LESSONS LEARNED IN BOLIVIA, SOUTH AMERICA
We never forget how to swim, type, or ride a bike. We trained ourselves in these skills years ago. In 2005 my husband, Allan, and I discovered another latent skill hidden in our memory banks that surfaced and became extremely valuable.
It was how to do the Evangelism Explosion presentation, a concise and logical way to share the gospel story with someone who needs to hear it and is willing to listen. We had studied, learned, and drilled ourselves in it almost twenty years earlier. We were able to put these tools to good work when my daughter, Sharon, and her husband Luis Saavedra, Chi Alpha college pastors at the University of Arkansas, invited us to accompany them on a short-term mission trip to Bolivia to inaugurate Chi Alpha college ministry in that country.
(Chi Alpha team photo above: L-R, a local believer, Ronnie Hoover (campus pastor of Chi Alpha ministry at the U. Ark), Luis Saavedra, Howard Nutt (resident Assemblies of God missionary in Sucre, Bolivia), Sharon Gravely Saavedra, Dottie Gravely, Allan Gravely, Kisa Williams from Arkansas, Nellie (Eberti’s wife), Dominique Mitchell from Arkansas, and Eberti, the Bible college house parent/manager.)
Allan carefully recorded details of that trip but forgot about the document. Just recently we discovered a hard copy of it while purging drawers to pack for a move out of state. We read how the EE presentation brought fruit among Bolivians.
I remember very well how we secured our passports in response to a mission magazine article that challenged us to go on a short-term, maybe ten-day mission trip. But where could we go? The answer came via the invitation from our daughter Sharon and her husband, Luis Saavedra, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
They were nationally appointed missionaries with the Assembly of God (AOG) Home Missions Board. Their assignment from their campus pastor, Ronnie Hoover, was to set up an outreach to Bolivia to help spiritual college leaders there to establish their own version of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship (XA), like the North American counterpart. The University of Arkansas had several Bolivian alumni who were once active in XA in Fayetteville.
Luis and Sharon had contacted many AOG Bolivian missionaries to offer to bring a team to set up a XA-type ministry there. (Chi Alpha is the Assembly of God equivalent of Intervarsity or CRU in college ministry to secular campuses.) Only one missionary responded, Howard Nutt of Sucre, Bolivia. He assured them that his area was not affected by the political turmoil that had embroiled the main capital, La Paz. *
Sharon called one day with the invitation to join her team. She needed more Spanish speakers, namely me. The timing was perfect, late May and early June. I would be finished with another school year as a high school Spanish teacher. Allan, who knew little Spanish, was also free since he was retired; he could be my bodyguard. 😊
(Another important result of the timing was that my mind was thoroughly rehearsed in all the Spanish verb tenses because I had been drilling my Spanish II students to prepare them for their semester tests at the end of the year. I could accurately present all the regular and irregular forms of the verbs in several tenses, something I cannot usually do. My knowledge was helpful to the University of Arkansas campus pastor who went on the trip. He seated himself near me and picked my brain for any Spanish knowledge he could gain because he wanted to master the language. Today he can speak Spanish!)
Allan was also invaluable as a gospel witness. Although in 2005 we had not been in an active Evangelism Explosion (EE) program in several years, our former training of the EE presentation proved to be readily “ours” when we needed it, like the old swimming, typing, or riding a bike skill. We had never forgotten it.
Allan also wrote careful notes of our trip. Below is his account written in 2005:
The Chi Alpha team had a providential meeting in Sucre with a college student, Mark Antony, who had been praying for three years for the Lord for workers (obreros) and a meeting place on campus for an outreach to college students. We saw him the next day on campus also.
The mission of the U of Arkansas Chi Alpha on this trip was threefold: first, to network with local churches in Sucre and elsewhere in Bolivia about the idea of Chi Alpha ministry on campus; second, to teach [to Bible school students at Howard Nutt’s Universidad Unidad] about methods of outreach to the campus, used in the US…, and third, to go out and witness on campus. Some local church pastors, both here and in the States, are cool to Chi Alpha, preferring to support their own individual college ministries out of their local churches.
In Sucre, however, the situation was different. The missionary, Bro. Nutt, was very enthusiastic about it, and local Bolivian pastors were willing to meet with Bro. Ronnie Hoover… to understand the Chi Alpha program. There was no Chi Alpha work in Bolivia at all at this time [2005]. ** He explained that if five or ten different AG churches had students studying at various colleges at the local university, and the students did not know each other, it would make it hard to witness. The idea of Chi Alpha as a trans-local church group which cooperates with the local churches seemed to have some appeal to them.
Monday was an interesting day. Ronnie flew to Santa Cruz to talk to AG pastors there about the idea of Chi Alpha work and was scheduled to fly on to La Paz for the same purpose and return on Wednesday, but demonstrators shut down the airport at La Paz, and he was unable to leave Santa Cruz. On Monday morning, Sharon, Luis, and the team taught [to the Bible college students] about cell groups. Then, we went to the Facultad (College) of Communications at University of San Francisco Xavier (USFX). Each of the colleges of the university is a separate location—there is not just one campus like in US. Providentially, Mark Antony was there. He commandeered a classroom, and as the students were coming in, told them that some people were there from the States to tell them about a new organization on campus. Since he himself was just a student, it seemed rather unreal, since we did not also know that the professor was waiting patiently outside the door, while Luis talked about Chi Alpha (interpreted in Spanish by Dottie G.) There was a good discussion for about 30 minutes with Q & As… we realized what had happened—but it seemed like business as usual to everybody involved. Maybe they were just curious to hear what these gringos (North Americans) had to say.
We left the classroom on the second floor and went down to the central courtyard area where students were mingling. Team members were able to engage some students in a stimulating discussion. [It was helpful that both Sharon and Luis are artists and did free pencil drawings of student profiles. While the drawings were being done, team Spanish speakers witnessed to the subjects who had to sit still and listen.] …Students expressed pros and some cons regarding the current political situation in Bolivia, the main protagonist against the status quo being the Aymara Indian agitator, Evo Morales.
Finally, Dottie, who had the best Spanish, was able to engage a student, Eloy, with the two Evangelism Explosion diagnostic questions. The two questions are (1) “If you were to die tonight, have you come to the place in your spiritual journey that you have assurance that you would go to heaven?” and (2) “Suppose you were to die tonight and come to the gates of heaven, and God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’, what would you say?”
She found out that he… had not been to church in years…. When he was asked if he would go to heaven if he died that night, he fumbled for an answer and finally said he did not know. Then he asked, “How do you get eternal life?” She told him that it was a free gift and could not be earned by any works. He, like others we witnessed to, seemed happy to discover that salvation is free and not earned or merited. Dottie then explained the whole plan of salvation to him. Afterwards, she asked him if he wanted to receive Jesus. He said “yes,” and she motioned me to come over. She almost couldn’t believe that he wanted to be saved, and she wanted a male to pray with him. I led Eloy in a prayer in English, Dottie translated, and he repeated it line by line. When he finished, he seemed to be satisfied and relieved that his name was now in the book of life. Afterwards, we invited him to join us for a meal across the street at the Centro Church.
After praying with Elroy, Dottie turned her attention to three young ladies (Tatiana, Leslie, and Claudia) who had been dialoguing with female team members. After an EE presentation, they also prayed to receive the Lord. One of the Arkansas students, Kisa Williams, also shared salvation with another student and led her to the Lord. Sharon arranged a time to meet with them later in the week to go shopping together; she also got some emails and phone numbers. Sharon asked them how they felt; one particularly said with a smile, “I feel good.” (Later in the week, the girls did go shopping with our team members and 2 local Christian women who had agreed to serve as core leaders for these girls! Hopefully, a Chi Alpha core group was born, what Sharon had hoped to accomplish on the trip!
Our time was up at the Facultad (College) of Communications because we had to go on to the church across the street. There we found out that there had been a miscommunication and there was not a meal but rather a meeting of leaders of college-age cell groups. This turned out well because Sharon was able to introduce Eloy to one of the cell group leaders. The college pastor asked our group to give a 20-minute devotion. Luis spoke about the 7 mountains around Sucre and talked about the mountain in Zech. 4:6-7, a mountain that represents something blocking the will of God being done. The mountains will come down not be might, not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Luis exhorted students to let God’s Spirit bring down whatever might hinder His will; then He will get all the credit for it. During the business session that followed, we apologized profusely to Eloy about the misunderstanding about a meal but invited him to accompany us to eat somewhere as our guest afterwards. His friend, Juan Pablo, also came along; Luis had become friends with J. P. but had not done a direct salvation approach.
We found a good pizza place and ordered 3 medium and 2 individual pizzas, and drinks for everyone for only about $11.00 US currency. During conversation with Eloy earlier that evening, Dottie mentioned that members of our group were not tourists but rather—Eloy completed the sentence for her—"on a mission.” We were glad that the outside world could sense our focus and purpose for being in Bolivia. After the meal, Eloy and Juan Pablo walked all the way to Universidad Unidad, where we were staying, with us; we wanted them to know exactly where the big Friday night “mixer” party would be held. This party was a plan by Ronnie Hoover to bring together the Bible college students, unsaved secular college students, and churched college students from local churches. We began telling students about it and preparing for it.
As we reflected on that evening later, we were amazed at how open the students were to our witnessing. Ronnie said that it seems that the EE approach is just tailor-made to these students, since most of them do not have a sophisticated secularist approach…. They believe in the existence of heaven and hell but don’t know how it relates to them personally via the gospel. (Emphasis mine/DG)
[THE NEXT DAY] … In the afternoon, the team planned to go back to the campus, but the area was so thick with parades and crowds, (a preparation for the next day, their Independence Day from Spain – May 25), that they were unable to locate the students. One of the three girls who had accepted Jesus came up and made an appointment for the next day for some shopping and fellowship.
On Thursday, the Bible college was in session again, and I [Allan] gave a presentation on the background, philosophy, and overview of the EE presentation. Neither the missionary nor any of the students had ever even heard of EE. The main point was that EE is not a method of evangelism promising a certain quality of life (“God has a wonderful plan for your life”) or self-actualization, but focuses on the cuestión última--the final question of our lives—what will we say to God at the end? Dottie and student [Dominique Mitchell from Arkansas] role-played an EE presentation in Spanish.
On Friday morning, the Chi Alpha team did their last session in the AM with the Bible college students…. In the afternoon Dottie and I went to town and wound up at the central plaza in Sucre. We sat down on a bench, and the ever-present shoeshine boy came up to do our shoes. Dottie let him shine a little spot on the toes of her tennis shoes and, after a little, began talking to him about the two questions of EE. After a little time, more shoeshine boys came up and soon we had a crowd of eleven shoeshine boys, ages about 7 to 13, listening to Dottie tell them about God’s free gift of eternal life in Spanish. At the end she prayed with all eleven the sinner’s prayer, with them repeating the words. Who knows how many were serious? I did feel that one older boy, about 13, was pretty serious about what was being said. We did get all their names. My hope is that as they grow up, somewhere in their memory bank there will be stored away an encounter with some people who told them about God. We encouraged them to find a church, and when we asked what church they knew of, one said Asamblea de Dios (Assembly of God).”
END OF ALLAN’S REPORT.
In the account above, many details were omitted and only those were included which support my theses, that (1) EE works for serious soul winners who are looking for a tool to use to obey the Great Commission of Matthew 28; (2) that it is important to follow up with and support new converts; and (3) that it is good to keep EE workers strong in their own faith. In my case, for example, I could give my testimony at the drop of a hat, but I could not effectively “close the deal” for a seeker and help him have his own testimony of salvation. EE has helped me lead a number of people to the Lord.
For those of you who are unable to find an active EE training program, you might have to become self-taught via books or the Internet. See www.eeworks.org or just the Evangelism Explosion method of Dr. D. James Kennedy of Fort Lauderdale, FL. Just ask the Lord to lead you. You will never regret it.
*Bolivia is a rare country with two capitals. Sucre is the judicial capital where the new governments convene one day, then disperse the following day. The other capital is La Paz, the executive and legislative capital, located at an even higher altitude.
** The Arkansas Chi Alpha made a 10-year commitment to Bolivian campuses to see multiple XA chapters established, beginning in 2005 through 2015. Today several cities have universities where a chapter is active. To God be the glory!
NOTE: A shorter account of this trip and how it was financed is included in my 2015 autobiography entitled Alabama and Beyond, Creating a Lasting Legacy, pp. 172-184.