Excitement is building at your church plant, Emmanuel Church Turbito in Turbot, Montero, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. As you can see in this report from the field, the church building is nearing completion, and the community is responding during the many services that are being offered.
Construction Progress
In the last two months, we have:
- Framed the interior rooms
- Placed the roof
- Covered the inside of the classrooms with plaster
- Covered the outside of the church with concrete
Church Activities
Right now, we have 25 active adult brothers and sisters who are church members.
In the last two months:
- Four men were baptized.
- We had four vacation Bible school sessions for children.
- We hosted the concrete-work inauguration ceremony and provided a lunch for the congregation.
We have an active weekly schedule:
- Tuesday nights: Bible study
- Thursday nights: Prayer services
- Saturdays: Youth services
- Sundays: Sunday school in the morning and outreach services in the evenings
On Sundays, we welcome a maximum of 80 people and a minimum of 50.
Challenges Encountered
The main challenge we faced was during the first week of September, when heavy rains and wind slowed our progress.
Next Steps
For the three classrooms, kitchen, bathrooms and the office, we only need to paint and place the porcelain-tile. The sanctuary needs the fine work to be completed.
Over the next 60 days, we will complete the painting, and the porcelain-tile will be placed on the floor. We estimate that we will complete all the work by November of this year so the fine-work of the second floor would be ready by then.
If November, for some reason, is not possible, the inauguration would be in December.
Testimony of Impact
Since 2015, I have had a vision for my community’s children. When Compassion’s partnership facilitator invited me to a church-planting tour, I could see how other brothers in Christ were building a church and so I felt in my heart the great desire of having the children of my community blessed by this intervention. So I prayed and prayed and started working to make this project a reality for the church – and I just kept praying. After many months, I told the Lord: “If it is your will, just do your work for these children” – and I remember my heart would beat with anticipation. We waited for all of 2016, and I remember the church members were discouraged by then. I tried to keep encouraging them and I would still pray that the Lord would provide a church for our community.
In October of 2017, I received the news! I could not believe it, and we all were crying with emotion because we knew that we would have a church! So we started the construction – after all the arrangements – in April of 2018. We all were encouraged to work, and the church members came to help voluntarily. Even some people who were not Christians came to help! Now we have services for all the families, and our church members are happy because the children soon will no longer need the classrooms of the Paraiso School. They soon will come to the classrooms that are about to be finished here.”
– Samuel Valdivia, mother church child development director
Praises and Blessings
We want to thank God first because He has moved hearts so we can be helped. We know God said in His heart: “In Bolivia there is going to be a church!” So God did it, and in this church there will be restoration for families and many people will come to Christ. We received a sign for the church from recent visitors. This sign has been kept since then and it always will be kept because for us it is the sign of God providing for His people.
The pastor extends his gratitude for you,
We are excited to share the upcoming inauguration of the church building with you! May God give you twice more – thrice more – than you’ve blessed us. May God bless your families and the many people who will be reached in this community for the glory of Christ.