News > Latin America

Our Easter Bible Conference held on April 2 – 5 at the "Villa Marista" Center, titled "Put out into deep water (Boga Mar Adentro)!" and had 54 participants, including 5 people who attended for the first time.

Returning from the Southern South American Conference, most of our brothers returned to their mission field. Most of all, Missionary Esteban had to be absent due to travel to Korea, and two long-time Bible study members fall into temptation; the carnal passion between a pair of leaders was not solved. So the existing environment in the Church was difficult. But we still had to prepare for the Conference.

The preparations were made by shepherds, who raised messengers for each of the conference messages, passage readers, etc. For 1 month before conference, they also held early morning prayer meetings and evening prayer meetings to prepare for it. Although there was not a large attendance at the meeting, it was an opportunity for our leaders to grow in stewardship through preparing a message from the word of God for each meeting.

The opening message was served by M. Corina, based on Psalm 1 and evening message, the Genesis 2 was given by Shepherdess Maria Rutty. Second day, Shepherd Matthew revealed the suffering love of the Heavenly Father through the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15, and in the evening F. Javier served the message of the cross, based on Luke. 24.

On the 3rd day Shepherd Abraham revealed the central message of the conference, “Put out into deep water" from Luke 5, through which Jesus invited us to deepen our life in his word. Shepherd Alberto challenged us through Joshua 1 to conquer our lands, experiencing this reality through our pastoral service even in the midst of time limitations; The last day, the message was about the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15, served by M. Paulina.

The work of the word became evident through repentance and faith, in particular through  decision made by one of the sisters who was romantically involved with another brother in the Church. She decided to cut off that relationship by leaving her country, Bolivia to alone receive training which God gives her, and to offer the heart and time to Him in another country, Argentina.

Shepherd Abraham works as a teacher in a night school with his wife Shepherdess Sara. Both spoke to us about the environment that surrounds them through their students, who are under the bondage of alcohol, drugs, sex, and mafia. This made us see the urgent need to intervene in their students’ lives with the Gospel.

The conference program was diverse, and a new part of the program was the night of talents, where every Bible study group had to put together some type of performance and present it. Through it, we had the opportunity to integrate the new Bible students and work together. Presentations included dramatic recitation of biblical passages, songs, a comedy skit with juggling, and a biblical message.

We pray to the Lord that hereafter all members of our church family can grow spiritually, struggling not to sit on the shallow edge of the sea, but to put out deeper into God's Word.

Our prayer topics:

1. That Bolivia may become a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation, sending 6 Bolivian missionaries to Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.

2. That God may establish house-churches for Cochabamba, La Paz, Sucre.

3. Campus-centered life, including 100 weekly Bible studies and 70 faithful Sunday worship service attendants(Esteban Cho).