Saturday July 24

We are back from Samaipata and had an awesome time relaxing and seeing the Incan ruins. No pictures for tonight, but a few prayer requests for our last 24 hours:
1. This week has certainly been full of God sightings and encounters. Pray that we would bring those home with us and not leave them in Bolivia.
2. We had an incredibly intense and honest conversation about what it means to live in America with lots of "stuff" while we see the poverty in Bolivia. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be at work in students heart as they continue to wrestle with what it means for their own life.
3. We will be going to the airport at 10:30 tomorrow night and will have to navigate part of the airport without our translator as he is staying in South America for a few more weeks. Michael Rogers will be our unofficial translator. Pray for him!
4. We will be traveling for 24 hours getting back to South Hutch sometime between 11 and midnight on Monday. I am tired and will be more tired by the time that drive comes around. Pray that I am alert and that we don't have any problems during our travels.
5. We still have all day tomorrow to experience! We are going to church in La Tejeria and I think God has awesome things waiting there for us. Pray that we can be fully present here tomorrow and jump full into everything God has for us!

Maybe an update tomorrow before we leave for the airport. Thanks for the prayers and for following along with us!

Thursday July 22

WATER!!!

Today the water trench was finished, the pipes were connected and buried and at 5:30, water flowed into the holding tank! Yolanda and Tito shouted praise to God and clean water is finally available to many families who did not have it before!

One of the people who will benefit from the water is an 8o year old man with tuberculosis. He cannot work, and his kids work hard to provide just enough for their kids, and so he and his wife often are hungry. Today, as Yolanda sat and talked with him, he was overwhelmed that foreigners would come to help him. When she told him that it was because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and because of God's love for him, he sat and cried. Tears of joy. Tears of gratitude for what God has done for him.
We also had the privilege of tasting the 1st batch bread out of a new mud oven as a thank you for our time with the families of La Tejeria. What a humbling experience to be given half of their bread! A bigger or more generous thank you could not have been offered.

In working with people this week, we have seen and heard many of these stories. We are all in love with the people of Bolivia and will remember the stories and people for years to come.

(No blog update tomorrow night. We will be traveling to Samaipata and the computer is not making the trip!)The new oven. They were making it yesterday, today we enjoyed the bread!

The pastor holding the water pipe while waiting for a post to hold it up.

Wednesday July 21

Today we went to La Tejeria to work. At La Tejeria they make bricks by hand, between 1000 and 2000/day. Our job was to help them put in water from their well, to the church which is maybe 1/3 of a mile. We dug trenches all afternoon and are all feeling very tired this evening. We will be back at La Tejeria tomorrow.
Please pray for our continued safety, that we see the Holy Spirit at work in the places we are at, and that we would have renewed energy in the morning.
I'm too tired to write anything else, but it was a good day and the team continues to work well together and with the Bolivians.

Enjoy the photos! The feet of a brick maker.
Digging trenches with whatever tools we have.
Austin doing a little supervising.Casey and Kylie hard at work.Michael and Lydia taking a much needed water break out of our communal cup. Some of the hygiene and sanitation rules of the USA get thrown out here!
Sunset at the end of the work day.

Tuesday July 20

Tonight we go to bed thankful for a great day!

We are thankful for the sun- it was finally out as we worked today!
We are thankful for coca-cola made with real sugar at the end of a hard day of work.
We are thankful that the grass is planted and sand that is moved.
We are thankful for Yolanda's cooking and she even does laundry for us!
We are thankful for a meal with church members followed by a not soon to be forgotten time of sharing and singing in two languages.
We are thankful that we know a little Spanish.
We are thankful clean water (and no sicknesses)
We are thankful hot water (which we don't always get for showers!)
We are thankful for coloring meetings (a before bedtime unwinding time)

What are you thankful for today?

Monday July 19, 2010

Today we went to the Samuelito Daycare where Pastor Sheri spent time in March. They only had 1/4 of the normal kids because no one wanted to get out in the cold! Our hosts said La Paz had snow yesterday and last night and canceled school for the entire week! Yuneth, the director gave us a tour of the daycare and shared some amazing stories of how the existence of the daycare in that neighborhood is bringing real and lasting hope and love.After that we cleaned up construction trash, moved rocks and then had the opportunity to go spend some time in the classrooms with the kids. We laughed, they laughed. They showed us funny faces, and they argued over who was next for a photo.
"Mio!" (3 year old #1)
"No, mio!" (3 year old #2)
(Repeat last two lines ten times at ever increasing volumes)
"No mas fotos." (youth pastor ruining all the fun)

In the afternoon we moved a truck full of dirt into the new construction to make the ground level to pour floors. After we finished the truckload, we planted a little grass and headed home.
On the way home we stopped at la feria, the fair... which is a twice a week crazy shopping mall that springs up on the street in some places. Some one word descriptions from students:
Crowded, intense, epic, gridlock.
It is a crazy mass of people walking through thousands of shops, especially this week as they all try and get warm clothes.

We are having a great time and are all looking forward to being back at the daycare tomorrow.
Pray tomorrow for energy- we used a lot today!

Pray also for each student to experience Christ and community deeply. We have a great team and are having a great time, I just don't want us to miss the things the Holy Spirit puts out in front of us to see and do.

(Sheri: Yuneth's eyes lit up to talk about you when she realized we were from the same church. She wishes you were here and misses you a lot. All the ladies say hi and wish you had come! I kept waiting to take the picture of them opening the suitcases today, but they never had time to open them. I will try to get some tomorrow. Oh, and by being here in the summer, you missed out on Yolanda making api! Oh man... tasty!)

Micheal packing the sand that we were bringing into the new construction areas.

Casey and a little boy becoming friends over lunch!

Planting grass by clump instead of seed or US style sod! It goes against everything that feels right to us, but it's how they plant grass here!

Sunday July 18

We arrived yesterday morning with no problems and after making it through customs headed to Tito and Yoko's house where we are staying. We had a sleepy breakfast followed by 2 hours of nap and then headed out to have lunch and see the city. We had a great afternoon and evening. In the evening we had great discussion about our time and what we see God doing.

One of the biggest surprises we have had is surazo, the south wind. It only happens occasionally here, but it was in the high 30's all day yesterday and today has warmed into the 40's. There is no heat in the house, so we all wear our coats and 3 or 4 shirts all time. Today we are building a fire in a possibly never before used fireplace. The house is very smoky, but we are warm for the first time!

This morning we attended church and we will attend another this evening. It was a blessing to listen to Pastor Ona as Doug translated for us. His words from Nehemiah 6 were quite encouraging and challenging! This afternoon we visited the zoo and saw the animals of the Bolivian rainforest and had our first chance to shop in the supermarket.

Pray that the weather warms up, the record setting low temperatures are very hard on a culture without heat, and people are dying each night from exposure. We are blessed to be in Yoko's home as her hospitality and cooking are beyond compare.

I will try to update with pictures tomorrow.

One sentence from...
Austin- "Airplane food is gross."
Casey- "All I know is I'm sweeping right now, I'm kinda in the zone!" (sweeping up wood mess after fire building)
Kylie- "It's a lot colder than I expected it to be."
Michael R.- "My attempt at burning down the house failed!"
Michael T.- "(Silent)"

Made it to KC

We're relaxing in Peculiar and having nerf gun wars. We leave for the airport at 7:30 tomorrow morning and fly to Chicago, then Miami, then on to Bolivia. Be praying for our team as we travel tomorrow that we are encouraging, servant-like, and patient!

Next update will come in Chicago and you can here how Casey enjoyed her first flight ever!

Welcome to the blog!

Over the next two weeks this page will be updated with news, pictures, and thoughts about our time in Bolivia. Of course, it will all depend on our ability to have an internet connection. Our itinerary and some general prayer requests are off to the right. Please be praying for us as we head to a different hemisphere!