe that we are just and good and we despise and marginalize those with bad reputations. We judge them and do not give them the opportunity to see Christ in us. With Christ living in us we should let Him shine among all types of people, with actions and attitude, as we live among others- those who believe themselves to be good and those who live in darkness.
Lorie: “Let your gentleness be evident to all... Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”- Phil. 4:5-8
I shared with the women of my family the importance of being gentle all the time. Remembering that as women of God, we are to be faithful representatives of Him in how we act in society and with the family. As mothers and housewives we don’t always want to be gentle and kind. That could be due to stress, worry, being tired, etc. Many times we do not want to be gentle and kind but we recognize that as daughters of God, we receive mercy and His forgiveness. We recognize that each day we are in His presence, we can be transformed and filled with the Spirit.
Angela: A quick update on our plans to move to Tarija:
We have been busy! There have been a lot to do. We are thankful for all that God has done in preparing the way and helping us get the details done. The Cabrera's and Myers will be sharing a furnished apartment for a month after we arrive and as we look for our own apartments. Please pray that things will work well for us in this place with the landlord and also with the apartments we will find. We would like find a place on the same street or, ideally in the same building like we had in Sucre, for the girls. We also want to be able to reach out to our landlords and be able to form a good relationship with them.
Pray we can get our girls into a school easily, as inscriptions are already over and schools have started their school year.
Covid cases are high and I have heard that there have been more cases and deaths with this wave than with earlier ones in Bolivia. Please pray for our safety and heath.
Pilar and I get our Covid tests back today so we can travel. Please be praying it all comes back clear and since we have not been feeling bad, I am pretty confident they will.
Please, please pray for our flights to Tarija! A cold front has come in and even in Uvalde and San Antonio (where we are and where are flight leaves from), its going to have a high in the 20's maybe up to 30 degrees with ice and maybe even snow. We need to be at the airport around 5am Tuesday and our connections in Houston and Panama are less than 1 1/2 hrs each so if our flight is late leaving San Antonio it is very likely we will miss our connections and end up in Houston or Panama having to re-book flights for the next day or whenever we can. God has control and He is good and I know in the end, it will all work out, but it is an added unknown and makes things harder.