INICIATIVA RIONEGRO

is with great excitement that we announce the launch of “Iniciativa Rionegro.” What is Iniciativa Rionegro? It is the name we have given the ministry here in the city of Rionegro that consists of university ministry, theological education, and mercy ministry that is all based around church-planting efforts. We had our first meeting on March 27 in our converted garage. Our hope is to work with the Launch Team in the area of discipleship and then begin a public Bible study open to everyone in a couple of months. Right now, the Launch Team consists of mature Christians we have met who have expressed their desire to see a reformed church planted here in Rionegro.

We are amazed (and scared!) that the Lord has seen fit to begin this work after just 4 months of being in-country. The Spirit is at work! We plead for your continued prayers.

We are thankful that there has been such excitement and unity with the Launch Team, but we would be lying if we didn’t share that the weeks leading up to and since the first meeting have been difficult. A few weeks ago, it seems Nate got a mild case of Covid, which caused fatigue for quite a while (and he’s still waiting for taste/smell to come back). A few days before our launch meeting, a “random” electrical problem on the street caused our computer to go up in smoke and fried a few other electrical things as well. It took a few days for all of our outlets to quit jumping to 250 volts.

A few days after the meeting, the regional government announced new restrictions because of a Covid spike. We had to cancel our second meeting for this reason, and it looks like restrictions will continue for at least the next two weeks. There are also talks about returning to a full lockdown, as the ICU has reached 100% capacity here in town. All of that to say, please pray for us as we seek to plant a church despite these challenges. Encouragement and discouragement seem to come in waves.

ESL TRAINING

One of the great challenges we face right now is trying to launch the campus ministry. Schools and universities have returned to strictly virtual classes. This means we are going to have to find creative ways to connect to the campus. To that end, this month our team participated in ESL training to help us figure out how we might use English lessons to reach the two main local universities. English is highly valued and is required to graduate from most university programs. Teaching English as a foreign language will also connect us with the campus physically and/or virtually. 

Please be in prayer for these ministries and the Bonham family!