Enews JAN 2009

Dear Friends and Ministry Partners,

We have been excited about what God might accomplish through us this next year, and at the same time knowing we are entering a season of great challenge and difficulty.

It seems that nowhere in the world will be immune to the effects of the economic crisis and the only reason a place like Bolivia is not very affected is because a large percentage of the population was already poor and knows how to live without cash much less credit.

We’re grateful for the time we had to “unwind” this month, as we joined South America Mission on their annual Field Conference, this year held at “Los Cedros” about 30 min. from Santa Cruz. The conference consisted of seminars by Bill Ogden and Dr. Jeffrey Olrich, as well as mealtime together and relaxing times with the family to walk, to swim or try the adventurous zip-line through the jungle canopy.

The week after our “family vacation”, Amara and Aleyna started their second semester of school. We’re thankful that all the kids are over their cough that lingered on for three months.

Also, we experienced a vehicle-crisis this month as we had two vehicles in the shop for repairs (one of ours and Alan’s dad’s compact SUV). Actually for the Field Conference we had to borrow another missionary’s jeep while his family is on furlough. Thankfully we are slowly getting our vehicles fixed, but nothing is instant in Bolivia.

We might also note that the socialist constitution was passed by majority vote through national referendum on the 25th. This new constitution has both good and negative aspects. The good part is that it gives the indigenous more of a voice and protection against discrimination. The negative is that the “preamble” states as the origin and sustainer of the country the “Pachamama”, or Mother Earth, instead of the Creator God (this is ironic because only 2 of the 36 indigenous nations recognize the Pachamama as one of their deities). In addition, there is loose interpretation in the rights to private property- only as the government sees that property as completing a “social function”.

Ministry Update

This month Alan began to meet with the board of the National Mission Movement, called COMIBAM, to discuss a national event to be held late this year. They began looking at the possibility of holding an exposition-style event aimed at stimulating the national church towards mission participation. Another objective of the event will be to help coordinate alliances between mission training and sending agencies.

CET (Centro de Entrenamiento Transcultural), a missionary training center in Cochabamba, held their annual meeting on the 17th. Alan was elected for his third term on the board of directors, and will be teaching a course in June.


ECAMM (Escuela de Capacitacion Misionera Mundial), a mobile missionary training center, had their most recent 2-month program in Santa Cruz (you may remember Alan teaching their earlier this year in Tacna, Peru). Alan taught a one-week module on “Contextualization of Theology”. There were a total of 41 students in the class. Ten of these will be graduating from the ECAMM program on Feb. 1. We are hoping at least three will stay on to help with our training school in Santa Cruz.

Our training center in Santa Cruz has had some major setbacks, and was not able to begin the bi-vocational modules on the 3rd. Instead, the module has been postponed while we try to confirm a group of about 5 students (our smallest group ever). We have also lost one of the main leaders of the center (hopefully temporarily) and that has made it more difficult to recruit and keep in communication with our students. One possible solution to these setbacks would be to merge with another training center. Although this solution would be the easiest, we still see that our training center offers aspects that are very distinctive to the Bethany philosophy of training.

Prayer Needs
• Wisdom for dealing with Alissa’s health issues
• The Mission Exposition scheduled for Nov. 2009
• Wisdom for establishing a solid training program
• The transition of Bolivia under the new Constitution
• Addition funds for the national team


God bless each one of you! Until next month,

the Holcombes