Bolivia: Mission 2022 (EDITED)

First, I cannot tell you how excited we are about the upcoming mission trip. Sneads First Assembly is partnering with Focus Forward Ministries, Inc. to build a church and host kids crusades! There has not a single day gone by since I left in 2018 that I have not had thoughts of Bolivia. It was so much more than words can express. My heart is still so marked by what God has done in our lives since 2011, when we first began building churches and hosting kids crusades in schools.

I scanned pictures from several years worth of crusades looking for one particular picture this evening–and when I found it –it was like the day just unfolded in my mind all over again.

While the puppets were singing “loudly”, and the games were being played with much excitement and squeals from the elementary children in the front yard of a school, a family, walking down the road stopped to see what all the excitement was about. They stayed for the story.

At the end of the story, our daughter, April gave an invitation to all the children to raise their hand if they wanted to ask Jesus to come into their heart and forgive them of their sins. A simple Gospel message meant for children, but it touched the heart of a daddy outside the fence. As she gave the invitation, I took pictures of the raised hands of many kids sitting on the grass. Moving a few feet to the left to get a clearer picture of the group, I saw the hand of the daddy go up while his head was bowed in reverence. Tears sprang to my eyes as I watched the hand of God move in our midst. I cannot describe to you what I felt that day. What a trip that was. At the conclusion of the message and prayer, our team handed out Bibles that had been purchased for us to take and distribute to the children, teens and any adult that wanted one. This daddy and mama both got one, as did their children.

Our team is filled with gratitude at what your gifts and donations allow us to do. Carry the Gospel–sharing the Word–and leaving the Word behind to grow and flourish under the guidance of the pastors we work with. Thank you.

If you would like to be a part of this trip but can’t go–we have several ways you can join in:

We need prayer partners. Begin praying now. Opposition will be faced I am sure by many team members–but we KNOW God is able to destroy all opposing forces! Pray now for each member’s health, finances, passport delivery for those waiting, for the families of the team members and most of all –for those who we are going to be ministering to and building for;

We would love to be able to take Bibles again. We need the help to do that. Chase Curti is the one who orders them and can get you a price on how much each one costs. We like to give them out on the last day to all the students at each school and faculty.

Something I didn’t realize we would need until we began taking an inventory of what we normally pack–our puppets are no longer with us. It is not uncommon for things to disappear from luggage on trips… If you are interested in helping buy puppets, or would like to send us some–we would be incredibly grateful. We generally only use four-to-five. If you’ve not ever shopped for puppets, we have bought some from Amazon, but I learned the hard way, some don’t fit adult hands. 😀

The best ones we had came from a company called “Folkmanis Puppets“. A friend bought me a “Chicken” from there and sadly, she was in the missing puppet bag. What I will probably do this time instead of putting them all in one bag, I may ask each team member to pack the beloved puppet in their carry-on 🙂 Won’t that be fun :). If you want to help with the puppets just let one of us know. We can build a character around almost anything.

THE LOST PUPPETS HAVE BEEN FOUND! They were handed over to someone in 2017 for safe keeping….all sealed up in a vacuum seal bag… PTL!!!

Gosh, I wish you could go…

I’m closing tonight with some beautiful children who found Jesus in 2015…seeds were planted. They’ve been watered as we went back each year (until 2020 when you know what hit the nations). I hope we can see how the seeds planted have grown and developed!

More to come !