A missionary we know, Miguel Figueroa, did dentistry missionary work in the jungles of South America. I invited him to preach in our church here in Puerto Rico and we gave him a love offering to help with his work.
We heard some sad new regarding him. He was traveling along a river awhile ago and has gone missing. Some say that he was last seen with a lantern going toward the river at night. Others say that he fell in trying to get into a smaller boat. Whatever happened, enough time passed, that he was presumed dead.
A scholarship for the training of future missionaries was created in his honor and this young man, Gustavo from Bolivia, was selected to receive it.
Gustavo came and preached in our pulpit for our Good Friday service. This is same pulpit that the man whose death provided Gustavo the scholarship preached from just a few years ago.
Gustavo preached with passion, power and conviction. When I announced that he would return Sunday morning, our people said "Amen!"
It may have been in a lonely and a forgotten place that one missionary died, but his legacy lives on in a young man who has taken up the torch and boldly proclaiming the Gospel here in Latin America.
It is our honor and responsibility to train Gustavo and help him fulfil that legacy.
Tina and I will be traveling in the Pacific Northwest this June and July.
Our need is especially urgent as some of our supporting churches have fallen on hard times and have shrunk their missionary budgets. What we hope for is that we might raise at least $1000 of committed monthly support to replace what was lost over the years. Small amounts committed over time add up to keeping us on the field and being able to make essential house and car payments.
Zuley presented her desire to be a missionary in various churches here on our island. She eventually raised a small amount of support and went from our field of Puerto Rico to serve in Panama. We and other churches helped as we could.
People often ask me about the population and economy of Puerto Rico. I answer, but it is hard to visualize the statistics. This map of the North America at night might help. Puerto Rico is the third island to the right, starting from the tip of Florida. Notice how bright it is. Electricity is very expensive in the Caribbean, because it is almost all made by gas engines. Having so many lights on at night shows how dense the population is (4 million in a 35x113 mile rectangle) and how relatively better they are off than their neighbors. While the average Puerto Rican makes half the income of the poorest US state, it is still higher than the other islands in the region.
