A warm hello to all of you who faithfully pray for CBM’s ministry. We are Bill and Janice Dyck. I (Bill) serve as Discipleship and Theological Education Specialist for Latin America, and I (Janice) continue to support a ministry to children in the red-light district of Cochabamba, Bolivia, through music lessons. We are based out of Calgary, but our ministry focus continues to be in Latin America and more specifically, Bolivia, Guatemala, and El Salvador, with plans for further involvement in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. So we’d like to give you an update on these countries and the ministries we are focusing on.

Our partner in Bolivia is The Bolivian Baptist Union (UBB). The UBB held their annual assembly meetings from March 30-April 1^st, but only after postponing them once because of ongoing blockades that prevented delegates from travelling. The annual conventions always involve the approval of ministry plans and the election of new leaders, which creates potential and risk.

The Emmanuel Foundation, which focuses on aiding children in the red-light district of Cochabamba, is witnessing that the children who have gone through the program and grown up are continuing to help a younger generation. This bodes well for sustainability and growth.

Working from Canada, we are seeing national field staff and national partners becoming increasingly important in what we are able to accomplish. In Guatemala, Byron Velasquez, with his network of connections, has been key in finding pastors who can be organized into Pastoring of Pastors groups in Guatemala and El Salvador. My efforts with this first generation of pastors are now being multiplied by forming a second and even third generation of Pastoring of Pastors groups. In Bolivia, pastors Alberto Coarite and Lourdes Salazar just conducted a 2-day training event for 30 pastors and church leaders who plan to form new groups. In Cuba and the DR, Global Field Staff Bruno and Kathleen Soucy made the initial contact, but it will fall on our national partners to make plans for and host our visits in August and October. Our Global Field Staff serve a valued purpose in maintaining a connection to our Canadian constituency and providing a unique, Canadian perspective, but, in our case, working from Canada, we are also very reliant on National Field Staff and partners.

Many ministry and travel plans have fallen into place this past week. We have been meeting weekly with leaders in Bolivia and El Salvador, and bi-weekly with leaders in Guatemala. We now have plans to personally visit Guatemala, El Salvador, the Democratic Republic, and Cuba this year. For these visits, we will focus on forming and evaluating Pastoring of Pastors groups, faith and work, and transformation in theological education. We continue to meet with groups of leaders via Zoom, but are also looking forward to in-person visits that will be coming up.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support of our ministry.

Please pray:

• Pray for political stability so that people and goods can move freely in Bolivia. Pray for fair elections that are upcoming in Guatemala. Pray for a country and people who are struggling to control gang activity in El Salvador, that justice will be carried out with compassion.
• Pray for the new plans of the UBB, which include the continued formation of pastoral support groups.
• Pray for new UBB leadership that will be elected, especially for OBADES, the relief and development arm of the UBB, as it seeks a new Director.
• Pray for Goretty, who heads up the Emmanuel Foundation, as she seeks to lead the expansion of Emmanuel’s ministry. Pray for similar CBM ministries in Bolivia, like La Casa de la Amistad and Jireh.
• Pray for CBM Global Field Staff: Bruno Kathleen Soucy and Kathryn Scott in Guatemala; Tim and Kallie Hutton in Bolivia; and for National Field Staff, Byron Velasquez, and national partners.
• Pray for our upcoming visits to Central America and the Caribbean—for travel and ministry plans, preparation and follow-up/results.