The month of November found Rebecca and me scrambling to pack and get everything prepared for our trip home, back to Bolivia. We had to get all of our baby’s paperwork in order concerning her visa and other legal documents for her to enter Bolivia for the first time, which was expensive and time-consuming, but not impossible. Our church in Bolivia also celebrated its 12-Year Anniversary with a big day; there were 204 in attendance, with 20 people saved.
When we arrived in La Paz at 6:00 a.m. after an all-night flight and almost 24 hours of traveling, we were fantastically greeted by our church! Many of the people spent the night at the church, because they would not have found public transportation from their homes to the airport so early in the morning. About 50 of our people started singing and playing guitars, along with shouts and wild applause after we walked through the gate with our luggage. They made us feel so welcome. It caused such a commotion at the airport that for some time, everything just stopped, and everyone around listened, stared, and wondered, “Who are those people?” It was a moment we will never forget because we felt so loved.
The following Sunday our people planned a big day at our church, which resulted in an attendance of 288, many visitors, and 37 people being saved at the church. They planned it, prepare for it, and paid for all of it. Our baptistery was having problems at the time, so we could not baptize, but that was resolved the following week. Since then, we have seen some of those visitors baptized.
On January 31, we had a New Year’s party with food, fun, fellowship, and a talent show that revealed many new people with some incredible talents. We have never had so many talented people with several abilities to offer for service to the Lord. We started the new year with prayer and a spectacular fireworks display afterwards that almost forced us, on two occasions, to visit the hospital and one time to make funeral arrangements—it was awesome!
Please pray for our ministry as we continue to reach people and train them to help win South America with the Gospel. Please pray for our church as we plan to start five new Sunday school classes and one new bus route. Please pray for us as we work to raise funds to build a tabernacle next to our church! Although we are renting, we have to build more space for our auditorium and more Sunday school classes if we are going to continue to grow. I have never felt so held back by lack of space and finances to reach more people. We would prefer to buy property and build, but where our church is, we are talking prices above $350,000. Please pray that God would provide! Please also pray for our family’s health and protection as we continue to serve in a socialistic environment that does not approve of our evangelistic, soul-winning, life-changing, and zealous style of ministry here in La Paz.
Xavier Lopez
