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.

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.

Building Relationships

Last Friday was Bolivia's Labor Day, so a holiday for all. We decided to take a bunch of Bolivian friends bowling. Yes, there is a traditional bowling alley here, but for most Bolivians it's not a common activity. We invited 5 families to go with us and the Kienzles. Two were able to come and it was a great afternoon! We bowled for about an hour then went across the street for ice cream. Sometimes this kind of thing doesn't feel like ministry, but in our eyes it is absolutely essential, these times of relationship building. Then today, our kids's school had a huge yard sale. One of my Bolivian friends wanted to go, so she and I went along with my children and her 2, ages 5 and 9 (just lacking a 7 year old and it would be a perfect match!) We spent 3 1/2 hours there, no kidding! (I was done after 30 minutes :) After that we went out to lunch with the kids. 6 months ago, I couldn't have done it. 6 hours of being with a Bolivian by myself would have made me so nervous (because of having to speak spanish for that long without having anyone else to rely on to "save" me). And granted, my spanish was far from perfect today, but I did it. We feel like we're beginning to make good friends, and we're praying that throught these friendships others will see Jesus.

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.

March Update

Things are going well here in Santa Cruz. We're pushing onward and moving forward. March has been a really good month for us as a family and in ministry. Here are some highlights....

Angela got her drivers license, and despite her initial fears, she has learned how to drive in this crazy place, honking the horn and cutting people off on a regular basis.

Georgia started taking violin lessons too. She joins Sam in this and they both are thriving in the all Spanish speaking violin school. Sam will have a concert in April in which he will play 17 songs solo!

Ty continues to be our little companion here at home as he is not in school yet. He will start Kindergarten in August and is counting the days. Mom however is not - I love having him home! He continues to make us laugh. The other day he stood and stared at my legs and said, "Wow mama, your legs look like Bolivian legs." Asking him to explain, he said "They just look dark." Isn't 5 a little young to be noticing legs?

Bubba continues to be involved in many ways here. The skills he brings from his 10 years in business are an asset in many ways. Along with being involved with the professional class ministry, he keeps the financial records for the SAMAIR division, is helping with development and fundraising for various projects, and has been using his design skills to develop prayer letters and other materials for the mission.

Our 5 Love Languages Class is going really well. Last night was a great time of open discussion, honesty and vulnerability, mostly on the part of the men. One woman said last night in front of the group that her husband was pretty non communicative, but through the class and the group she really saw how much he was trying and changing. He had tears in his eyes as she was talking.

There is more, I'm sure, but we just wanted to update you on a few highlights. God is continuing to stretch us and use us despite our weakness, short-comings, and failures. We know that when we are weak, He is strong. Praying that we won't dwell on our weakness, but that we will allow the Lord to use it to glorify His holy name.