Story number 5 for 13 Dec 2001

(Bolivia)–And, SIM’s outreach in Bolivia is making headway in the fight against years of dead religion. However, one obstacle still facing workers is significant. According to Jim Hansen, one of two missionary teachers there, the seminary faces a critical shortage in staffing. Without teachers, the seminary can’t function the way it should. Hansen shares the impact seminary graduates are having on the local church. “We found that, over the last 20 years, around 80-percent of the men who have graduated from the seminary are in fulltime Christian work. Of the women who have graduated from the seminary, we find that about the same number have been key people in some kind of church ministry.” Over the last 50 years, SIM-related church work has grown to include more than 30-thousand believers in 450 fully organized churches. SIM is helping train mature, new leaders through their Bible Institutes and extension program.