Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. My family and I also thank God for His protection and hand of provision on our family during our furlough. We have been traveling to churches to preach, sing, win souls, present our ministry, and raise money to buy property to establish our current church in Bolivia.

In the month of July, I was scheduled to preach our annual Teen Camp in Bolivia, but because of political fighting and security concerns in the country, the camp was canceled. Even though there were problems, I still traveled to Bolivia to preach the third-year anniversary for our church in Santa Cruz and to preach and encourage our church in La Paz, but after traveling all day and arriving early the next morning in La Paz, Rebecca called me and told me that her dad had just passed away. So, I immediately bought tickets, and two hours later, I was on a flight back to the U.S. My father-in-law, Dr. Clarence Moore, is now in the presence of the Lord he fervently served during his life. Please pray for my mother-in-law, Chong-Chi Moore, as she learns to navigate being a widow after being married for 57 years.

In August, our family continued traveling (while homeschooling) to churches in Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Missouri. In one church, I preached so hard that I split the seat of my pants and ruined my suit! I did not even notice it until afterwards when I got back to our hotel. A week later in a conference where I was preaching, the church bought each missionary a new suit!

Praise God that our Toyota Camry is still running, and we have not missed a meeting because of a breakdown. Even though it is kept together with bailing wire and bubble gum, God continues to bless it, as we are breaking 254,000 miles on the odometer. Please pray for travel mercies, as we still have meetings on the East Coast before we start the long journey driving to California, where we will fly back to Bolivia from at the beginning of December.

In September, I traveled back to Bolivia for 10 days to help a new missionary on his survey trip. During this time, I got to preach in our current church in Santa Cruz; they had a big day of 190 people in attendance, with 20 visitors, 20 people saved, and 3 men baptized! In the pictures on the right, I am baptizing each convert from the big day. The young men I am training for the ministry have been running the church while I’ve been gone, and still the church continues going forward. During our furlough, we have raised part of the money to buy property for this church, but we are still short. Please help me pray for the $85,000 that we still need to buy property for this church. I made a short video showing our big day back in September. If you would be interested in seeing that video, just email me at xavier.lopez@fbmi.org, and I will send you a link to see the church in action.

During our travels, a church took us on a boat ride on the Mississippi River. What made the trip even more special was Deion, the man who was selling the coffee and snacks. I asked him about being saved, and he told me that he was struggling in his life. He allowed me to show him how to be saved, and after trusting Christ, he was so excited that this huge guy hugged me! Please pray that Deion would get plugged into church and that God would use his life for the glory of God!

– Xavier Lopez