40 Days in the Wilderness

Okay, I admit that the title of this post is largely symbolic.  Perhaps entirely.  But it is what sprang to mind as I was contemplating the past six weeks and the massive changes that are happening in our lives.

In case you haven't noticed, we have been preparing to move to a little jungle village called Urubichá, populated by Guarayo people, to learn their language, plant a church, and do some Bible translation.  As you can see from my previous posts, I spent a couple weeks working out there, prepping a house for us.

And then everything changed.

How do you know what the will of God is for your life?  How do you decide where to live?  What job to take?  What church to go to; which ministry to get involved in?  What are the factors that you consider as you make decisions throughout your life?

I am going to guess that most of you will answer with a combination of several factors that take your God-given abilities and desires into consideration, tempered by family needs.  Bathe it in prayer and move forward, to see what God will do.

We are no different.

It has been about 7 years that we have been formally on this road.  Along the way, we have seen God lead, provide, and modify our plans.  Although the magnitude seems much greater this time, He continues to show His faithfulness.

We are not going to Urubichá.

Frankly, I think the details are rather unimportant.  Suffice it to say that, thanks to a lot of very difficult conversations with various coworkers, we now see that we should change direction, at least for now.  I do find it very interesting that the latest post on my personal blog ties in so neatly.  Little did I know at the time. . .

This has not been an easy conclusion to come to.  In fact, it is by far the hardest plan modification we have experienced yet, and is quite possibly the most difficult trial we have faced as a couple.  The past few weeks have been full of a wide variety of emotions, tears, meetings, prayer, and Bible reading as we seek God's will.

The big question is, "Now what?"

We are still committed to making disciples.  We still believe that reaching the unreached people groups of the world ought to be the Church's highest priority.  We believe that God has brought us to Bolivia for a purpose.

During this time of transition, we have been living in Santa Cruz, at a missionary training center called ETNOS.  It exists to provide Bolivians and other South Americans the same type of cross-cultural ministry training that we received, equipping them to make disciples and plant churches in unreached ethnic groups.

 

We already knew that they are short-handed and most of the staff wear at least two hats, so we asked the leadership team in which areas they were lacking.  We want to use the gifts that God has given us, not seek just any slot to fill.  A main part of the reason we were moving toward tribal ministry is that I have a love of language, teaching, and tinkering/fixing/building.  The big question was if there was a place for me to fit into at ETNOS, with those skills?

It "just so happens" that they have been trying to recruit someone to help teach the technical language-learning classes.  They also need more help with the practical skills classes (how to "make do") and campus maintenance, particularly in the "fixit" department.  Those areas are being filled by people that, if I stepped in, would have more time to focus on their other priorities.

We see too that Kaylee's gifts will be more useful here, particularly hospitality.  She would also be involved in discipling the female students, without needing to learn another language.  This would give her more freedom to fulfill her responsibilities as a homeschooling mother and still have an involvement in ministry.

After many conversations with the ETNOS staff and directors, as well as with our sending church, we have decided to jump back into academic life, on the other side of the coin.  It is going to be a difficult transition in some ways, but we have peace in the decision and are confident that God will continue to direct us as we move forward.

We would appreciate prayer as we make this transition.

Progress

After two weeks of work, the little house in the boonies has changed a bit!  In spite of a couple of setbacks, we continue to make progress.

Although I say "two weeks," with travel it really comes down to 8 days of actual time in Urubichá and part of those days has been spent making supply runs, seeing things around town, and drinking tea with Emilio and Marlen while chatting about the language and culture.

We spent the bulk of the first week painting.  Rather, I mostly patched holes in the walls while Emilio painted.  A couple coats of white definitely make it look nicer:

Unfortunately, on Friday, the 25th, just as we were starting the last room, we ran into a problem.  The walls are adobe brick, plastered with mud and cow manure, then painted.  In the kitchen/living room, the walls had been refinished with just whitewash and as we started to paint, the lime peeled up and made a mess of the roller.  We had to scrape it off, and as we did, we realized just how bad the plastering was coming off and we ended up taking out a lot  This was the worst wall:

The next day, Saturday, I came out to Santa Cruz for Anne's 7th birthday on Sunday!

Unfortunately, I was in town just one full day and I was tired and preoccupied and on Monday, I went back out to work.

This time, I took the teenage son of another missionary family with me.  He is only here for a short time and wants to see as much of the country as possible.  I set him to work on the septic pit we need for the bathroom I'm building.  He made good progress, in spite of the nasty hard clay:

He also made an impressive bug collection, mostly beetles, but got a noticeable spider as well:

I can't express to you how Kaylee felt when she saw that, but I'm sure you can imagine. ;)

After finishing the plaster and paint, I also finished the subfloor for the bathroom:

I came back to Santa Cruz on Saturday and am planning to stay out the week, spending time with Kaylee and the kids, making some purchases, and taking care of other business.  When I go back, I have just the bathroom to finish before we move in!

Update from Urubichá

 I left Santa Cruz on Monday, with Emilio.  He had come out to share at a church and have a meeting with his pastor.  We made it in one piece with no problems, and all the stuff arrived safely!

What's more, I have internet here.  I'm currently sitting on my borrowed bed with the laptop on a toilet box, because I didn't bring any furniture.

This is what the house looks like on the outside:

 This is the kitchen:

 Looking the other way.  This is the living/dining room:

Me, with all my stuff in the living room!  We were thankful to find out that there is a 4th room that they are willing to rent us for an extra $35/month, that we will mostly use for storage and maybe office space.  That brings our little house up to almost 850 square feet!

The big plan is to get this place painted and put in a bathroom.  Emilio has been helping me.  Here he is scraping the ceiling, knocking down the dirt and nastiness that has collected there, as well as the old plaster that someone put there to try to control it.  We are just going to staple up plastic sheeting to cover it.

Yesterday, a funeral procession went by.  My internal language/culture learner wanted to rush after it with a camera and notebook, but I was hot, sweaty, tired, and very dirty.

This morning, Emilio and I drove out to Ascencion, our "big town."  It's about 25 miles away, but it takes almost an hour to get there on a dry road.  He took me to his regular hardware store and I was amazed at how much stuff they have.  I really should be able to get whatever I need there.  I bought plaster, drain pipe, portland cement, and chicken wire.  Then we went to a sawmill and bought wood for building the bathroom.

Expecting the Unexpected

Our big task for this week is to move our little family to Santa Cruz.  Then, after spending a couple days buying supplies, I plan to go out to Urubichá to do some improvements to the rooms that we are going to rent.

I have a plan (you can see it in this post on The Tinker Thinker).  I am confident in my ability to turn 615 square feet of empty rooms into a useable space for us.  I know what materials I need and have a rough idea of how long it will take to finish.

That's all well and good.  It's easy to plan things and have expectations for physical things that we can understand, prepare for, and control.  But what about the unexpected?

What about the people?

We have met a small handful of people in Urubichá.  We know next to nothing about them.  Even Emilio and Marlen, our coworkers, are relatively unknown to us; we have spent less than 2 weeks total with them, a couple days at a time, spread out over more than a year.

What will they think about a family of gringos moving into their town?

What will they think about the way we live, the things we eat, the things we do?

Spinach?

We were told recently that when Emilio and Marlen planted their garden and someone noticed their spinach growing, they were told, "We only use that for witchcraft!"

I bet they didn't see that coming!!

What are we going to experience?  We don't know, but we do know that it will be unexpected!

Transitions

We are still in a time of transition and although we have a newsletter written up with our coming plans we are still not quite ready to send it out. In the mean time this is what's keeping us busy:

 The beginning of the school year: First grade and preschool.

Attending church with our local church family.

Drawing up potential floor plans for our temporary home (3 rooms, about 615 square feet) in the village. 

We're not sure exactly what the inside looks like and the bathroom doesn't exist currently.

The building we'll be living in.

Getting reacquainted with Biscuit!

Spending time with Nathan's brother and family (food is always a good reason to hang out).

Sickness, yup, a few weeks of rest. . .and sickness hits. . .we're thankful for the time we had without it!

Meetings, phone calls and emailing with our leadership and local church ministry team.

Sharing with some local college-age men and women about missions. 

Getting used to shopping in the local market and stores again.

And running miscellaneous errands.

We've hit a few hiccups in our planning but continue to move forward. Please pray for unity amongst those involved in decision making and supporting these transitions and wisdom as we make decisions.

Back to it!

Well, here we are.

 After a fun-filled and altogether too-crazy summer in Montana, it's time to put our collective nose back to the grindstone. This afternoon we leave Bozeman and will arrive in Bolivia on Tuesday, Lord willing.

 I put up some more photos of our summer fun in our online photo album. Here are some of the highlights:

 Swimming with cousins:

 Denver zoo:

 Massive sandwiches from Pickle Barrel:

 Awesome scenery:

 More fun with cousins:

 Fun with gubs:

 New books:

 VBS:

 Fourth of July with cousins:

 Fishing (and more awesome MT scenery):

 Father-daughter camping with friends:

 Feeding ducks:

While we have enjoyed being back in the States, it has been far from restful.  We've been running like crazy to see people and visit churches.  That said, it has been refreshing  to be in our home culture again.  Our last Sunday here in our home church was particularly enjoyable.

Now we are packed up and ready as we'll ever be!

Four Weeks, Four Places

During our four weeks back in the US, we've spent time in Denver, Billings, Bozeman, and Cody.  Now we're heading over to Dillon to see Kaylee's mom.  We're having fun, but it's CRAZY! :)

As promised in my last post, I have uploaded some photos of our time.  Click here or on the slideshow to see them: