COVID-19 Knocking at the Door

FACE TO FACE

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 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 and mother-in-law had dropped dangerously low as they fought the coronavirus from their home. That is when Saul, also from the discipleship group, worked for hours with Greg to find an oxygen tank in our storage room. Saul passed it off to Vladimir, another guy from the discipleship group, who waited in line at sunrise to get it filled and delivered to Cesar's family. The rest of the church unsuccessfully searched for aspirin at pharmacies until someone from the congregation found a few extra aspirins in their medicine cabinet.

We did hear from Cesar and his wife, and they are breathing better.

Cesar and his family will soon become a light in their neighborhood as they tell others about God’s spiritual and physical provision through a prayer chain, spiritual encouragement, an oxygen tank and aspirin.

About the Author | Greg Hurst

College Church missionaries Greg and Faith Hurst serve the church in La Paz, Bolivia, and focus on discipleship through family ministry and church planting. Greg and Faith celebrated their 25th anniversary this summer.