13 interesting facts about our ministry

For the last few months there have been floating around this list of 25 interesting facts about yourself where they ask you to post and then ask others to do the same. I am not going to do that in this post because. But what I am going to do is give a list of 13 interesting facts about our ministry. Some things you probably know and some things you might not. Hope you enjoy them.
1. We have no degree in theology or Biblical studies. There you have it sports fans neither Angie nor I have a degree in formal studies. We have had a ton of training in our home church in Missouri and also have had a year of missions training in Tulsa but that is it.

2. We have been on the field for 7 years. You may have known this or not but Angie and I in November celebrated 8 years of the foreign mission field.

3. Our number one priority on the field is helping pastors. Chances are you have received a ton of information about orphanages, our home church, Christian schools, Bible schools, etc. but our number one priority is and always will be helping pastors. We do that through hosting conference, internet training, writing books, etc.

4. Angie and I have both written a number of books. You probably have not heard about this because all of our books are in Spanish but both Angie and I have written a number of books.

5. As a ministry we have over 31 people working for us. Orphanage 13, office 6, church 5, school 7. A lot of responsibility.

6. We see us working in Bolivia for a long time. We have always considered we would work in Bolivia until our children start going to high school and decide how much longer. That gives us some 7 mores and then we will decide how much longer.

7. I have a marketing degree that helps me in the ministry. It has helped me to no end to understand marketing in the missions calling that I have.

8. We are working with around to 4,000 pastors and leaders on a monthly basis. Again many do not realize this but over the years we have collected an email database and Spanish webpage that allows us to work with some 4,000 pastors and leaders on a monthly basis from our office in Cochabamba.

9. We have two people that have been working with us for more than 6 years. In our ministry office we have 3 people that have been working with us since we were in Santa Cruz 5 years ago. Our office administrator, our music leader and the person that edits our videos and audio teachings and conferences. They liked us so much they decided to move with us.

10. In the 7 years we have been on the field we have never been fully supported. It has always been our dream but has never happened yet. Hopefully before we finish it will.

11. There is no magic organization that fully supports us. This shocks many but we have not organization that carries the majority of our financial support. The largest church that supports us supports us at around 14% of our total income. All the rest are churches and individuals that do their best.

12. There is no organization that is our missions sending organization. This is probably one of the biggest differences between us and other organizations. We do not have a missions sending organization. We do have a home church that acts as our sending organization. We do have countless of churches and friends that help us, but as for an organization in the US that handles our operations there is not one. We do not think that it is the best plan but it has worked for us for now.

13. We have 28 children in our orphanage. People always ask us how many children do we have in our orphanage? At this time we have 28. We only take children that will be with us for long term. Also as we receive more financial help we receive more. They come to us from various stages from being abandoned to being left in trash cans.

That is about all that I can think about for now. Maybe I will try again later.