Looking Ahead

With our 5 Love Languages class now over and no Bible Studies currently going on, we met last week as a team to pray and seek God's direction for the summer months. With kids not in school, ministry in the summer (well, Bolivian winter) will look a little different. We have decided to have a 3 part series (adapted from Trinity's 3 Things series) where we will address the topics of Faith, Hope and Love, possibly having nationals lead the sessions. The purpose of these talks is to continue reaching out to people with spiritual truths and remain part of their lives until we begin a more formal Bible study in the fall. The dates for these are May16, June 20 and July 18 with a possible Sunday morning breakfast in August. English class will continue through the end of May, and we also have a few get togethers planned - one for singles, one for families and one for an end of the year English class celebration. Both families remain committed to weekly get togethers with Bolivian friends and neighbors as well. We are excited about these plans and pray that the Lord will use our efforts to glorify Him and draw people to Himself.

25 Random Things About Bolivia

There was a facebook application going around a month or so ago entitled "25 Random Things". The idea was that you wrote 25 random things about yourself and then posted it for all your friends to see. While I was tempted to do it, I didn't. But I had the thought today that I should try to come up with 25 random, or not so random, things about Santa Cruz so that y'all can get a glimpse of what life is like here. So here goes....
1. Vegetables and fruits are dirt cheap here.
2. I had to slam on the breaks the other day on the way to pick up the kids from school b/c a pig ran in front of the car. Before that, a cow crossed the 4 lane paved road in front of me.
3. I've seen a sheep in the parking lot of the grocery store.
4. We have 2 Burger Kings, but no other American restuarants or coffee shops.
5. The people here are generally very friendly.
6. Except when they are driving.
7. The driving here is the craziest thing you have ever seen. No rules!
8. This year the dengue epedimic has been the worst in 22 years.
9. We have a great grocery store, like what we are used to in the states.
10. Most Bolivians go to the market and not the grocery store. Our maid has only been in the grocery store one time. For us gringos though, it sure is nice! (plus, in the markets they hike up prices for the gringos)
11. The city of Santa Cruz is built with a plaza in the city center and then is surrounded by 8 concentric rings with spokes connecting the rings. We live between the 2nd and 3rd ring. The kids' school is between the 6th and 7th ring. (it takes us about 15 minutes to get there)
12. Events always start at least an hour later than the time stated on the invitation. Even weddings and college graduations.
13. All Latin women wear bikins - that are one size fits all.
14. Many stores still close from 12 -3 for lunch/siesta.
15. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day.
16. All middle class and up families have maids, most have nannies, and the richer ones often have one for each child.
17. Many neighborhoods consist of dirt roads.
18. Santa Cruz is a dirty city (people from here will admit this as well).
19. There are no zoning laws, that I can tell. We could open up our front gate and sell hamburgers if we wanted.
20. There is a great coffee shop, thank you Lord!
21. People from Santa Cruz are called Cambas or Cruceños.
22. There's a lot of racism between the Cruceños and Paceños (or people from La Paz, generally indigenous)
23. There is a pizza restuarant that is fabulous, Sahara Pizza.
24. Bolivians, well Latins in general I think, are very family oriented.
25. Did I mention how crazy the driving is? INSANE

Life Is Never Dull

Let me start out by saying that all is fine. But now we know what the ER looks like in Santa Cruz, Bolivia! (Do I have your attention now :) Ty fell out of the hammock last night onto a ceramic tile floor. He had a pretty big goose egg, which didn't concern us all that much since all of our kids have fallen at some time in their life and gotten one. What really concerned us were the different sized pupils. After about an hour and a half, we called our friend Toni, a doctor and fellow missionary, who said if it were her child she wouldn't take chances and would go to the ER for a possible CAT scan. Thankfully our teammate Laura was at our house within 5 minutes to put Sam and Georgia to bed and Bubba and I sped off to the ER. The doctor checked him out thoroughly and said "clinicamente" (clinically)he looked fine, that he didn't need a CAT scan, and that we should just watch him to make sure he didn't throw up or get worse. Gracias a Dios he is fine! It only cost $30 for a visit to the ER and we sure slept better knowing he had been thoroughly checked out. We're thankful that in a third world country we have access to good medical care.

Not Deterred

It's hard to know how to start a post that contains bad news, so I'll skip any pleasantries and get right to the point. A friend who was coming to English class at our house Monday night was held up at gunpoint right outside our front door at 7:45 at night. Two guys on a motorcycle came up quickly and quietly and threatened her and her 14 year old daughter (who never comes with her mom, just happened to on this night). They got away with her purse, car keys, cell phone, credit cards, $90, even tried to take her wedding rings but they wouldn't come off her finger. Thankfully they are both fine, although very shaken up. The crazy thing is that our teammate (a big male) had just let a man in for class, they both waved to our friend (the one who was robbed) as she was parking, and then they came inside. Next thing we know, they had been robbed. It happened that quickly. We've never thought security was a big issue on our quiet street, so never thought it necessary to wait until she parked to see her in.

It's hard to describe our emotions now. Monday night we were angry. Now I mostly just feel weird. Not really scared, just weird about the whole thing. I hate it that it happened when she was coming to our house for a class. I know we are not to blame, but somehow we feel responsible. We are "on guard" a little more now, ramping up the prayers for safety, not wanting this to deter us from the things we are here to do, the things God has called us here to do.