Last year, I went to La Paz as part of my training to become a church planter for e3 Partners. During the trip, I fell in love with the people that God allowed me to meet. He also impressed on me the reality of Matthew 9:37-38 (“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”) in what our team witnessed firsthand in the Aymara villages in the Andes Mountains.

Indeed, because of how challenging it is to physically reach these villages, the villagers are like a forgotten people. Even groups such as the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses and the Catholic Church, whose influence are readily observed in the city of La Paz and throughout Bolivia, are rarely found in these Aymara villages. However, God loves these people, and He allowed us to meet several believers (persons of peace, Luke 10:1-9) who are very zealous about sharing the Gospel in these villages. You can find out more about our team’s experience during last year’s trip at this blog site: http://snoopylapaz16.blogspot.com/

After much reflection and prayer, I felt God calling me back to La Paz to continue His work in the Aymara villages as well as in the impoverished neighborhoods of El Alto, a large city adjacent to La Paz. This will be my 7th short-term missions trip with e3 Partners to South America and my 5th trip to Bolivia. And it will be the 1st one that I will be leading as an e3 church planter (insert nervous emoji). God has been very gracious – I will be co-leading this trip with two other e3 staff members, Donna Housley, who was on the La Paz team last year, and Mary Quinn, an experience church planter who has been going to La Paz for many years. Our team of 11 sisters and brothers will partner with national believers to bring the Gospel to Aymara villages and neighborhoods in El Alto. We will not only be sharing the Gospel, but also training the local believers – new and existing – on how to become disciples who make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). We hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will start a church planting movement in these areas.