Adventure

This week the kids and I are finishing up an enjoyable week of VBS. They are having a great time, and I am enjoying myself as well as I am teaching Ty's class. (although keeping up with 11 3,4, and 5 year olds is wearing me out!) Sunday we will begin an adventure that we are looking forward to with excitement and a little bit of apprehension. A team from Georgia is coming down for just over a week to work with fellow SAM missionaries and doctors, Toni and Placido Mercado. A team from this church has been coming for many years to work with the Mercados and the Ayore indians. On Sunday our family will join the team and head for a town called San Jose de Chiquitos. This town is about 130 miles from here, but it will take us about 5-6 hours to drive. Why you ask? because the road is dirt and gravel! Ouch! Once we are there we will work in two Ayore communities, one called Fua and the other Santa Teresita. We will be doing various activities, namely finishing a church in Fua (a community of about 30) and holding VBS for the children of the communities. We will work there until Wednesday morning and then we will begin the second leg of the journey. We will head to 2 other small towns, only about 2 hours away on a paved road, Roboré and Santiago where we will visit another Ayore community. Not far from the town of Santiago is the sight where in 1943 five New Tribe Missions missionaries were killed by a group of Ayore. We will visit that sight as well as some hot springs nearby. On Thursday night, the team, another SAM missionary and her 3 kids, and our three kids and myself will catch a train back to Santa Cruz. It's supposed to be the "nice" train, meaning that the seats recline, it is air conditioned, and it doesn't stop at every little town. Bubba and the other men will drive home the next day. Hopefully this will give you an idea as to why we are looking forward to the trip with excitement and a little bit of apprehension. We really want our kids to have this kind of missionary experience, and we pray that it will be a good experience for all of us. I'll include some specific prayer requests and we'd certainly appreciate your prayers for us!

safety on the road as we travel

that we would be able to endure the 5 -6 hour gravel road without any car sickness

that our kids would be flexible and patient, but also enjoy our time and understand why we're doing what we're doing (showing the love of God to a people who are extremely poverty sticken and marginalized in Bolivia)

for God's protection to be over all aspects of the trip

HOPE

"Hope, for the Christian, is not wishful thinking or mere blind optimism." N.T. Wright

What is hope? This is a question we are addressing tonight at our house with our Bolivian friends. Tonight is the second in our three part series of talks on faith, hope and love. We're praying that our friends will see why we have hope, in whom we hope, and most of all that our hope is real.

Samaipata, Bolivia

VACATION! Our family got to take a 5 day vacation in the mountains of Bolivia, in a little town called Samaipata about 2 1/2 hours away. It was great to get away from the city and from reality for a few days. We stayed in a cabin on top of a mountain that overlooked the town. The kids were able to run and explore, which is something they don't get to do much of here in the city. We hiked, read, played games, built fires, and had amazing family time. I loved not only being away with my family, but also seeing a different part of Bolivia, a beautiful part. Santa Cruz is not a pretty place. It's a big, dirty, noisy city. So for me, getting away to enjoy the beauty of God's creation was like a breath of fresh air, literally and figuratively.

As far as ministry right now goes, we're continuing with our Monday night English class and our talk/discussion on Hope is coming up on the 18th. This Thursday we're going to a concert and taking along 5 Bolivian friends. Jesus Adrian Romero is a latin christian singer whom we first heard in Costa Rica. He is phenomenal. Personally, we're excited to go see him ourselves, but adding to the excitement is the fact that we have Bolivian friends going with us. Also, we're praying about a family trip out to the country the last week of June to help with a work team from the states. Bubba will definitely go, maybe taking Sam and maybe taking all of us. And lastly, we are so excited that a team from our home church is coming July 23 - 30th. We're so excited to share our lives here with some of our best friends from home and to work together on some projects both with the professional class and the Ayore indians.