The important thing is to arrive in Bolivia

 I had set the date of March 24, 2006 for us to leave Paraguay, the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, for Quijarro, Bolivia. My father decided to buy my car and I made the decision to use the money in whatever it takes to go to Bolivia. But, I had outstanding debts and when he gave me the first part it was to pay off those debts. Well, at the end of it all we ended up broke again. It really was a test.

The point is that from the time the Lord told me to go until it came to fruition, there was a time, a time when I didn't want to make a concrete decision. Then all the doors closed, financial problems and so on. I was left without any resources and prayed until the Lord told us: "Pack your bags and I'll send the money". And we started packing our bags with no money for anything.

Well, we took our two wardrobes to sell to use the money for gas. But the buyer only had half the money. I did the math and it still wasn't enough to get us to the border. God sent us to Bolivia and wanted to go to Bolivia, at least as far as the border. After trying several doors I found myself walking the streets in my car, which I had already sold to my father. I didn't know what else to do. That voice came to my heart, the voice of who it is: “GO TO THE BANK”.

I had received offers from some churches to help us with our missionary service in Paraguay, but it had been a long time since I had received anything. When I arrived there was BRL 133.00 in my account. I jumped for joy glorifying the Lord. I got into the car rejoicing, glorifying and exalting the Lord. I did the calculation again and I could put gas and there was about R$ 10.00 left over to buy something.

I told Mina that we were going to buy a bag of coquito, a very hard cookie sold in Paraguay, and that we would take water to eat with the cookie. This was no joke, we were going to do it anyway. It was all set and all we wanted to do was get to the border at least.

It seemed like a great test: God telling me to go to Bolivia and having all this difficulty in the financial area. It felt like a marathon and the important thing was to reach the target. Ours was to reach at least the border with Bolivia. Well, aside from all the financial hardship Mina was roughly in her second month of pregnancy. But, you know, it's interesting how we didn't think about the difficulties, because we set our eyes on doing the will of the Lord.

I won't say I wasn't worried, because I was pretty worried. But I was also very happy, because even with so little

Peniel e Deborah

resource we could already reach Bolivia. And at the same moment that I was at the door of the Bradesco bank in the city of Ponta Porã, rejoicing in the Lord, my father calls me and tells me to go to his house. I ran out to tell the blessing. I knew he'd be pretty worried to know that I had the money for gas and that I'd have next to nothing to travel with. But when I arrived and told him what happened, my father came into the room and came with an envelope. Inside there was R$ 450.00 reais. He said to me: A brother came by and left this offer to help you on your journey.

Now I had more than enough to get to the Bolivian border. Surely that money would not meet all my need, but I received more than money. Once again the Lord showed me that he is the provider of all things.