Advancing

I'm not sure if we've ever shared what we call our church plant team at this time: La Avanzada. In Spanish, this means "the advance". I think we are all beginning to feel at this point like we are making some great advances. Saturday night we had a planning and strategy meeting- probably the first one we have been able to have in the 8 months we've been here. Getting the whole group together once a week is challenging enough when most work until 8 or 8:30 every night and also have small children to take care of when they get home. Weekends are sacred days for families around here, so it's tough to take time on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to get together for an extra meeting. However, we've begun to realize that God is doing great things in Mallasilla and there is quite a need for a church to open. This means that our avanzada team needs to move along and speed up the process a little- the biggest concern being that of finding a pastor. So on Saturday, we had a full agenda and a long night ahead of us. Although we had decided to bypass the customary dinner that would be provided by the host of an evening meeting, our team member, Mirta, decided to bless us and the moms especially (as Sunday was Bolivian Mother's Day), with a massive meal of homemade pasta and sauces of all types. Typical to every meeting, we started about 1 1/2 late and were interrupted partway through by a hot dinner, which inevitably wrapped up our discussion session. Even though we barely touched the tip of the iceburg in our time there, we all had a chance to share our feelings on who God had laid on our hearts to invite as interim pastoral leadership. Edgar Mamani is an elder and pastoral assistant at our mother church, and a fantastic preacher. He is from El Alto, and the lower class, but studied to become a lawyer and has moved a bit in the social hierarchy. Because of these two caracteristics, he can reach a broad range of the people represented in Mallasilla. Besides that, he is solid in doctrine, practical in his application of the Word, and a teacher that captures peoples attention and leads them into a desire to know God more. The feeling of the group was unanimous in their desire to invite Edgar to be a part of the team and on this Friday, Greg and Scotty will spend a half day with the elders, presenting our timeline for the new church and expressing our hopes for Edgar. It's an exciting time and we are all feeling that things are finally moving along and that the next few months will be packed full of study and prayer as we seek to follow God in His leadership.