Greetings from La Paz!

We'd like to ask you to pray for our Equipping Servants (ESI) Facilitator Training events coming up. Tomorrow we meet with 10 pastors from Santa Cruz. Later in June we plan to train a large number of pastors and church leaders in Temuco, Chile.

Please take a few minutes to read the encouraging testimony of one of our ESI leaders in Bolivia (pastor Edgar), and what God did in his life:

“Twenty some years ago at the age of 23, the goal of my life was to become the youngest president of my nation-wide denomination. I was already leader of our regional chapter, and was sought-out as an entertaining and popular motivational speaker in churches across Bolivia. I didn’t pay much attention to the Bible, or about advancing the cause of Christ, because my life was completely about advancing my own kingdom and the influence of my name.

That same year my dream came true -- my name was put forward as a candidate to become our denominational leader. At the same time I received an invitation to join ESI (Equipping Servants). I have to say honestly that the only reason I accepted ESI was because I wanted to get the person who invited me to speak at our denomination, and I assumed that if I rejected his offer, he might not accept speaking invitations. So I convinced my best friend to attend ESI with me, coming up with a plan to attend 4 weeks, and then leave ESI. But the Lord got my attention as we studied through the book of Romans. I had been teaching Romans in Greek in the local seminary, but I had never studied Romans focusing on the transforming power of the gospel of Christ (the central point of Romans!!).

The Holy Spirit began to speak deeply into my life, showing me that I was a moralist, a cultural Christian, an ecclesiastical politician, and an entertainer – and very far from Jesus. I was not elected as president of my denomination, but God did something far better. God used a conversation to shake me up and draw me to Jesus. I met the son of the pastor who invited me to join ESI. He was leaving for University, and I wanted to wish his son well. When we talked, I asked him what he was going to miss most about Bolivia, imagining it would be food, since food was such an important part of my life. But his response literally blew me away. He said, “The time my dad spends with me every day in the Bible”. Those words shattered me. They impacted me so deeply I went to my office and spent the rest of the day weeping before the Lord. I had never seen a Christian family serious about Jesus that made the Bible central and that was passionate about Jesus. I thought all Christians were hypocrites like me. No one I knew was serious about their faith. But here was something real, something I wanted, something I was not living, something my family was not living. God used this to bring me to Jesus. That day I prayed, 'Lord, I don’t see any evidence in my life that You are my priority. I want a real faith. I want to really know YOU. I want my life to be about YOU. Please save me and transform me'.

From then on things were different. My priority was to know Jesus and to make Him known. I decided to leave the politics of my denominational government and to give myself to pastoral ministry and the teaching and preaching of God’s Word. During all the years before I had seen very little fruit in anyone’s life through my public speaking. Now I saw lives impacted through the teaching and preaching of God’s Word. I began to see MY life change, my family change. I thank God for His grace and mercy in my life. I pray every day that God will help me keep my focus on Him so I can live the gospel and communicate clearly His precious, life-transforming Word. I pray that God will stir the hearts of many pastors and church leaders in my country who are caught up in vain pursuits. My heart’s desire is to see the church walking with Jesus -- making His Name great and honoring His Word."

Thankful for your partnership in the gospel with us,

Kep