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.

language blunders

Thought y'all might like a little laugh this morning. Yesterday we spent all day (it was a holiday here) at our neighbor's house, cooking out, swimming (they have a small pool that is perfect for the kids), playing ping pong, hanging out and having a great time. They are a great family that we are really enjoying getting to know. Rodolfo, the husband, speaks great English as he was an exchange student in the states for a year (in fact, their oldest daughter is in Denver now as an exchange student). However, when we are all together we speak Spanish, with the exception of the times we don't quite understand something. So yesterday, he was making us a cappucino, and I thought he was talking about the froth in Spanish. So I asked "Eso es la palabra, foamy?" (that is the word, foamy?) totally thinking he was using Spanish. Everyone died laughing b/c he was speaking English - talking about the FOAM on top!!! We had a good laugh. Then later, he was talking about a trip he was going to take to La Paz, and Bubba asked him "Vas a tomar una floja?" I looked at him and said, "Don't you mean a FLOTA?" Then Rodolfo and his wife Mirtha died laughing because what Bubba had said was "Are you going to take a lazy/weak woman?" When what he meant to say was "Are you going to take a bus?" ARGH! I'm glad we were able to have a few laughs!!! Mirtha (pronounced Mirta) and Rodolfo are joining us in the class we are starting tonight studying the book "The Five Love Languages". Pray with us that this will be a good time of learning for all involved, good fellowship with Bolivians, and a chance to point people to Christ through helping strengthen marriages.

Dengue

I forgot to mention this in my last post, but thank you to all of you who prayed for my recovery. For those of you who don't know, I had dengue, the terrible mosquito-born illness that I mentioned in a previous post. It was probably the sickest I have ever been, and it lasted for a full 7 days. I am recovering fine, regaining my strength daily. But please pray for protection over the rest of our family, the other missionaries, our friends, and the people of Santa Cruz in general. I read in the paper yesterday that this is the worst dengue epedimic in Santa Cruz in 22 years. So we will continue to douse ourselves in OFF everytime we step out of the house and pray for protection.

Fiestas

We have every intention of updating our blog regularly, but it doesn't seem to happen. Please forgive us. We really do want to use this blog as a means of letting you know what we are doing down here. You can take it as a good sign that we are busy, that we are filling our time with ministry and family!

Fiestas. One word - Wow. In Latin America, fiestas are huge. We've been to 3 birthday parties in the last 3 weeks, all for children of friends we have made here. All Bolivian kids' parites have very loud music (totally age inappropriate) a clown or magic show, certain party songs with motions that everyone knows, all the cookies and candy and cake and soda you can eat, a piñata, and huge goodie bags. And the parties are huge. Two of the parties were for 2 year olds and there were probably 25 kids plus twice as many adults. Craziness!! These fiestas really tell a lot about Latin culture and what is valued - celebrations, family, friends. Another thing we've noticed is how inclusive Bolivians are. We've only been here 6 months but have been to at least as many Bolivian birthday parties. It doesn't matter that we've just met, we're included. So different from our North American culture of exclusiveness. Other than the super loud music the kids love these parties, what kid wouldn't? And Bubba and I are enjoying learning about this aspect of Latin culture, especially as it gives us an opportunity to be a part of the lives of our new friends.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I know it's well past Christmas, and that we've all moved on into the New Year, but we wanted to share about our Christmas here in Bolivia. Admittedly, it was hard at times to be so far away from family, friends, and all things that are familiar about Christmas. But we did have some good times and made some great family memories. In Latin cultures, Christmas Eve night is the big time for celebration, not Christmas Day. It's customary to spend Christmas Eve with family, having a meal around 11, shooting off fireworks at 12 am, and then opening all your presents. We were invited to spend Christmas Eve with some Bolivian friends who are involved with one of the Bible studies. They invited us and our teammates, the Kienzles. My first reaction was let's just "stop by". I didn't want our kids up until all hours, nor did I really want to stay up that late just for a bunch of fireworks either. So, after going to a Christmas Eve service at the English speaking church (which was great - very familiar, ending with a candle lit singing of Silent Night) we headed over to our friend's house. As soon as we walked in, I knew Bubba was going to be thrilled with our decision to go. There was a smoked pig, a whole pig, splayed out on the table complete with apple in it's mouth! We still had planned on only staying until 10 at the latest, but right about 10 fireworks were brought out to shoot off, making me a complete wreck. Not to worry, Bubba and our teammate Paul were great examples for our kids, shooting off bottle rockets while holding them, while standing on them, etc.......After a while, when I calmed down enough, I really enjoyed this new tradition. After all, if it was going to be 95 degrees, and if we weren't going to be with family, we may as well do something completely different! By this time, our kids were all wide awake and so excited, there was no way we could leave. So we enjoyed a good meal at 11:00 at night (some enjoyed that more than others:), and enjoyed a great time of fellowship with our friends. We managed to make it home right at midnight, when the skies exploded with fireworks like nothing we'd ever seen! It was 10 times what the fourth of July is, with fireworks not going off in a "controlled" manner but with every Pablo, Juan, and Jose shooting them off in the street in front of their house. The kids loved it, and though it wasn't our plan to let them stay up until all hours, I'm so glad we all had this Bolivian Christmas experience. And the four hour naps on Christmas day made it even better!



As for our New Year celebration, Bubba and I enjoyed the same display of fireworks from the comfort of our living room with the kids upstairs sleeping then waking up to the grand explosion. Then on New Year's Day we were invited by some Bolivian neighbors out to the "campo" to a lake for a "churasco" (cookout) and to swim. It was a beautiful place out in the country, and again was another great time of hanging out with Bolivian friends. The only drawback was the sunburn we all suffered from having stayed out all day. I can't seem to remember that we are far closer to the equator here and that 30 SPF doesn't cut it for all day in the sun!

All in all, it was a good holiday time. We're excited for these new friendships and are now gearing up for ministry to start up once again. Thank you for your continued prayers. Oh, one prayer request is that it is Dengue season. Dengue is a mosquito born illness that makes you really really sick. There is an epidemic this year, so please pray for our protection if you think of it.

Life in the Third World

Living in the third world, or the more recently coined phrase, "Global South", we are confronted with extreme poverty every day. Just a few blocks from our house is a main road with a canal running down the median. Living in the canal in makeshift "homes" are homeless drug addicts. Stopping at a stoplight in this area, they will rush to your car window wanting to clean it with a rag, hoping for 1 Boliviano (about 14 cents). Because we see this everyday, at times it is easy to roll up the window, shake your finger "no", look the other way, and not see the person trapped in this lifestyle. Going downtown, as is the case in many big cities, we are confronted with beggars. Mothers are sitting on the sidewalk with one or more dirty faced children, while the children come up to you with an outstretched hand, sometimes following you, sometimes pulling on your shirt. As a Christian, it's hard to know how to best help. We don't want to hand money to the drug addict, nor do we want to see children go hungry. A long term missionary that I respect once told me how she was trying to encourage the indigenous women she works with to sell their handiwork (purses and bags) instead of begging on the streets. There is a lot of theology involved in this advice that I won't go into here, but I really agree with what she said and with how she treats beggars. She tells them that if they have something to sell, she would be more than happy to buy it to help support them. This is a little oversimplified, but I hope it makes sense.

So, last Sunday night, we decided to go downtown for ice cream and a stroll in the central plaza to look at Christmas lights (sweating and in shorts :). While at the ice cream place, an Ayore(indigenous tribe) mom and her three kids passed us. When the mom sent the little girl, probably 8 years old, to come to us for money, I told her that if she had something to sell, I would buy it from her. She ran off, and through the window I watched her tell her mom, and then they proceeded to dig through the trash and find an empty water bottle. I watched her run to the bathroom with it and come back with a full bottle of water, which she then tried to sell me. It broke my heart. Here were my three clean healthy children with huge ice cream sundaes. We told her we couldn't buy that water, but that we would share some ice cream with her. The injustice of poverty is so completely overwhelming.

On another note, this past Sunday, we were able to host two orphans for the day. There are over 150 orphanages here in Santa Cruz alone. This one in particular wanted to give the kids a chance to spend time with a Christian family, while at the same time giving the staff a break. Georgia has a special place in her heart for orphans, praying for them almost nightly after hearing a talk at school from a woman who works in a girls' home. So on Sunday, we had two girls, one age 15, named Jenny and the other Christina, age 7. Jenny and her brother and sister live at the home and are true orphans. And Christina is the daughter of a prostitute from an indigenous tribe. We just shared our normal Sunday with them - church, out to lunch, home to play (which included painting nails, braiding hair, playing dolls and legos), watching a movie with popcorn, and making and icing sugar cookies. While not our ministry focus here in Santa Cruz, it was good to be able to reach out to two little girls who need to see the love of Christ in action.

Christmas Time

If we had to use one word to describe Christmas time in Bolivia, it would be "different". It's really hard for us to feel like it's time to celebrate when daily temperatures hover around 95. Then throw in missing different traditions like peppermint ice cream with chocolate syrup, Trinity's Lessons and Carols, bundling up to go look at Christmas lights, and the biggest, spending time with family and friends. All of this could get us down (and quite honestly, does at times), but we're trying hard to keep the traditions we can, while creating new traditions and memories. One particular Saturday morning, we were sitting in the living room by the Christmas tree, reading, coloring, listening to Christmas music (with the air on full blast) and the words to a particular Steven Curtis Chapman song pierced both my heart and Bubba's as we realized how true the words rang to us this year.

"Christmas is all in the heart, that's where the feeling starts
And like a fire inside, it touches every part
'Cause Christmas is all in the heart
And even if no white snow falls, that's all right because
The joy can still be found, wherever you are
Christmas is all, all in the heart."

So as we enjoy new experiences, like listening to our English class learn and sing Christmas Carols with their Spanish accents, we're praying that we will find the JOY that is found from celebrating Jesus's birth, even if we're sweating while opening presents.

This pic was taken using a backdrop from the school Christmas play. Obviously we're not dressed in our appropriate "Christmas attire", but it's a fun picture. I don't think I've ever been so tan in a Christmas picture before!

Success

Our Thanksgiving dinner last Saturday night was a great success. Everything went perfectly! On Friday, Laura and I spent the morning cooking with 2 Bolivian women helping us. It was such a different experience for me to be preparing our special Thanksgiving casseroles, sweating, and speaking Spanish. But it was a great morning, a special time of just being women, cooking together, irregardless of culture, language and even temperature. Bubba spent Saturday preparing and cooking 2 turkeys - his specialty. It was so beautiful and elegent in our living room turned dining room. I felt like we must really be grown-ups if we were hosting this kind of dinner! Everything here starts much later at night, and kids are included, something we are all getting used to. Our party started at 7, with the majority of folks arriving by 8. We sat down for dinner at 8:30, after Bubba shared about why we celebrate Thanksgiving and the fact that we were happy to be sharing this tradition with our new Bolivian friends. The kids played, iced turkey and pumpkin cookies, colored coloring sheets of pilgrims and indians, and the adults generally enjoyed being together and meeting new people. It was a great success, and feels like the beginning of new friendships here in Bolivia. Thank you to all of you who prayed for our time. Enjoy the pictures.

Thanksgiving Dinner

This coming Saturday night the 22nd, we along with our teammates the Kienzles are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for some of our Bolivian friends. They do not celebrate Thanksgiving here, so we're hosting this as an opportunity to share some of our culture with them and also as a way to open our home in order to get to know them better. We're excited to do this, but also a little anxious over preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 30 people. We'll be renting tables, chairs, place settings, etc and clearing out our living room furniture to set up inside. We've planned our menu and will be serving the traditional stuff - turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn pudding, stuffing, broccoli salad, rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. So, as you are making your plans for celebrating with your family and friends, will you pray for our Thanksgiving banquet? You could pray for these things - that Laura and I will be able to plan and cook the food without too much stress (we're planning on having a Bolivian woman or 2 help us out), that Bubba and Paul can know how to support us, help us when needed, and get out of the way when needed :) for the words that Bubba will share (in Spanish) about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and most of all, that our Bolivian friends will feel loved, welcomed, and that it will be an enjoyable time for all involved (our kids too).

Fua, an Ayoré Village

I (Bubba) made a trip this weekend to a village called Fua, about 6 hours from Santa Cruz by car. The distance is only 240 km or so (120 miles), but the entire road is unpaved so it takes a while (understatement) to get there. We drove through the night Friday night, worked all day Saturday, spent Saturday night, then worked Sunday until lunch, then we drove home. The building we are constructing in the pictures will be used as a church.

This was a hard trip (another understatement). Driving through the night on a dirt, rubble road was not easy. The air conditioning in my car was not working so I had to keep the windows rolled down and enjoy the constant inundation of dust. I also had a spare container of diesel in the back of my truck, which spilled when I ran over a bolder and threw the car about 2 feet in the air at 40 miles per hour. We stopped three times in the night to rest; the last time we woke up to the sound of a tiger rustling in the bush.

We arrived in San Jose de Chiquitos about 6am. San Jose is the nearest pueblo to Fua. We waited in San Jose for the mercado to open to buy nails. About 8am we left San Jose, drove another 40 kilometers east, spent an hour in a small town going door to door asking for chainsaw oil (we fly by the seat of our pants on these trips), then went off-road about 5 miles into the jungle. We ascended a small mountain in the jungle to reach Fua, a village of about 50 Ayoré. The wind blows hard up the mountain there, providing a little relief from the eastern Bolivian heat. The typical daily scene in an Ayoré village involves children skipping around smiling and playing, the adults sitting around huts of wood, passing Maté (a herbal drink) back and forth, the women weaving jewelry and handbags, pots of rice and beans always boiling over open fires.

There is no water source in Fua. A few years ago Toni and Placido Mercado (SAM Missionaries) bought a water tank to keep in the village. Every 10 days a local town authority brings water to fill the tank, but it is dirty water, most likely from a river. The Ayoré don't drink the water unless they boil it first. They use it to wash their pans, use it to bathe, to cook. Mostly they cook rice and beans, an occasional piece of meat, turtle. Yes, they enjoy the taste of turtle; they find turtle in the jungle, bring them alive to the fire and throw them over the flame. Once cooked, they pull off the meat and eat.

The Ayoré speak their own language, also Spanish. I enjoyed hearing the women beckoning their children in their native language. They sing their words when they call, they are musical utterances with long, extended accents on certain words. The Ayoré are a kind people, circumspect of the outside world, tempered by the slowness of the earth. They move to the rhythm of the wind and the blowing trees, the celestial bodies that mark their days, the light of morning and noon and the total darkness of the jungle nights.

The Ayoré asked us to come specifically to help build this shelter that they will call their church building. It will not be fancy—felled trees from the jungle will support a roof of corrugated metal. But it will be there place of gathering to sing and pray and commune with the same God whose presence fills magnificent cathedrals.