Dan and Judy Burke minister among the Chimane people of Bolivia. Judy wrote, “On Thursday, April 6, class five was to arrive, and once again it was pouring down with rain. Many Chimane communities along the river were flooded. …. Again, we wondered if the bad weather, swollen river, flooding and muddy roads would hinder their coming. Once again Thursday night just a few people were here, but by Friday morning there were a lot of people, and they continued to arrive throughout the morning. By noon we had reached full capacity.
“The men in class five were studying the life of Christ in the chronological lessons. The ladies in class five are in the first book of chronological lessons and studying from Cain and Abel to the coming of the Flood. We had people in this course representing fourteen of the more than 150 Chimane villages. Each class has a different assortment of people from over forty communities. I asked the ladies in my class if they had known any of these other ladies before they started coming to discipleship courses and they said no. Chimanes don’t do a lot of travelling. Unless you have close relatives in another village, you probably don’t have any reason to go there. One of the benefits of these courses is allowing believers from the scattered corners of the Chimane world to get to know each other and encourage each other. It is a big encouragement just to know that there are so many other believers. When you live in a small village and there are only a couple of believers, it is easy to feel all alone. Now they know that there are many others like themselves.” Pray that the classes continue to be well attended.