Vacation Day

[Blog 14.]

Hmm. Today is Friday and I am using Nate and Kate’s wireless internet. That makes me really happy!! J

It was another good week here in Bolivia!

On Sunday I went to my Spanish church and used my new Spanish bible. Then we interns had dinner with the Timmers and enjoyed our last dinner with them and Jaclyn.

I spent Sunday afternoon with my “family” here. The Hedvalls. I am so incredibly grateful for them. The New Tribes missionaries here had a special service to celebrate their kids who are graduating. It was so cool to hear each of the dads talk about how much they appreciate their graduate. It made me miss my dad a whole lot!

We went over Ephesians 2 at bible study on Monday night. It was such good stuff. I so enjoy just diving into a chapter at a time and getting out everything I can, and then getting to share with others and hear what they got out of it too.

Tuesday was mother’s day here in Bolivia. We went out to Villa Israel (all of the kids got off of school for mother’s day). We made cards with them for Lizeth and they wrote really sweet notes of how much they love and appreciate her. I was inspired and made a note for…Jaclyn! (Don’t worry I already sent a card to my mom!)

Wednesday Mike gave us a gift of a day off in Chapare to go White water rafting. I guess it was for our hard work hosting teams and such. It was so much fun…I LOVED it!! The scenery was absolutely breathtaking as well!

However, the not so fun part was that Adrian and Jaclyn both caught parasites. I don’t doubt the fact that we probably swallowed like a gallon of water when we were jumping overboard, diving off of the concrete barrier (that we also crashed into) or having waves crash over top of us. They spent the better part of the morning in the clinic. Adrian actually had to be on an IV drip. Poor kids. They’ve both actually been pretty sick over the last few weeks/months. Pray that they get better FAST!!

This weekend we’ll be seeing Jaclyn off, washing some babies, tutoring and playing with some kids, climbing up to the Cristo, and who knows what else! (That’s how life as an intern goes…!)

Mallory graduates next week so I imagine that we will be seeing quite a bit of the Timmer family. Their older two daughters will be flying in from the states to celebrate with us!

I think we’ll also have 4 more interns coming on Sunday for like 2 months to do construction type stuff. The paperwork is supposed to be completed soon so we can start construction on the 5^th home which is also in Villa Israel, they’ll also most likely be working on Home 4 in the Chapare.

Pray for Jaclyn as she gets ready to go home tomorrow. So sad!! She’ll be in Texas and visiting family for the first part of the summer, then she’ll be relocating to Denver Colorado to attend Seminary. I’m so proud of her!! We’ll definitely miss her lighthearted fun attitude around here.

Okie doke. I guess that’s about it. Thanks for your prayers, support, and correspondence!

Love.

Kristen

What a week!!

[Blog 13.]
Well today’s Saturday. Can’t believe a whole week has gone by already. Or for that matter I can’t believe that nearly four months have passed already. So far I can honestly say that’s it’s been a huge learning experience for me. God’s been so faithful even in the little things and I hope that I am conveying that through my updates…because sometimes I feel as though I’m just rambling.
Michelle left exactly one week ago. The team went out to Chapare for the day and there wasn’t room for interns in the car, which was fine with us since it meant that we got to spend the day with Michelle!! Jaclyn and I made breakfast and we sat around and reminisced with Michelle about her experiences here and her hopes and fears about returning to the US of A. We interns, along with Nate and Kate and Lily, as well as Elsa took Michelle to the airport. A few friends also met us at the airport. Ironically enough, the plane that our newest interns Kim and Elaina got off of was the same one Michelle got on to leave! We all stood on the observation deck to see Michelle off. You can bet that we were a little bit loud as we wanted to make sure that she heard our last goodbyes.
Kim and Elaina just finished their sophomore years at Liberty University. They’re from New Hampshire (Kim attends Bedford Church, which is the sending church of our last team before this North Park Team). They’ll be here until June 9th.
This week we went with the team to Sipe Sipe to do a bread run, we also went back to the Malnutrition Center. (Two of the little boys that were there last time I was there were still there.) We also took the team to the Cancha to see some more bolivian culture as well as to get some souvenirs. The team left on Wednesday evening.
Thursday was a national holiday, which we mostly just celebrated by cleaning the hacienda. It’s amazing how much faster the work gets done with 3 more sets of hands!
Mallory and Sidney Timmer came over and we hung out and made Cowboy Cookies! (It’s a Polcyn family classic!). We had such a nice time. I love those girls!!!
We did get some time with the kids this week. We did our regular tutoring times, as well as babysitting for an afternoon for the Villa Israel kids so the parents could have some time to themselves. All the new interns plus Jaclyn went out and had a great time with the kids! But don’t worry I got some time with them yesterday too!
One of the most frustrating things that’s happened was that two of the interns got pickpocketed--within 24 hours of each other!! Kim lost her brand new camera, and Jaclyn lost her wallet with 300 bolivianos and her drivers license in it! (That’s about $43 USD, more or less). I was pretty angry. I can only figure that 4-7 gringos just is a really promising target for a pickpocket, because we try to be really careful about that stuff.
This morning we took the girls to the Saturday market. I love the Saturday market. It’s an open air market where they block of two streets and set up shop with fresh produce, household goods, and almost anything else you might need. We got some new flowers to plant around the hacienda. I wish I knew more about plants so I could actually keep them alive indefinitely!!
Only one more week until Jaclyn leaves!!! Argh. So keep her in your prayers. Michelle made it back safe and sound, but you can continue praying for her too as she continues to process what she’s experienced here. Also keep praying for the teams that have come and gone that God will continue showing them His bigger plan for the world.
Okie doke…that’s it for today…
Keep on keeping on.
Love.
Kristen

PS I´ll try to post more pictures later this week...

Lots of New Interns!!

Greetings Friends!

We are currently hosting our last team until October. That makes me kinda said because I love having teams so much!! But, on the other hand it will be interesting to see how ministry changes when we’re not always preparing for the next team.

This team is from North Park University, there are 16 kids. They’re pretty cool; I love how they’re so willing to help wherever they’re needed…and so faithful to provide comic relief, as well!

On Saturday I went to the prison with some kids from the young adults group and youth group at the International Church. We went to do a program for all of the kids who end up living in the prison with their parents because they have nowhere else to go. It was so interesting to see the inside of a men’s prison in Bolivia. It was a three story building with a courtyard in the middle. There were clotheslines with laundry on them strung all over the place and ladders leading up into the wall with drop down doors where the cells were. When we arrived there was tons of guys just standing around watching a few men play basketball. We paraded (that’s what it felt like, at least, with fifteen or so girls and only three guys in our group) through the middle of the courtyard to get to the stairs and narrow passage ways to get to the third floor game room/chapel/gym. It was obviously not a high security prison, as I only saw one guard standing on top of the roof, and when we had the kids coloring pictures with dull colored pencils one of the men went and got a knife to sharpen the pencils! Apparently a lot of them are in jail for petty crimes or debt. They make beds and doghouses to sell to pay cell rent. There were probably around thirty kids that came to the program. We talked about Jonah, which may have been a good story for them (and their dads) to hear about God’s forgiveness and His desire to use us in spite of our mistakes. I know that it was good for ME to hear at least!! I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. Jonah 2:2

Two of our new interns arrived on Monday. Tiffany and Andrea!! We’re very happy to have them here. Tiffany celebrated her birthday only 2 days after arriving! She graduated from college, moved to Bolivia and turned 22 all within like 4 days! Nothing like cramming everything into one week!! Kim and Elaina arrive today from Bedford NH. (They’re from the same church as the last team!)

Well the countdown begins until my roomies leave. L It just makes me so sad to know that I probably won’t see them for at least 7 months. *sigh*. But apparently goodbyes are a very important part of life…even though I really don’t like them.

Okie doke… have a great birthday week…even if it isn’t yours it’s a lot of other peoples, and you should help them celebrate!!

Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17)

Kristen

Surgery, Autonomia, and Parties

Greetings Readers,

Well, it’s Friday now. I had my surgery exactly one week ago… but only one wisdom tooth was removed. They didn’t put me to sleep, they just numbed my mouth, but I could still feel everything. After only a few minutes of her cutting, I began to feel really woozy, I tried to tell the dentist that I was going to pass out but the numbing in my mouth made it nearly impossible to annunciate. Next thing I heard was the dentist and assistant calling my name. I woke up and had no idea where I was or what I was doing there in the dentist’s office. Oh how embarrassing!! I have a history of passing out relatively easily, just ask my mom! So as soon as I recovered I told her to keep going then almost passed out a second time. So as soon as I recovered the second time she hurried and got the tooth out and stitched me up and told me she’d do the rest another day after they sedated me. Yeah, I can’t even describe to you how embarrassed I was. On the bright side, recovery was much faster only having one done, though! I got my stitches out today and she said that it was a good recovery. Yay!

Last weekend there was an election in Santa Cruz for Autonomy, about which there was some concern for demonstrations, violence, and in worse case scenarios Civil War… But everything has actually been relatively peaceful. Soo that´s a huge praise!
We´ll have another team from North Park University arrive on Monday. We´ll also be getting FOUR new interns. All girls!! That will make 7 girls and one guy. Poor Adrian! Where are all the men?!
This weekend will mostly be in honor of Michelle. She´ll be leaving next Saturday and we´ll have a team then, so this weekend we´ll be getting together with folks and having parties and stuff like that to let her know how much we love her. So be praying for her as she heads back to the States. (That´s me and Michelle enjoying the Cristo´s view of the city).

Okie doke…have a fantastic week!!
Kristen