SIM’s Graham and Debbie Frith moved to Santa Cruz, in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia, in mid-2008. Their dream is to establish a new 'El Alfarero' project in Santa Cruz close to the state university, which currently has over 50,000 students. 'El Alfarero' (The Potter) Student Centre is committed to reaching the university population for Christ by developing leaders from the local Evangelical church, who in turn will reach out to the students through the centre and disciple them into mature believers. The new student centre will be at least twice the size of the existing project in Sucre and will meet the needs of even more Bolivian students.
Graham visited Santa Cruz recently looking for suitable land for the ministry. 'We had pre-planned ideas about possible plots and areas, but God had other ideas. All those possibilities closed, but he opened another that we hadn't even considered.' Graham said.
'We found a plot for sale on the other side of the campus. It is the right size, and there is a small entrance to the campus from that side only 50 feet from this property. It backs on to the campus property, and so we could open an access to the café direct from the campus. We are very excited about the prospect, even though there is nothing definite yet.'
Meeting Students' Needs
'El Alfarero' is committed to providing holistic mission through meeting the students' needs:
- economically - providing inexpensive and nutritious food through the café
- socially - by providing a place each weekday night to meet friends and have fun without the influence of alcohol, drugs or smoking
- emotionally - by caring for the students and offering free Bible-based counselling and pregnancy crisis counselling
- spiritually - by introducing them to Christ, helping them through discipleship to mature as believers and to form part of the local Evangelical church
The original 'El Alfarero' has been serving university students in Sucre, Bolivia, since 2001. The day-to-day running of 'El Alfarero' in Sucre was handed over to a Bolivian leadership team at the beginning of 2007.
