A Recap

JD, Margo, and Sam Tolbert left this morning to return to the states. We have taken the past several days to recoup and see some of Santa Cruz and the surrounding areas. Now that they are headed back to their home in South Carolina, I thought it would be a great time to recap our work over the past week.

Evangelism
Of all the trips I have participated in, I can honestly say that this trip was one of the most evangelistic. According to our counts, we individually shared Christ with almost 800 people and saw 360 people come to Christ. While I am cautious about numbers as a barometer of success, the Bible does record the number of converts at evangelistic encounters (Acts 2:41, 4:4). In one week, our team of 10 people from WBC, combined with our Bolivian brothers and sisters, were able to reach at least 800 people with the good news of the Gospel. All of these people were pointed to the local church for discipleship and we were able to get their contact information for followup.

I think one of the highlights of the week was when we were told on Wednesday night that we would be going to the nearby University to do evangelism. Personally, I was terrified at the thought of walking up to 20-somethings and asking them if they wanted to hear about Jesus. In my mind, I could hear the sneers and rejection of the students. However, our team prayed for the same boldness of the Apostles and I cannot explain adequately in words how God provided. True there were some rejections, but there are also multitudes of students who responded graciously. I remember a group of five young men who invited us to have a seat and we were able to talk with them for 15 minutes about Christ at which point they all prayed to repent and accept Christ.

VBS
We were hoping to have 50-100 children everyday for our VBS in the neighborhood that surrounds the church. On our first day, we were surprised to see over 100 children show up. The rest of the week we had between 140 and 160 children every day. This number does not include the parents and other adults in the plaza that were able to hear our songs, bible stories, gospel presentations, and puppet shows. The children were so excited each day that they would come running from all directions when the bus pulled up to the plaza. We were able to clearly present the gospel message to the children every day. By the end of the week, all the children were calling us by name and several of them were upset when they found out that we would not be back on Saturday. Some of the children even asked if we would come back next year. While we may not be back for at least a year, the children are excited about the new church in their neighborhood.

Church Construction
We were able to erect a crude structure for the church that we were planting. The floor is made of brick and concrete with a tin roof. The building does not have sides yet, but they may attach tarps to the side to keep out the elements. While it is not a fancy building, the believers are excited to have a place to meet and a physical location where the community can come to see people worshiping Christ.

This week was a whirlwind of activity. Looking back, there is nothing that we can truly take credit for among all the amazing things that happened. I see again and again how God answered prayers - how he prepared the hearts of the people we would meet, how he gave us boldness and spiritual discernment, and how he provided when we were tired or physically sick. For God be the glory!