I am thankful for what the Lord is doing in Bolivia, even though the social and political situation is very difficult. The radio stations continue broadcasting the programs, and I continue to contact new ones. Although in most cases the response is slow, the Lord is opening up new outlets for the transmissions. In April, after introducing the programs to four people with connections to radio stations, a believer in the town of San José felt led to sponsor the programs in a local radio station. San José is known for its strong Catholic traditions, and there is a very small evangelical presence. A broadcast there is a reason for praise and a great opportunity for people to hear the Gospel. The government has introduced some changes in broadcasting. If they are implemented, one third or all licenses to broadcast will be used by government; one third will be given to indigenous groups, and only one third will be available to the private sector. This will drastically reduce the possibilities for Christian stations to broadcast. At the same time the private sector will emphasize paid programming, which in turn would affect the time that secular stations give to programs such as ours. Higher government control of more frequencies, means less Christian and secular stations and reduced Gospel programming. Please pray.
I have also been involved in workshops for journalists and radio broadcasters. Some companies have been interested in inviting us to give our workshops to their employees. The workshops are for anyone involved in broadcasting, so that I was able to have one for those who work with Trans World Radio in Santa Cruz. People from nine different churches attended. This gives me the opportunity of introducing our programs to different people. During the conference at Trans World a pastor that already transmits the programs asked for samples to give to another station.
A man from Chochís, a small rural town, explained to me that he felt called to serve the Lord in this town. For several years the only evangelical church in this place has been closed, therefore he has decided to evangelize from house to house, and although he has no formal theological training, he feels burdened to share Christ. Thus having heard our programs he asked me if I would supply him with several CD’s. He feels that the Bible teaching of each program will help him to be better equipped to share the good news of salvation. Even though our purpose is mainly to transmit through radio, I praise the Lord because the programs can be a useful tool to someone who desires to reach his own town with the message of salvation.
In the local ministry, with my wife we have conducted a marriage seminar for couples. I felt the Lord leading us with this project since several couples in our church have been struggling in their marriages, some of them to the point of considering divorce. We began with eight couples, and four of them finished the whole course. Two of them are not believers, so the concepts that we shared were completely new to them. We thank God for the improvement that has taken place in these relationships. For the closing program, the couples taking the seminar must invite other three couples to take part in the Bible study that will be the follow up to the initial course. Please pray!