Two weeks down. . .

As of tonight, we've been in the US for two weeks!  At times it seems so long and at others so short, but 1/6 of our time has passed and it has been a whirlwind.  We've spent time with lots of family in 3 different cities and seen lots of friends at church. This week, we're in Bozeman doing VBS at our home church.

Please continue to pray for our girls as the strain of continuous activity and (especially) meeting new people is taking its toll.  Addi, the most introverted of the 3, stayed home from VBS this morning with Kaylee, which was good for both of them.  Lydia went again today and says she enjoys it, but is unusually clingy and gets pretty nervous if I'm not right next to her.  Anne is handling it the best and is genuinely enjoying VBS, but the strain is coming out in other areas, especially in her pride and unwillingness to take correction (she gets that from me).

Kaylee and I are soaking it up.  Although it is difficult for us at times too, it is SO wonderful to be spending time in a place we know so well, with good friends, speaking English!  Kaylee had a very productive day yesterday buying homeschool material, getting a routine medical checkup, making phone calls, and shopping.  I've been enjoying the food and had a great time shooting through a case of clay pigeons (click for video)with my dad, brother-in-law, and nephews while camping on Friday.

I'll try to get some photos up here soon, but for now you can see a couple on Kaylee's personal Missionary Wife blog.

Change, Disruption, and General Craziness

Our life is never dull, that's a fact.  Here's what's going on around our house:

No more classes! Kaylee finished her formal Spanish study at the end of April, officially closing the latest chapter in our long road to tribal ministry!  Anne finished her year of Kindergarten the following day.  Kaylee has a few words and photos at her personal blog: Life of a Missionary Wife.

Packing!  For the last two weeks, we have been slowly sorting and packing our things to get ready to store them for our trip to the US in June.  We're still sorting out the details of how that's all going to work out, but it is coming together.  In the meantime, our house is a shambles:

Planning!  We have a full itinerary for our summer in Bozeman and are trying to work out the details of our move to Urubichá when we return.  It is coming along slowly, mostly due to the wide variety of options and opinions that we have to work with!  Please pray that God would give us wisdom as we inch forward.

I had the opportunity to give a presentation at our church here about our plans a couple weeks ago:

Civil Unrest!  Please pray for Bolivia right now as the government and workers' unions are having difficulty resolving an issue regarding salary and retirement pensions.  There have been blockades on and off over the last few weeks (including one where miners blew up a bridge west of here), but this week they have started blocking non-stop and things continue to escalate.  Please pray for safety for those involved and that the situation would be resolved peacefully.  If it does not resolve soon, it may affect our travel plans.

This is a local news photo of one of the blockades between us and the city.  Blockading at night is very uncommon, a sure sign of escalation.

Click here for English news article with photo

Praying for Missionaries

During the past couple of days I have taken the time to read 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. I am so impressed by their reputation. They were obviously a group of believers growing in their faith and with a great love for their brothers and sisters in Christ. What a testimony!

As I was reading I came across two verses that really struck me as great verses for missionaries. In 1st Thessalonians 2:8 Paul says,

We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. (NIV, 1984)

Whoa! All I can say is that I pray that we have this same love for the people with whom we share the gospel. To not only desire to share the gospel but to have such a desire to share their lives with them; what an amazing impact Paul must have had in the lives of these people. 

The second verse that really stood out to me was 2nd Thessalonians 3:1,

. . .pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored. . . (NIV, 1984)

I know that this is the desire of all involved in ministry, that the word of God and the truth would spread rapidly. So often it takes so many years to get just a young, struggling church going but our desire is to see so much more. Thankfully we can rest in God's will and trust that He knows best. May the prayer of our hearts be that we honor Him and His word as we live among these people. 

There and Back Again (Adventures on the Road)

Kaylee already posted about her thoughts and feeling regarding our trip to Urubichá, but we decided that we should also write about the trip itself, as it was very stressful (especially returning!).

We set out from Cochabamba on the 15th of February, headed for Santa Cruz.  It was an uneventful trip and we felt quite comfortable on the road, since we had been over the same 300 miles just five weeks earlier.

On the morning of the 17th, Kaylee and I said goodbye to our girls and my parents and got on the road to Urubichá.  The first 185 miles to Ascención de Guarayos is on one of Bolivia's major highways and is paved pretty well all the way.  Then you turn off the main road and go another 25 miles on dirt.

I recently purchased a GoPro camera and have had a lot of fun filming our latest driving adventures (more about that in this post, including the video of me getting the Patrol very stuck in a big mud hole).   Take a drive-through look at the town that is going to be our shopping headquarters and the first part of the drive to our future home:

There is a gas station in Ascención, but it didn't have any gasoline!  We had filled up in San Ramón, 150km back, but thanks to a wonky gas gauge, I thought we had less than a quarter tank left.  By the time we actually got out to Urubichá, it was reading empty.  According to our coworkers and the people in the village, the fuel truck would come on Tuesday (the day we planned to leave), but there would be a huge line of cars waiting and not all would get gas.  So we purchased 50 liters from a friend, enough to get us back to San Ramón.


Here's a video of Urubichá, taken as we left town:

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, other than never being sure about how much fuel we had and a couple of problems due to my international driver's license.

Uneventful, that is, until we reached Villa Tunari and were on the last leg of our trip home to Cochabamba.  We got about halfway up the very steep climb out of the lowlands and ran into a huge line of trucks, buses, and cars.  We weren't sure what was going on, so we decided to stay wait and see what happened.

During rainy season, that particular road is fraught with landslides and unstable areas.  When there is a problem, the truck traffic starts to get backed up and the little cars and even the coaches start to pass them, often packing up 3 lanes wide!  Even after the roadway is passable again, it takes forever to get the traffic mess untangled!


We waited for 2 hours and, since it was already 4pm, decided to turn around and find a place to spend the night in Villa Tunari.  The idea of spending the night on a mountain, in the car, with 3 little girls and limited food and water did not appeal to us.  This is what happened when we turned around:

Thankfully, I was able to get through to my brother on the cell and find out where they have stayed in the past.  We ended up in a very nice bungalow-style hotel with a great pool, a good restaurant, and nice rooms with AC.

The next day we tried again in the morning.  This time, we took a chance and followed some other cars up the wrong lane as far as we could.  We didn't even get to the same spot as the day before!  Kaylee asked a trucker how long he'd been there and he replied, "Since 3am!"  A police officer was coming through the traffic on his motorcycle, informing everyone what was going on and it didn't look promising, so we turned back, checked back into the hotel, and enjoyed another afternoon in the pool!

On Sunday morning, I went down to the roadside restaurants near the hotel and talked to several truckers about how the road was.  They all said that the problem was fixed for the time being and traffic was slowly making its way through.  Sure enough, we made it home, with no trouble!

We didn't know until later, but when we turned around on the second day, we were 14km (8.7 miles) from the actual problem!!  That's a lot of trucks!  This is what the situation looked like (click photo to enlarge):

The Village

This week Nathan and I took a trip out to the village where we hope to work in the future. We are so thankful that Nathan's parents were willing to watch the girls for us in the city while we traveled, especially so I could see everything without the additional stress of taking care of the girls in a situation that was really out of my control.

We left on Sunday morning and were able to stay two nights. My first reaction was very discouraging. I was overwhelmed and couldn't imagine myself making that move with our little family. When you arrive it is just so real. The pictures, the training, nothing could have prepared me for what really hit me that first night. The heat was almost unbearable, the bugs (mosquitos, chiggers, beetles, among others) were everywhere and everything is so different from anything I've ever known. Our training really did prepare us, don't get me wrong, but it's just so different in real life.

The "Laundry Room"

Me in the "Laundry Room" :)

This trip was really for me, to see and experience the village for the first time. (I didn't take very many new photos with how overwhelmed I was. . .and trying to take it in as it was, not through a lens.) We spent a lot of time talking with our future coworkers, a Bolivian couple with three children (one is now in the city at the university). They are pleasant people with a heart for their countrymen. It was good (and hard) to hear their stories from the past three years of living in the village. It has been quite difficult for them. The village is mostly Catholic (in an "old world" way) and most are not excited to see evangelical missionaries in the area, especially the nuns and priest.

The Catholic Church and grounds

We asked questions about housing and found that there really is nothing available, mostly land for building. We asked about groceries and found that we will be able to purchase dry goods in town but will have to travel an hour (on bad roads, see below) to get dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt) unless we want to purchase from the lady in town who sells fresh milk from her cow. :)  We would also need to make our own bread or purchase in the same town as the dairy products. All fresh fruits and vegetables are purchased in a town about 3 hours away (on our way in and out from Santa Cruz). We learned that the soil is good but because the fruits and vegetables are not natural to the area the people do not grow them. They do have grapefruit trees, mango trees, some lemon trees and a couple of different fruits (native to Bolivia that I don't know the name of!). They also grow corn and rice and fish in the local rivers (but the fish population is dwindling).

One of the fruit trees. The fruit grows on the bark.

The road to the village. It was full of washboards and potholes.

You can see a bit more depth to the potholes in this photo.

We walked around town, visited the music school, and stopped in at the nun's shop where she sells the work that the locals create (with materials provided by the Catholic church). The nun pays the locals for the work they did and then she sells the items with the profits going to the church. Their handwork is very well done. The men have wood working specialties that include making violins. The women specialize in weaving hammocks but also crochet, knit and embroider. There are classes available to learn the wood working and hand crafts for a very affordable price, about $3.00 a year. (You can read more and see examples of the handwork here.)

Lord willing, we would like to join our coworkers in this village. After a lot of time talking, praying constantly through out the day and getting past the initial shock I was able to get past my initial discouragement. I know that we can do it. It's going to be the hardest thing I have ever done but I know it's possible if I trust in our great God!

Short Update

From our family to yours, Happy Valentine's Day!

We have been busy preparing for a trip to the village this week and the annual Outreach Conference at our home church in the US. For those of you attending that church, be sure to look for our display and grab a new prayer card!

This will be my, Kaylee's, first trip to the village and Nathan's excited to show me around. Please be praying for us as we make the journey. The girls and Nathan's parents will be traveling part way with us and then staying in the city while we continue on to the village. Pray for them and us in those three days apart. We hope to ask some very specific questions about housing, what is available in town (think groceries) and just get a better understanding of what it is going to take to move out there. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf!

Roadtrip!

Just a couple days after Christmas, we had to go to Santa Cruz for a conference. We jumped at the opportunity to take a roadtrip for the first time in about 2.5 years! Poor Lydia (and maybe Addi too!) didn't even remember what a roadtrip was!

From Cochabamba to Santa Cruz is about 300 miles, but it took us 11.5 hours to get there! If you watch this video we made along the way, you'll see why!  It only covers the first half of the trip, which is the most exciting anyway, as we make the climb to 12,100 ft and then make the rapid drop to 700 ft.  It was made even more exciting by the fact that I had no clutch for the worst part!

We also took lots of pictures, of course!  They include some from the road, the zoo, and other things we enjoyed in Santa Cruz after the conference was over.  Click here to see the full-size photos, or enjoy the slideshow below: