Simon Howling
Simon Howling is a missionary working in Bolivia who we support prayerfully and financially. He has a number of responsibilities out there:
El Jireh Church: Simon serves as one of the pastors at El Jireh church, whose vision is to “love God, love people and serve the world”. As part of his role, he helps set the direction of the church as they look to step out in faith and see God’s Kingdom grow in their context. Since being there, Simon has helped oversee El Jireh’s discipleship, providing resources for the church family to grow spiritually. The congregation are given devotional material to take home that follows recent preaching themes, such as books on faith, prayer and social justice. Simon is also part of the preaching team and has helped create small groups. A number of community ministries have been formed too, encouraging people to spend time with family and others as well.
Children’s Church (Ninos El Jireh): Simon also oversees the church’s children’s ministry. Their vision is to “to create a loving, safe and fun environment where children can come and grow in their love for God, love for people and be empowered to serve the world”. Each Sunday, an average of forty children attend, where breakfast, activities and biblical teaching is provided. Memory verses are given each week as well as gifts for the children: colouring pencils, pens, school books, water bottles, new clothes, toothbrushes and other items that can help them at school or at home. Simon supports the youth club (La Fabrica Youth Club) every Saturday evening and also helps run holiday clubs throughout the year where he engages with around one hundred children each time.
Football Ministry: Simon also spends time throughout the week supporting a local football ministry which engages with a large number of children and young people. In addition to teaching football skills, he and the other coaches look to develop skills such as leadership, discipline, creativity, hard work and healthy lifestyles amongst the players. Training runs from Tuesday to Friday from 3.00pm until 5.45pm, and then Fridays are set aside for matches so that they can end the school week with some fun. More personal mentoring support is made available and this has enabled a number of strong relationships to be built over time. The kids who come along to La Fabrica (El Jireh’s youth group) come along to football regularly too, helping the church create even greater links in the community.
Language School: Having learnt Spanish fluently, Simon is able to give English lessons which he does twice a week for a number of teenagers. He uses biblical stories such as parables in the Gospels to help the young people learn grammar and vocabulary, whilst deepening their spiritual understanding at the same time.
Medical Mission: Throughout the year, Simon also volunteers at a charity that aims to provide free eye care services such as consultations and surgeries. Their clinic engages with hundreds of people - over a recent two week period, 91 operations were performed and over 500 people were helped in various ways. Simon’s role mainly involves translation with the surgeons, doing visual tests with patients, organising reports and assisting the medical workers in theatre. Recently, he was able to work with a five year old boy who now has full vision after being born with cataract in both eyes - praise God.
