BOLIVIA

Kathya and Cora, the local missionaries

John and I at City Hall in Cochabamba

Future school of missions, John and Luis, the director

Couples sharing during workshop

We are now in Bolivia. I really like this country. The people and very nice. Our three connections here were all on time, and the trip went smoothly. Thank you for your prayers. The man sitting next to me on the last plane commented: "Wow, we actually left on time. This airline never takes off on time." Thank you for your prayers! While in Cochabamba, we stay at Christ for the City's apartment for short term groups. It is very nice. We have the VIP lounge. A room with a double bed, a desk, and armoir and shelves. The other rooms are stacked with buck beds. The office is in the front of the building. There is a door to the street and an inner yard, so it is very safe.


We had one day in Cochabamba, so we went sight-seeing. It is a charming city. We asked our hostesses to take us to a jewelry store that we visited on our last trip because the owners are Christians. I wanted to buy some earrings. They sell a semi-precious stone called "boliviana." While at the store, they told the owners that we were there to do a workshop for couples. Two people signed up right there and paid for the workshop (25 bolivianos, about $3.25). Our friends wrote a receipt on a piece of paper. It was just so nice to see how open they were to attend. The shop and Christ for the City are just about five blocks apart on the same street.


Next  day took an one hour flight to Tarija. There we really had the best accommodations of the trip! We stayed in a two bedroom guest house on the property of a Swedish family. He imports heavy machinery. They are the most gracious people with the gift of hospitality. We also stayed with them on our last trip here. Last night we did the couples' workshop at a local church, using Pastor Dennis materials. We had about 70 people attending. It went very well, and they want us back! :) The Lord really poured the Holy Spirit. It was wonderful to see couples talking to each other, laughing, crying, praying together. This morning we attended the same church. The pastor had a great message on the parable of the talents. All we have belongs to the Lord, and someday we are going to give an account of how we have used his blessings. The music in this church is very good because both the pastor and his wife are musically talented.


We had lunch at a local restaurant also owned by a Christian family, went back to close our suitcases and say good-bye to our hosts and left for the airport. Alas, this flight was delayed. We were flying on a military transport airplane. It is really strange, but the military runs an airline here. Our friends stayed with us until it was time to board and then went upstairs to a balcony where they can actually see us get on the plane and wave.


Now we are back in Cochabamba at Christ for the City. Tuesday evening we will present the same workshop here. I hope the couples from the jewelry store make it. Pray that the Lord will pour His Holy Spirit and for healing of relationships. I am also looking forward to meeting Milly, a missionary to the Kurds who is from here, whom I know only by e-mail. Please pray again for our travel home. Our flight from Cochabamba needs to leave on time so that we can make our first connection to Panama, then to Houston, and finally to San Diego. We leave Tuesday and get there Wednesday night.


Until next time...from way down South...

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY

Warry is a youth pastor (volunteer), so Saturday night we went to the young people's meeting. EFCC's "Resonate" is mild compared to their music. They had a kind of skit and a lot of very loud music. The whole group did a lot of jumping to the music. I would not call it dancing, but it had the look of a rock-and-roll concert. Warry preached. This is the beginning of the school year here, so it was their kick-off for the year.

Skit

Praise band - Look up "neg-entropy" in the dictionary

Our friends wanted to take us on an outing where we had not been before. They decided to take us to Isla Damas, which is part of a few islands protected by environmental agencies. It was a two hour drive, half of it on a rough dirt road (I thought I was done with dirt roads when we left Costa Rica), and then one hour ride on a boat. It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride, except that John had an awful toothache all day. Poor guy, he was quite a trouper. Warry also got a traffic ticket for passing on a solid line. We enjoyed the boat ride to Isla Damas to see Humbolt penguins in their natural habitat. There were sea otters, seals, sea lions and a lot of water fowl. I took a lot of pictures, but I am having a terrible time here in Chile with my pink computer. I can only upload one picture at the time to this blog.

Today we went to see a dentist at a private clinic. It was a very modern and clean place. The dentist saw him, ordered x-rays and told us that he needs a root canal. They could do it on Wednesday, but we are leaving on Thursday morning. We would have liked to have it done here because it would have been a lot cheaper than the States. She prescribed antibiotics and a pain killer/anti-inflammatory. The doctor's visit with the x-rays was only $14.50! He feels better already. Debora cooked a soft lunch for him. Now he is taking a nap. He will see our dentist as soon as we get home. We also went to the magistrate and paid Warry's ticket. It was about $80, not as cheap as the dentist!

All of us in the boat

Tonight we are going back to McDonald's to celebrate another missionary's birthday. We don't know this person, but he is a friend of Warry's and he is single, so there is no family with whom to celebrate.

Please pray for our upcoming trip to Bolivia on Thursday, specifically that our first flight will leave on time. We only have 55 minutes in Santiago to change planes. Actually, pray for all three flights to leave on time and for our luggage to make it to our final destination, Cochabamba.

Until next time...from way down South....

LA SERENA

We are having a nice time with Warry and Debora. The girls have John wrapped around their little fingers. I mainly help with homework and when John is otherwise occupied. They prefer their "Tata," which is an afectionate term for Grandpa. Last night John preached in church, preaching again on Habakkuk. He is getting very good. The building has been improved a lot since our last visit four years ago. It is nice to see how the Lord has blessed this congregation.

Church four years ago

Church today

I received an email from one of the women in Florida where we shared last summer. She remembered my testimony and asked me to call her mother-in-law who is going through a similar situation with her son. I told her that I was in Chile, but that I would try. I called and found the lady at home. I talked to her from a mother's heart and prayed with her. Hopefully, I was able to encourage her. One never knows how the Lord uses our experiences fro his glory. Today John had the opportunity to talk to a Christian who lost his wife. He and his son are very sad. Today also happens to be John's mother birthday, so John shared with him about how he dealt with the pain.

This afternoon we went to do the beauty treatments workshop. Debora went to beauty school to earn a certificate in order to do this. Then she applied for a government grant to fund the supplies and to provide a place to teach young women to do nails and facials. This kind of job training is encouraged by the government, and Christ for the City also encourages using local funds to do community work as a door to present the Gospel. Debora started with twenty women, but it is a twelve week program, and obviously in this high risk population, it is hard to get consistency from everybody. She usually has about ten students, but today only four showed up. I had my nails done! :) Debora has told them that she is doing this because she is a Christian. In Chile, as in most Spanish-speaking countries we say "Evangelical." One of the girls asked what she needed to do to be an Evangelical. Well, I presented the plan of salvation, and I stressed the fact that we are talking about a relationship with God, not a religion. She asked me is we have to wear skirts and no make up. It was kind of a funny question because we were all wearing jeans and make up and doing our nails. Deborah invited her to church, but her church is far. She would have to take two buses to make it. Debora will connect with her next Friday again and, hopefully, they can work something out.

Today we took the family to McDonalds. It is quite a treat for the girls. Tonight we are going to the young peoples meeting because Warry, as German in Argentina, is the young people's pastor. The pastor invited all of us to go to a typical restaurant for a BBQ. It will probably be about 10:00 by the time to eat dinner tonight.

Gypsy camp. There are a lot of gypsies here. Definitely an unreached peoples group

John and I sharing

John preaching

Nails workshop

Community center where the beauty workshops are held

Debora assisting students

Until next time...from way down South...

CHILE

We arrived yesterday. The flight with Argentina Airlines from Cordoba to Buenos Aires was cancelled twice. We finally got a flight at 2:30 in the morning. The airline staff was rude, the plane was dirty, and the flight was to a second airport across town. We were promised vouchers to get a bus to the other airport, but again, the staff in Buenos Aires was rude to everybody. When we finally got the vouchers, they told us that the next bus would leave in one hour. We decided to take a taxi to our hotel. Our taxi driver was very nice and waited to make sure that we got in the hotel lobby and asked us if everything was alright with our reservations before he left. We finally crashed in bed at 5:00 am. Our next flight (fortunately this flight was with a different airline) was at 12:00, but we had to be at the airport two hours early. Fortunately, our hotel was only ten minutes from the airport. I really only slept and hour. We ended up being two and a half hours early. The blessing in all this was that our luggage never got lost. We went to Santiago, Chile and from there to La Serena.

Warry  and Debora also have a short term missionary here for the summer. She is from Germany. She was in Bolivia before coming here, so her Spanish is very good. Warry and Debora have two little girls. The older was is in second grade and the younger one in first grade. They go to a semi-private school from 8:00 to 4:00. They are delightful! All of us are staying in a three bedroom house with one bathroom. Last night we talked for a long time, so the poor little girls went to bed very late. They seemed to be fine this morning, we will see how tired they are after such a long schoool day. I have pictures, but I haven't downloaded them from the camera yet. I will have some next time.

Until then...from way down South...

LOS GALPONES

Some of the children

This eleven year old girl takes care of her younger siblings and is the only money earner for the family

From the left, Dalia, she prepares the meals once a week,me, Karina

John sharing a laugh with the children

They live surrounded by trash and open sewers

We ministered in this community on Saturday. The children get breakfast, games, a Bible lesson and lunch. While the workers took care of the children, the cook and I went visiting. It was up to us to do it because they were short of volunteers. Normally, the missionaries do the visiting. We went into the little shacks and listened to the mothers, read the Bible for them and prayed. May the light of the Gospel penetrate this very, very, dark place.

We leave for the capital tomorrow and on to Chile. Pray for traveling mercies,

Until next time...from way down South...

This is the Ricca family. We brought Charger T-shirts as presents. They really liked them. The little girl, especially, loves hers. We have spent a lot of time talking about their future. They feel that the Lord is calling them to transcultural ministry in another country. We are praying for direction. They have a wonderful ministry here. They work with kids in the slums, prisoners in jail, and he is the youth pastor at church.

Pray for them, that the Lord will show them His will clearly.

FIRST DAY

Our friend, German, was away on business. He arrived this morning at 2:00 am. Today we had a good chance to talk after the kids went off to school. There is also a young woman from Chicago on a STM for a year staying with them, but she was also off with another local young lady. We shared with each other from the heart. They feel that the Lord is calling them to another ministry. They both felt the call separately,even before the other changes that are happening in their organization. They have a good plan, and we feel that the Lord is leading them. They need to raise support for this other ministry,so they won't make any moves until next year.

We picked up the kids from school at 2:00 and took them to McDonalds at the mall. It is quite a treat here because the combos were $10 each. They don't go very often. School is from 8 to 2 without lunch. Just a light snack at about 11:00. They were hungry! We came home and took a nap because we have a very late night ahead. Our ministry here is different. Our job is to listen and encourage the workers, not to do any public speaking. We will meet other volunteers tonight.

Keep praying for wisdom and encouraging words.

Until next time...from South America...

WE HAVE ARRIVED!

We just arrived in Cordova, Argentina this morning. We had good flights. Right now we are at our friends' house, German and Karina.They have two children, Fiorella and Julianni. There are of Italian descend, obviously. There was a lot of Italian immigration at the end of the 19th century; therefore, there is a strong Italian influence in the Argentinian culture.

We have rested a little and now we are just visiting. This visit is about talking to friends about the ministry. We are not expected to participate in any activities.

We will let you know how we are doing.