Never the Same
//David and Violeta Larsson
It was a bad situation. The hospital room was dark and dirty, the atmosphere was dismal, and the man lying in the bed
surrounded by tubes and grieving relatives was dying of tuberculosis. For David and Violeta Larsson, 1991 RHEMA Bible Training Center graduates and new missionaries to Bolivia, there was just one thing they could do—act on the Word.
Opening their Bibles to Mark 16:18, they read aloud so everyone in the room could hear: “Believers will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” Looking at the man in the bed, they said, “We’re going to do what the Bible says. We’re going to lay hands on you and you’re going to recover.”
David and Violeta laid their hands on the man, and though he looked no better, they instructed him to begin thanking God that he was healed. “He took what we told him to heart,” David said. “He started thanking God right then.”
Did You Know?» In Bolivia, nearly everyone who hears the Gospel wants to be saved! The challenge is to get those who respond to commit to a local church and take responsibility as active members. Fast FactsDavid and Violeta Larsson are directors of RHEMA Bolivia. David is a 1991 RBTC graduate and Violeta is a 1991 one-year RBTC graduate. |
From that moment, the atmosphere in the room began to change. A few days later the man was out of bed, out of the hospital, and completely healed. Four years later he was still healed and said he had never coughed again.
A Swedish Beginning
David and Violeta’s journey to Bolivia began more than 7,000 miles away in Sweden. As a young child, Violeta had moved there from Bolivia with her family. It was in Sweden that she fell in love with Jesus and with her husband. After marrying, David and Violeta both had a strong hunger for the Word of God. Driven by a desire to hear more about Who God was, they attended a Bible school in Sweden. After studying under one of the teachers—a RHEMA graduate—they decided to attend RHEMA USA themselves.
During the two years the Larssons were at RHEMA, God began to give them glimpses of their future. “I knew God had called us to missions,” Violeta recalled, “but I wasn’t even thinking about going back to Bolivia.” As the couple participated in a prayer group, though, God laid that very country on their hearts.
“The Holy Spirit directed us to pray more and more for South America—more specifically, for Bolivia,” noted David. “It was between my first and second year that it became clear what God had for us in Bolivia.”
The Larssons returned to Sweden and spent five years helping in two Bible schools. Then, in August of 1996, David and Violeta determined that the time was finally right. With their two children in tow, they packed up and moved to Cochabamba, Bolivia.
RHEMA Bolivia
Nestled more than 8,000 feet above sea level in the shadow of the towering Andes Mountains, Cochabamba is located in the heart of Bolivia. Here David and Violeta started a church in their living room in January of 1997. “The first one to get saved was a taxi driver,” David recalled. “He received Jesus, then brought some friends with him. They were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and became our starting group.”
Today, the church—Iglesia la Palabra de Fe (Word of Faith Church)—has grown to more than 250 members, and they have planted four other churches throughout the region. Pastored by nationals David and Violeta have trained, these churches are thriving with from 50 to 100 members each.
In 1999, led by a desire to train leaders for the Body of Christ, the Larssons founded a Bible school in Cochabamba—La Palabra de Fe. In 2010, the school officially came under the RHEMA umbrella and RHEMA Bolivia was born. Since its inception, the school David and Violeta founded has seen more than 300 graduates pass through its doors. Even the pastor of the largest church in Cochabamba came to the school desiring to be trained. “This pastor told me he had about 1,500 people come on Sunday but didn’t know what to tell them,” David explained. “He went through our Bible school, and then his wife, daughter, and 15 other people from his church also came.”
RHEMA Bolivia, like its U.S. counterpart, is a two-year program with an optional third year. In order to accommodate the busy schedules of working students, the school offers morning and evening sessions with three lessons each. Sessions are taught three days a week. Third-year students receive specific teaching in their specialties, but they also participate in evangelism and other church outreaches.
In April of 2011, RHEMA Bolivia received the go-ahead to open another campus in La Paz—Bolivia’s administrative capital and one of its largest cities. With so much happening, David and Violeta—and their team of teachers—are staying busy. But they couldn’t be happier. “The greatest thing for us,” said David, “is to see people change in the two or three years they’re with us. When some come in, they are very shy. They won’t look at you, because they are a people who have been oppressed. After learning God’s Word, they come out so different—so confident. To hear them preach is really an amazing thing.”
One of David and Violeta’s current students, a first-year graduate, saw changes not only in her thinking but also in her body. Because of problems with her knee, she spent most of her time in bed. But then she decided she wanted to come to Bible school. She came in a wheelchair, and as she sat in class, she heard about faith and healing. “The student next to her in classes basically started bugging her,” David laughed. “He started saying, ‘Are you listening Don’t you think it’s time to come here without your wheelchair?’ ”
Prompted by what her classmate was saying and by what she was learning in class, this woman left her wheelchair behind and began coming with a walker. Concerned, her children warned her that she was going to hurt herself. “But she told them, ‘I’m learning some things in Bible school,’ ” David said, “and she kept coming.”
“It took some time,” Violeta interjected, “but she left her walker behind and started to come with a cane. She was hearing more about the Word of God and receiving more of her healing because faith was increasing in her. One day she came without anything. She came walking!”
Looking Ahead
With 35 of their graduates pastoring churches and numerous others serving in the ministry of helps, David and Violeta are in awe of what God has accomplished through them in Bolivia. But they know there is much more to be done. “When God sent us to Bolivia, He told us to give His Word to the people,” David affirmed. The first step was to touch the city of Cochabamba, the second step is to cover the country, and the final step is to extend beyond the country.”
David and Violeta are well on their way to fulfilling the vision, and they are grateful to be a part of what RHEMA is doing around the world.
“We see it as an honor to be able to work in the ministry—to give the same training we received at RHEMA to people in Bolivia,” David said. “What we learned at RHEMA changed our lives completely. It gave us purpose and taught us so many things.”
“We have been blessed,” Violeta added. “RHEMA changed our life. In Spanish we say, ‘Jamás serás el mismo.’ That means you are never the same once you attend RHEMA. You come in as one person and finish as another, because God is changing you every day through His Word and the Holy Spirit. It’s just fun to see what God can do!”