Bumpy roads, flat tires, and good times

Our trip out to the middle of nowhere Bolivia was an amazing experience for all of us. Thank you so much for your prayers! Where to begin....it's so hard to recount all the details and stories and experiences we had. I wish each one of you could have been with us. There are 2 verses and 1 quote that I think help to sum up our week. Along with the photos, I hope these stories help you envision our week.

"The joy of the Lord is my strength" Nehemiah 8:10 We were blessed to get to work with a team of 14 from Georgia. What a spirit of joy they had about them. And their joy was contagious. On our 6 hour dirt road journey out to San Jose (think up and down up and down, bump bump bump) we sure needed the strength of the Lord to get us through! It actually wasn't so bad. Bubba wanted us all to take dramamine, so for the first 2 hours we all slept. The other 4 hours really weren't as dreadful as I had feared. The kids did great and thankfully no one got sick. I was amazed that there really was NOTHING on the road for 6 hours, no houses, no towns, no stores....nothing but fields and fields. I've never quite experienced anything like being that far in the middle of nowhere. We arrived safely and began 3 days of work with the Ayore in Fua. Church construction, Bible school, play time with the kids, women's studies, and men's messages were what we did in the village. And throughout it all, heat, dirt, dust, long days everyone worked with such an evident spirt of joy that could only come from the Lord. I'm so thankful that our family got to experience this kind of work. We closed our time there with a small service at sunset with the Ayore and their half finished church building. They sang songs in Ayore, the children quoted scripture in Spanish, and we prayed in Ayore, Spanish, and English to dedicate the new church to the Lord. What an amazing way to end our time in Fua. I was able to video the women singing "Amazing Grace" in their native language earlier that day. Here it is:


"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed" 2 Corinthians 4:8 Our trip was fantastic, but not without it's share of trials! Every aspect of the trip was covered in prayer so I know it was the protection of the Lord that kept us from being crushed, abandoned or destroyed. We had a total of 5 flat tires amongst the 4 vehicles, the first one occurring when the women took off for another Ayore village 30 minutes down the dirt road in the jungle. I was not with them b/c I got claustrophobic in the truck with so many people so I hopped out. Sam, however begged to go with them and Jose, the Mercados' 13 year old son. All the women promised they would watch out for him and protect him, so in the spirit of "Wild at Heart" and letting him spread his wings a little, we decided he could go. They were half way there when they got a flat tire. No one could find the jack, so the women found a log to prop the truck on (mind you, no ordinary truck but an F350 or somethiing of the sort). The women tried and tried to lift the truck (with Sam watching or maybe trying a few times) but couldn't do it. They stopped and prayed, then were able to lift the truck and change the tire right before help arrived (an ayore boy had been sent back to the village to let us know they needed help). Adventure for sure! The second one was uneventful (a truck full of men with a jack :). The third one came when the dirt road to Santiago was blocked by a truck that had broken an axle. We had 2 choices - sit for hours maybe days really until the truck was fixed, or blaze our own trail. We chose the second option which resulted in a blown tire on our truck (changed quickly with a jack and lots of men). The other 2 happened on the way home, which was an adventure in itself. With the exception of the drivers (Bubba included) we took the train home. Uneventful, but instead of up and down bumping, it was a lot of back and forth swaying. But it was eventful for the drivers. The 6 hour drive turned into 12 hours b/c rain turned the road into a mud pit. WHEW! Oh, and one more thing. We got to go to these amazing hot springs to relax for the afternoon. It was great fun until Bubba was sucked down in a bubbling hot spring with the car keys in his pocket. We have a remote door opener, which got wet, meaning we couldn't open the door w/o the alarm going off. The alarm starts going off, the battery is being drained, we can't start the car with the alarm going off, and did I mention we are in the middle of nowhere? So 30 minutes and 5 men later, the alarm system is ripped out, the car is jumped, and we're good as new. Why am I bothering to recount all these stories? I want to tell of the goodness of the Lord. During all of these trials, no one got upset, no one panicked, no one got angry. Really, we relied on the Lord, we prayed, we worked together. It was amazing to see the Lord's provision. Too often we all rely on our own strength, but out where we were, we could see plainly our weakness, our inability to do anything apart from Him. I'm not sorry for any of the "trials". I'm thankful we had the chance to rely on Him and see Him take care of all of our needs.

"We're all in this together" High School Musical. I kept thinking of this the whole week. The team really included our family, sharing treats from the states, loving our kids, caring for us and about us. The other two missionary families and our family bonded in new ways. We helped out with Spanish translating (realizing that 3 years ago we were just like the majority of this team knowing only "gracias" and "por favor" - what a long way we've come!) We really were all in it together, loving, serving, praying, playing. I'm so thankful for all we did!

We're back

Just wanted to quickly update this and let everyone know that we are back safe and sound from our adventure. Thanks for praying for us. It wasn't always easy, but it was sure full of adventure. I'm so glad we went! Will update with details and pictures soon.