Greetings! We love you and are grateful for your interest in our lives and work. It is our prayer that the Lord will continually bless you as you serve Him! We have delayed sending this letter until after we completed our yearly check-ups and had solid information in hand about the progress of our ministries and plans for our work going forward. We are pleased with what God is doing in the work, the way he has protected and kept us, and for the direction he has given us for the future. We will cover a lot in this letter, so it is a little long. However, we hope it will be a blessing while being informative.
Due to the Pandemic and 7 months of strict quarantine measures, Churches in Bolivia have only been able to meet for the last 3 months. However, the Bolivian Government recently placed new restrictions that limit church and other meetings. The virus is spreading rapidly, and Bolivian officials are doing everything they can to prevent it from spreading. We’ve read that Bolivia is expecting a 3rd wave of infection this Spring. As far as the vaccine goes, it looks like the only one available will be the Russian Sputnik V. With the uncertainty and new restrictions, church meetings will be done electronically. However, in the three months that our works were able to gather, things went very well. Here are some updates.
The Light Baptist Church…
This is our main work, and God is continuing to bless the church in many ways. They are focused on how they can serve God in the midst of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc on their community. During this time, they have averaged about 80 people in attendance on Sunday mornings. We were concerned how a 7-month shutdown would affect the work, so we are very pleased to see a good nucleus gathering once again. Recently, 6 people made a profession of faith in Christ and are currently in discipleship and growing in their new faith.
The work in Trigal…
The 7-month layoff was hard on this group. However, as meetings have resumed there have been about 45 people in attendance. The greatest need at this point for this work is for workers to step forward to help it grow and mature.
The work in downtown Tarija…
This church resumed meeting twice a week and there are about 150 people in attendance. Additionally, the church continues working with seven weekly Zoom meetings. There are also three groups of married couples meeting every other week. This is an important foundation building ministry, and we are pleased to see it thriving. Additionally, there are 3 discipleship classes geared for families that meet each week.
Going forward…
We have tickets in hand to return to Bolivia for the 21st of February. However, once again the US State Department has raised the Travel Advisory for Bolivia to a Level Four. This means they are saying “Do Not Travel” to Bolivia. As you may remember, in addition to Bolivia we have trips planned into Chile, the Yucatan, and possibly Peru this year. However, like Bolivia, travel restrictions in the areas we plan to minister are prohibitive at present. Therefore, after consulting with our Pastor and the leadership at Baptist International Outreach, we have made the decision to delay our plans to travel Internationally until things improve.
So, what do we do now? There are several things we believe will be beneficial to our ministry in Bolivia and other areas of Latin America.
There are a few special projects that we need to work on in Bolivia. We will continue planning and helping out with resources as the Lord provides.
Our partner in the church in Tarija, Sergio Saravia, is meeting with groups by Zoom. Two of those groups consist of Bolivians who live in Los Angeles and New Mexico. We will connect with these groups, visit them in person, and help them find a local church in their area.
If we’ve not spent time with you lately, we would like to utilize this time to visit and update you in person on what God is doing in our various works in Latin America. If you’d like us to come in for a visit, please let us know. We will also be contacting you as well.
We have a strong burden to introduce various Missionary opportunities in Latin America to people who are interested in Missions. Therefore, as we travel and visit churches, we will visit various Bible Colleges to represent Baptist International Outreach in Schools and particularly talk to folks about a possible future serving the Lord on the Mission Field. Of course, with an emphasis on Latin America! 🇧🇴🇧🇴
We will be working with BIO Missionaries to encourage them as they serve the Lord during the Pandemic.
We still plan on visiting areas of Latin America that we have previously mentioned. As things open up to travel, we will make visits as the Lord allows.
This is an especially tough time for folks on Deputation. We will work with BIO’s new Missionaries to encourage them and help them be better prepared to visit the Churches on their schedule.
Praises and Prayer Requests
We have had our yearly Check-ups with our physicians and have received favorable reports.
Sandra’s Oncologist said, “from your bloodwork you can’t even tell you’ve ever had cancer”! WOW! Praise the Lord.
We also praise the Lord for “Fruit that Remains” and that the folks we work with are faithful in their walk with the Lord and the ministry opportunities he has given them.
Please pray for Maribel Castro. She is our Partner, Pastor Elias’, wife. She has recently been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Please pray for Missionaries in Bolivia. We know several who have non-COVID health concerns.
There are several projects that we need to take care of in Bolivia. Please pray that the Lord will provide guidance and funding so that progress can be made in these areas.
Until next time...
We want to say thank-you for your concern, compassion, and care for us as part of your Missionary family. We love you and hope for God’s very best for each one of you.
Jeff & Sandra Price Missionaries in Bolivia & Latin America Baptist International Outreach
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