The concept of community development has always conveyed the idea of church planting in the missionary work of The Bolivian Community Project. This is a statement!

Empowering people in the neighborhood to deal with the felt needs of their societies and enjoy a higher quality of life has meant for us to lead them to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in order to discover God’s divine plan for their lives and their community.

This understanding has given us many opportunities to respond to our neighbors inquiries on the reason for us to be in their midst doing the good that other agents have denied them. Why do you do what politicians have failed to fulfil? Why do you give us access to privileges usually available only for the rich? Why do you love our children so much?
Why have you left your comfort to share with us the struggles of our quality of life?

These and many more questions have given us the opportunity to give as an answer that it is all because the love of God shown to us first in order to empower us to love our neighbors as the only way to be truthful in our love for Him. Actually, we have tried to explain to many people that it is through love that they will be given the opportunity to know Jesus as the One sent from the Father. But this has been a complex biblical statement that demands more creativity in its presentation. So, we have been creative!

Adhemar

Children Happy Hours (Latin American! Not British!) following a very effective pattern developed by Child Evangelism has provided us one of the best tools to communicate to children God’s love and plan of salvation in Jesus Christ, and not only to answer their questions but equip them to share the answers with their immediate relatives. Training people to lead these programs has also been very profitable, as many young people and adults have had the opportunity to mature in their personal faith and commitment to serve the Lord.

Bible Clubs for 4-15 years old children following the guidelines and requirements of the AWANA Clubs International has been probably the best tool to disciple most of our children and young people enrolled with our Centre activities. This is a rigorous program of Bible memorization and doctrinal teaching accompanied by patriotic and recreational activities that gives to its members the opportunity to persevere for rewards and national events that definitively provides them with goals and responsibilities aimed to mature their personalities, Christian character and commitment to evangelism.

Bible Winter Camps has been everybody’s favorite in our neighborhood. This is a program of 5 days and 4 nights out in the open air by one of the local rivers when we live in tents and become engaged in a wealth of activities from 6 am to 11pm non-stop.
We become a family of more than 200 people with adults and young people involved as counselors looking after groups of five children through meals, recreational activities, Bible studies, drama, camp singing, clean-up duties, group contests, excursions, night-special evangelistic open air, baptisms and communion services, etc. And, the truth is that presenting Jesus to our neighbors has been a lot of fun and divine gladness!


Eddy, another worker of the church

The Evangelical Community of Christian Brethren.

This is the church born as a result of God’s presence in our neighborhood and our missionary involvement in community development.

Naturally, this young church reflects the distinctiveness of The Christian Brethren Movement due to the religious background of Lucho and Lorna as the pioneer missionaries. Nevertheless, it has its own character and folklore resulting of its own spiritual process, fresh approach to the Scriptures, and today’s divine history.

The church is not only young in life but also young in membership. Its average age reckons to be 24 years old. There are more than 60 regular members currently in fellowship, from more than 25 families. Visitors and extended family members bring our numbers during Sunday family services to more than 150 people and in special events we could have easily more than 300 guests. Our files show a greater number of families being reached with the Gospel through the years but because the social conditions of the town and the temporal nature of its social opportunities, many have moved to the larger cities or emigrated to other countries, taking with them their newly acquired relationship with God and becoming active members of larger churches or pioneers of new churches in their new places. This has been our contribution to the universal and militant Church.

We adhere to the foundational doctrines of the Christian Faith and opt for the Apostles’ Creed as the common ground of interaction with other members of the Body of Christ. We practice the Believer’s Baptism and the Lord’s Supper and embrace the practices of Child Dedication and the Blessing of Marriage as part of our church Christian witness & commitment in the community. We have not a clue on how to deal with Christian funerals yet!

The Gospel is preached throughout the weekday's activities and on Sunday we dedicate our services to the edification of the Lord’s people, the encouragement of our neighbours’ families by ministering the Word of God, and we also meet specially for Communion.

One night of the week is for home pastoral visitation. Two nights of the week are dedicated to prayers and Bible study. Three nights of the week are for special meetings for young people, CCC families, church women, church men and leaders.

The church leadership is now well equipped with faithful and able men and women who are committed with their gifts to reach the unsaved and minister the saints with the Word of God. Most of these leading believers are involved in one way or another with “La Palmera” CCC community work either as commended full time workers or as “tent makers”. Locally, we support all evangelical efforts and parachurch agencies.

The church has a missionary vision for the region and the country and it has supported teams to other parts of Bolivia and short term workers to India & Colombia as members of YWAM teams.