Little Church in the City

Sunday I was able to attend the Casa de Oración (House of Prayer) church. You may remember that this is the church that was shut down for a time and had no pastor. In the last months Pastor Fimo Ramos has been "filling in". Somewhere in the past Fimo's heart has been touched by children and their needs. (He was the founding pastor of the God is Love church. His first service consisted of two or three children.) Later he had the desire to learn how to minister more effectively to children and so he took the courses offered on how to teach children offered by the Bolivian counterpart of Child Evangelism Fellowship. So when he agreed to become the temporary pastor at the House of Prayer church his first thought was to begin with the children of the neighborhood. That impulse has paid off. On Sundays there are now as many as 30 children who are attending the Sunday School. Yesterday the number of children was down a bit but the number of adults was up. In fact, there has not been an adult class because of lack of adults but yesterday it was announced that I would be teaching the adults. We had a good class with around ten students. And so God is moving again in the House of Prayer. Fimo would be the first to tell you that it is a direct answer to prayer. This year the district leaders have been meeting together for special prayer times and God is answering.

Pastor Fimo leading music.

This couple is helping to provide leadership for the church.

Yesterday before church began, Fimo asked to speak with me. He began to share his vision for expanded ministry at the church and wanted to know if the mission could help establish a centro de apoyo (help center) for the neighborhood children, much as we are working towards doing at the district headquarters facility. My immediate impulse was to say YES but I know better. First I would need to speak with my fellow missionaries, Bryan and Molly, who are heading up this program. (It is always best to sound hesitant at first and even a bit discouraging. Any kind of positive reacction can be taken as a firm commitment to provide whatever it is you are being asked to provide.) So I responded, but you will need to put windows in the holes in the wall. Also a gate in the fence to keep things locked up. And a bathroom. Kids will need a bathroom. As we talked I was inwardly smiling because I knew something that Fimo didn't. All these things would cost money and the church has no money. . . .

Maybe a month ago I received a phone call from an hermana. She said she was in town and wanted to see me. She had a bit of offering that her husband had sent for the district. Could I come that day and visit? (She and her husband immigrated to Spain several years ago to find work. She was back in Bolivia on a visit.) So at the appointed time I arrived at her home. After some visiting and meeting her son-in-law and granddaughter, she gave me an envelope with some cash inside. Again she assured me, (I suppose not to get my hopes too high) that it was not very much. And could it please be used to help the Casa de Oración church. (Her husband had been the original pastor of the church.) When I got to a place in private where I could open the envelope I counted out a little over $5000 US. Just a little bit, she had told me. Not very much, she had repeated.

So now there is money to help make the improvements needed at the church and maybe, just maybe (I still have not committed to the project) we can open that centro de apoyo. Will you please pray with me and with Bryan and Molly as we consider what might be able to be done. It will require helpers that we don't have and time that might already be committed elsewhere. But who knows? God has provided the funding. If he did that several weeks before the request who is to say that he might not already be preparing the needed helpers? It will be fun to wait and see what he does next.

For a couple of earlier posts on Casa de Oración you can go to the May 6,2011 postings.