FACE TO FACE
COVID-19 Knocking at the Door Greg Hurst
When Greg wrote his late July prayer letter, COVID-19 had its tragic grip on Bolivia. It still does. When this issue of Connections went to print, the Bolivian government continued to have strict national quarantine measures. Jorge’s sister died two days ago in La Paz, Bolivia. Jorge said, “COVID-19 has knocked at the door of our house.” In a broken voice, he said, “Greg, I asked the Lord, ‘Why, why?’ But then I prayed with some of the men this morning from church and God gave me a profound peace….” Last week, we prayed in a Zoom elder meeting for Pastor Edgar and his son who both had COVID-19. Two days later, Edgar sent me a message that his wife, Becky, had struggled breathing all night long. Yesterday, our assistant pastor Gumercindo tested positive. Presently, we have 10 families on the church’s prayer chain who have tested positive or have COVID-19 symptoms. Jorge has also participated for two years in our monthly meetings to train church planters. Last week we prayed in our meeting for two leaders in the group who tested positive for the coronavirus. As a group of 12 church leaders, we talked about how God can use our churches to share and show Christ to our city during this pandemic. Light Shines in the Darkness Recently, a CNN news story said that "Bolivia's hospitals and cemeteries are buckling as COVID-19 cases surge and reach the highest levels of government—including its Interim President Jeanine Añez. "As one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Bolivia is on its way to become one of the world's worst affected nations in coronavirus per-capita deaths," the report states. A heartbreaking, memorial video was sent out with pictures of the more than 100 Bolivian pastors who died from COVID-19 serving the spiritual and physical needs of their communities. In these dark days, lights of Christ are shining throughout La Paz. Light shines when children from our church, who have been quarantined now for more than 120 days, invite their friends to participate in virtual Sunday school. Other lights shine when more than 100 women participate in a Zoom women's Bible study. Another light, unseen by most, shines when a church member drops off food and money for a friend in the congregation whose income has been wiped out by the quarantine. The light of God's presence is pushing back the darkness as God's people share and show Christ to those around them. When SIM's Crisis Management Team gives us authorization to travel back to Bolivia, (we now have a target departure of
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early December) we will return to La Paz with this vision: To mobilize our congregation and other churches in La Paz to plant gospel-focused, disciple-making, missional churches that glorify God in their city, country, and world (Acts 1:8). Our prayer is that more and more lights will shine for Christ as the Holy Spirit multiples disciples and churches who glorify God. Prayers, Oxygen and Aspirin Sitting at an altitude of two miles high, the city of La Paz makes people aware of how much we need oxygen to breathe. When the hospitals collapsed last week, people began treating their COVID-19 symptoms at home with oxygen and aspirin. The city quickly ran out of both oxygen tanks and aspirins. Last Thursday, we received a message that Cesar from Greg's discipleship group, tested positive for COVID-19 and was struggling to breathe. The oxygen levels of Cesar, his wife, son
