Category Archives: Praises
God Is Working in Bogotá!
Before coming to Colombia, a mentor and pastor friend of mine recommended that I get together with Freddy Nieto while in Bogotá. He’s the pastor of Iglesia Bíblica Bautista de Suba (Suba Biblical Baptist Church) and is doing an incredible work. We met up with him and his wife this morning and spent several hours learning about the way that God is working in Bogotá and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go to any of their church services, but we were able to tour the church’s beautiful facility and spend several hours with this precious pastor and his wife. Their church runs about 500 and they see people saved every week. There are many studying in their Bible Institute getting ready to go out into the rest of the country to reach the lost. Amen!
Be praying with me if you will, as Brother Freddy asked me to consider coming back in January to preach their annual youth camp. It would be an awesome opportunity but we’ll have to see if finances and time permit and ultimately if God opens the doors for this.
Later this afternoon we met up with a new missionary family, Daniel and Jennifer Mee along with their beautiful little baby girl Eliana (definitely made me miss my daughter Amira). They work with ABWE and just arrived here in the country about a month ago. They gave us some great advice about deputation, moving to Colombia and general tidbits of info they wished they’d have known before moving here. God is really working in their hearts and they are excited to be part of a movement of church planting and evangelism here in Bogotá and around Colombia.
After a delicious dinner with the Mee family we went to the Bogotá Baptist Seminary that is sponsored by ABWE and enjoyed their evening chapel service. There are quite a few young people studying in the Seminary to become pastors and missionaries and even to be laymen in the churches. There were maybe 40 in the room, then another 90 or so studying online through correspondence courses. Praise God for what he is doing in this ministry! The Lord has already used them to start dozens of churches around Bogotá and there are plans for even more churches down the road as God permits.
What we are finding is that God is definitely working here. It is incredible! People are finding hope. Souls are being eternally saved. Lives are being changed. Families are being restored. Revival is being experienced. It is great!
However, even with the wonderful news about what God is doing in this place, we must be honest with ourselves.
Let me throw some stats at you… I live in the US state of Georgia. According to the 2010 US Census, there are 9,687,653 people in Georgia. That’s just a little bigger than the city of Bogotá–smaller, if you include Bogotá’s larger metro area. In 2005 there were an estimated 8,190 Baptist churches. That’s one church for every 1,183 people. Do we need more churches there? Of course!
Yet… in this city of over 8,500,000 people (11,000,000 according to some statistics) there are maybe 25 or 30 churches, total. Only 25 or 30. That’s all. To me, at first, honestly it seemed like a lot. It seemed that this city, at least, was being reached. But that’s only one church for every 440,000 people. Wow.
God is working here.
But the need is still great.
What are we doing to reach this city?
What are we doing to reach the world?
What will you do?
We’re leaving tomorrow. I am thankful that we’ve been able to spend this time here. God has worked in my heart and I am more excited than ever about coming to this beautiful country and to these beautiful people to tell them about my beautiful Savior. He loves them and gave his life for them. The least we can do is deliver the message!
Valentines Day In Bucaramanga With My Sweetie
Several years ago (does that statement make me seem old?), my wife, before she was my wife, told me she wanted to go to Colombia with me. It kind of made me chuckle at first, but it became a mutual dream before long. And that dream wasn’t realized until this month. It has been so special traveling with the love of my life over the past several days in the land that God has laid on our hearts. There’s nothing like it. Aubrie is the most special thing that has ever happened to me, outside of my relationship with Jesus Christ, and I thank the Lord for her every day.
Aubrie, I love you. Thank you for being mine.
Colombians, in contrast with some other Latin American countries, don’t celebrate Valentine’s day in February, but they do have a “Día de Amor y Amistad” in September (Love and Friendship Day). There are some interesting customs associated with that day that we learned about today, but I think I’ll save those for another post.
We flew out today about 1:30 in the afternoon and left behind some new good friends. The Washburns are a wonderful couple and have been so kind to us during the few days we spent in Medellín, Colombia. There is no doubt that God is doing a work through them. Be praying for their ministry. They have a brand new church plant, 4 other works throughout the city that are now led by men that they trained and a couple outside the city also. They have quite a few people in their Bible Institute there as well that are interested in ministry. May God be glorified through them!
The flight to Bucaramanga was only 35 minutes. I’m glad we opted for the flight over the 10 hour bus ride. The price difference wasn’t that big and the convenience was amazing. Though it was a smaller-than-what-I’m-used-to twin engine plane, and it was a little odd looking out our window and seeing a propeller, the ride was nice and they even served us a Dunkin Donut and a drink on our trip. Amen.
Bucaramanga is the capital of the state of Santander in Colombia. Its metropolitan area is made up of both Bucaramanga and the nearby cities of Girón, Floridablanca and Piedecuesta. The population of that area is between 1,500,000 and 2,00,000 (depending on who’s stat you read 🙂 ). One reason Buca was so appealing to us is that it is growing very quickly. We saw this on the way to our Hotel from the airport, which is 45 minutes outside of town. There was much construction on the roads as they’re working on widening them, more buildings being built, and people everywhere. You can kind of see these four cities connecting before your eyes. That’s the kind of place we want to be. A place that grows around us. And when people are willing to uproot to move to a whole new area of the country, usually they don’t feel as obligated to follow the traditional dead faith of their fathers, for tradition’s sake. They are more open to the Gospel.
And yet, I haven’t been able to find a single like-minded church in this entire area. I have been able to locate a couple of churches that, though we might not agree on everything, might be preaching the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith and they have done very well in reaching the people. I’ll be trying to get in contact with these and others while we’re here.
Tomorrow we’ll be checking out most of the area around town. It seems they have a pretty good Metrolinea, which is the local bus route that connects the city. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Be praying that God gives us clear guidance while we’re in this city. We have a lot on our agenda over the next 4 days before heading out for Bogotá. It seems like there is a great need here!
Here are a couple more pictures of some things we’ve seen.
How would you like to have this guy's job? Many parts of Colombia seem to be much more concerned with recycling that we do in the States. But even so, somebody's got to go through those goodies to make sure everything is in it's place. Hmmm
This one's for Aubrie... 😉 Does anybody know what kind of bird this is?
Shoes galore! We had heard this about Bucaramanga, but now we've seen it with our own eyes. Since Buca is home to many of the world's shoe factories, there are shoes for sale everywhere. I'll post more on this later.
Getting Back Up To Speed
Life has been zooming by at full speed! We’ve had quite a bit going on over the past few weeks, so here’s an ultra quick update:
1. Hopefully The First Of Many…
Lighthouse Baptist in Dawsonville, Georgia has been my home church since my sophomore year of college 6 years ago and my wife’s home church since 2008 when she moved down to Georgia. We were so honored to be a part of their missions conference this year and look forward to being sent out to start churches and reach the lost in Colombia, South America. This was our first time presenting our ministry in a missions conference! My wife gave her testimony, and I was able to present our ministry plans and preach. Thank you, Lighthouse family for loving us, supporting us and for the generous love offering. We love you guys!
2. More Elbow Room….
God opened up the doors for my little family to move just this past weekend. It was incredible to see how he worked out all the tiny details to get us a place with a little more room. We now have a place that I can use as an office during deputation as I call hundreds of pastors and churches around the nation. Thanks, Lord! Now we’ve got to get unpacked. I don’t know… the “Box Jungle” look is growing on me…. nope, nevermind.
3. Wait, How Old?…
They always say that time flies, but it’s never been so true as now. It’s hard to believe that Amira is already 10 months! That’s almost 1 year! And that’s almost 18! Yikes!! Ha…. Well, anyway, she is now pulling up to stand, crawling like a speed demon (a cute one, of course), drinking through a straw, singing and talking like a politician just before election day. 🙂 Love that little girl!
4. Ten Days & Counting….
Our long-awaited survey trip to Colombia is only 10 days away! We’ve seen the Lord provide in a phenomenal way and now have 100% of our support for the trip. Be praying for us as we visit the cities of Medellín, Bucaramanga and Bogotá. We’ll be visiting a couple existing missionary works, a children’s rescue home and a couple indigenous churches as well. We’ll also be in some areas where there is nothing to be found. It burdens our hearts that we cannot find any like-minded churches or missionaries in so many parts of this country. Will you pray that God works in our hearts and lives as he gives us clear direction as to his will? We are confident that Christ will be magnified.
Thanks for keeping up with us. Feel free to send us a message get in contact with us with any questions or comments you might have. God bless. Love you guys
First Missions Conference!
Hey everyone,
Just a quick note to ask for prayer. We’ll be presenting the ministry in our first missions conference tomorrow (January 9th)! This will be at our home church, Lighthouse Baptist Church in Dawsonville, Georgia.
God has allowed us to serve at Lighthouse for 6 years now. It’s hard to believe we’ll be on deputation raising support across America within just a few short months.
During the conference we’ll be presenting details of our Survey trip (coming up February 10-22) and our long-term goals for Colombia. I’ll also be preaching in the evening service.
So if you’re in the area feel free to drop by. Even if you cannot come, we would definitely appreciate your prayers.
Thanks!
May Christ Be Magnified,
Aaron
Philippians 1:20-21
Merry [Belated] Christmas!
God has been so good to us this year! We’ve been blessed in so many ways. New additions to our home (isn’t she cute?), growth in our ministry, and open doors for new opportunities… (more on that later). The Lord has taken care of every need, taught us new things and poured out his amazing love and goodness on us. Our cup really is running over!!
We just got back from spending Christmas with Aubrie’s family up in Ohio last week. They really are a blessing to me. I couldn’t ask for better In-laws! We enjoyed seeing lots of snow the entire time (for a Georgia boy: Lots of snow=3 inches! lol), remembering the Christmas story, exchanging gifts and eating [probably] a little too much amazing food.
The road home late Sunday and early Monday morning was a bit rough but God kept us protected the entire time. Just like I told Aubrie, I’m pretty sure that if I have a guardian angel, he’s probably a little overworked. 🙂
Thanks for being part of our lives. Thanks for taking the time to keep up with our lives and ministry. Thanks for praying. We really need it.
May God bless you and your family this upcoming year with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Aaron, Aubrie & Amira Vance
Philippians 1:20-21
The Vance Family 