"Here am I. Send me!"

Missions has always been a part of Eben-Ezer.  People will often comment that they find it ironic that a mission project does mission trips.  While that does sound a little redundant, for our students, it’s school…they do not generally arrive here with the mindset that they are missionaries.  With this in mind, it is one of our goals to give them multiple, various opportunities to serve as missionaries through outreach and evangelism, community service and mission trips.  Each week, we have several groups of students and staff who go into the local community (Ixiamas) and minister to families and individuals there.  We are able to do community service projects about twice per month..  Sometimes that means helping out the city officials or local hospital, other times we help individuals or families who have special needs.  We also do mission trips throughout the year where we take a small group (8-10) of students and staff and, in partnership with a medical mission project in Bolivia, B3, we go into indigenous communities in northwestern Bolivia to provide medical and evangelistic missions.  



In the 2024 school-year, we had a goal to do a minimum of 5 mission trips.  2023 was a difficult year and as a result, we were only able to do a couple of trips.  We see the impact that these opportunities have on our students and our volunteers, too, and so we prayed that we would be able to do more trips this year.  They are generally short trips, 3-4 days, but even so, and despite the mosquitos and sometimes lack of clean water to bathe in, those who participate always come back with stories, excitement and a new found energy for serving.  With God’s help, we were able to exceed our goal and do 10 mission trips this year!  What an incredible blessing! 



​One gentleman, we’ll call him “David” in particular comes to mind.  David was hunting several years ago when he was attacked by a wild pig.  He was bitten on his leg, which became severely infected.  He was put on heavy antibiotics, which ended up causing him to become blind and because he did not have financial means, his blindness became permanent.  Sadly, the story gets worse.   The antibiotics were not enough and he also ended up losing his leg.  David lives alone in a 1-room rental house with an outhouse.  He has a bed, a couple of plastic chairs, a table, a small refrigerator and some shelving for the few clothes that he has.  He does not have family and has been robbed multiple times because he is alone, blind, lame and extremely vulnerable.  He has no way of working and so often he is hungry, as well.   One group of students and staff have been visiting with David each week during our weekly evangelism and he has been so grateful for the companionships and fellowship during those visits.  Recently, a group went and cleaned his house and did some other small projects for him during community service.  What a blessing and a privilege it is to serve and to know someone like David, a kind, humble and courageous man. 
 


We are now starting to see even more fruits of our labor with regard to mission trips and serving in the various indigenous communities.  This year, for the first time, we had volunteers actually move into one of the communities that we frequently visit, Tigre.  Tigre has a very small Adventist church.  For years, the church has only had 1 member, brother Augustine.   Augustine wanted a church in Tigre so badly that he donated part of his own property and built a church on it.  Each week, even if he was the only one there, and often he was/is, he goes to the church and worships the Lord.  Tigre is a community without any running water, no plumbing, no internet or phone signal.  It is a small community that is about 3 hours from Ixiamas.  Augustine is a hard-working man who has had a desire, a burden, to do more to help the church grow, but he often lives alone (he does have a family, but they do not always live in Tigre) and must work long hours in order to survive.


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In July of this year, three missionaries, Alfredo, Wilson and Manolo , decided to step far outside of their comfort zones and move to Tigre for 5 months to help Augustine with construction of a small house for missionaries to stay in when they visit and also to do outreach and service projects in the community.  These three young men made a huge impact in the life of Augustine and also in the community of Tigre.  There are now more people regularly attending church there and several have expressed interest in being baptized.  Praise the Lord!   We are now actively searching for new missionaries to take their places to continue the work that they started in this special place.  In addition, Alfredo is planning to go to a new indigenous community to live and serve.  He is looking for at least one partner to go with him and once he finds them…he will be moving to minister there.  Please pray with us that God will provide more missionaries for Tigre and that Alfredo with a missionary partner soon!