Thank you for your faithful prayers and support for our family and ministry. You are helping us fulfill God’s will to see people saved and baptized and churches planted for the glory of God. Please pray that the Lord would give us His wisdom to help plant more churches to multiply our efforts to reach South America.
During October and November, we continually prayed, knocked doors, and won souls every day; and we even started renting and filling 2 buses to bring more people to church. Then, it was decided by the politicians to lock down the entire city with roadblocks. For 36 days, Santa Cruz was paralyzed, and people were only allowed to walk, ride bicycles, and sometimes use motorcycles. We were determined not to let our church die, so we bought bicycles in order to press on with our ministry. Monday through Thursday, I was riding my bike over 10 miles a day to get to the church for our seminary, for soul winning, and to preach. Friday through Sunday, I was riding my bike over 20 miles a day for soul winning, for church visitation, and to preach in a public plaza. Altogether, I was riding over 100 miles a week to fulfill my responsibilities—and sometimes in over 100-degree weather! If you could imagine, maintaining this schedule for 6 weeks in a row made for a great weight-loss program! In the picture, I am preaching in the public plaza for our Sunday morning service. God blessed our efforts, and we saw visitors and people saved in the plaza every week! Now that the roadblocks are over with, we have had some of the families that visited us in the plaza continue attending our church. Please pray for God’s power, love, and protection on our lives as we carefully train our converts to follow God’s will.
In December, I took 3 men with me to travel 22 hours on buses to visit a conference in Argentina. The oppressing heat at times got over 110 degrees, but the red-hot preachers made it all worth it. With ice-cold bottles of water clenched in one hand and our thirst-quenching Bibles in the other, we eagerly drank up each life-changing message! We thoroughly enjoyed hearing God’s men powerfully preach God’s Word. Please pray for our spiritual growth, that God would bless our physical health, and for revival in our lives and ministry in order to give our absolute best for the Lord.
We now have six Bible studies with people from our church. Usually those who follow through with the lessons grow, mature, and turn out to be the next soul winners, Sunday school teachers, preachers, and leaders in our ministries. Please pray that our babes in Christ would stay faithful and grow in order to become productive, reproducing, wholehearted followers of Jesus Christ.
With a full heart, I want to say “thank you” to those of you who have given extra to our family during the holidays. Your generosity humbles us and causes us to thank God for His wonderful hand of provision and blessing. Our family is so excited to see what God has planned for 2023 as we work together to build this new ministry. Please pray for miraculous church growth as we give ourselves for the service of the King.
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all,
Xavier Lopez
