the world as best i know it

Pachi

2012-01-14T18:21:00.000-08:00

That means Gracias--or Thank You.

On behalf of my 10 teammates, Dr. Jorge, and some of the residents of Wak'u Mayu, Koll'pa, Senegoma, Potosi, Cochabamba, Uyuni, etc...I want to express my deepest thanks for your prayers, financial support and encouragement. We are so grateful for all you did to make it possible for us to go on your behalf and share the love of Jesus.

We began our journey on New Years eve. I must admit that it snuck up on me...kinda like Christmas or my birthday!

Our flight from San Antonio was cancelled so we scrambled to try to work things out. We stood in line for about two hours and found out that we had automatically been booked on the flight that left 30 minutes from when we finally got to speak with someone. (While most of the people in line in front of us had to go home and return the next day to get a flight to Dallas). We didn't see our team until nearly 24 hours later than when we were supposed to meet up with them. We had to fly through Lima, Peru and every flight we took was at least 30 minutes delayed--for no apparent reasons. We finally arrived in Cochabamba and my friend Eduardo had conveniently recently purchased a micro (large minivan) that held all of us and our luggage. We stayed at Laura's family's guesthouse and were taken very good care of. We spent our two days in Cochabamba visiting orphanages and the Cristo and preparing for the trip to Potosi.

We left for Potosi Tuesday night. I had asked for prayers for that as we left with two injured teammates. Turns out that was the least of our concerns as our bus left with half of our luggage and none of us! We ended up having to go to the smaller terminal, but it was gone. Jorge was able to get tickets for us to go three hours to Oruro where we had to find another bus to take us to Potosi. We made it, and prepared the gifts for the children. We left for Potosi in a rented bus. We spent many nights on that bus! We arrived in Senegoma late Wednesday night. We had our first program that morning. We were given oatmeal milk for breakfast with water crackers (kinda like unsalted saltines). The children hanging around were cared for by their ten year old brother as the parents had gone off to the city to celebrate "Kings Day".

We were joined by Carlos and his 14 year old son Emmanuel and they were clowns and just about the best I've ever seen! We sang songs with the kids and then Carlos and Emmanuel took over. They did games, skits, a Nativity Skit (with us as pawns. I happily played a sheep!). They explained how Jesus came to live among us but all the people in Bethlehem were too busy to let him in. He invited the children to allow Christ into their lives. Then we gave out the Christmas gifts (donations from generous friends and family).

We continued to follow the road until we got as close as we could to Wak'u Mayu where we had to get out of the bus and carry all of our things to the village. We were assisted by some of the men from the community. they carried huge loads tied to their backs! It was only about a 30 minute hike to the village. The people from the community gathered to watch and play. They slaughtered a lamb for us and the women prepared a large pot of lamb soup. We repeated a similar program to the one we did in Senegoma. Dr. Jorge cared for patients while we continued the activities with the children. That evening everyone gathered in a small room for what was supposedly a 40 minute worship service. There is no church in the village, and it seemed that the people were so excited to have more believers to fellowship it easily turned into a two hour service. Dr. Jorge shared about Jesus calming the storm and his power to calm the storms in our lives and to keep us from being overcome by difficult circumstances. We sang a few songs in English and they sang a few songs in Quechua and Spanish. We closed the evening by praying with a lady who had decided to follow Christ. Us girls piled into a small room lined up like burritos. We were graciously given llama skins to sleep on. It rained all night long and we woke up to a sloppy courtyard and another 30 minute hike back to the bus. We had another breakfast of tea and crackers and set out for Koll'pa. Because of the rain the roads were impassable and Dr. Jorge announced that we would have to hike to reach the village. He stated that it would be about 2 hours. It might have been if we had been practicing hiking mountains at 4000 meter altitude...after a lunch break and challenging hike around the mountains about half of us arrived at the village after 3 1/2 hours. The scenery was gorgeous--I felt like we were in a mixture between Narnia (minus all the creatures) and Sound of Music! It was absolutely breathtaking. When we arrived we gave out a snack, vitamins, gifts and gave a short presentation to the children. There were only about 25 as most of the adults and children were at a community celebration for the holiday. Someone had gone and announced that we were there and a few stragglers came to see us. Some ladies had traveled a few hours from Kharimayu Frias (the village we visited last year) to sing with the band. They sang some songs in Quechua and Spanish accompanied by guitar and Charango played by the men from Wak'u Mayu. A drunk man approached yelling that they didn't want the gospel to come to their town. He was hurling large rocks along with his insults and the musicians and children quickly dodged for cover. He continued ranting as he wandered off. We quickly wrapped up the program to head back and reunite with the 5 of our teammates who had stayed back. We walked quickly as we realized the urgency of catching up with our friends before the angry drunk man did. We also knew we had little time to cover as much ground as possible before darkness fell. We found our way back and shaved an hour off of our trip as we stopped for fewer breaks and walked faster. We praised God that we arrived safe and sound. I feared for us having to hike in the dark but we had some experienced mountain climbers and for that I was grateful!

We drove all night and enjoyed an early morning shower and swim at the hot springs at Miraflores--after having gone about 4 days of not showering.

We returned to Potosi and made room for Jorge's extended family to accompany us to Uyuni. We spent Sunday morning at the worship service in Potosi. The entire service was focused on Communion (Santa Cena) or the Eucharist. The pews were all turned to face the table in the center of the sanctuary. The church members sang with enthusiasm--yet somberness like I've never experienced in the states. The pastor closed the service by informing the church members of our trip to the mountains and let them know that we would be visiting the prison, orphanage and hospital as time permitted. He announced that we would close the afternoon by visiting the Salt Flats and returning to share in the evening service. He invited the church to accompany us. We walked to the prison shortly after the service was dismissed. It looked like any other residence until the large wooden doors were opened. We were led into a small courtyard with a broken down car, a beat up pool table under a suspended tarp, and several mangy dogs. One vocal prisoner stated that many of the prisoners were still sleeping as it was the best way to "kill time". He went and told a few to come out. A few men and women slowly wandered out and lingered in the corners while eying us suspiciously. We sang a few songs and then Katie and I were put in charge of sharing the same message that Jorge had given in Wak'u Mayu. Four men decided to give their lives to Christ and it is a beautiful reminder that God desires to save us no matter how far we've travelled down the wrong path He has the power and authority to redeem our broken lives and transform it into something so beautiful. Please join us in praying for our new brothers! We were unable to visit the orphanage as the children were out for the afternoon. We went to the hospital and saw the only patient.

We piled back in the bus (along with a lot of youth and adults from the church) and went to the Salt Flats! It had just rained and it was a beauty which I really cannot explain. It's easily one of the coolest places I've ever been! We went to the salt hotel and enjoyed the beauty for a bit. On our way back the axle on the bus broke. They announced that they were going to fix it with a "goma" (long rubber strip--kinda similar to a bungee cord). They managed to fix it, I have no idea...and then limped it back to town. We arrived late to church but marched in nonetheless. Dr. Jorge preached after the other preacher finished. We had a late dinner of chicken, fried potatoes and rice. We went to bed on our straw matresses exhausted. Sometimes I don't understand how it is possible to do so many things in only one day!

The next morning we received a tour of the radio station, had breakfast, devotions with Pastor Max, devotions with Jenny and an open floor for testimonies. It was amazing. We heard some amazing stories of God's redemptive work in the broken lives of team members, Jorge's family and were reminded of some cool things He had been doing for us that week. Jorge's sister decided she wanted to pray to invite Christ to take her life so she could rest from struggling to control it and allow Him to be LORD of her good days and bad. She and her daughter prayed and we rejoiced for the broken axle which allowed us the chance to share--although we rejoiced once it was repaired too!!

We travelled back to Potosi and saw some snow on the way. It turned to rain after our arrival as Jorge and his family ran around for the afternoon. There were no more bus tickets that night and they worked diligently to find a way for us to get to Sucre to catch our flight the next morning. He finally got a bus to drive us there. It was missing a seat but we piled in anyways for the three hour drive. We spent the night at his nieces' house and flew to Santa Cruz the next morning. We spent a day and a half there with Amanda and Limberg's aunt and uncle. We went to the market, walked around town, and enjoyed a break.

We praise God for His faithfulness every step of the way. A million thanks to all of you, and an extra million if you made it through this ENTIRE update! :) And thanks to the team: Amanda, Limberg, Annette, Jessi, Nancy, Julie, Tee, Jenny, Laura, Jorge, Carlos and Emmanuel. I'm honored to know and have had the opportunity to serve alongside you!

2012-01-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

God is doing amazing things with this amazing group...we hiked backpacked 10 to 12 miles on the mountaintops to reach an indigenous Indian group. The people are so poor...It is so cool worshiping with other believers from different cultures.

January 3, 2011

2012-01-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Good evening,

We have had a very busy two days! We leave on an overnight bus to Potosi tonight. Please continue to pray for health and safety, but pray also that we will be ready and willing to do whatever it is that God calls us to do even if it's hard, ugly or seems impossible. We want to give glory to our great God and are amazed in the amazing ways he has been so faithful to us so far.

We should be in Potosi through next Tuesday when we will fly to Santa Cruz. We'll spend a day there with some missionaries who are family to two of our teammates Amanda and Limberg and fly home on the 12th. That's the plan at least...

So far we have a lost wallet, sprained wrist and ankle so hopefully this trend does not continue!

Thanks for your prayers!!

Kristen

Special needs this Navidad

2011-12-11T20:59:00.000-08:00

I would like to take this opportunity to let you know some practical ways to help overseas this Christmas. I know I may seem a little biased, but there is sooo much going on in Bolivia that I want to tell you about!
Previously we have done Navidad en Bolivia where we do a Christmas sponsorship program for kids in different ministries in Bolivia to ensure that they receive presents--and also to help with some bigger needs of the ministries. We were unable to complete that due to circumstances in the lives of all of us in leadership of NEB that made it impossible to pull together. However, we have still been in touch with the organizations and would still love to help them, even though not officially through NEB this year. Here are just a couple...

Pequeno David is a boys home that is a shelter for boys who have been abandoned, orphaned or taken away from their families. They sometimes are able to be reunified with families when the parents are able to complete the necessary requirements to prove that they will be able to care for their children adequately. They have asked for shoes, and soccer uniforms for the boys this year. Estimated would be around $20 USD/per child. There are currently 16 boys.

Red Vida de Esperanza is a mission that works with schools, communities, and churches throughout rural Potosi and Chuquisaca Bolivia. Doctor Jorge who leads RVE mentioned to me that they have an increasing number of indigenous people that come to the city for medical care. They do not have enough money to pay for the services needed so Jorge said that many times they have to turn the people away. He stated that they would like to have an emergency medical expenses fund for these patients.

Centro de Apoyo y Amistad: This is an after school program that offers tutoring and classes to help kids in poor communities to catch up on homework, and compensate for where they might be falling behind. The Center also provides a nutritious snack and gives support to the families of these students and most importantly, shares the love of Christ with them. The Center has recently purchased some land and is in need of funds to complete the construction of their building as they are currently temporarily meeting in a school. To completely finish the project they are in need of $16,000 USD.

Casa de Amor: This is an orphanage that has 3 homes in the city. They have their own therapists, social workers and loving staff that work with these kids. It really is a neat place. They have identified needs for disposable diapers that they use for outings with the babies to be $50/month. They also have a blind girl who needs to attend therapy and different medical appointments. The cost for her care is $100 USD/month.

If you are interested in helping please let me know. Most of these organizations are led by Bolivians, however, several of these organizations have online giving available which will allow you to get a tax-exempt receipt for your tax purposes. Any donation is greatly appreciated--and with your donation I will send you a special thank you picture! :) Oh and I can also deliver monetary contributions directly when I go to Bolivia in THREE WEEKS!

If it takes a village to raise a child...

2011-09-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

wouldn't it then make perfectly good sense to support the missionaries that work to help communities, churches and schools thrive?

I would like to introduce you to two men who have made a profound influence on my life as I see them dedicating their very lives to see rural communities reached with the hope of Jesus. I think of them as our modern day Paul & Barnabas. Jorge takes every opportunity to share the Gospel ...so does Waldo, but he definitely has the gift of encouragement!

Along with the beautiful message of redemption Jorge & Waldo also give basic medical care, and offer community support to the people in these villages.

So here's how you can be a part--if you so desire:

1. If you live near Seguin Texas (or are one of those destination participants) you can run in the Llama Leap 5K that we are hosting on September 24, 2011. This is a fun way to expose our community to the work in Bolivia while providing a fun fitness activity on an early Saturday morning. We're making it a day of festivities, complete with folkloric music, a live llama, and authentic handwoven goods made by the women in the rural Andean communities.

2. You can go on a mission trip this January. The dates we're currently considering are January 1-11, 2012. Let me know if you're interested. The cost will be between $2000-$2500 and will be through Ministry Partners International again this year. If you're interested I can get you more information.

3. You can donate! You can contribute monetary support for the mission team, or you can send money for Jorge and Waldo to purchase a new vehicle, or you can send small toys, hygiene items or school supplies and we'll be happy to deliver them for you! (*You can send checks to MPI 10420 Norwalk Rd. Litchfield OH 44253--just send a note designating it for the Bolivia trip. )

4. And all of you can pray! (There's no good excuse why you can't!) It's good for all of us!

On living like a nomad

2011-08-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

First of all, I can't believe it's August. Lots of changes coming up and I'm just not too sure I'm ready for that.
I've decided to stick around San Antonio this year. This means that I won't be going back to NTBI. This was a very hard decision. I loved studying the word of God under the professors there. I loved my roomates and the crisp fall weather and the awesome family that I babysat for. I loved being only 3 hours from Ohio or Chicago. Okay, so maybe I was a little spoiled! ;) But I feel very sure that God has led me to where I am right now.
In case you didn't catch it somewhere along the way, I absolutely LOVE my job, I just found out that I'm moving to a different position in about two and a half weeks at my same job. Let's just say I was a little surprised to be chosen! Feels a little bittersweet-although I'll be working with the same people just in a different capacity.
As I was reminiscing the other day as I was reflecting on the past year which really has felt like a whirlwind I thought of all the good things I've experienced and maybe worried a little bit that maybe this new phase will be very different. I know there will be times when I miss Michigan, or the work that I'm currently doing...but that's part of life. We take risks when we feel God's pushing us along to something else. Staying the same would be compromise. Moving along before He leads would be foolish. So I try to make sure I'm following His lead and giving my best.
Maybe I'll be less of a nomad now. I pretty much have always had a duffel bag close by ready to spend the night at my sister's, brother's, cousin's, uncle's, friend's...etc. It's been a fun way to get to spend time with friends and I've been so blessed by their hospitality. From mac'n'cheese, to homemade chinese food, to leftovers and fancy dinners out; uno games, storytime before bedtime with adorable kids to heart to heart talks with old friends over a cup of tea, etc. I've been so encouraged and overwhelmed by the kindness of friends. Hopefully someday I'll get to repay the favor...!
Now I'll also have some extra time to prepare for the 5K which I'm organizing to support hermano Jorge & hermano Waldo. If you're in the San Antonio/Austin vicinity you should totally check it out... September 24 is the big day. (Aren't these the cutest little llamas you've ever seen?! Many thanks to Tee G!)

Summer Reading

2011-07-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

Some reading suggestions... (In English and Spanish)

This one's been on my list for a long time. Mostly because it has a lot to do with the population I work with. My friend Sylvia read it and warned me that it will make me cry--maybe that's why I haven't read it yet...but I'm going to! It's also in Spanish...

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I read this one to the boys at work-but in English. I was laughing and then
had to translate it into Spanish too since they didn't get it. Not sure the humor got across but it's a good message and cute.

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This one I got on cd to listen to on the way to and from work. I figured that I drive so much anyways, might as well take advantage of that time to do something productive. So this one's a classic, and I'll probably never get around to sitting down to read it anyways...

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This one I got from the library to read to the kids I work with. I did a test run on Bekah last night. I'm pretty sure I haven't read a bedtime story to her in a verrrrry long time!

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This one is by Charles Swindoll. I'm reading through it as part of a Bible Study that I'm "leading" at my church for the college & career group. It's good. I'm reading it along with the book of Acts.

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P.s. I got three kids books and one audio book from the library yesterday and my receipt told me that I saved $153--I guess that's only if I return them on time though! ;) So by all means, take advantage of your library! Plus the due dates will motivate you to finish in a timely manner.

What are YOU reading this summer?

Rembering a legacy

2011-05-30T20:36:00.000-07:00

Being Memorial Day weekend we hear a lot of talk of heroism, those who sacrifice much--sometimes even their own lives to defend their country, and fight for what they believe in. Just a passing thought as I watched the flag folding ceremony at church yesterday and a collage of military memories, while I felt grateful for all that these men & women have done for us, I couldn't help but wonder why it's somewhat common and generally applauded when people commit to defend their country (and it should be), but it seems much rarer for one to sacrifice to the same extent for the Creator and King of the universe. Shouldn't that be the highest honor?
I've been hearing and reading a lot about Hudson Taylor this last semester. I definitely recommend looking him up. What a profound legacy he left, he gave up so much but what he accomplished for eternal purposes was so much greater. What a great example of discipline, obedience & faith...look him up.
Thank you veterans & current servicemen & women who have dedicated/are dedicating your lives to defending liberty & justice. Thank you missionaries, ministers and those of you who are dedicating your lives to making God's name known. You are a motivation to many!

Summer in the...South!

2011-05-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

It took awhile for me to know for sure where I was going to spend this summer. But now I'm here and it's going to be good.
I'm super excited to be able to have some bonus time with my family. Jenny's graduating from high school already! It kinda makes me sad every time one of my siblings reaches a major milestone like this because it just reminds me that we all have to grow up and move on. I know it's good, it's just bittersweet not knowing how things will change and realizing that we'll not be able to be together forever.

I drove here by myself (not my first choice nor my favorite way to spend 2 days of my life), but it wasn't all bad. Had some good conversations with God, Grandma and the drivers around me. Don't worry I'm not one of those people who get's road rage. Sometimes I just offer (respectful) constructive criticism! :) I enjoyed the scenery and was surprised at how much flooding there was along the way and how dry it is here in South Texas.

I start my new job next week so I'm a little nervous/excited for that.

I'm going to get to see my nieces and foster nephew tomorrow! I'm always afraid they're going to forget me and I'll become that mysterious aunt that no one really ever sees--I guess eventually I'll become that anyways if I move overseas...but that's besides the point.

One good thing about the drive was that I got to see my dear friend Simi who was one of my best friends in college. Simi's from Nigeria and attended Hiram college. She interned with Student venture and got her Master's degree from Dallas Baptist University where she now teaches.
(Dallas Baptist University).
We met in Campus Crusade for Christ and have been fast friends ever since. Simi is an amazing woman and she encourages/challenges/entertains me like no one else!
It was impeccable timing as she was leaving the next day for London. So I stayed at her place and to prepare for her trip to the UK we watched the Royal wedding...well I might have accidentally fallen asleep partway through! I did dream about it though and woke up thinking about how beautiful our reunion in Heaven will be. The Bride of Christ, royalty, loved by Him, right? Sooo much better than a wedding of a duke & duchess! (huh...never thought I'd write a blog about the royal wedding!)

I Peter 2:⁹-10 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.

Speaking of Bolivia...(okay, so I wasn't but you know that it was only a matter of time until I did!)...January is when I'm looking to take the next trip/team. Pray about it and please get back to me if you're interested. I'd like to pray for you and help you be able to make an informed decision! There's also a VIDEO up of our last trip here!

Anyways, classes this semester were so good. I think I have to say that Acts was my personal favorite. That should be required summer reading for everyone. So get to it!

Chau for now!

What would Mom do?

2011-04-05T17:25:00.000-07:00

Since September I've been caregiver/nanny/babysitter to two active boys age 6 & 10 (the youngest will be 7 next month). I often rack my brain trying to remember some of my Mom's parenting techniques since she spent the most time with us...I usually can't remember or I say the very thing that I always hated it when she said! (Like, "just ignore him", "find something else to do", "go play outside", or "I'm setting the timer. Find a book and read quietly until it goes off"--this one is kind of a lifesaver!). She was the master of redirecting us, thinking of something fun & creative to do, and correcting our inappropriate behavior--yes that happened frequently. I feel like she did such a nice job of communicating with us and respecting us. She never was demeaning or mean spirited towards us . I pray for wisdom to be a good teacher and encourage these cool boys to become great men someday.
So last week was spring break and I was on my own with these two kiddos for 9 hours a day--they really are great boys. Pretty well behaved, they listen to me usually though on a consistent--but not frequent-basis need redirected or corrected. After a few hours though, I found myself looking at the clock and asking myself what on earth I was going to do with them for the next seven hours! We made it though and I even thought it was a super fun week. Here's what we did:
Made, played with and ate edible play doh (this is my handiwork. An anteater and a little boy)
painted readymade birdhouses

made pigs in a blanket for breakfast
played games
went to the library to get movies (PG rated movies are kinda hard to come by these days...)
took a tour of the Jiffy plant (accidentally found that when i got lost on the way to the dentist)
got hot chocolate on a rainy day
went on errands (grocery store, post office, etc. Sometimes it's just nice to get out).
Read together--and separately.
etc...

All in all, I enjoyed playing mom for a few days! I work for a really great family that pretty much lets me have freedom to do what I want with the boys. I really like them and they seem to like me too. It's an ideal work environment! :) (Plus I get paid to play!)
Here are some pictures because I respect the privacy of the family you'll not see the boys' faces, but you can get an idea of how much fun we have! ;)

Oh, and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM...a little bit early!

Delivered from Death

2011-03-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

In God whose word I praise.
In God I have put my trust,
I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
This I know that God is for me.
For You have delivered me from death,
Indeed my feet from stumbling,
so that I may walk before God
in the light of the living.

-Psalm 56:4, 9b, 13

Happy to be Healthy again

2011-03-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Being sick was not exactly my choice of how to spend last weekend, but the one good thing was the anticipation of warmer weather. I left my window open and couldn't wait to get well and get outside! I felt like I'd been hit by a truck and can't remember being that sick in years and years! My cough has lingered on all week, but otherwise I feel great now! That was the first time in my life I've taken a sick day (called off work and skipped classes). It was actually rather refreshing though, and I got some reading done and organizing. Maybe that's God's way of telling me I need to slow down every once in awhile.
This weekend we have outside plans I think I'll make it to Cabela's for the very first time! ...So many firsts this week!
I've really been enjoying my classes--well in that I feel very challenged to take my relationship with God more serious. After all, if He is who I say I believe He is, my life should clearly reflect that in the choices I make, lifestyle I live and way I treat others. Living with an eternal perspective? My dad talks about building THe Kingdom, and sometimes it's easy to just smile and agree because it sounds right, sounds very christian at least. But I think the point of what he was probably trying to emphasize was that our time here on this earth is crucial for leading people to Christ. If I'm not doing anything to show people that I follow Christ, there's really no point, right? I might as well live like a pagan and at least show that the reason is because I believe there's no God. I don't think God appreciates or honors mediocrity. Christ is coming back in His glory one day--we hope soon. As believers we need to be doing what He has entrusted us with when He comes. I believe it was a man from a hindu temple who told someone from my school that christians don't really believe in a resurrection. If they did, he said, they (christians) would not be living like they do. Hm, that's a tragedy my friends.
Here's an incredible verse I can't get out of my mind this week:
Luke 21:³⁴ “Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware, ³⁵ like a trap. For that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. ³⁶ Keep alert at all times. And pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.”

Mid-semester update!

2011-03-08T16:58:00.000-08:00

So we're one month away from spring break already and I'm finally writing an update!

This semester I'm studying classes ranging from the Life of Christ, Psalms, Prophets, Anthropology and Hermeneutics II. We've finally gotten into the New Testament and will finish up with Acts, Christology and I Corinthians. I cannot even believe how much I am learning. God provided through a few faithful individuals which allowed me to be able come back this semester and I feel very blessed and thankful to be here. My faith has taken on a whole new dimension and it reminds me how much I still don't know or understand.

I have started volunteering with AWANAs/Truth in Training. I've done one week in each so far! I also visit a spanish church here sometimes, and often am surprised at how much I miss speaking in Spanish all the time. But I did dream in Spanish the other night which was pretty exciting!

I continue to babysit for the two boys I watched last semester. It's a really fun job, I often am discouraged when I realize how much wisdom I lack in dealing with/teaching kids and what a big responsibility parenting really is. I often find myself asking, "what would Mom do in this situation?"!

I've made a few weekend trips.
Twice to Chicago to visit my cousin, former co-workers from Bolivia and other friends.
Weekend in Chicago after the huge blizzard!
Visit #1. You should recognize these people! (former co-workers from Bolivia). from L-R: Jen, Katie (on floor), me, Elsa, Matt, Nate & Kate.
Visit #2. Again with friends from Bolivia. They convinced me to try Chicago hot dogs. Let's just say that I'll still vote for pizza!! ;)
Trip to Lincoln Park zoo with my cousin.

Twice to Ohio to visit family and friends. We celebrated my grandpas 79th birthday--what a beautiful life and amazing influence he's had on all of us.
Bizzy & I made this red velvet cake from scratch! This was a definite improvement from our first attempt the night before! ;)

And I went snowmobiling for the first time with my friend Bethany (also a former co-worker from Bolivia). It was super fun, we have no photos of the actual adventure, but here we are ready to brave the snow and COLD!
Looking forward to seeing the rest of my family for the last half of spring break! Oh how I miss them!

And now I'm ready for spring. The snow's begun to melt and I've enjoyed a few sunny afternoon runs around the neighborhood the anticipation mounts with each new day. I think after the winter I will appreciate the spring/summer/fall all the more!! :)
Carpe Diem!!!

Simple & Healthy Granola

2011-03-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

I made this recipe up--I tried another recipe but didn't really like it, so I made up this one. And it's pretty delicious if I do say so myself!

Honey Peanutty Granola
Ingredients:
3 c. old fashioned oats
3 T peanut butter
5 T honey

Toast the oats for about 8 minutes in preheated oven (350 degrees).
Melt peanut butter and honey (about 1 minute in the microwave) pour toasted oats in mix well and pour onto greased waxed paper. Leave mixture kind of heaped up (I put it in a 9x13 cake pan), cook for about 8 more minutes. But keep an eye on it, it cooks really fast and sometimes it gets a little over toasted!

Last words.

2011-02-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

By far the most convicting chapel services of my LIFE were a few weeks back. There was a guy here by the name of Brad Buser...and I'm still processing everything he talked about, but I know this: He confronted some misguided selfish thinking that I've adopted.
Basically he reminded us of the call of God to each one of us to go into all the world and preach the gospel, I know we've all heard that before, but I for one have often shrugged off the significance of this command. I continue to try to wrap my mind around what it means to really follow the God who loves the nations. So here's a little bit of my thought process...
If there are in fact 2,100+ people groups who have never heard the gospel (these 2,100 people groups contains roughly 2/3 of the entire world's population), when I stand before God and those people who've never heard are condemned to hell, will all the excuses I make up for why I can't or shouldn't go into overseas missions even matter? Will I still feel justified by the way I've chosen to follow my dreams rather than obey God to go and share His message of hope?
The point Mr. Buser points out is that we've all been called to passionately pursue God and share His word with others. Sometimes it boils down to this: obedience. God wants our lives to count for a bigger purpose than building our own "kingdoms".

²⁴Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. ²⁵"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt. 24)

God's heart is for the world--that every person would hear the gospel. What then will I do about it? So convicting to me, and encouraging to hear something different.
Anyway, This is just as much--if not more--for me than for you. I just write these blogs hoping that perhaps one of you faithful readers will get something out of it too. You can listen to Brad B. if you want here's a link to his youtube videos.

Last words before Jesus ascended: (Matthew 28)

¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

That's all for now. Feel free to comment.

Bella Esperanza

2011-01-13T12:25:00.000-08:00

"Beautiful Hope"

Dear Pray-ers,
I cannot thank you enough for you prayers, encouragement and support of our trip to Bolivia. We are well aware of the fact that without you we would have been unable to accomplish as much as we did.
We spent a few days in the city of Cochabamba visiting a few different ministries, catching up with dear missionary friends, and distributing donations. We had the honor of meeting Gracia Burnham, and staying with the amazing Hedvall Family while in Cochabamba!
God brought our team together in the most unique way for the Potosi trip. We knew that we would go with Dr. Jorge and Dr. Waldo (who formed Red Vida de Esperanza years ago). I've been going with them for four years now and they are always asking when I can bring another team (so start saving up!!!). Sylvia, David and I came down from the States. Laura was a friend through mutual friends and Eduardo went to the same church as me when I lived in Cochabamba. The day before we left for Potosi I met Jed at baby washing (He was an intern with the same organization I worked with in 2008). He decided on that day to join our team to Potosi. When we arrived at the terminal Eduardo informed me that the little boy named Edwin would be accompanying us as we returned to his village Kharimayu Frias-which we visited in May/June when I went. It was so neat to see God orchestrate that and our team really had a neat dynamic and we worked together in an amazing way.
If you recall, Edwin was my little patient on my last trip down. He broke his leg a year ago now, and we took him out of his village in June because he needed to have some major surgeries in the city. He has had three surgeries and still needs more. He hadn't seen his family since June so he came along with us to spend time with his parents and siblings and returned back to Cochabamba for more medical attention. It was fun having him along and he was one of THE most joyful kids I've ever seen!
The trip consisted of two days each in two communities. Kharimayu Frias was up in the mountains and much more remote than the second village. They have installed running water since I was last there. People travelled for hours by foot to see us. We shared a Bible lesson, had games, coloring and songs with them. They also had a day for Especiales, where they would sing for us and we would sing for them, had dramas and testimonies. It was a joyful place, they slaughtered a sheep for us, and cooked up everything! We were humbled by their generosity and saddened by the harsh realities they face every day. Rain has been scarce and their only agricultural crop of potatoes has suffered. We spent a morning with Edwin's family which is one of the only christian families in the community. They are under immense pressure from the leaders of the community due to their refusal to worship mother earth (Pachamama) and are blamed for anything that goes wrong (lack of rain, etc).
On Thursday morning we arrived in Vacuyo (which I visited with a team in 2008). We did a similar program there. This community wasn't as remote or poor as the first, but still depended on the crops and livestock/llama herds to sustain them. The rituals of worship to the sun god and pachamama were still a big part of the culture but the church seemed to have a bigger influence in the community. We try to make sure the people know that we are associated with the church so that their job of following up with those who have questions or make decisions to follow Christ will be easier. On the last night we had a program with testimonies, a message of God's love and power as the only one who can save us, skits by Waldo the Clown and Co., and an invitation to follow Jesus. Many children responded and we finished the night by praying for the leaders of the church in Vacuyo and some leaders of neighboring churches that had come to be involved in the program we were hosting. There were tears all around, and we were reminded of the harsh conditions these laborers are under both physically and spiritually.
We gave out gifts in both communities, it was the last of the Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes as the bolivian government has imposed taxes on any incoming shipments of boxes which the organization cannot afford. So we supplemented with the load of donations which we brought. God's people were very faithful, and I must admit that I was surprised by how much we were actually able to pack! We must've seen over 150 kids and I kept thinking we weren't going to have enough but wouldn't you know it--we did!
God is faithful and his timing impeccable. The hike in gas prices was withdrawn late Friday night and everything was back to normal by Sunday. We even got to see the presidente! We had no problems with the vehicle that we rented and we stayed mostly healthy throughout the trip. Our flights were on time and our luggage only got lost on this side of the trip.
Thank you so very much for your prayers and for all of you that donated please know that you brought joy to the children and families of Potosi. Continue to be in prayer as to if and how God would use you to continue to support the ministry of Red Vida de Esperanza. Jorge has been praying for a vehicle of their own for years, and always asks me if we can bring another team (He's hoping for July...), the women also have handmade tapestries, bags, bracelets etc, that have also been sent with me if you would like to support these women and receive one of these unique pieces prices vary and 100% of the money goes back to these people in Bolivia. The need in Bolivia (as elsewhere) is great and God has burdened Jorge, Waldo and the other leaders of RVE to assist, teach and bless the rural communities throughout the country. I am always humbled and blessed to be a part and hope to continue to communicate to you how you can be a part also, and as always if you want to be removed from my mailing list just let me know and I'll be happy to oblige. :)
Mil gracias (many thanks) from the bottom of my heart! :)
God's blessings to you in 2011.
Much love and appreciation--
Kristen

Jehova nuestro Dios, Jehova uno es.
The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Deut. 6:4

The New Year in South America!

2010-12-27T05:56:00.001-08:00

Thursday's the day I head back to Bolivia. It seems that things are going to be much more complicated this time...I guess the longer you're gone the less familiarity you have with how things are going--both with the missionaries and with the government.
I'm not one to stress out, or worry about this type of things, but knowing that I am helpless to do anything about most of these factors does make me a little...nervous! I'm giving you a heads up so you can (PLEASE) pray for us!!

The gas prices rose yesterday by 72%! This could cause strikes, very expensive transportation for us, or the inability to get transportation.
We have to get a different visa and we can't get it until the airport (as if 24 hours of travel wasn't overwhelming enough--without not knowing if you'll even be allowed into the country once you arrive!) and it will cost $135.
Pray that we will catch all of our flights and not get caught up in all the new airport policies.
While in the city for a very brief stay we hope to do many things. Visit people, the cancha, help out with a few ministries there...You can pray for time management there too, so we can get everything done that we need to.
Potosi always provides many unexpected situations. We just need to be back in time to catch our flight home. That's my biggest concern for that....
Pray that we will stay safe and healthy.
Pray for unity among the team. I will introduce them on this page.
Pray for the families and children that we will be meeting, serving and sharing our beautiful message of hope with.
Pray that God's name will be glorified above all.

Thank you sooo much!! I'll try to get on here to update with stories and pictures. I'm sure I'll have LOTS to share!!

Wishing you God's best this holiday season, He is good!

100 Good Things to make with pumpkin!

2010-11-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Well, the list is not exactly finished but I've thought of plenty! Here's my new favorite:

Pumpkin Scones
2 c. flour
7 T sugar
1 T baking powder (yes that's a Tablespoon)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
6 T. cold butter
mix until crumbly and add
1/2 c. pumpkin
3 T. half and half *I didn't have half and half, so I used vanilla ice cream instead!
1 egg.
Roll dough to 1" thickness cut into triangles and bake at 425 degrees on greased cookie sheet for 14-16 minutes. Cool and drizzle with pumpkin spice glaze.

Pumpkin spice glaze
1 c. powdered sugar
2 T whole milk
1/4 t. cinnamon
1/8 t nutmeg
pinch of ginger
pinch of cloves

Mix and drizzle over scones. Immediately sprinkle with chopped walnuts and let glaze set (approximately an hour).

Then... ENJOY!

New Hats!!

2010-11-08T16:57:00.001-08:00

$15
$10
$10

P.s.-if you live far away but want to buy hats--or gloves shipping is relatively inexpensive (around $2-3). Just let me know and I'll be happy to send them off to you or your loved one. :)

From the last post-the red and blue hats (with ear flaps) are now unavailable and the colorful necklace. All others are still available.

Just in time for winter!

2010-11-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
In order to help fund my mission trip I've come up with a few fundraisers that will benefit you too! I had two bake sales here in Michigan with a little help from some room mates...and now a sweet friend has made some really cool hats for me to sell with all proceeds going towards the Bolivia trip. I also have some gloves and necklaces from Bolivia that I brought back last time to sell to help cover costs of my trip.
So let me know if you want to buy any of these things (or if you see anything you like that you want me to bring back let me know that too.)

Hats by Anna

$15

$10

Bolivian Goods

Convertible mitten/fingerless gloves. $15
Fingerless Gloves. $10
Seed/wood star necklace. $8
Beaded seed necklace. $10

What about them?

2010-10-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

I just had a really nice visit with a good friend. While we were catching up over tacos, she was telling me about her younger brother's recent car accident. He smashed his hand up pretty bad and was in the hospital for a few days. When released his hand became infected and they thought he would lose it. After a week of treatments to rid it of infection and frequent doses of painkiller to make it tolerable he finally was able to have surgery and now is healing fine. His doctor remarked to my friend that she would rather die trying to get back to the States than to have to stay in a hospital in another country.
I rejoice with my friend that her brother was able to get good medical care immediately after his accident, and that his doctor was competent and that they were able to pay for his surgery. Then Edwin came to my mind. The little boy that I met in Potosi this spring--the boy with the poorly healed fracture and infected leg. You can scroll down to see another picture of Edwin with me and his mom (June 7 entry.). Story after story of people up in the mountains who needed medical care for things that began as minor medical problems which quickly worsen due to lack of medical attention. Little Edwin might very well be crippled for the rest of his life because he didn't receive the care he needed when he had his accident. If my friends brother would've been there, his accident very well could've been a death sentence. No pain reliever, no antibiotics or sanitary environment to protect from infection, no medical professionals or specialists... It just seems so...well, unfair.
So this is what some kids are doing to help: The children's church at First Baptist in Medina is going to raise money for a scholarship fund for kids like Edwin who can't afford the medical care they need. The hope is that with a scholarship fund, kids will be able to get to the city to get treated promptly and save money, time and pain in the long run.
Maybe we weren't born in the USA just to have the best medical care available to us. Maybe the American dream isn't what we always thought it was...maybe we're blessed with disproportionate wealth (compared to the rest of the world) to help others. Maybe all this is so that God's name will be glorified through our desire to share what we have. I remember one time in high school when my pastor said, "to whom much is given, much is expected". I'm not wanting to be preachy, but feeling convicted of this myself. (Sidenote: I highly recommend The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns. Trust me, it will revolutionize your relationship with God and perception of the world. ) Maybe it's time for all of us to do something about it. I'm not saying this just to get you to support my cause. Pray about where God would have you to help, and then do it. There are MANY needs all over the world- This one lays heavy on my heart tonight.

'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine,
even the least of them, you did it to Me.' Matt. 25:40

A few recent accomplishments

2010-09-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

So I've been in Michigan for over a month now. Here are some things I've accomplished:

Run a half marathon,
climb a rock wall,
and jump off a ginormous swing. All without injuring myself--and this was just last weekend.

Obtain the best part time job! (Babysitting for 2 boys, 9 and 6).
Take a few trips back to Ohio.
Begun planning for a mission trip over Christmas break.
Lots of homework--and with consistently good grades!
Joined inter-mural Volleyball and Basketball.
And been recruited to run a 10K for the field day competition against the other campus.
Acquired some new friends/room-mates who make life much more interesting!
Attended a Baptist Church here a couple times and really enjoyed it. I've also been able to visit my church in Ohio a few weekends which always makes me incredibly happy! :)

I'm enjoying all that I've been learning. It makes me wonder how different my time at college would've been had I had the opportunity to learn what I'm learning now along with all the different worldviews that were presented to me. It makes me even more thankful for the friends and mentors I met through Campus Crusade for Christ at LCCC and Cleveland State that helped me grow more in my faith while there. I'm confident that what I'm learning now will revolutionize my Bible Study habits, worldview...not to mention my LIFE!

Well, tomorrow's Friday and we have a fun weekend planned. Taking three of my roomates back to Ohio for some good country fall fun! :)

To the ends of the earth

2010-09-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

I realize this may be repeat information for many of you who read your emails, but if you don't or if you don't receive them, here's some basic info for the mission trip over Christmas break:

The plan is tentatively to go from December 20-30 (But I need you to let me know if you can't do those dates. The only feedback I've gotten is that those dates work well). It looks like this will be the cheapest time to go, and date-wise it would include that week between Christmas and New Years for all the folks that get time off for that...), plus this will be a Christmas to remember! ;)
We will be delivering Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes in some very rural communities. Doctor Jorge has been traveling to these communities for years, we've gone with him twice and he asked if I would bring a team this year also. This really won't be the end of life as you know it, but I would be lying to tell you that it will be easy. It's pretty rugged, you'll most likely go a few days without showering, eat some strange things, and spend a lot of time in the car. On the bright side, though: the scenery is amazing, the kids are always glad to have company (and presents--which they rarely receive), and God will stretch you in so many ways if you let Him. Here's a link to a video from the last trip like this that we took

The cost will be around $2200, depending on how soon we can get tickets. (If anyone has experience with a good travel agent, feel free to pass along that info). This should include airfare, food, and lodging.
I need to know within the next TWO WEEKS (By September 15) if you are planning on going. We can't get visas until we have plane tickets, and if we wait to long the prices will go way up. So pray about it, find your passports, and start spreading the word (feel free to invite a friend...or two!) and raising support (if you need to go that route).
Let me know if you have more questions. I have plenty of pictures, stories and fun facts if you want to know more. ;) As you pray about if God would have you participate I highly encourage you to read "The Hole in the Gospel" by Richard Stearns, or "Radical" by David Platt. Both very good reads on God's heart for the world and the role we get to play in sharing with others.
Que Dios les guarde!
Kristen

P.s. We are also looking for lots of donations of hygiene items, money and school supplies, so if you can't go, but would like to contribute in this way, that would be greatly appreciated!

moving right along

2010-08-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

So this info isn't confidential, I just haven't gotten around to writing an update. Brace yourselves:

I'm moving...to Michigan...for Bible School...this Sunday!!
My last day of work is this Thursday and I am so grateful for the lessons learned there. I've learned a lot, grown a lot and enjoyed it-even though there were bad days too! We've settled into a normalcy of sorts. I think with good limits. We have fun together and I learn a lot from them. I've really enjoyed watching them learn and grow.
We've been having lots of fun as a family. (All of my siblings live here, minus my sister Bizzy who lives in Ohio.) We got a pool pass and have been out having fun at a friends house with a four wheeler and dad's dirtbike. I joked that I'll be a better missionary someday for being able to drive a dirtbike!! (They use them a lot overseas).
I just celebrated my 25th birthday. So needless to say I feel a little funny starting all over again at school, but God's faithful and sometimes He tells us to do things that don't seem to make sense.
Here's the plan:
Lord willing, I'll leave Seguin, Texas on Sunday night (Yes...this Sunday). My sisters Katie, Bek and Jen will ride up to Ohio with me. we'll be in Ohio a few days then they will fly back to Texas and I will drive up to Michigan move in, get orientated and start school the 23rd of August.
I'll be attending New Tribes Bible Institute (http://ntbi.org/). I actually visited this school many years ago (2004?), and at that time it didn't work out to go there. It's in Jackson Michigan and I know NO ONE who goes there, but I do know a lot of really neat missionaries (overseas and stateside) who went there.
Leaving is bittersweet. I guess I was starting to settle in here! It's never easy to leave family. And MICHIGAN...?! Haha! I would have to go to the rival state! ;) I feel a peace though that this is what God wants for me right now. It is so easy for me to make up excuses as to why I can't go, why I should do something else, or why maybe I should wait...but I know that God's been calling me to do something else, and I've known for a long time that missions was something that I felt especially drawn to. So I think I need to be preparing myself to follow Him and serve Him in a fuller capacity that I'm currently prepared for. So I'm going to go study the Bible, hopefully find some good friends on a similiar journey, and follow God to the end of the earth should He call me there...
You can continue to follow my blog, or facebook and I will try to keep you updated as I settle in. I'm also hoping to continue plans to take a team to Bolivia over Christmas break. Let me know if you're interested!!
Thanks for your prayers, support and encouragement.
Bendiciones--
Kristen

Lessons learned as a surrogate soccer mom

2010-08-10T03:22:00.000-07:00

I guess working with kids helps you understand your relationship with God a little bit better. Example, I usually know what's going to happen throughout the day and what needs to happen when and coordinate for everything to flow smoothly. Sometimes the boys don't really get that and have a hard time following directions for that very reason. (Translation: God sees the big picture and we don't, that's why sometimes what He calls us to do doesn't make sense.)

Second, I hear a LOT of whining. About everything! Consequences for bad decisions, having to go outside, having to stay inside, what's on the menu, having to wake up early, being bored, etc. (the list goes on and on...and on...!). When I was reading in my Bible about the Israelites it reminded me a lot of my kids. Then when I thought about it I realized that I do the same thing to God way more often than I would like to admit.

Lesson Three:
Even though it's happens to be that I get paid for spending time with these kids, trying to teach manners, character and social skills, I also deeply care about each one of them and want them to succeed. That's why I put so much effort into it. I want to protect them from evil people, and poor decisions. I pray that they become Men of God and give back to their people and communities. Last week I gathered a few siblings and friends and we went to see they boys play in their first league soccer game ( I toldmy co-workers that we are kind of like "soccer Moms" now!). They were surprised that I came out (since I wasn't working), but I tried to explain to them that it meant a lot to me to see them finally getting to do what they had worked so hard for. It's because I'm not about making their lives harder or giving them rules just to make my life easier. I do what I do because I want to help them grow and learn and do well. That's kind of an earthly summary of God's deep love for us--except He is perfect, so it's even better for us!

Four:
I really like it when these boys are happy. I laugh when they're crazy, we goof around when appropriate, and it just makes me really happy when they are doing well and feel good. On the other hand, when they're upset I feel for them. I try to empathize even though we don't have a whole lot in common. That's who Jesus is for us. A high priest who CAN feel what we feel because he went through what we go through. God sent him as a comforter for us to be with us.

ATV-ing [We are tough]

2010-08-06T09:03:00.001-07:00

All good things must come to an end

2010-06-21T22:19:00.001-07:00

I'm back to Texas and back to work. I mostly just run around like a crazy person these days. I've been working crazy hours and am a little bummed out about it. The good news is that I can build my savings back up a little bit with all the overtime I will have. ;)

Bolivia was wonderful. It wasn't really as revealing as I anticipated. I kinda hoped to come back and have my future all figured out. Ah, but life isn't really like it now is it? Not for me at least. I have a few other things to think and pray about but I remain here in Texas with a lot to pray about and figure out.

I flew through Chicago and had an overnight layover there. Fortunately a bunch of former co-workers live there. WE had a little reunion and it was so nice to reminisce about memories from my year in Bolivia with my dear friends. They also enjoyed hearing stories and looking through pictures on my camera. :)

I got to Cleveland on Friday afternoon. Katie and Bizzy picked me up at the airport. I was sooo happy to see everyone! We had good family time but we were also so excited to see a bunch of friends too.

Jon graduated from University of Northwestern Ohio with a degree in Diesel Technology. He even graduated Cum Laude! I was so proud of him! I expected my mom to cry, but then I did--just a little bit! ;)

Katie and I went canoing with our aunt Debbie, cousin Bethany and Bethany's boyfriend Chris. We tipped--my fault--but it was super fun still! Aunt Debbie lost her flip flops, but other than that we came out all together (just wet!) Then we went to Amish country. For all the years we lived in Ohio and my grandparents who live in Amish country I've never actually been there to see things--besides one brief stop about 10 years ago or so. We visited a cheese factory. I LOVE cheese!

It was fun to reminisce and make new memories while in Ohio. It just felt so different, so familiar and comfortable. It's always nice to be with people who allow you (and make you feel free) to be yourself.

What I learned in Ohio:

How to make sushi and egg rolls

How to play hobo (hillbilly?) golf

How to get the water out of a tipped canoe

I've been to the airport NINE times in the last six weeks!!

Potatoes anyone?

2010-06-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

That pretty much sums up our week in Potosi. Let's just say that mission trips with Dr. Jorge are not for the faint at heart! I can't imagine living like the strong, hardworking Quechua people who live up in the mountains with nothing. Adobe houses, dirt floors, no beds, or electricity with virtually nothing to eat except Potatoes and llama meat.

We took a bus overnight to Potosi (9 hours), and then continued another 5-6 hours up the mountain to finally arrive in the first community. The team consisted of Dr. Jorge, Dr. Waldo (dentist), Nidia and myself. I was so glad that Nidia was able to come along, we weren't sure until shortly before we left Potosi that she would be accompanying us.

We did activities with the kids, Bible stories and Flouride treatments. There were multitudes of people lined up to receive medical care from the doctor and/or dentist. Nidia and I were enlisted to help with teeth care (prevention). I also got roped into helping the dentist (then I nearly fainted!! haha!), and cleaning out an infected leg of a little boy (which surprisingly didn't even make me squeamish. Afterwards he give me a big kiss on each cheek!) The patients rarely cried out while having teeth pulled our wounds cleaned.

We were given hundreds upon hundreds of papas (potatoes). LAdies would come in with packs on their backs, or hats overflowing with potatoes, after trying to ask them to wait outside until the Doctor could see them they would pour the papas on the floor and point to them. Then it happened over and over again. What generosity.
The children were so curious. They were always staring at us, and thought it was hilarious when we would demonstrate the games. Very few understood Spanish well, sometimes we had an interpreter, and sometimes one of the older children, or adults would help out. They all participated in the dental health lessons that we had.

All of the villages had schools--although some only went up to third grade. The older kids would walk up to two hours (one way) to go to school. Impressive, eh?! The two lady teachers in the first village each had older children who lived alone in the city of Potosi to go to school there. The ladies lived in the village with their youngest two children (Jorge said that their husbands lived and worked outside of the country). It was quite sad. They lacked many educational resources not to mention that only two of the villages had church--one of which is less than a year old. The children had no idea who Adam and Eve or Jesus were. We had our work cut out for us just trying to tell the Bible story!

We slept on llama skins, desks and straw mattresses. There was only electricity in one of the four villages, and a rigged up light in another. The truck got stuck on two ocassions in the middle of the freezing night, we had to break into the school (with the mayor--I guess that's what you would call him in English), there was a rat running around on the floor by our "bed" and we took one shower for the whole week (although they did warm up water for us to wash our hair midweek).

My little patient (Edwin) came back to the city with us along with his older sister Margareta, and father to have surgery on his leg (it had been fractured a few months back and was never set). Margareta also needed serious dental work done. The father brought along four big sacks of potatoes to sell in order to pay for the surgery (they only had 200 Bs--about $30 which will probably not even pay for their bus tickets home). Nidia estimated that each bag was probably worth about $40. The kids really enjoyed the journey. They were apprehensive to enter the hot springs, but me and Nidia helped Margareta to wash and condition her hair, she loosened up and enjoyed playing in the water. They were so curious and I've never seen such big eyes and smiles before! They perched over the front seat to see everything, they were so polite and well mannered. As I tucked them into bed on Friday night I was so thankful to God for these precious little ones. How they've had such a rough life by our standards, but don't complain. They were grateful for the little things and always had a smile on their face.

It was an incredible experience. If you get the chance (which you just might...!) you should go--I can almost promise you that you will not regret it.

REunited!!

2010-05-29T10:02:00.001-07:00

I finally got to go visit Joel, Brandon, Samuel and Erland. (The four brothers who lived in the orphanage when I lived here who have since moved to another house). They live about 45 minutes from the city, and I had to go in public transportation and switch busses about 30 minutes in. I didn't really have any idea where I was going, I had hoped to meet up with a guy from Ireland who works there with Latin Link, but we didn't find each other. So I was asking lots of questions, and kept my phone numbers handy. I eventually made it and was so proud of myself! The boys now live in a home called Pequeno David (Little David) which is a transitional house which works with the parents (education) to help them get their kids back. The boys are doing very well and the plan is to help them get back with their mother my the end of the year. As soon as the two younger ones (Samuel and Erland) saw me they ran to me and gave me the best hugs! It was so good to see them! I spent the whole afternoon there, we played checkers and legos, they made cards for their mom, and seemed to get along very well with their peers. I hope to make it back before I leave also.

Yesterday we had Bible Study with the kids from Frutillar. So there we were marching up to the hacienda 7 kiddos, two sheep, one dog, carrying two bottles of pop and an empty cake pan. Did you ever have a moment where you stop and try to capture a specific moment in your mind? I have lots, but this was definitely one of them. Bible studies are generally short, as keeping the attention of seven kids between 6 and 13 is pretty difficult. The kids seem to enjoy it though, and all volunteer to read out loud, or close in prayer. We also celebrated Dalia's birthday this week.

Annie left yesterday morning and the kids were so cute as they prayed thanking God for sending her, and giving her safety in her travels. We miss her already!!

This week was Sydney's graduation week. We had three celebrations for her (family, school, and ceremony.) She was valedictorian and gave a speech last night. So proud of her! Emily also graduated from 6th grade. She's grown up so much since I've been here (although she hates when people always say that!), but she's become quite a young lady. :)

I had a really interesting talk last night with a young Bolivian lady at the graduation ceremony. She asked me if I was a Christian, which gave us a chance to talk about God which always causes me to reflect on my relationship with God and how I'm doing.

We attended the International Teams monthly prayer meeting/Bible study on Friday also. The Spies have been heading this up, as an opportunity for the I-Teams missionaries to share, fellowship and eat together! (Kate made an awesome cake for Nate's birthday). We actually kept the taxi waiting so we could get a piece to go, since I knew it would be fantastic.

The Spies also had us over for dinner on Wednesday night. It was a really nice time visiting, and Kate and I spent hours talking about missions, family and everything else. They are so gracious, and I hope to be just like Kate when I grow up!

On Wednesday Sam and I went out to the Villa Israel home (which is currently empty). It's only been a month since Annie cleaned it last, but since no one is living in there it was super dusty. WE spent hours cleaning, since a potential house parent couple was interviewing on Friday. It was really weird to go back when there were no kids there! :( On the way back the trufi (bus) was stuck in the market forever. There was lots of traffic so I decided to try to take pictures and capture some of the real Bolivian culture for you guys (once I can finally post pictures). Well, I took a few fotos, then a hand reached into the window and grabbed my camera in my lap. I firmly grasped it with my other hand and just held on to it. The trufi was moving and the man had slight momentum too as he was on a bike. In the end I won, but I got an ugly cut on my hand. Apparently he had been watching the taxi and ridden by one way, but returned to see if he could swipe my camera. The ladies sitting next to me became so angry! I felt really bad, just seeing the ugliness of sin, and although a camera is just a material possession-which if lost wouldn't have been the end of the world-it's the root issue of sin. (which if we're honest, exists in each one of us too). Anyway, I still have my camera--Thank God! As I still have two more weeks, and I haven't been able to upload any pictures, though some are on Sam's laptop.

Soo...that's the week in brief. I have no idea what's going on back in the States at all--or anywhere else for that matter, so feel free to let me know anything important that I should know. I almost forget that there's a whole world out there too!

Week 2.5

2010-05-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

"Bolivia makes me so tired", That is a quote from the missionary's daughter. It really kinda does, but maybe that's because we are so busy all of the time. But it is definitely worth it.

This week: (as of Monday)

The Brazilian team who was staying at the hacienda left Friday afternoon. I had a nice talk with one of the men from the team. He was a professional soccer player and gave his life to Christ five years ago. Now he and his wife are going to Chad to be missionaries. They are training here in Cochabamba at one of the seminaries.

We spent a morning at the nutrition center. It is clean and well run. The children are on specific meal plans, as the goal is renourish them. However, there are only a few nurses, so we went and held the babies, played with them, and fed them lunch. It was really neat, but kind of sad at the same time. Some mothers were there and an Aunt came to visit her niece too, but in general there were a lot of babies and not a lot of people to hold them. So we enjoyed helping out with that. The center is way at the top of the hill in a really neat neighborhood. The taxi/trufi driver nearly got in a fight with a motorcyclist on our way back. That was interesting...

At babywashing on Saturday afternoon, we once again combed lots of heads of thick tangled hair. We played with the kids and painted their nails too. The Timmers are in charge of babywashing now. We brought down a lot of clothes from the donations brought by teams. Two tents are set up and the babies are washed and then given clean clothes. Their hair is combed and braided and sometimes they receive bracelets, or get their nails painted or color pictures. It's quite neat.

This weekend I'm headed off to Potosi for a week. I always get a little nervous for these trips. It's very rural, dirty, and you never quite know what to expect... But I love going there too, because it forces me to rely on God to take care of all the details. And the kids are wonderful; the people gracious; and the scenery beautiful.

The week that flew by

2010-05-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

It's very hard to believe that I've only been here one week! We've been very busy, and it feels very good to be back in Bolivia.

Let me try to summarize this in a way that will hold your attention.
I've gotten to see a lot of old friends, kiddos that have grown up a lot, and experience a bunch of new things too. That's the short version.

And THIS is the long version:
I went to the center (which is a lot more structured and seems to be meeting the needs of the kids even better as they build up their team and experience), the kids at the orphanage are doing well. We celebrated Viviana's ninth birthday yesterday, and visitor Sam F. taught piano lessons to the older 4 on Saturday; the Timmers are in charge of Babywashing now. I combed an braided a lot of heads of long tangled hair on Saturday. :)

There are currently two interns here; Annie and Sam. They both came from England, but Sam grew up in Spain; This week there is a group of Brazilians staying at the hacienda, I will spend the afternoon with some bolivian children and an Irish missionary, and have dinner with an Australian family. Talk about multi-cultural!! I love it!
On Monday (our "day off"), we went up the mountain to a place called Parque Tunari. The missionary that drove us up there had heard that there was a lake somewhere and we were determined to find it. We drove through the winding roads, turned around a few times and after a little over two hours we found it!! It was deserted, we saw only a couple of shepherds and a fisherman the whole day. It was beautiful! We took a picnic lunch, because we were higher than the tree line, after searching in vain for enough wood to build a fire, we decided to go back down to the woods. We built a big fire and cooked some pork ribs which were delicious. The day was amazing and a really good time to get away from the bustle and get lost (almost literally) in God's creation.
The missionary family I've been staying with has had loads of Bolivian friends over all weekend. It was really neat to talk with them. We played volleyball for five hours on Sunday night, We had a campfire and Bible study on one night, and on Sunday afternoon they made coffee and brought traditional bolivian appetizers. Delicious!

I've been staying all over the place here in Cochabamba. I've been here seven nights and stayed at three different places. Everyone is so kind, and I've had lots of good meals and I've only had to cook like once!

My big project has been organizing the ministry room. This is where all donations are dropped, and let me just say that God's people have been very generous! I've already spent hours in there, and probably have a few more.

We've had a lot of fun with "Flat Stan", this is a project of my little brother (Tim) for school. He gave me a little paper doll called Flat Stanley and my job is to take pictures of him all around Bolivia so Tim can experience South America via Flat Stanley. We've had a blast with this, and will probably have a rather large album of Flat Stan pictures. WE had to get him Laminated the other day due to the "harsh conditions", though maybe it was just due to him being handled so much!

Annie and I attended the missionary women's bible study on Tuesday morning. They were finishing up a study by Beth Moore and it was so good. I learned a lot, and I think I will try to do the rest of it when I return to the States.

Coming up this week:
Visit with Samuel and his brothers (who are at a different home now)
Spelling Bee (for missionary's daughter)
Feed kids at the nutrition center
A trip to Chapare (Jungle) ...potentially
Graduation celebration (for missionary's other daughter)
Annie leaves! :(

Thanks for all your prayers!!

6 a.m. in La Paz

2010-05-13T03:11:00.000-07:00

I arrived in La Paz at 5:11 a.m. The city was still asleep but the airport is bustling. I feel sleepy and short of breath (from the altitude) but so glad to be this far. I just purchased my plane ticket to Cochabamba but it doesn´t leave until 11:40 a.m. For my overweight luggage it cost me a grand total of $4.50. Not too shabby.
Yesterday went so smoothly. All of my flights were virtually on time and I met some cool people on the plane (ironically both were involved in the cattle industry. Coincidence? I think not...!) Anyway, I was able to sleep a little this time. I planned better and got window seats so I had somewhere to rest my head and I slept on and off the whole overnight flight. Now...well I could sleep but don´t really trust my belongings to stay put.
I anticipate a busy week, but I´ll try to write often. I can´t find my card reader so I can´t post any pictures... Sorry!!

Control Freak?

2010-05-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

This week, some things went down, that I was not expecting. Through some misunderstandings and miscommunications I kind of thought I was not going to be at my job any longer. No one's fault, but I'm sure glad I took the time to go talk with the person about it.

It was stressful, let me tell you. I thought of how much I've learned and grown at my work. I thought of all the kids I care so much about, I didn't even think I was going to get to say goodbye and it HURT. I cried, and struggled with what the right thing to do was. I had a few family members and a close friend pray for me, but since I was uncertain as to what was going to happen, or what was really going on with communication about the situation, I didn't feel that I could really talk about it to others. Anyway, I finally came to the point where I surrendered it to God. I knew I could probably never find such a cool job (though maybe not even true), I knew it would be hard to lose so many friends, mentors and all my kids. And what would I do with myself?! But I finally realized and admitted that it was out of my hands, and I would be okay with however it turned out.

THEN, I went and spoke with my boss about everything. It turned out some bad timing, a bad situation and bad communication all contributed to this chaos. They decided that I could move to the girls house (which I'm currently very excited about...because after all, "Girls are better than boys"!! Lol, I'm just kidding. I like them both;).

Then I came home and thought, "Did I like majorly overreact?!" I don't think I did. I think we worked some things out in the process. I realized that even in the bad times, that I like what I do. I think it was good to get some feedback, and give some too (and they were really nice!)

Most of all, I think this dramatic situation reminds me of Abraham and Isaac. God gave Abraham something really cool (A son in his old age), something that was promised to him, something that seemed so impossible, and something that he loved very much. Then God asked him to surrender it. He asked him to kill that dream. Maybe God wanted to know if Abraham loved that gift more than The Giver.

That's how I felt about my job. Okay, fine. Sometimes I might brush off God, and say that I'm already doing ministry. I don't need to worry about anything else. After all, "I have a mission field right where I'm at"--sometimes we do say that. (In the USA, I mean). Anyway, I realized that if God calls me somewhere else--which He very well may--I'm gonna have to give up some really important things. Things that I'm selfish about, when it may be an inconvenient time.

I experienced the same test of surrender about my family about two weeks ago. I really felt like God wanted me to think about what it would be like if I lived thousands of miles away on another continent. It scared me. That's where I feel safe. But I knew that sometimes we don't get to stay where we feel safe. And He broke me, I finally gave up trying to hold on to them so tightly, and surrendered. Gosh, it was HARD. I cried for two days (not when they could see me of course! ;)

Through both of these experiences I've found a peace. I can't really explain it, it's like when I finally let go of the two things that I really wanted, I found a peace. And I look at both things in a completely different perspective. I really want to make the most of my time here, because I know that one day I might be somewhere far away, and I'll miss them and only have my memories that I make now to cherish. But when God calls us, He will be faithful to take care of us (and the ones we care about).

Hmm, that's my 2 cents for now...

Keep posted for some Bolivia news!!! I'm leaving next Wednesday! Praying to get a visa tomorrow!

On following your passion

2010-04-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up my dad always led mission teams to Mexico. You could tell that he loved it because he could talk forever about all the funny experiences and lessons learned on those trips. He used to say that sometimes he felt guilty, like it was selfish of him to go because he actually loved doing it. But he came to the conclusion that a calling from God doesn't mean that you have to do something that makes you miserable. Maybe God gives you a passion for something and lets you enjoy it. After all, we'd be a lot better testimonies if we had a passion to serve and were using our gifts and abilities to give glory back to Him. And it would make sense for Him to give us gifts that would be used for us to serve Him more effectively.
I kinda feel like that about Bolivia. I cannot even communicate to you that way the people there have stolen my heart. I think it's impossible to go and see the beautiful people, the magnificent scenery and the unique culture and come back the same as you were when you left. It just changes you.
I met a cool missionary last week at a little baptist church close by. He was the sweetest man, he and his wife were missionaries in South and Central America for 33 (?) years. We shared stories, and came to the same conclusion: we are profoundly changed because of what we've experienced...and we are so glad we followed God.
I am so grateful for the opportunities to go and give what little I have to offer to the Bolivian people. I know it's not much, and I kind of feel guilty because I feel like I'm the one who gets the most out of the trips I've made there. I know God is doing something good. In them and in me. And I can't get it out of my mind.
I'm going back, you know, in May--for a month (this time). So if you could say a little prayer for me...for us, I will thank you in advance. Thanks! You guys are the best! :)
So here's my advice: if you ever get the chance to go to Bolivia, or South America, or some country overseas; GO. I'm serious, you will see God in a different way, and have a completely different perspective of the World.

Okay, you wanna see them?
Here are some of the most precious kids in the world:(That's just a tiny sample).

For such a time as this

2010-03-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

Raised by her cousin and drafted into a national beauty pageant a young Jewish girl was chosen to be queen. Warned by her cousin to not disclose her heritage, Esther had access to all the money, luxuries and status one can only dream of. However, when the lives of her people are threatened, Esther is reminded by her cousin that if she doesn't speak up for her people, that her life will not be spared, though God would send deliverance through someone else. He then challenged her saying: "who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"
In the end, Esther risks her life by coming before the king and then pleading for the lives of her people--which are spared.

There are so many character lessons in this story. The one I cannot get out of my head is this:
We are blessed. We also have the choice every day to build up our own "kingdoms", or to use our blessings to benefit our people.
I fail...every day. But this is something I am so convicted by.

Even if Esther had said no, maybe she didn't want to be sentenced to death by her husband--the king. Maybe she was afraid of the humiliation, or lacked the courage to speak up. Or maybe she could just pretend she though someone else would do something. But had she not done anything, and had God spared her life, she still would have had to live with that regret her whole life.

Soo...that's my 2 cents.

I highly encourage you to read the book of Esther (it's in the Old Testament of the Bible--between Nehemiah and Job). You will learn a lot. I promise.

Here's a video with a pretty song:

Call me crazy but...

2010-02-23T14:14:00.000-08:00

i need a vacation!! (Or maybe I should say, "I want a vacation". )
It's my first semester back to school--grad school--and I'm bombarded with tons of homework. I only see my family like three days a week. I'm currently working full time in a helping profession (which also means: not very flexible to just pick up and take off whenever the mood strikes--compared to my previous jobs). Don't get me wrong, I believe God's led me here, and I'm trying to give it my best. And I like it for the most part. Some days I just get tired of the routine. Tired of seeing the same scenery all the time. Anxious to travel, see some sights and try something different for a change.
maybe all the teenagers I work with are rubbing off on me, in that I complain a lot! Or maybe I need to go back and read my own blog on contentment...
Either way. God is faithful, and the Bible does say: Hope deffered makes the heart sick. Prov. 13:12 (that kinda expresses how I feel right now) But David writes: Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4.
So maybe not in my timing. And maybe not even exactly what I think I want or need, but God's so good. I trust Him most.

I vote: Europe or Latin America!

One Word

2010-02-06T10:44:00.001-08:00

On the radio a few weeks back the DJs were talking about picking just one word to summarize your new year. So I took a few days to think about one thing that would really revolutionize my year and I'm finally getting around to writing about it. So here it is...

Discipline.

This is applicable to all areas of life, and a healthy dose of it will do us all some good. I promise. Be it exercise, eating habits, spending time with God, loving others, keeping commitments, doing our best at our jobs, or time management...well actually the list goes on and on... and on. But you get the point.

Paul repeatedly urged the church throughout the New Testament to "Walk in a manner worthy of the LORD". This is our responsibility as Christians. Erwin McManus, in his book called "Soul Cravings", said "To be good Christians, we cannot live thoughtless lives". There are a lot of us who are easily convinced that we can live just like everyone else, and still be a follower of Christ. I beg to differ. We are called to be different, to be set apart. Our culture is one that glorifies instant gratification, and doing what's easy and fun. Discipline is not fun, it's not easy, and it's not for the self-sufficient--because we cannot do it alone. But God promises to be our strength when we are weak. Let's live differently. Let's be intentional about our days and how we choose to spend our time. Forget about what those around us dictate, we have one person to please, and He's the one we will answer to someday for how we treated those around us, what we allowed into our lives, and how we used the time we were given.

I'm struggling through this myself, however the bottom line is this: I really want to be a woman who strove to give this life the best she had.

So think about it. And make this year count.

Whirlwind to South America

2009-11-09T09:53:00.000-08:00

Bolivia to be exact.
What an incredible gift God gave us to be able to go to Cochabamba and surrounding regions.
I will try to adequately express the amazing-ness of our travels:

Our team united in Dallas on October 24, 2009. Kim and David came from Ohio, and Sylvia, Sara and I met up and left from San Antonio. Our flight was delayed in Dallas a little over and hour, and even as we were all crammed in the jetway waiting to board the plane I was so impressed by the testimony that I saw my team presenting. Right off the bat my very own team was meeting people and explaining to them the adventure we were embarking on; Sylvia was helping a little old lady with her heavy bag, and I just was soaking it all in. So happy since attitudes like this show how serious these people are about their God.

Due to the delay we missed our flight out of Miami. I was disappointed but reminded myself that there is nothing WE can do about it. So we decided to live it up on our American Airlines vouchers and make the most of our time. Right away I knew this was going to be good for us. Even though Cochabamba is where we wanted to be. We had devotions on the river, a good breakfast and fun at the beach in a CHEAP rental car.
We had an overnight flight to Lima, slept in the airport and got to La Paz after lunch on Monday. Our luggage had been "misplaced" and after some detective work, and favor from an American Airlines staff, our bags were returned shrink wrapped and everything. We got an incredible deal on flights to Cochabamba and went into the city of La Paz for dinner. With only one case of altitude sickness, we quickly got out of there. We arrived in Cochabamba at 11:30 p.m. and Mike Timmer, my former roomate Katie, a bolivian friend Patto, and the Cristo were all waiting for us.

Day 3:
We spent our first day in Cochabamba visiting the orphanage bearing gifts from generous supporters stateside. We had a soccer game with the kids, and I quickly realized how much the altitude really affects one. We also helped at Nate's workshop, did some grocery shopping for the week, sorted the mountain of donations and had an "orientation". My friend Katie took her personal day from the school where she teaches to spend time with us and even made dinner for us of Sopa de Mani. Delicious!

Day 4:
On Tuesday we tagged along with Mike, Ted (or "Tedly" as he was affectionately nicknamed by some of my teammates), and Remberto to the Chapare (the Jungle). We saw progress on the homes there and the tree farm which will support the day-to-day expenses of the homes. The scenery was beautiful, and it was neat to return to the jungle and see the culture there.

DAy 5:
We did some preparation work around the Hacienda (the guest house where we stayed) for the bonfire/birthday party for SARA! We made a quick trip to the Cancha (market), and then went to the Center where there was a sweet reunion with the missionaries and kids there and I proudly presented my team. (because I really am proud of them!). At the center we participated in play time, tutoring, games, nail painting, and more play time. It was a special occasion for them to have so many visitors so they decided to spend the regular class time having a soccer game. We returned home where Sylvia got right to work making Sara's birthday dinner. The plan was to have the bonfire after dinner, but once again time works very differently in South America, so dinner was getting ready the same time the guests were arriving. It was somewhat similiar to feeding of the 5,000. I mean on a smaller scale. Our dinner for 5, somehow fed nearly 30. The food was delicious, fellowship sweet, and the fire was big, though I barely had time to enjoy it.
The most fun thing of the evening was... well, 2 most fun things actually:
1st: It was really cool to see how excited everyone was that it was Sara's birthday. Everyone congratulated her, and sang the Bolivian birthday song to her with such emotion.
2nd: it was very cool to give out all the gifts that we had brought for all of these wonderful people. And incredibly rewarding to see their excitement.
It was a wonderful evening and a great way to start the 2nd leg of our journey to Potosi.

Day 6-11:
At 6 a.m we were ready with bags packed, trail mix handy and high spirits. We left on a mission to deliver Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes to rural communities in Southern Bolivia.

Jorge is a Bolivian Doctor and WAldo is a clown turned Dentist. Both men are founders of Red Vida de Esperanza (Life of Hope Network). The do a lot of work in these small communities encouraging, empowering and discipling the people there. Basically, it was an incredibly stretching 5 days. there were rarely bathrooms, we showered once, we were called upon to sing specials, give testimonies and teach classes with seconds notice. I feel that I learned and grew a lot and God came through in such a powerful way. We had the amazing surprise of returning through the Salar de Uyuni (Salt Flats). It was beautiful. We got back at 1:30 a.m., 11.5 hours behind schedule, but slept very good that night.

Day 12.
At 5:30 David and I got up and headed off to the airport to purchase plane tickets. We were expecting to have to leave that night, but miraculously a new airline had recently started up in Bolivia and offered a flight to Santa Cruz the next morning for $20 cheaper than the leading airline. We took advantage of that, so excited that we would have an extra night in Cochabamba. After breakfast with the girls, we went to the cancha again to finish up some souvenir shopping, we finished early had some Papas Rellenas for lunch and decided to take advantage of our extra hour to go up to the Cristo. We didn't have time to take all the stairs, so we took the cable cars. We got to the top to see the beautiful city one last time. Then we headed off to the center to play and say goodbye. That was the hardest goodbye, I guess because there are so many people there that were so good to me, and have continued to be an encouragement to me since then. We hurried back to Zona Frutillar and had a little Christmas Party with the kiddos and said goodbye. Dinner was with the Timmers and the Moseys followed by a rousing game of Telephone Pictionary, and then we were off to my 2nd Family's house for a visit and volleyball game. We got home late, walked Katie home and packed up.
I was not ready to leave, but was so happy with how amazing the week turned out. My heart was aching, but at the same time was very very happy. I have never felt so loved in all of my life!! Incredible.

The next morning (Day 13),
Mike picked us up at 5, and we said goodbye to the Hacienda, Pop Tart and one very cool missionary. We were delayed three hours in Santa Cruz due to a sick pilot and by the time we got to Miami, after a little confusion in immigration all of us missed our flights out of Miami and once again spent the night at a hotel. So ironic.

So the next day we got up early (once again) and went back to the Miami airport. Goodbyes were rushed and we all headed our seperate directions. I was mostly choked up as I said goodbye to my cousin, as she was the last person I saw and I realized that now it was really over. I wished it could've lasted forever... I guess that's why we take pictures.

I can never thank you enough for your support, donations, and prayers. We KNOW we could not have done it without you. There were definitely times where we would say, "do you have any idea how many people are praying for us right now?" It was a great source of motivation and encouragement knowing that we were representing you and God.

So keep praying for the people of Bolivia. Pray for favor for the missionaries with the people there, as well as workers to go. There is so much work to be done.

Don't forget that you can still sponsor a Christmas project in Bolivia. The projects are budget friendly and a tangible way to bless the people for whom you've been praying. Go to www.navidadenbolivia.info for more information.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Much love.
Kristen

Keep watching the Photo blog for more pictures...

soon and very soon

2009-10-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Dear Faithful Pray-ers,
Greetings from the peaceful Polcyn House. (This is about the only time it is that way--at 12:30 a.m!). I trust this finds you well.

Saturday morning I will leaving-along with my lovely team- to Cochabamba, Bolivia. God has been so gracious, and His people so generous throughout this adventure we often dread called: Support Raising. While I did not need to raise any funds my team (of four--see my blog) needed to raise a pretty big amount of money. But we also received many toys and gifts for the people in Bolivia (kids, ministries and families), as well as many commitments by you all to be praying for us. We are encouraged and very excited to be representing you in BOLIVIA!

I will be updating my blog while we are gone with pictures and brief updates. I encourage you to check it regularly (even now there are updates).

I ask that you be praying with us for traveling mercies, smooth visits with customs officials, and safe arrivals of all of our precious cargo. ;) Packing has been quite the process...!

Also for the next week you can continue to pray for traveling mercies, boundless energy, and broken hearts that are willing to learn.

I can never thank you enough for your ongoing support and encouragement.

Con mucho amor:
Hermana Kristina

Navidad en Bolivia 2009

2009-10-09T08:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

You may remember Navided en Bolivia 2008, where over $3000 was raised to bless kids, families and ministries in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Well, Navidad en Bolivia in 2009 is bigger, better and back with a website!! Adrian Nickols, my previous Australian co-worker, has organized the project this year and we have dreamed big. Last year we had to expand the project twice because you all responded so generously.

"This year we have over 220 sponsorships, and will attempt to raise over $8000 for practical needs found within 7 God-focused ministries in Bolivia. These needs include a passenger van, a data projector, internet access, baby formula, funding to establish a new ministry, personalised Christmas gifts for 50 children, and much, much more!!"

Please check out the website:
www.navidadenbolivia.info

Then e-mail me with your desired sponsorships. Until we get a better process, all sponsorships I will first need to b approved by Adrian (so we aren't doubling up). Then once your sponsorship is approved, you can send a check to me. I will be going to Bolivia in 2 weeks and will take all the money that we have raised thus far to deliver to the sponsored ministries. So it will be helpful to have as many sponsorships as possible committed before then. We will use and alternate method to send the rest of the money that comes after November.

We are limiting the individual child sponsorships to one per sponsor, and ask that if you want to give more money that you look for a bigger project so everything gets sponsored. 100% of the funds you donate goes directly to your sponsored item.

Thank you so much for your support.
God's richest blessings.
Kristen

biggER ThAN US. [part 1.]

2009-09-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned previously there are many ways you can be involved in making our trip to Bolivia a success. Though it's really not even about us. It's about God and how we can be involved in something that is BiggER THAN us.
Over the next few weeks I will be inviting you to help in different aspects.

The first is:

Contact me, or any of the team members for further information.

Voyage to a Lovely Country with Lovely People

2009-09-18T22:18:00.000-07:00

Next month I'll be going to Cochabamba, Bolivia. I anticipate a sweet return, fulfilling visits with friends from the past and some hard work helping share Jesus' love.
I'm blessed to be going with a TEAM, yeah God kinda orchestrated it better than I ever could have. I'm going to introduce them and share a little bit how I'm so excited to see God use each one of them:

Sara is my COUSIN!! She's also a nurse and one of the most dedicated independent Spanish studiers that I know. For a long time she's felt called to missions and has gone maaaaany times on mission trips. I'm excited for her to come with me and see Bolivia for many reasons, but mostly I'm so humbled to be the one who gets to show it to her. :)
Kim and I go wayyyy back. We've been friends since freshman year of highschool I think. But I believe if we had met earlier, we would've been friends ever since then too. Kim's a sweet girl. She has a ton of experience working with kids and teens. She's very creative and artsy and I'm excited to see that play into ministry and team dynamics. Not to mention the wisdom that she brings...David just happens to be Kim's brother. He recently spent some time in Europe on a summer mission with the Navigators. There are mostly boys in the homes that we'll be working with. So I'm very happy that David will be going and hanging out with the boys.

Sylvia and I work together. She's been a good teacher to me from day one. She also is a pray-er...and I hope to learn from her even more in that area especially since I don't do it near enough. Sylvia is a true bilingual person and I anticipate her being a huge help in translating, for all of us!! ;)

visiting the past

2009-09-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

In a way i just did just that.
I spent a few days in Chicago with my big sister and some former co-workers from BOLIVIA. I then took a short flight over to Ohio and spent the rest of the weekend at the county fair, and visiting friends and family there. It was incredible and so good for my homesick heart. Not that it's not still homesick...

on disappointing others

2009-08-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

I'm reading a book called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. One thing that struck me as I was reading tonight was as the author was talking about how Jesus disappointed a lot of people.
His disciples held Him up to this imaginary model of the Messiah that they had dreamed up.
His parents expected Him to be a King.
His followers wanted Him to fix all their problems.

But. Mr. Scazzero goes on to show that because Jesus was secure in His father's love and what He had called Him to do, He was able to do what He had been called to do without becoming bitter with those who held unrealistic expectations and unfair judgments of Him.

I just thought that was interesting. That's all. Feel free to comment if you want...

Approaching Sunday with a Heavy Heart

2009-07-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

On Monday "JR" will turn 18.
That means he can't be in our shelter anymore.

This particular boy holds a special place in my heart-
my boss said to me "you always like the underdogs, huh?"
...I guess it's true--It's the very small amount of mothering instinct that I possess.

I did JR's intake paperwork. I thought to myself, "this boy is pretty calm"....
Day 2: I arrive and it's like someone gave him a triple dose of HYPER!!
Now don't get me wrong, "JR" is not always a bad kid. In fact, when he wants to he can be quite charming. He holds no grudges. He laughs a lot. ...BUT, from that day on his point card was covered with negative points for hitting peers, jumping over furniture, throwing a globe at at teacher at school, calling names, bad table manners, you name it-he's done it.

Enter: family teaching model. Now this is definitely a trial and error process for me, but this is how we aspire to teach life-skills to the boys who are sent to us. It's basically feedback to appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

We've had talks--Me and JR--about...well, lots of things. But mostly about how violence is not an appropriate solution to problems, how God is the one who gives us the strength to change into men and women of character, and how character is so important. Honesty, Integrity, all of those things.
And now...he's leaving. Ugh. Not fair. Not yet. I feel like there's so much more I need to say, to show, to do.

This particular boy came from a very rough background. No parents. Ran around as part of a street gang with a very big gun. 'Though he said he never killed anyone, he just riled everyone up. He swore to me that he'd never return to that life. And while I want to believe him, I know that I'm just me. An American girl working at a shelter he was in for 2 months in Texas. So what?
This is the hard part: I hand it over to God. I'm no fool, I know that in me, there is no power to change a person. That responsibility rests solely with The King of the Universe. And he cares about JR a lot more than I do, and wants the best for him even more than I do.

So why do I write all of this? I don't know... it's therapeutic. But I hope maybe in reading this, you'll send up a prayer for "JR". And the 450 other ones who have already passed through the shelter within the past two years since the program opened with similar stories.

And here's how he's changed. Now dinner time is much more pleasant. JR doesn't talk the whole time and actually finishes the same time as everyone else. He even serves me sometimes. He earns a fraction of the negative points from before. He is still his boisterous self, but channels it into a hardcore soccer game, or intense arm wrestling match, or ...karaoke night.

On Being Content.

2009-06-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

An attitude adjustment can make a world of difference.

So I've been in the process for learning this for what feels like an eternity. I guess it's only been about 20 some years though.

Lately especially I've been having a pity party for myself. I'll give you an example [or five!]:
"If only I had some good friends here then my life would come together".
(or "...if only my job and home were 30 minutes closer to each other...";
"...I could get into grad school...";
"...my Mr. Right would walk into my life...";
"...I could find a great church...";
...You get the idea). Doesn't God WANT me to have these things?

I began to feel that perhaps ...
the faint at heart may want to stop here...

God was holding out on me.
Gasp! I know I shouldn't even think such things.
But in my heart I was thinking this as I was out running one morning in the sweltering heat.

When I got back to the house and was doing my devotions that very day, I read Psalm 84:11-12a

For the LORD God is a Sun and shield;
The LORD gives grace and glory;
no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Indeed the LORD will give what is good.

Oh.
Then I checked my e-mail. And what did I happen to find?
An acceptance letter to grad school. I laughed at my silliness, and God's sense of humor.
Okay, so I'm starting to get the point.

So I continue to quote this verse to myself over the next few weeks when I start to get frustrated and impatient.

Then on my 50 minute drive home from work yesterday, I thought to myself:
what do I really want?
So off I go listing my wishlist: Apartment, Friends, Church, Mr. Right, grad school, etc.
And then I thought, "so then what would my life look like?"
Would I really be content, or would I want back what I have right now?
If I had a lot of friends would I say to myself, "I wish I had an evening off just to read a book"?,
or if I had an apartment would I say to myself: "I wish I had more time to spend with my family"?
or if I had a "church" on which I was depending for all my spiritual nourishment would I forget to make the time to read my bible, journal and get spiritual nourishment from the resources I have?
Of course I would!! I'm human. I know myself.
And when I'm discontent
my circumstances are not going to change my attitude.
(...I'll just find something else to complain about.)

Somehow this little revelation made the biggest difference for me. Now I see that God really DOES have my best interests in mind. It wasn't an accident that He put me right here. That he put my family in here, and that He is helping me learn patience. And though I don't understand why some things have to take so long, I feel content.
All I can do is hang on to my Savior, my Strength and my Guide.

*Incidentally, even though I thought I wanted to go to grad school right now, I might actually wait another semester for different reasons. And I feel okay with that. :)

(Disclaimer* I do actually know the importance of the fellowship of the Saints and am in no way stating that I intend to float around indefinitely. Let's just say that the whole adjustment process has been draining on many different levels and I feel like I am finally starting to settle in and figure out what I'm doing.)

FYI: In English,
Contentment does not equal happiness. I would say more like PEACE>.

The Question Everyone's Asking.

2009-05-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last week I was at work making sure that the boys were getting ready for bed, one boy walked out of the bathroom and paused a second.
"Miss, ...am I ugly?"
I was a bit taken aback, and said "nooo!"
"I'm not?" He asked still not convinced. "Then I'm good looking?"
"Yes." I smiled and nodded.
"Okay," he quietly said as he ducked into his bedroom.
I was a little bothered by the fact that he was concerned about that. But continued with my paperwork.
Not even five minutes later one of the other boys who had climbed up on his bunk-bed said, "Miss, am I happy...or am I dumb?" This boy has recently arrived and doesn't really know how to read or write. He's very happy always laughing. The boys sometimes make fun of him and tell him that he's stupid. Well, apparently this did bother the young man...even though he pretends it doesn't.
I told him that he was not dumb.
He somberly nodded and continued listening to his music.

Then I started thinking, these are both very good-looking, happy guys who make friends easily. Maybe he didn't really want to know if he was happy or dumb. Maybe the other boy wasn't fishing for a compliment. Maybe what they want to know--what we all want to know is, "Am I okay?" "Am I acceptable to you?" "Do you like me?" Well...maybe we want reassurance that we're not stupid or ugly either. But we care about what others think of us.
So you better believe that we are going to be exploring this deeper issue that is affecting these young men, and me, and probably everyone else I know...

Fortunately we can know that we ARE okay because we're made in the image of God. Not that we look like Him physically, and a lot of us don't even act like Him sometimes...but He made us. Here's what The Good Book says:

God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
God blessed them...
(Genesis 1:27-28A.)

And then it goes on to say,

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
Genesis 1:31 (emphasis mine).

My former pastor preached a series one time on 'people in the image of God'. He reminded us that the way we treat people should be pleasing to God. Because WE are made in God's image, but the people we are interacting with are made in God's image too. So...basically we have no excuse for disrespecting anyone. Ever.

So Dear Friends, I'll leave you with one last [obvious] thought:
We are okay... We're better than okay. We are "very good". In fact it seems to imply that we are pleasing to God. It's like when you finish making something, and you get that satisfaction that you have outdone yourself...I kinda think that might be how God felt as he looked at us.

a Million Pieces [kinda like confetti].

2009-05-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

In two years over 400 boys have passed through the shelter where I work. I've worked there about a month and probably about 20 boys have already [come and] gone.

It makes me kinda sad to think about all of "my kids" all over the world. It's not like I'll see them again, or be able to stay in contact with them. *Just part of my job.

So I thought about how God puts different people in our lives, and although we HOPE to touch their lives, they always touch ours. I know God has put me here, and so for the good and... hard days I know that I want to try my very best to touch and be touched by them.

I hear a lot of funny things, have some hard conversations and see some incredible changes in these kids.

So my heart will be all over the world once these kids leave with it (not to mention all the people I've been touched by in Ohio, Bolivia, and Mexico too) but little pieces of them will stick with me forever too.

NEVER say never.

2009-04-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be a good idea to keep you updated on what I was doing post-Bolivia--since so much has changed. It's been a few months of adjustment-a little bit longer than expected!! But God's been faithful.

I had been working at Tractor Supply Company since January as a cashier. It was such a blessing having an easy job that was close by. I really liked my co-workers and customers. The work was pretty cool too--but as it goes, "all good things must come to an end"...but that doesn't mean that it's the best we ever get...

About two months ago my mom handed me the classifieds and announced that she had found a "perfect job" for me. It was a children's home with the Baptist Child and Family Services. That next week I randomly met the director of the International Children's Shelter at my work. I visited the shelter, and did an application for employment shortly thereafter. I was a little nervous about working with teenage boys who don't speak any English. But I felt such a peace about it that when I was offered the position I knew that was my new mission in life.

The shelter has two homes and holds up to 28 boys. They are all from South and Central America. It is a very structured program, but without an institutional feel. The shelter is basically a juvenile facility for "unaccompanied minors"--illegal immigrants. They stay for about "3 months--usually less, though sometimes more. They attend school on campus, have meals family style, do chores, and are able to play, watch tv, call home, and--this is the best part--learn about God!

I started this adventure on Tuesday and although I've been there 4 days, I love it! At least once a day I look around and thank God for this amazing opportunity. And at least five times a day, I ask myself if I can really do this! No doubt it will be a huge challenge-likely the biggest of my life-but at least I'm not on my own. The boys have been very friendly. The turnover rate is pretty high, as these kids are only here until they are deported or have paperwork finished to stay here. I've already said goodbye to three kids. That'll probably get kinda hard after a while.
*these are some of my favorite boys from my time in Bolivia!

Tonight was Jose Andres' last night. One of the boys asked if we could say a special prayer for him. Of COURSE we said yes! One of the staff asked the boys who would like to say the prayer,
Miss Kristina!! They, all too quickly, responded.
*deer in the headlights look!*
"well, uh..." I stammered, " I think it would be better if someone who spoke Spanish as a first language prayed", I mumbled to a true bilingual speaker staff-person who was standing next to me.
"Nope", he shook his head, "it will mean a lot to them if YOU pray".
"okay", I sighed, "I can do this". Meanwhile my mind was running a million miles a second trying to organize what I wanted to say and thinking of all the correct tenses.
We all got in a circle with Jose Andres in the middle.
...And my mind went blank. I struggled through a prayer, glad that God understood and hoping he put everything unjumbled in these boys' minds.

As soon as the boys got in bed I ran an errand to the other home, and realized that NEVER in my wildest imagination would I have pictured myself where I am. If I hadn't majored in Spanish (even though at the time I believed it was somewhat of a "worthless degree" without the teaching certificate) then I wouldn't have gone to Bolivia. If I hadn't gone to Bolivia, I would never have thought I could actually work with kids in this kind of setting. So here we see once again that God is SOOOO faithful! And doesn't give us more than we can handle.

Sooo...that's about it. My random new mission is working with teenage boys, who's first language is not the same as mine, and who are "at risk" kids. I'm pretty sure that at some time or another I told myself that I would never [be able to] do even one of those things.

Thanks for your love, prayers and support.
Kristen.

2 months later and STILL processing...

2009-02-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,
I'm sorry that it's been so long since I have posted on here. I arrived back in the States about a month and a half ago. The transition has been harder than I expected, but God continues to be ever so faithful. I'll try to give you a brief summary.

My final days in Cochabamba were so rich. From Christmas parties with the kids, to extra spare moments that God gave me, to reunions with people I didn't think I would get to see (Remberto, Vick and family, some friends from church, Michelle (previous intern) and Mallory Timmer.). It was just a really sweet time. Goodbyes were hard, though I wasn't nearly as emotional as I thought. I do hope that I am able to keep in touch with all of my new found family there.

I got back to the airport very early in the morning of December 17th. I had hoped to arrive on the 16th at around 11:30 because then I would get to see my mom on her birthday, but flights were delayed and I almost was stuck in Dallas, but everything worked out and I made it home. My 8 siblings who still live at home, my twin, my parents and my former co-worker with International Teams Jaclyn were all there at the airport to greet me. It was wonderful.
I spent the holidays with family. It wasn't too hard reacquainting myself with family except for my youngest niece Sadie who still is a bit suspicious. We went to the coast for New Years which I suspect will become a family tradition.
Two days after New Years my brother Jon and I went on a roadtrip to Ohio. I was able to spend time with him, friends and extended family which was so incredibly refreshing. It was also really good to go back to my church. I was so encouraged by the pastors, deacon/mission board and several individuals whom God has used in my life. It was also nice to experience snow for a few days!
I'm working nearly full time at TSC. Never in my life would I have dreamed that at twenty-three, possesing a bachelor's degree I would be so thankful for a job as a cashier. But I really believe that God gave me that job. It's not a well paying job, but it's easy, I work with good people and it keeps me busy.
I've applied to two grad schools here in Texas for social work. It's a two year program and it will give me more confidence and opportunities to work with kids. I'm excited about it.

Coming back from Bolivia, I had already been warned of the huge adjustment that returning would be. Reverse-culture shock, confusion, depression and apathy were a few words that were thrown around in our debriefing session. I guess I was a bit skeptical that ANY of those words would ever be used to express me. I guess I could have been a little bit wrong. Or even MOSTLY wrong. The truth is that it is really hard to come back, and maybe even more so for me because I came somewhere where I basically know NO one. Argh. So you can keep praying for me to adjust to living in Texas, sooo far away from everything I've ever known, and with my family again. They've actually been really good about it. I get three sets of hugs and kisses every night before bed from the three littlest boys. :)
Well, I guess that's about it. Thanks for all your support, love and encouragement.
Keep on keeping on.
Kristen

The best Christmas present: Franz got out of the Malnutrition Center on Christmas Ever. I went to see him a few days before I left and he was doing SO much better!!

The Long Goodbye.

2008-12-12T06:06:00.000-08:00

This will most likely be my last blog entry from Bolivia. I cannot believe it is already time to leave here. While I do feel like I have been gone for a long time, it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for almost a year.
This past week has been incredibly busy, with the normal ministry things, as well as all the last things I need to do before leaving.
On Tuesday Jen, Mike and I went to the malnutrition center to see little Franz. He was standing at the top of the stairs with a huge grin on his face when we walked in. He gave hugs and sat contentedly in our laps while we gave him warm milk and a cracker. He has gained one kilo and the change is incredible. He looks bigger, has more color and is happier…until we left that is. Then he cried and cried. It was very hard to leave, but I was so grateful to see him before I left and know for myself that he is doing so much better! He’ll have to stay there for a few more weeks, but I know he’s in good hands…the malnutrition center staff is pretty good too!
I finally got my passport with a new visa in it. I was at immigration four times this week (within three days!). I was then able to help one of my roommates navigate her way around immigration to do some minor paperwork. I joked to her that I would miss all of those people, after all I see them almost as much as the kids!
My former roommate Michelle returned to Cochabamba this weekend. She’s back in Bolivia exploring the possibility of returning for long-term work. It was very good to see her again. She’s staying with me at the hacienda, participating in our weekly duties as well as some of her own with her prospective new ministry. It’s such a good feeling, being here when friends return. It makes me feel more permanent here.
On Sunday I went to mass with my Spanish teacher. She goes to one of the biggest catholic churches in Cochabamba. It wasn’t all that different than I expected it to be. It was about an hour, nearly the entire service consisted of liturgies that were written out for everyone to follow along and participate, there were also some very short songs (liturgies and psalms set to music), and of course, the eucharist. I had wanted to go to mass since arriving since this is a predominately catholic culture.
After mass I had tea with my professor and then made my way to my own church. I get a bit nervous walking up there after the last time…but all was well. I arrived, and it just so happened to be the closing program for OANSA (AWANA). I was thrilled! I think AWANA is a fantastic program, and it was very cool to see all of the kids that come to participate (as well as hear the well known songs, pledge and themes in Spanish!)
This week we are having Christmas parties with the two homes. We invested in some Christmas cookie cutters, and are going to read some stories and give some gifts. I think it’s gonna be great! We still haven’t any news on Ana, so you can keep praying with us to find her.
I have been saying a lot of sad goodbyes this week. I wish I could tell you all about my friends, mentors and coworkers here, but that would take way too long. Maybe I can do a blog on some of them so you can see how great they are…
Next week I’ll try to give you a brief summary of my future plans. For right now I’ll go to spend Christmas with my family in Texas, then go to Ohio right after the new year to see my friends, family and supporters there.
Thanks for all you’ve done.
Love.
Kristen

2008-12-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Greetings Friends!
Happy late Thanksgiving!! Hope you enjoyed your day of food, family and fun! Although Thanksgiving is a North American holiday, we did stop to celebrate here in Cochabamba as well. I spent Wednesday night at my adopted family’s house. We made a big breakfast the next day, then I went home made some pies, called my family, and went to the Timmers for dinner.

We had home made dressing, a big turkey, delicious applesauce, and lots of pies. Amazing! Adrian joined us so this was his first Thanksgiving (he’s Australian). Then we took Thanksgiving to my adopted family’s house (they didn’t celebrate due to other circumstances) and watched a movie on their projector.
We’ve been preparing for Friday morning for awhile, not just because we were going to overeat the day before, but because Friday was the day when we switched house parents for the Villa Israel home. We took the kids to the park to tell them the news while Mike stayed to tell the former house parents that they were no longer going to be living there with the kids. While it was a very emotional day, we are positive that it was the best thing for everyone. Everyone is settling in well with the changes. Incidentally, the night before this change took place Ana ran away. We still do not know where she is so you can be praying with us that we find her soon.
Friday morning also happened to be the day that Samuel graduated from Kindergarten. So I got to be his “Madrina” (Godmother). I walked him down the aisle, in his little cap and gown. You can imagine how excited I was!!

Saturday we went to a parade that was put on by one of the biggest local universities. All of the groups had traditional outfits from various departments of Bolivia. Our friend Kattia danced in the parade. The parade was from 11:30 to 6, but we left around 2.

In the afternoon we had a Feria (fair) at the center where the kids could come spend their points that they earn for good behavior, attendance at the center and at church. I did face painting again. My artistic skills are not necessarily getting any better as I “mature”. But the kids seemed to believe that it was well worth 5 bonos (points).
Sunday morning I set off for church, I walked alone, but I didn’t really mind. Happy to be taking advantage of the beautiful weather, with my ipod providing an agreeable soundtrack. As I neared the church a white unmarked taxi roared up beside me and someone reached out the window and ripped my purse out of my hand. I screamed, and then just stood there and watched them speed away. I felt so helpless and violated at the same time. I immediately told myself that those are just things. I can replace them, but still felt incredibly sad to have lost it all at once. I felt so emotional which made me feel so materialistic to be so upset about the whole experience. After church I told two of my friends. They then told me that they will walk with me to church in the future so I don’t have to walk alone, and then loaned me some money so I didn’t have to then make the one and a half hour walk home, and waited with me for the trufi (public transportation here). How incredibly grateful I am for those two friends!!!
Last night we had a bunch of friends over for a bonfire, and kind of as one last hoorah before everyone leaves. Katie T., Matt and Elsa, and Katie S. all leave this week.
Well, I guess I’ve stolen enough of your life away with this long update!! Hope you’re enjoying this season of advent!
Love.
Kristen

Samuel and Vivi update...

2008-11-17T06:20:00.000-08:00

For this child I prayed,
and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of Him.
1 Sam 1:27 (NKJV)

Dear Readers,
I have good news to report to you…
Samuel is doing well! He came home from the hospital on Friday night. He was very relieved to go home. I went to see him during the visiting hour on Friday and read, looked at at pictures, and talked with him. Poor guy! He was so bored. He can only have visitors for an hour a day!

On Friday morning I had the opportunity to go out to Tiquipaya (a “suburb” of Cochabamba), where Adrian works at Bolivian Children’s Mission. It’s a home for about 30 kids. It’s a great setup, the kids are sweet, and I was a little jealous that Adrian actually gets to live with his kids! This home, along with our two homes (Frutillar and Villa Israel) are all part of our Navidad en Bolivia program, where the kids can be sponsored for Christmas gifts. In total there are 50 kids between the three homes that can be sponsored. If you are interested you can check out this site: http://fixmypix.com.au/blog/?page_id=258. Money can be sent to me (through my mom) and I can pull it out through my bank here and together we can make this a memorable Christmas for the kids here.

On Friday a new intern also arrived. Craig from New Hampshire. Craig came once before on a short term mission trip, his church has a very strong relationship with the ministry here and sends teams about twice a year. I had the pleasure of working with a group from his church this spring. I guess it’s gonna take getting used to having a guy around again…’though I guess it’ll probably be a bigger adjustment for him getting used to living with five crazy girls!

Friday afternoon we also (Friday was a big day) took the Frutillar kids to Sydney Timmer’s Championship soccer game. They got bored soon after our arrival so we went to a nearby field and they played all afternoon. It was a great activity.
Saturday we went to babywashing, we didn’t wash kids because of some personal things going on in the leader’s family, (pray for them please! The mother in law has cancer…can’t remember her name, I think she goes by Tía).
Anyway, so we gave out bread and warm milk. A lady came up to me, and told me that one of the men that we were giving food to was a thief. “He doesn’t deserve any”, she said, “…well, aren’t you going to do anything about it?” I informed her that we feed everybody. Then a little girl wanted to play with my hair so we went to find a seat, I saw the lady interrogating everyone that tried to walk by too…and I was re-thinking the entire, relatively strange, conversation out in my head. We don’t feed those who somehow “deserve” our free gifts. It’s called grace. It’s like God with us, none of us deserve His gift of His son, and then salvation to us, He freely gives it to us because He loves us. Too bad I couldn’t think of that when I was talking to the lady…

Sunday we went out to Villa Israel bright and early to take the kids to church. It was kind a yucky, rainy, soggy day. But it didn’t seem to dampen the kids’ spirits. They were super excited to see us and go with us to church. We went to a U.C.E. church (Union Cristiana Evangelica). Not where they usually go, but we were going to visit and decided it would be cool to take them with us. The house parents couldn’t go to church that day. The service was a mix of Quechua and Spanish. Good thing I quizzed Katie on her Quechua vocabulary on the way there! I however only remembered one or two words… The kids went to kids’ church and made a bunch of new friends. I’m so proud of all of those kids! I also got to see Samuel. He’s doing much better. He sat in my arms for a while and told me about the book that I had taken him in the hospital to look at while he laid in bed all day. I warned him as I was leaving to not climb on any more roofs.

Viviana’s still in the hospital. Pray for her recovery to go quickly. She’s already been there for two weeks. I visited her this past week. She is, as always, in good spirits. She teases the doctors, is able to leave her room to go to the playroom, go outside if there is a nurse to accompany her, and she has a whole drawer full of snacks, toys and games.

So that’s my week in a nutshell. Thanks SO MUCH for all of your prayers. For Samuel and Viviana… And me!!

Samuel

2008-11-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

I’d like to share with you all something that’s very heavy on my heart. Samuel, the little guy I’ve been working with since February has been maybe the biggest joy to me in the entire time I’ve been here. I look forward to working with him every week. He continually catches my off guard by how fast he soaks things up. He’s a very active boy, though slightly clumsy (maybe that’s another reason I like him so much). He’s always climbing trees, playing on the monkey bars, or wrestling with his brothers. So it was no surprise to me when I heard that he had taken a tumble late Tuesday night. (We found out yesterday.) He climbed out his window on to the roof, fell off onto the cement patio, hit his head and was unconscious for about 24 hours. He recently woke up, praise Jesus, and I was able to go see him at the hospital today. All the tests (x-rays) have come back okay, and he is able to move his arms and legs.

So if you could be praying for this precious little boy as he recovers that there will be no long term damage. I know that God has great things in store for this little guy. I think of Samuel in the bible and how his mother prayed for him for a long time and God granted her request for a son, and then used him to bring glory to God, and I believe that God can do great things through this Samuel too.

For this child I prayed,

and the Lord has granted me my petition

which I asked of Him.

1 Sam 1:27 (NKJV)

An added praise was that we also got to see Viviana, who is in the same hospital, she seems to be well recovered. She was in good spirits as always and was teasing the doctors and helping them find who they were looking for. We are hoping that she can come home today. Or very soon!

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Kristen

Día de Los Muertos. bolivia.

2008-11-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers,
Saturday was Día de los muertos here in Bolivia. We didn’t see too much action on Saturday, but on SUNDAY our friend Hermano Jorge (who was also the leader of our trip to Potosí) took us to the cemetery so we could see how the Bolivian people honor their dead. We arrived at the cemetery, it was a beautiful day-reminded me of autumn up north. We followed the pathway down to the cemetery to the sound of Taps. The cemetery was indeed full; it maybe looked a little bit more like a park, with grassy fields, bronze statutes, and lots of flowers. There were also some tombs
and most of the graves were in tall white walls with a bunch of openings with windows covering it. Behind each window sat a plaque, some flowers, and a glass of water, and behind that is where they put the caskets. Interesting fact: Adrian told me that the spots on the walls are rented out, and once people stop paying rent, the body is taken out and cremated. That space is then rented to someone else. The wealthier families have their own larger private tombs.

The whole tradition was not nearly as somber as I expected. There were children walking around in groups that would say prayers for the dead, for a fee of course; a few music groups-both traditional Bolivian music, some Arabic music, as well as a few mariachi bands. Entire families were setting up displays of the deceased relative’s favorite foods, kids playing tag, and then us gringos wandering around…no one seemed to be bothered by us, though.

Umm...I don´t really know what was going on here...!
The common belief is that on this day, (or weekend) the spirits of the deceased come back to visit. The families, therefore, want to make the visiting spirit welcome by pleasing it with favorite music, food, and familiar faces.
So…that was my experience at the cemetery. I read a verse at bible study last week that was so very encouraging to me, He (Christ) died for us so that, whether awake (alive) or asleep (dead), we may live together with Him. I Thessalonians 5:10. For us death is not the end!
Just wanted to share my cultural experience with you all…
Have a great weekend!
Kristen

COUNTDOWN: 43 days.

Jungle Trip!

2008-10-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

This was my first entire week in Cochabamba in 4 weeks!!
We were not able to locate my passport, so I had to apply for a new one. It should arrive in about a month. But if you could be praying for my visa to be restamped for minimal fees, I’d greatly appreciate it! I know that there’s no need to worry since, God’s bigger and has proved Himself faithful time after time, but I’ll still feel very relieved to have everything in order.
Last Friday we went to Chapare (the jungle). We had a meeting with a camp and church that together want to give us land for FIVE new homes!! We also saw the work in progress at Remberto’s new project and went to the other home that Remberto recently finished where I’ve spent some time helping with construction. The finished home is now just waiting on Sedeges (The child services agency here in Cochabamba) to approve all the paperwork. Remberto, Vick, Mickey, and Judith are staying there until a family is ready to move in. We also played with the neighborhood kids down by the river. They did their best to make sure that we “bathed” and even though we didn’t strip down to our underwear like they did, they succeeded in drenching us. It was really great to go back to the jungle to see the homes, and people that I’ve grown to love there. It was really neat, too, that we got to see very different stages of the homes in one day. Obtaining the land, constructing the house, and finishing it!
This week we’ve been catching up on blog stuff, getting our computers fixed, saying goodbye to dear friends, working at the center, tutoring at Frutillar, and twisting ankles…well, just me mostly of the latter. I was completely on couch-rest for a day, because I couldn’t move or put any weight on my foot. I was quite nervous that I had done some pretty serious damage, and began to lament all the activities I would miss because I couldn’t be as mobile. Bolivia is a very bad place to break a foot. But it’s doing a lot better now-Thank God!! I’m still hobbling around, but I imagine that in a few days it’ll be as good as new. I knew my clumsiness would catch up with me one of these days!!
The countdown is on, in a little less than 2 months I will be back to the states. It’s a very bittersweet feeling, and the only reason that I remind myself of it often, is so that it doesn’t sneak up on me. I don’t want to all of a sudden realize I only have three days left and have a bunch of things that I’ve forgotten to do. So if you all can be praying for me for direction as I make plans to return.
This week Jeff (Matt’s brother) who was an honorary IT intern, lived at the hacienda, and helped out all over the place, left. He was here for almost three months and was a huge encouragement to all of us. Mrs. Hedvall, my surrogate mother, my mentor and good friend left. She’ll be in Japan with her daughter until the beginning of December.
Soo, that’s what’s new here. I’ve made a video of our trip to Potosi. I’ll try to get it up on my photo blog soon(which I’ve also recently updated with PICTURES!!!).
Enjoy your weekend!!
Kristen

I spy something brown...

2008-10-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

Two days after we returned from Chile we took off for Potosí, which is up by Oruro and La Paz (more north). We left Saturday morningi and are currently on the drive back. Sooo much happened, I’m afraid to write all of it, because I think you might be a little bored…but I’m going to anyways. So grab a cup of tea (or rice milk!!) and settle down for a long one…!
We left around lunch time. We spent a big part of our week in the car traveling. The roads were dusty and sandy, (our narrow windy mountain roads) but we only got stuck once. There were several ocasions where there were bulldozers cleaning off the mountain roads. But we had a Chevy!!
We spent our first night in Oruro (unexpected stop). We had a bit of car trouble so we had to have it fixed there. We were pleasantly surprised to have a bathroom and warm room to sleep in. However, this was only the beginning of the bolivian hospitality that we experienced during our short-term mission trip.
Our team consists of Dr. Jorge (Potosino, Dr. Jorge has a huge heart for his fellow potosinos, he consistently travels out to the campo to offer medical assistance as well. He directs Red Vida de Esperanza, the group that we went with). Javier, a missionary with Mission Unida Mundial. He lives in Vinto (right by Nate’s workshop where I go about twice a week), but works in a village in the mountains. He speaks Portugues, Spanish, and Quechua. Waldo, is a dentist and also part of the leadership of Red Vida de Esperanza. He’s a clown, and sometimes even got in costume for it, and enjoyed entertaining the kids and us. He’s also from Potosí. Hermana Vickie, is our cook, she’s a very sweet lady and make’s sure we’re all behaving! Rosi, is also a dentist and just finished her practicum in Chapare. This is her first mission trip and she was very excited to participate. Also my roommates Jen, Katie S, and Bethany came along.
We went to seven communities, very rural and poor communities. They were all very different, but most of them were cold. The first village we went to, we made a late arrival, but there were still townspeople up waiting for us. They then proceeded to bring us mattresses, blankets, tea, and bread. We realized pretty early after our arrival that this was probably the poorest community we had ever seen in Bolivia, or elsewhere for that matter. I felt guilty when I realized that because they had given us a bunch of blankets, it probably meant that someone had to go without. What sacrifice! We stayed in the school, both windows were broken but the boys taped them up with cardboard before we went to bed.
Almost all of the schools had a special ceremony welcoming us, complete with the bolivian national anthem (I have a few lines memorized and a cheat sheet that I can use to memorize the rest of it!), interpretive poetry, songs and traditional dance. In most of the villages the older generations spoke mostly, if not only quechua. I have a long ways to go to be fluent in quechua, but I have learned a few helpful phrases. (Ama wakaychu—don’t cry!)
For our program we did puppets (a skit about dental health, as most of the parents and grandparents have rotten or no teeth.), a clown drama, games, bible memory verse--Juan 3:16, coloring pictures, and distributing Samaritan’s Purse boxes. It was so neat to see the kids that receive the boxes, and get to tell them how and why they came here. (Helpful hint, to those of you who do boxes for samaritan’s purse or busses international I strongly suggest that you don’t include playing cards. In the rural communities that we have visited, cards are associated with gambling, casinos and other destructive addictions that the churches are fighting against. Soo….go with some cool sunglasses or gloves or something…)
We also participated in a few church services where I had to give my testimony twice—talk about being put on the spot…however it was really neat to hear it translated from Spanish into quechua!!
The biggest thing that God has been teaching me is to give my best every day…there’s a song by Jesus Adrian Romero (one of my most favorite artists), called Te Daré lo Mejor (I’ll put on a video of it, even though I don’t expect that many of you will understand it…), it basically talks about giving God our best every day, because that’s what he deserves. There were probably about 5 other verses, messages, or comments that convicted me even more. I just want to be able to stand before God with as few regrets as possible.
I have so much confidence in this organization that we have come with. Dr. Jorge, is the founder, and I feel like he has a really well balanced view of ministry. During our time in the campos, he was always meeting with the church and community leaders. We had tea with the teachers from one of the villages, and three of the teachers, openly mentioned that they were looking for a meaningful religion. Not worried about what others might thing, Dr. Jorge took the opportunity to share with them how meaningful his relationship with God is and how he offers that to all of us. He also encouraged and challenged them to keep on investing in the kids of the community. He preached at church a few times, did health exams in communities where there is no doctor, played games with the kids, and made sure all the needs of our team were met.
I give credit to all you short-term-teamers out there. I feel like this trip has been the most draining week in my eight months of missionary work here in Bolivia. ‘Though I wouldn’t trade it for the WORLD!! I’m so thankful for the opportunity to see more of Bolivia, hang out with kids, learn from my teammates, get out of my comfort zone.
Umm…there’s so much more I could write right now…but I imagine I’ll add some more by the time I post this. I’ll also try to post some PICTURES on my foto blog!!
Thanks for hanging in there!!
Kristen

CHILE.

2008-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Katie and I left on Monday morning for Chile. The busride was almost 12 hours. Exhausting in and of itself, however the scenery was way worth it! We arrived in Arica Chile around 9 p.m. We got a taxi to our Arica Surfhouse Hostel. It was a great place, my first experience in a hostel, and I loved it! We shared the house with some Spaniards, Australians, French, English, Peruvian, and Chileans. There was a warm family atmosphere, shared living spaces and friendly hosts (the owner even drove us to the bus station when we left, for FREE!). On our first morning there, I decided that a hostel would be a great ministry…maybe in the future!
Arica is a beach town, therefore we took advantage of the beaches, since Bolivia obviously does not have any. We ran there one morning, and another morning climbed the cliff that sat right beside the city.
Incredible trip! We enjoyed the time off, change of scenery and the flexibility of the short, unexpected vacation. Katie got her visa renewed for 30 more days with the promise of getting another 60 added to it when we returned to Cochabamba. My visawork at the borders was a piece of cake, thanks to our great lawyer who helped us get everything worked out.

Buen Viaje!

2008-09-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

With less than 90 days left in my Bolivia experience, I’m overwhelmed with a sense of, well, loss. This is my life now. What will I ever do when I have to start all over AGAIN?! But I guess change has become the only constant in my life over the last two years, so I’ll adjust. But that’s enough of that, why worry about three months away, when there’s plenty to fill up that space in my brain right now.

So the political situation has taken a bit of a turn for the worst since I last wrote. No need to worry, though. Cochabamba is safe and not involved in the “unrest”, and we hope it stays that way! I must admit that in politics (of any country I’ve ever lived in), I’ve been a bit more ignorant than I should be…so you might just want to look it up yourself if you’re curious.

Last Friday I went out to help Nate H. build bunkbeds. He told me that we were getting metal for the addition on his workshop. I didn’t realize that WE were tearing it off his old workshop and hauling it back. But we did! Nate, Edgar (owner of Nate’s new workshop) and I. Edgar drove me back to get my stuff before I went home. On the way, we talked about his family, his church, how it’s building a home for street boys, etc. It was so neat to hear how involved his entire family is in the church and its’ ministries. So he took me to show me the boys home, which is HUGE. He’s an architect and designed it himself. It will hold about 80 boys. There will be a workshop out back so they can learn carpentry, and a big garden so they can help sustain the home. Then he showed me the Christian school that their church runs. His wife is the administrator and she gave me a tour. The school is bi-lingual and has almost 300 kids from the area. I left feeling so encouraged, it’s always great to see the nationals passionate and involved in ministries here. Today when we showed up to do bunkbeds Edgar was working on cabinets for the school! What an inspiration!

On Sunday there was a baptism at the center church (Iglesia Yo Soy) of a man named Victor. Victor gave his life to Jesus about three months ago. Nate + Kate met Victor, because he worked at their mechanics (their car spends a lot of time there!). They started a relationship and Victor started coming to church and soon after, became a Christian. As he was giving his testimony on Sunday he talked about how God had changed his life, even though he had made some bad decisions in the past. Then he started crying. It was so striking to me to realize that even though God has the power to change our lives and make something beautiful out of something that we manage to make into a horrible mess, there are still painful consequences to our actions. Sooo….let’s not use God’s grace as an excuse to do whatever we want. We will indeed reap what we sow.

This week has been really good at the center. There’s this one little guy named Francisco. I’ve known Francisco for about 7 months now. I’m pretty sure he was the first kid I met at the center, because he was so mischievous, dirty and mean. He must be about 4 or 5. So these past few weeks Francisco has been changing. For the better. He’s a lot calmer, actually likes to give us hugs, listens to instruction a little better. I guess all those “talks” from Toty, must have worked!
A new intern arrived on Friday. Bethany has lived in Bolivia once before. She taught here for a year at a bilingual Christian school three years ago. She’s from Detroit area, has 8 siblings and was homeschooled. So we have a lot in common.

Yesterday we had a “surprise” baby shower for Nate and Kate. Their baby is due in about 2 months. They go back to Australia this weekend with their other baby Lily, and will be there for four months. Therefore, I may not EVER see them again, or at least not for a really long time!  They are great people. They do so much for the ministry here, genuinely care about us, and are just really nice! (They’ve also done so much to help me Katie T. and me with our legal work. And now we have our visas and carnets that are good for one year!)

New development: I’ll be going to Chile for 3 days with Katie S. She has to go to get her tourist visa renewed. And since I’m LEGAL, I get to accompany her. You know, “protect” her…in the sense that there’s power in numbers!!

We also are going on a mission trip to Potosí this week with a group from CIC. We’ll be delivering Samaritan’s Purse boxes. I’m really excited about that; first off, because I’m excited to see more of Bolivia. Apparently Potosí is the highest city in the world. It’s also very cold and poor. Secondly, I’m excited because my family makes several Samaritan’s Purse boxes every year, and so I get to represent them and show them who gets their boxes, how they are distributed and what the reaction is.

I know that was a VERY long blog, sorry! I’ll try to write shorter entries more often…
Signing off for now,
Keep on keeping on Y´all!
Kristen

Some girls from my bible study.

Fast Asleep

2008-09-09T07:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring--or fall depending on where you happen to be in the world! Here, it’s spring. All of the trees are in bud, flowers are blooming and we are hoping that our fruit trees start producing lots of fruit!! Today I was out running and enjoying the landscape and was overwhelmed with the smell of flowers! What a way to start out the day!
I love spring it reminds me of a new start. Not that we necessarily get a totally new start every spring, but we are often presented with opportunities for a new start in all seasons, even if it just starts in our hearts, our attitudes, or our behaviors.
I personally have decided that seeing as I only have a little over three months left (100 days to be exact!), it is crucial that I finish strong. I don’t want to leave any relationships unfinished. I realize that at this point it would be easy to throw myself into a variety of different activities, but I want to remember why I’m here and make the most of my time. I want to give myself more fully to fewer things, rather than getting kind of involved in a lot of things. After all, this might be my only opportunity here! 
Last Sunday we had a bunch of friends and co-workers over for a potluck. It was a great time of fun, food and friends! The hacienda is a perfect spot to have a party so we decided we should let other people enjoy it too! (Plus we have a new volleyball “court”-I use that term loosely since the ground isn’t exactly regulation turf!)
This week we decided to put some effort into making our community a friendlier place so Nate, Matt, Elsa and I went and picked up garbage at the local park where we often take the kids to play. Trash cans are almost non-existent in public places. We gathered 19 bags of garbage and only made a dent in the project, however, by the time we finished a crowd of kids had congregated to watch us. It was good, though, hopefully inspiring them to also want to make their neighborhood cleaner. I think next time we’ll take the kids from the orphanage to help!
Bryan arrived on Tuesday, he was working in Peru doing discipleship with some guys in the jungle. Before he returns home he is traveling around South America visiting a bunch of other types of ministries. He will be here until Thursday.
At Villa Israel last week, we arrived, visited for a little bit, and as we were talking and introducing the kids to Bryan, Samuel climbed into my lap and fell asleep. He probably slept there for a good two hours. It was really cute, there’s a song by Tree 63 that says
“if I fall fast asleep it’s just because I feel so safe in you”,
they were talking about God and to me Samuel sleeping so deeply in my lap was just a really sweet picture of that. I really love Samuel, and I know that God’s love for us is even DEEPER than the love I feel for Samuel or any of the other kids here, and that he’s our secure place whether we’ve had a bad day, or screwed up, or just need to sit and be quiet with Him.

Once a week we take the Frutillar kids to the park to play, (on the other day we help with homework and tutor) but this week we decided to bring them up to the hacienda to have a little party. We played some board games, foosball, volleyball and had a snack with them. They were so excited, we had a pretty swell time too!
On Friday we got a new girl for the Villa Israel home! I haven’t actually met her yet, but am definitely looking forward to Thursday when I will get to meet her! Her name is Neydi, and she is supposedly six, ‘though our bosses think she is more like 8.
Yesterday was Día de Peatón here in Cochabamba (Day of the Pedestrian). No one was allowed to drive until evening. It was so relaxed, people were all out in the streets visiting, playing futbol (soccer), and riding bikes. We walked to church and around the city. It was a really great day, one of my favorites…I kind of wish it was like that every Sunday!!
Today I found a to-do list from last year around this same time (probably the same week, since I had written a note about my sister-in-law’s birthday which is on Saturday). And I smiled just thinking about how different my life is at this point. I live in a different country, work with kids, never see my family, hang out with all new people, speak a different language, use a different type of money, shop in an outdoor market, haven’t driven in 7 months, etc…. What a fantastic opportunity—I highly suggest it!!
Anyway, I think that’s it for now!
Love you guys!
Kristen

Return to me.

2008-09-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

I can´t get this computer to recognize my flash drive...so mark this page and come back to it tomorrow! I really have an extensive update plus pictures that I want you to see!!! So you can add this page to your favorites, or I think there´s a link to "follow" this blog...
See you tomorrow!!

Lots of birthday parties!!

2008-09-01T11:20:00.000-07:00

Dear Amigos, 29, agosto 2008
Hard to believe August is already almost over. What a month! I´ll be celebrating my seven month anniversary on Monday.

We’ve celebrated three birthdays so far this week and will celebrate two more on Friday. It’s so great to get to spend time with the kids just to have fun. No tutoring, babysitting, or points. Basically, no responsibilities--just fun!

So we girls of the hacienda have been continuing to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities. On Sunday night we went to the church that meets at the orphanage. It was our first time ever going, but it was really nice. It was a vibrant group of people, and the family of the house was so excited that we were there. It felt great! We’ve also been exploring a lot of neighborhoods around our house. We’ve found some really neat places, and it helps me feel like I have a much better feel of the neighborhood I live in. It’s a very diverse area, three blocks to one side there’s a very poor neighborhood of unfinished houses, dirt roads, and lots of scrawny dogs. Three blocks in the other direction, there are really big, fancy houses, with few dogs--though healthy, and paved roads. What a contrast!
It’s been a very busy two weeks. We’ve been going all the time. We helped Nate move his workshop to another bigger location about twenty minutes farther from here yesterday. I’ve been going out to help do bunkbeds for our orphanages in Chapare plus some desks for a FH (Food for the Hungry) project twice a week.
We’ve also been having birthday parties, there’s a fair at the center this Saturday for all of the kids who come, and Sunday we are having some co-workers + friends over to the Hacienda for a potluck plus volleyball. But I like staying busy. It keeps me from missing home as much.
I’m reading a book called “It Came From Within” (by Andy Stanley.) It addresses the condition of our hearts and underlying issues that cause us to not love God and each other the way we should… It’s a VERY good book. I highly recommend it. I am, in fact, learning so much about myself and finding underlying things that are happening in my heart towards those that I should be loving, that I never paid attention too. But the good thing is that the book also explores ways to CHANGE. And boy do I ever plan on it!!
The Timmers returned on Monday, and the Hedvalls returned last Wednesday. It’s so good to have them back!! It’s weird that I was here when they left, and could tell them that I’d still be here when they got back. It feels kinda nice to wait, anticipating the return of those you care about. I guess, that might be how God feels about the day that we get to join Him. Not wishing our time over any faster, but knowing that the day will come when we get to come be with Him.
The biggest prayer point that I have for you at the moment, is to ask God to keep discouragement away. Things sometimes get monotonous, people sometimes are difficult, situations sometimes tricky and accommodations often inconvenient. It’s easy to lose sight of what really matters, and what we are doing here.
Thanks for reading, praying and encouraging me!!
Love.
Kristen

Return of the boss.

2008-08-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Soo we said a bunch more goodbyes this week… Rach left Wednesday night, Adrian left Thursday night and Tiffany moved out on Thursday. The house is so empty it almost echoes… Why does everything have to happen at the same time?!!
Adrian is off to language school in Peru, then to Quito to work with a youth ministry there with IT, then off to explore a million other countries. He was a fantastic brother, we were all very grateful for his kindness, and super funny sense of humor. He was also a good baker, he enjoyed treating us girls to dinner and dessert often. In fact the day after he left Jen, Katie S. and I decided to go on a sweets fast since we have gotten so used to having sweets around all the time. I feel healthier already!!
I got my plane ticket to come home--December 16th is the lucky day!! (That day also happens to be my Mom’s birthday, I hope I’m a good present!  ) That gives me four more months here. Whew! That doesn’t sound like very much, but there are days when it feels like an eternity!
On Saturday we did a “Hygiene Day” with the kids at Villa Israel. A bunch of the kids have not been there very long, and usually come from poorer neighborhoods or the Campo (countryside), therefore cleanliness is not something they’ve grown up with. Kim did a puppet show and Aldo the psychologist talked about the importance of being clean outside, but also inside—having a clean conscience, asking forgiveness for wrongs, etc. We also brought some liquid soap (Aldo told Roberto that when he got a bit older the girls would like that he had clean, good smelling hands!), stools for the littler ones to reach the sink and toothpaste and toothbrushes. I was shocked by how excited the kids were!! Brandon ran up behind Kim and gave her a really big hug and thanked her, sometimes it’s the littlest things that get kids excited! It’s really sweet to see the older kids there interact with the little ones. They’re so protective and gentle. It makes me really happy, and kinda proud too, not that I taught them that, but that I get to work with such sweethearts!!
The Timmers come back next week. From what I’ve heard they’ve had a good time visiting supporters, hanging out as a family, and reuniting with old friends. They did get to go see a bunch of people from Bedford (you may recall that we had an AMAZING team from Bedford a few months back, they’re also sending another team this fall…can’t wait!).
Well, that’s about it for now…have a fantastic day! I hope to put up some more pictures this week…so keep checking the foto site (go to my complete profile and there will be a link to it.)
God bless!
Kristen

Birthdays!

2008-08-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,
Rach arrived two weeks ago, she pretty much just blended right in as an intern! I think that’s the best way to experience what we do here…
Last week we had lunch with the IT Latin-American directors. It was really great to hear their insights; they also are good friends with Darryl, my former boss who was a missionary in Costa Rica with IT for three years.
On our visit out to Villa Israel last week, as we were greeting all the kids and Charlie (house dad) I noticed that Charlie had a bandage on his head as well as scratches all over his face. I, obviously, was curious and asked what had happened. He told me that he was assaulted and robbed on Sunday night at the Terminal, and roughed up a bit… when things like that happen you are obviously glad to be alive still, but feel very shaky and in a way… violated. Knowing that you’re not even safe in your own hometown is really unsettling.
This last week we started a new schedule so it was nice to have things mixed up a bit… here’s a typical schedule of our week:

lunes (Monday) Meeting with the bosses
Communication day (updates, blogs, etc).
Babysit.

martes (Tuesday) Spanish class.
Center.
Girls’ Bible Study (Spanish)

miercoles (Wednesday) Build bunkbeds.
Center.

jueves (Thursday) Villa Israel.
Dinner with Matt + Elsa
Intern Bible Study.

viernes (Friday) Frutillar tutoring.

sabado (Saturday) Frutillar tutoring.
Young Professionals (Spanish).

domingo (Sunday) Church.
Babywashing

Rachel got her wisdom teeth out this weekend-on her BIRTHDAY! But she needed to get them out in enough time that she can travel, but soon enough so she can do things the day or two before she leaves too…Surgery was a bit roughter than they expected, so they gave her some extra sedative so she slept a lot. But she’s doing a lot better now, and I’ve been getting some nursing practice! The Olympics also started this weekend—also on Rachel’s birthday so we’ve been camping out at Matt and Elsa’s (so Rachel could recover, also for a break from our house since this weekend was a big vote all over the country and we were encouraged to just be careful to keep a low profile). I LOVE the summer Olympics!!
Wednesday was my birthday and the whole country celebrated…’though they didn’t exactly know that was what they were celebrating, you see it was also Bolivia’s Independence Day. I got to talk to my parents and my twin!!
Monday was Katie S.'s birthday...what a crazy week for birthdays. Katie S., Me, Bolivia and Rachel!
Well, I guess that’s about it…
Have a GREAT week everybody!
Love.
Kristen

Yay for concerts!

2008-07-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks,
Greetings once again from the lovely city of Cochabamba Bolivia.
There are now 7 of us living at the hacienda. My bedroom looks so much homier when it’s fuller, and there’s four of us chicas living in there now. I like it!
Jen is the newest roomate. She arrived on Wednesday from Chicago. Jen was my other roommate at training, so it’s been so exciting as Tiffany and I have been anticipating reuniting with this sweet girl! She’ll be here until May of 2009.
The Colorado kids left on Friday night, as our last big shebang we went to a Christian concert (A band called Rescate, plus a drum corps, and a Reggea Rock band—needless to say it was very entertaining!), and dinner on Thursday night. As we were eating dinner and getting ready to head to the concert we got a phone call that a team of ten people was on the way to stay the night at our house…I of course switched into survival mode trying to figure out where they would stay, what they would need and how I needed to prepare for them. Adrian was a saint, and as he was the only one not planning on going to the concert he got the whole house ready for them. There ended up being 14 of them, and they just spent one night at our house. They came down from the states to do worship for some conferences around Bolivia. Talk about last minute notice!! But that’s the life of an intern, and fortunately I work better under pressure! 
On Friday we went out to lunch with the Colorado kids, they went with us to Frutillar to play with the kids and say goodbye. We then had a big dinner and said goodbye. We’ll miss them sooo much. Dinner time will just not be as exciting! They were so much fun to have around, I loved watching them pour themselves into the ministry here, they were so flexible and excited about being involved with the kids, church, and other missionaries here.
Saturday morning my big sister Rachel arrived!!! It was sooo good to see a family member. It’s been about six months that I haven’t seen them, and that was by far the longest I’ve ever gone without seeing any of them. So it’s been fun showing her around town and introducing her to my friends, the kiddos, and Bolivia.
I decided that I really want to get more involved at my church so I went to the young adults group on Saturday. I had to talk myself into it, because I was kinda nervous, but it was really good. Aaand, I met some really great people!
This week we have a schedule change so it’ll be interesting. Also the IT Latin American director is coming into town so we’ll get to meet him. I’m pretty excited about that! 
Okie doke! Have a great week!
Kristen

When will I know enough?

2008-07-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

Soo this week contained so many learning experiences. Literally every day has brought to light a new perspective or paradigm shift. How does this all happen at once. So as you might imagine my mind is running like a million miles an hour!
The Colorado interns returned from Chapare last Monday (Adam, Sage, Hallie and Lauren). They were out there for four weeks and really enjoyed their time working with Remberto and fam. I also really enjoyed sharing common experiences in Chapare and hearing about all they learned and experienced while there. Remberto actually came back from Chapare with Vick, Mickey and baby Judith Bonnie (Yes! She finally has a name! She’s definitely grown since last time I saw here!) last weekend so we got to see them a few times. It was really nice to be able to sit and visit with them. They’ve begun another orphanage about 20 minutes from the one in Nueva Jerusalen.
Saturday was Lily’s birthday. Nate and Kate had a nice party for her. It was so sweet to see them thanking everyone for being a part of their lives and for being like family to Lily. I guess it would be really hard to raise a family so far from your own. But it’s a sacrifice they have made to follow God, and in that I believe they will never be sorry.
Friday was Adrian’s birthday, and Sage’s birthday was on Saturday too. So there was a lot of celebrating going on!
On Monday night at our intern bible study it was my turn to lead. Well, in fact I volunteered to lead because we were on Philippians 2. So I went on line found some good commentaries and spent hours reading and rereading the passage and then reading this commentary. I LOVE doing that. The bible is amazingly always so incredibly relevant. I’m actually going to do another entry for the things I learned as I studied about becoming more like Christ and what that meant to me and for me. It’s a chapter on community and like it or not, we all live in one. Enough said, I'll try to write up a blog about my new insights...check out Philippians 2 for yourself,though, when you get a chance!
Monday and Wednesday afternoons we spend at the Centro de Amistad. I help Toti prepare the refreshments for the kiddos and sometimes I get to help some kiddos put together a puzzle or play pick up sticks or volleyball, but most of the time I just work in the kitchen and wash area. But I really enjoy talking with Toti. She’s an amazing woman, who encourages me to trust God in everything. Basically I just hope that her, loving, caring, serving heart will rub off on me!
Tiffany and I were talking this weekend, and evaluating the ministry here, and our personal ministries. We decided that a big part of why we feel we are here is to encourage the long-termers. So we decided to help out some young missionary families by babysitting for their little ones so they can enjoy a date night. So tomorrow night is our first night, and I am really looking forward to it! I used to love babysitting!
Oh, by the way Ismael’s (The youngest, newest at Villa Israel) real name is Franz. And Maria’s (the youngest Frutillar kid) is Maribel. Gosh, as if it isn’t hard enough keeping track of 20 kids names without changing them!!
Well, I guess that’s about it for now.
God bless you all!
Kristen

[Halftime.]

2008-07-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

So five months has past, since I first arrived in Cochabamba. Unbelievable!! Even though they say that time flies, I still can’t believe it’s gone already!
Some really cool things happened this week…
We had VBS at Villa Israel Wednesday-Friday. The theme was obedience. We did games, a bible story, a puppet show, crafts, etc. It was a good time with the kids.
On Wednesday night we got two new boys for the villa Israel home. They’re brothers, Ismael (2 ½) and Elian (4). They’re both small for their ages. Ismael has a rash up his arm and side. Their mother just passed away and their father is an alcoholic and not interested in them. They understand Spanish (I think) and Elian speaks a little bit, but their heart language is Quechua. I speak about 5 words in Quechua, so I guess we’ll all be learning together…though I can bet you that they’ll learn Spanish way faster than we’ll learn Quechua. Katie S. speaks a little bit of Quechua, so that helps a lot.
Tiffany unfortunately caught Jirardia (don’t know how to spell that…) at the camp she was at last week…so she spent a few days in bed. But fortunately after a three day cycle of medication she was as good as new!
On Thursday the Harlem Globetrotters were here in Cochabamba!! So of course, we went and saw them! It was super fun!!!
On Friday, Independence Day, a family from the International Church here threw a 4th of July party! It was fantastic! There were nearly a hundred people, and a few orphanages (Jennifer’s Casas de Amor-see one of the March Blogs for more info) also came with their little ones to enjoy the enormous inflatable slide. It was a great night!
The Frutillar home also welcomed two more sheep into their family! Gosh, we have enough problems with the Negrita eating crayons, homework, people’s hair, etc! Hopefully these two will keep her occupied!
I’ve been in and out of immigration all week. We had some “problems” with the last lawyer so now I have to start the process all over again, plus some fines that I have unknowingly incurred… But I should hopefully be able to get my visa in a month or so…
Saturdays we go to babywashing. It’s always really neat to meet other volunteers, and my faves-the little girls that come. Last week one of the girls named Brenda gave me a bracelet that she had made. There’s another little girl named Claudia that always seeks me out and gives me the best hugs. I personally prefer to comb and braid hair of the older girls, as opposed to bathing the littler ones that always scream! I haven’t gotten lice yet so that’s a HUGE praise!!
Well, until next week…chao!!
Love.
Kristen

How we roll at the Hacienda… [Update.]

2008-06-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

I realize that I haven’t done an update in awhile…so here ya go!
I had surgery last Monday to get the rest of my wisdom teeth out. It was so much better than last time. I slept through almost the whole thing. I was SO swollen for a few days. I pretty much laid in bed for the first three days. Read. Slept. Watched movies. Listened to podcasts. I was really excited when I finally got out of the house on Thursday night! Recovery is going a bit slower than expected…so I’m enjoying oatmeal, yogurt and applesauce for the time being. But I really can’t complain, life’s good!! I expect a full recovery by next week!
Monday was the holiday San Juan, so we celebrated by setting off fireworks. We later found out that that’s illegal in the city! Oops! San Juan is a cultural celebration when the locals set fires to warm up the earth. This week contained the shortest day, and the “coldest” day of the year, and my grandma, my cousins, and two of my brothers’ birthdays + my grandparents 53rd anniversary!
This week we have been having Vacation Bible School at the Center. There have been a LOT of kiddos! Yesterday there were nearly 50!!! On Monday a little girl named Sarah came with her brother Elias. They walked in holding hands and as they were walking by I said “Hola!”, Sarah turned around smiled really big and ran over to me and gave me a hug! It was so cute! I had never even seen her before, but apparently that simple greeting was all she needed to warm up to me! It made my day!! (hopefully hers too!)
Yesterday we went out to Villa Israel to tutor. All the kids were there because they are on “vacation” from school. We had a really good day tutoring and playing with them. They are just SO CUTE I can hardly handle it!!
On the intern end of things here, Andrea left on Friday, we all went to take her to the airport, and what do you know, there was a blockade! So we parked on the street and walked. I met some girls from Florida. They were here with their youth group on a missions trip and were on their way home when we saw them at the airport. It was really encouraging talking to them and hearing their hearts for helping others.  I know my own sisters (who are in Jr. and Sr. high) just got back from a local mission trip and were also super excited about how God blessed, provided, and empowered specifically during that week. I think missions is something every kid should have an opportunity to do before graduating from High School…but that’s just my personal opinion…!
Stephanie left on Saturday morning…she will go see a doctor once she gets home just to make sure everything is okay, but she’s doing so much better!! God is so amazing! I actually got to see her without sunglasses a few times before she left!
Katie #2 arrived late Saturday night. Two weeks after scheduled arrival time. They are not messing around when they say that you need a yellow fever shot before coming… and apparently there’s a shortage of the vaccine in the US. We’re very glad to finally have her here! She was here two years back helping with the kids at Frutillar and building the Villa Israel home. So it’s really cool for her to see it now with kids, and I think it’s really cool to hear how her internship was then, and to hear how she learned from it and what she wants to do differently this time around…
Katie #1 has been here for two weeks, though I’m not sure if I’ve officially written about her yet. She’s interning at the Center, but hangs out with us in her spare time. (Incident-ally Katie’s middle name is Joy…the same as my twin, Katie Joy!!)
Tiffany is gone for the week helping with a Youth Camp for the teens from the Inter-national Church. She’s been really involved helping to lead the camp.
So, it’s just Adrian, Katie, Katie and me here in the hacienda this week…and Pop Tart!

Say Yes to the Best…

2008-06-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

[sequel to ´the struggle against mediocrity´]

Soo, I’ve been thinking for a long time about what I wrote about last week...and I was still thinking about it this week and thought that I should maybe clarify a few things…I still think it is discouraging how easy WE settle for mediocrity…

I’ve been reading a book by Brother Andrew, “The Calling”. He talks about how we waste time when we try to figure out what God’s will for the rest of our life is, or when we spend so long trying to make sure that we’ve heard a definite call from God. He points out that all God wants from us is obedience today. As we daily obey Him then He will lead us to where He wants us. And I thought about that, and I think it’s true…we spend so long sitting around waiting for an audible voice, or something to just drop in our laps, or we get so worried about what we are going to do with the rest of our lives to make a big difference and don’t worry enough about what we are doing today.

I don’t want to knock a 9-5 job. God leads us to different things at different points in our lives, and we need to obey Him before any fancy ideas that we can only make a difference if we have a job with a good salary, or a high profile job in the community, or if we are a pastor or missionary.

Being a stay-at-home mom can affect the lives of not only your children, but your friends, babysitter (believe me I know from personal experience!), doctors, etc. Being an employee of a non-christian boss can have a lasting impact of his ideas of integrity, work ethic, and God. The possibilities are endless, I just want to challenge all of us, to follow God. If He calls us to a lower profile job, then go for it and make that your missionfield. If He calls you to do something that seems impossible, trust Him when He says that when we are weak THEN He is strong…

He’s good. He’s faithful…no matter what. And all He expects is obedience…no matter what. My pastor said that God expects obedience no matter what. He won’t sit back and say, “Okay, you’re right, I understand that you couldn’t do what I told you to that one time…but next time…”

I know that sometimes we don’t know where God is calling us. I personally fear that I’ll get to the end of my life, and feel like I never did anything because I didn’t know what He wanted me to do. But my friend Karen, encouraged me that sometimes we have to go with what we know. We know generalities about God, like that we are supposed to be sharing Him with others, we are supposed to help the poor, orphans and widows, we are supposed to be people of integrity, we are supposed to marry other Christ-followers, etc. So that kind of gives us something to go on…and we have to just pray that He will guide us and sometimes we have to just go for things and pray that He will stop us if that’s not of Him… We can’t just expect things to fall in our laps, we have to do our part too.

Umm….I guess that’s all for now. Who knows, I may have a follow-up blog next week too, as I explore more what this means…

However, I would like to leave you all with a verse that caught my attention this week…

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,

making the most of your time, because the days are evil.

So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-17

As always, feel free to comment…

The struggle against Mediocrity

2008-06-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Soo... this week I've been reflecting on my life, and also thinking about some friends--who shall remain unnamed. I see this recurring pattern of maybe when you're little having dreams of being a doctor, or teacher, or missionary or fireman and then growing up and either getting a decent job at a factory, or daycare, or retail store and settling. Just like that, done. How does that happen so easy? What happened to those dreams of wanting to help change the world? What happened to going for something big without worrying about "failure". What is "failure"?
I don't have a huge speech about following your dreams, but I think to some extent we should follow our "dreams". We have God on our side.
So what's the worst that can happen? Say we try teaching and then decide that we like working in a daycare better? At least we know that we tried, right?
I was reading Ephesians 4 and in verse one it says: "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called". And I just think of a lady from my church. When I was in high school she asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I responded that I wanted to do missions work, she then replied, "I used to feel like God was calling me to do that. Then I got married." And I thought to myself, I never want to have to say that! Even if I try it and God says he wants me to do something totally different I don't want to have to live with regrets. I want to make the most of every opportunity. Whether it's whitewater rafting in the jungle, or taking a few minutes to talk to a lonely old woman, or letting little kids paint my nails (or knuckles) 5 different colors. I'm here because God led me here, and I want to walk worthy of that calling. If I have to humble myself and apologize to my roomates for not being a thoughtful sister, then I will.
Maybe your calling is to be a youth worker, or a fireman, or a stay-at-home mom, I just want to challenge you, first of all to go for it!! Second of all to hold me and those around you to follow the dreams God has given them. Let's not settle for mediocrity when the sky's the limit. because God's on our side. Right?
So feel free to comment, good or bad on this blog...
Love you guys!!

Escalators, Dances, and Stairs. Lots of Stairs.

2008-06-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

Jaclyn left on Saturday. One of the hardest goodbye’s I’ve ever said…at least over the last few months. It was my last thread of familiarity as far as housemates go. First it was Michelle with whom I was also very close and then Jaclyn. She and Michelle were both so great at making me feel included and helping me to feel like I belonged. They are both dear friends and I hope to stay in touch with them FOREVER!!!

We took the kids from the Frutillar orphanage to the airport too (Along with Popi, Sofia and Vicenta-the houseparents and helper). It was the first time they had ever been there, and were so fascinated by the escalator. They just wanted to ride up and down all day long. It was really neat, I thing, although hard for them to be there. I reminded Jaclyn that the last thing she would see in Cochabamba would be the very reason she came here. I hope she thought that too.

Sunday we climbed up to the Cristo-an incredible workout since you have to climb like a MILLION steps to get up to it! There was a cultural dance performance thing that we watched it was cute and somewhat amusing, the band who set up there for what I thought would be a concert, were only lip-syncing the whole time!!

Tuesday Kim, Elaina and I went out to the Food for the Hungry office (Fundacion Contra el Hambre) to help Nate work on the bunkbeds for the new orphanages in the Chapare. It was fun. I even got to use some of the big tools!! Then he and his wife Cindy along with his mom and grandpa who are visiting from the states took us out for pasta. They were really encouraging!
Tuesday night was Mallory Timmer’s graduation party. Remberto and Vick were there with their baby. It was SOOO good to see them again!! They will probably forever be some of my favorite Bolivians!!

Wednesday at the Center I was talking with Toti (David’s wife. They run the ministry at the center.). There’s this one boy in particular at the center named René who for some reason every time I see him, I just feel for him. He comes very faithfully and he’s one of those kids I just want to see him come to know Jesus. I want everyone to come to know Jesus, but for some reason this kid has a special place in my heart. Don’t know why, but he does. I was asking Toti about René today, and she talked about him and a few of the other kids and about some who had accepted Christ and never come back, some who had accepted Christ whom she could see a change in, and some who haven’t--yet. Then she told me that she prays for them everyday. She said she made a commitment to God to pray for all of the kids every day. And I felt somewhat convicted. I pray for them. But not NEAR as faithfully as I should. Or want to. So I’m going to start. Last night.

That’s all for now I think.
Keep on keeping on, ya’ll!!
Kristen

Vacation Day

2008-05-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

[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!!

2008-05-25T11:08:00.000-07:00

[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!!

2008-05-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

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

Maybe NEXT week will be normal!

2008-04-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Interns.

Adrian, Me and Jaclyn.

Michelle, Me and Jaclyn.

Greetings Folks,
Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather wherever you are. (Or fall if you’re in South America). The seasons don’t really change that much from one to the next except it rains less now. So enjoy the change!!
This week has not really been normal either. We spent the weekend hanging low. None of us were really feeling well so just took it easy. I did however get to go running a few times this weekend which made me oh-so-happy!! (and sore!)
On Saturday we had a meeting with a missionary here with Food for the Hungry. His name is Nate and he works with some pig farmers here trying to help them get the stock healthier and bring in new stock through Artificial Insemination (AI). I was so energized to see how someone with experience in that field (no pun intended!) is able to transfer it here to help these farmers and in return help the economy. He also said that he’s seen how helping people in this grassroots way gives him opportunities to share about Christ. Yeah!! He also told me that I can come see the pig farms sometime!! He is building bunkbeds for the new orphanages, so we are going to help him look for grants to get this program up and going. (A pig from the Chapare).
On Tuesday we went out to the school where the Timmer girls attend (Carachipampa Christian School) for their annual field days. It’s a great family time at the end of the year where the kids all compete in track and field activities. We interns were recruited to help time the races. Today Jaclyn and I participated in the adult relay. Our team got first place too!!
On Friday I am having my wisdom teeth taken out. I’m a little nervous, just because I don’t really like feeling like I am not in control of my body…and I hear that the anesthesia kinda takes over… Sooo hopefully no videos of my out of mind experience will surface on the net…! The dentist that is doing the surgery did the Timmer’s older daughters surgery, and she goes to the Young Professionals group that we attend at the international church here, so it should be safe.
On Tuesday afternoon we went to see the orphanages that my friend Jennifer runs here. (Hogares de Amor). She has two homes one for 0-3 year olds, and one for 3-11 year olds. Each home has about 17 kids. It was so neat to see. Each home was so orderly, the kids were so happy (mainly because they were napping when we got there). She has like 15 Bolivians on staff split between the two homes and they also periodically have volunteers that come to help. The older kids even take violin lessons!! As I saw the pictures on the wall of Jennifer with all of the kids, I couldn’t help thinking of the amazing difference she is making in these kids lives. She’s been here for almost 4 years, and has seen 6 kids from here homes be adopted. She has pictures of all of them on the walls, and pictures of the adopted ones with their newfound families. One picture in particular was of a family from Spain. They had twins and then adopted a little girl and the picture on the wall had them all looking so happy and one of the twins with his hands raised in victory! Apparently it was a long hard process, but they had won and received a beautiful girl into their family. It was adorable!
Soo…that’s my week in a nutshell. Thursday is a national holiday so we will be having some people from the young adults group over. Should be fun.
Happy May!!
Kristen

By the way...check out my FOTO blog to see new updates. www.kristen-fotos.blogspot.com

Now it's time to say goodbye to all our company...

2008-04-25T17:56:00.001-07:00

Greetings!

Today is April 25, 2008. The Bedford (New Hampshire) team is leaving tonight, though it feels like they just got here! They have been a tremendous blessing. It’s so interesting the change in dynamic from team to team. We especially enjoyed being spoiled by this team though. They were so welcoming and accepting of us. I got a lot of good advice from them on relationships, encouragement in the work I’m doing here, and felt as though I was the one who received the biggest blessing. But I know everyone here was encouraged by this amazing team as well. We’ve gotten to do a lot of cool things this week. We did some maintenance on the two orphanages, spent a lot of time playing with the kiddos, went to the malnutrition center…which was amazing! We got to see what the Patiño foundation does here for the malnourished kids and help to feed them and play with them. We also did a bread run in Sipe Sipe…well the panaderia was out of bread so I guess it was more of a “Banana Run”, we took fruit, cereal, milk and candy.

We also got to participate in the Team times of praise and worship and they even let me play their guitar!!

These next two weeks we’ll be settling into “routine”…whatever that is! My two roomies are getting closer to their departure dates, which none of us like to think about-but it’s a reality that we must face. Justin left on Sunday. So now it’s just Adrian and the girls. There will be a few more interns coming next month.

Yesterday was my Dad’s birthday and I’ve been thinking a lot lately how much a father can influence the lives of his children…maybe especially his daughters. So, for all of you dads out there please don’t ever forget that you have a powerful God-ordained role to influence, encourage and challenge your kids. So do it!

Well, I guess that’s it for now.

The Lord bless and keep you,

Kristen

Another bunch of goodbyes

2008-04-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

04-15-08
Today was the day the World Racers left. It was three of the best weeks ever!! It was incredibly encouraging to spend all day every day with a group of kids who are totally on fire for God. I felt so loved and accepted by each of them and immensely enjoyed their company, comic relief and conversations—I feel like I learned a whole lot more about leadership, interpersonal skills and saw some different perspectives of relating to God that helped me to learn more about what I believe and why and how I show that to others. I’ll link their blog to my page so you can see what they’re all about. That´s almost the whole team on the day we climbed the mountain.
One of the last big events with the AIM World Racers was a toe surgery in the living room of the Hacienda! I was surprised by the amount of people who chose to watch, and maybe even more so by the fact that Matt allowed them to watch. Our good friend Jorge is a doctor here in Coch. He attends the Cochabamba International Church where my roommates and the Timmers go, I met Jorge through the Young Professionals group that we interns attend. He was on call to us basically the whole time the team was here. I think he probably treated like 5 or 6 of the World Racers. He’s a great guy, a prayer warrior and a doctor with a heart for the poor of Bolivia. What an example to us all!
We went to Villa Israel in the afternoon with our NEW INTERN!!! Adrian is his name, he’s from Tasmania, Australia. He got here yesterday and he’ll be here through the middle of August. So be praying for him as he adjusts to life here in Bolivia. We all (especially Justin) are excited to have him here.
Saturday was Day of the Child here in Bolivia. We split into 2 groups and went to each of the orphanages in the morning. We played games with the kids, had snacks and “entertainment” (Two of the World Race guys did a “Magic Show”. Then in the afternoon we went to baby washing which was cancelled due to the health issues with Mickey (the guy who leads baby washing). So we played games with the kiddos.
Sunday I went to my church which had a special service for Día del Niño. In the afternoon I went to a futbol (soccer) game with some guys from the World Race Team. It was very entertaining. Cochabamba played against Santa Cruz. They tied two to two.
We have another small team coming on Saturday from New Hampshire, I think.
Chao.
Kristen

P.S. Check out my FOTO blog as I am going to try to put up a LOT of pictures today. :)

April 9

2008-04-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the Chapare about 30 minutes ago. Did I mention that I LOVE it there?! I do—and even more so every time I go! We arrived last Monday by bus, all but 3 of us (2 girls were sick so they stayed back with Michelle who took them to the doctor and made sure they were following doctor’s orders). The mosquitos were sooo much better this time than ever before. But we also slept in tents, so I’m sure that helped too.
We got a lot accomplished. We painted/varnished the entire house inside and out. We also built staircases, dug trenches for the sewer, cleaned, cooked, and a few other miscellaneous things. We attended church services at the local church. One night we put on a kids program (it was rather spontaneous but God still shows up even when we’re not expecting to have to do a service) with skits, stretches, testimonies, and songs. It was very fun and the kids loved it! The people were very kind and the kids were rather amused by us. They loved to just sit and watch us eat or work and help when they could.
We’ve been super encouraged by this team. It’s an amazing group of people. I know that it’s going to be an adjustment when they leave. I’m going to attach a link to their blog so you can check out what they are doing.
On Friday all but two of the guys went to the other construction site in the Chapare. Things didn’t pan out there so they came back to Coch to help with some maintenance at the orphanages here. Us girls (and the 2 guys) continued working super fuerte, though and finished on Monday. Then we spent a day at the lake since we worked all day Saturday, and took Remberto, Vick and the kids out for a fish dinner. We also were able to share with Remberto how incredibly blessed we were by his servants heart. He was so good about making sure we had everything we needed and more. We chose Philipians as our book for the time in Chapare and Remberto was a perfect example of having the mind of Christ Jesus in considering others better than ourselves. It was a great time of encouragement to our brother and sister, and the team even spearheaded an effort to take up a love offering, around $90 USD. I was so proud of all of them! Oh, and I got to hold Remberto’s baby girl. She still doesn’t have a name yet but she is precious!!
I’ve been reading in Genesis and just finished reading the story about Joseph. He had an amazing attitude in spite of all of the crazy horrible things that happened to him. It just reminds me to have a good attitude even when we have communication errors, or feel like we’re not making a difference, God is sovereign and He (fortunately) has a much bigger plan than what we can see. So yeah…check it out when you get a chance, it’s in the end of Genesis.
Well, we’re back in Coch with a ton of laundry to do!!! Blessings to you all!!!
Much love.
Kristen

Big Big House

2008-03-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

Dear Amigos,

The team arrived on Friday, well almost all of them. One guy will fly back home to recover from illness, and the guy who was taking care of him will come tomorrow. It’s been fun having a team around, we really like just having a full house (well I do, at least). They’ve just been a huge encouragement to us. Plus, everything gets done faster! They take turns cooking and cleaning up every night and we have never eaten better here at the Hacienda!! They’ve been in Peru already and spent a lot of time being sick. So hopefully this time around will be a better experience of South American food. (Un)fortunately (depends on who’s perspective you take) Vick just gave birth so she will not be cooking for all of us when we go out to the Chapare. We did get to see the baby last week. She had a beautiful baby girl which everyone was happy about. We basically just love kids anyways, so boy or girl is good news!

We got a dog here at the Hacienda. He just showed up one day. Not sure if he’s a stray or not, but he seems to like us. I’m happy! I always wanted a pet here at the house. He even knows tricks!! We haven’t named him yet so I’m open to suggestions…

We go out to the Chapare on Monday. I just might be there for 2 weeks. So I’ll be sure to post and update when I return.

Easter was a great day!! I went to my church for the service, the church doesn’t have a pastor at the present moment, so there was a guest speaker. Then we had lunch with all the IT Bolivia people. It was really yummy! And we had a birthday party for Matt (whose birthday is on Easter). Then I went and played volleyball with the New Tribes people who play every Sunday night, afterwards, the AIM team had a worship service here in the living room. It was beautiful. Beautiful day, and a beautiful time to remember that it’s in Christ alone that we have freedom.

So, hope you all are enjoying the day, and anticipating springs arrival!

Love you all lots!

Kristen

2008-03-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Dear prayer supporters,
Greetings from a far away land! The team arrived safe and sound on Saturday afternoon. There are 8 college students (2 of them grad students) who decided to spend their spring break here in Bolivia with some amazing little kids, a goofy missionary and us interns. We spent a day at each of the two finished orphanages doing some odd jobs (painting, planting trees, washing windows, etc.) and then we played with the kids (that´s Michelle, Mike and Me varnishing the porch at Villa Israel). It was very neat to watch the team interact with the kids. Most of them spoke at least a little bit of Spanish but even the ones that didn’t tried really hard and ended up making friends with the kids in spite of the language barrier.
We then spent the better part of three days in the Chapare (and en route—it takes much longer by bus!!) working at Remberto’s site (where I went immediately following my arrival here in Coch). The orphanage is very close to being done. We put the first coat of paint on the walls, cleaned some more bricks, painted all the remaining wood with diesel to keep away the termites. We intern girls and the missionary’s daughter took turns helping Vick cook. She will give birth to her baby on Wednesday by C-section. So pray for a good surgery, a healthy baby, and a quick recovery for both. She is such a strong woman! The mosquitos were much more vicious than I remember (as was the rooster!), though I came out of the jungle with a very very small fraction of the amount of bites received by some of the other girls.
Saturday we went to see some Incan ruins, and we did a "bread run" where we gave out bread, chocolate milk and bananas in a smaller town, then we went to baby-washing, and dinner at the Timmers. The team left early Sunday morning.

This week is Spring Break at the International Christian school here in Coch where the majority of the missionary kids here attend. So we have a little more time to hang out with them.

We are going like crazy trying to get ready for the next team of 27, scheduled to arrive Friday or Saturday. It´s a good thing I like to do laundry!

We´ll have teams with us from this Friday through the end of April so I apologize in advance if I don´t get to write very often...

Thanks for your love and support. I don´t know what I would do without you guys!!

Keep on keeping on yáll!

One month down and still going strong

2008-02-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Hello to one and all!
It’s been a great week, and I’m finally starting to feel like I know my way around…at least a little bit! I made it to Spanish class solo and didn’t even get lost!
The week was full of doing kid stuff, as well as a few other random things thrown in there. I met some new friends, got to play with a lot of kids, chaperone a youth event, etc, etc.
Saturday for lunch our Spanish teacher had us all over for an authentic Bolivian meal. Michelle was commenting that there is no way that she can be making money off of us when she feeds us so well!! It was very sweet, she is a great lady as is her family. Very hospitable.
We played soccer with the kids from Muyurina (the orphanage close to our house). Received custom flower crowns from the kids at the plaza principal (where we do baby washing. It was canceled this week due to roadblocks so we played with the kids instead). Went to a birthday party for Miguel (from Villa Israel orphanage-the one that’s really far away from our house) he turned seven and reminds me of my little brother Tim, except he’s Bolivian. Jaclyn made a really yummy cake for the party. I had my first tutoring session at Villa Israel on Tuesday. My little guy is named Samuel. He’s in Kindergarten and I’m pretty sure he has a longer attention span than me!! (This is us!)I think tutoring is one of the most rewarding things ever! It was so exciting when he would figure out how to make his 2s right, or when he got the hang of adding 0 to numbers. And we are doing a Spanish memory verse together. That’s good for me too! Friday morning we’ll go back there to tutor the other 4 kids who are in school on Tuesday afternoons.
Oh, yeah. The youth event. We had a scavenger hunt type of thing, last week. (the youth group from the Timmers, and the interns’ church). They asked me to come be an “adult chaperone”. It rained all day and I was wearing flip flops-horrible combination for running around town. I was sliding around like Michelle Kwan!! (Well maybe not quite that graceful!). Anyway, I fell once, then broke my flip flop, so here I was running around Cochabamba barefoot! I’m so thankful that I didn’t step on any broken glass! I had a group of 7 (GREAT) girls, missionary kids and a couple cochabambinas. It was great fun. I also met a few college girls, who are Bolivians. Twins, and their older sister by one year. (Just like me, Kate and Rach!!) They are from a family of 10 kids! It’s no wonder we hit it off so well!!
Tuesday night I went to a ladies bible study with Jaclyn and Michelle. I was so excited that I understood basically everything!! Obviously it’s so much better to go to a Spanish church when you understand what’s going on. …Speaking of…the search continues for a church. L I think I may have another one or two leads, though.
We have a lot of work to do this week getting the hacienda ready for teams coming in March, as well as helping Mike out with research.
FYI, if anyone is interested in helping out with the organization let me know. We are always looking for partners to get new orphanages built, or furnished, or school clothes bought, etc.
At the bible study the other night we were talking about Romans, and we read:
For one will hardly die for a righteous man;
though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8-emphasis mine).
Now I memorized that verse when I was probably in like first grade, and I knew what it was talking about. I have read it probably 40 times since then, it’s even highlighted in my bible, But for some reason last night I was hit with the reality of it. That I might die for a good person, IF they were a good friend, but I would most definitely not be surrendering my life for a bad person, or probably even a good person if I didn’t know them. But Jesus died for us, and we are hopelessly bad people, He died for all of those (us) people who sentenced him to death, spit on Him, beat Him, kicked Him out of their cities, only wanted to see Him so that He would heal them, etc. Why? I just can’t fathom that great of love. So, yeah, just thought I’d share that.
Hope all of you are doing well. I miss you like CRAZY! I’m still going to put up pictures one of these days. I think that computers here don’t really like to upload pix...because it takes FOREVER!!
Fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith… (~2 Tim 4:6-8)
Kristen

Survivor Chapare

2008-02-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

It wasn´t really THAT bad! I actually liked the jungle!
Last Tuesday we left bright and early for the Chapare (jungle). It took around 4 hours crowded in the back of the infamous IOU jeep.
Mike dropped us off showed us the orphanage and left. I didn’t realize at the time exactly how rural it really was. Umm, there was no bathroom. A hole in the ground in the jungle was their definition of a baño. I guess you just get used to it after awhile. Thankfully, though after about 4 days, Remberto installed a toilet in the bathroom of the orphanage.
Remberto + Vick, and their son Mickey, Vick’s 12 year old sister Angela, and another worker named Grover were our source of entertainment, teaching, and motivation. I brushed up on my Spanish skills there, we also played games in the evenings, and we got to hear Remberto’s testimony. One thing that really motivated me from his testimony was that Mike (Timmer-the missionary) prayed for Remberto for TWO YEARS before he was ready to accept Christ. But Mike-and Bonnie- never gave up on him and eventually he accepted Christ, and now he’s super active in his church and is investing in the lives of his 2 younger brothers and another young employee. So cool.

Vick and Angela cooked for us. Basically from when we woke up in the morning until we went to bed at night they were either cleaning, cooking, or doing laundry. What a labor of love. Vick is even 8 ½ months pregnant! What a trooper. We ate every meal with a spoon. (Sometimes there were knives, but usually just spoons). Even when we had chicken or beef. I guess they probably didn’t have any forks.

Church was a very neat experience. It was in Spanish and Quechua. It was so simple. Singing was off key, but wholehearted. Music consisted of a very off key guitar, strummed just to add to the noise, someone pounding on a drum, and three or four girls playing tambourines. No auditions required, just a willing heart. Services lasted for two hours and some people walk very far to get there. I think for a lot of them, it’s what they look forward to all week long. They are so genuine and sincere. It was very inspiring. We had to do special music. (We weren’t really prepared… I guess now I know for next time, though!)
Apparently the Chapare is one of the hot spots for drug activity. Coca plants thrive in the jungle and people make “decent” money off of it. So the people of Chapare are very suspicious of gringos because they think that we are drug smugglers, or whatever.
The puebla we were in is actually Evo Morales’ hometown. I saw his old house. (Evo’s the president of Bolivia).

Remberto made sure to tell us about all of the wild and dangerous animals that live in the jungle. Anacondas, Crocodiles, Tigers, Panthers, Tarantulas, Bats, as well as a variety of other creepy animals. However, he assured me, most of them live further in the jungle. Later on he took us on a motorcycle tour of that part of the jungle and said, “now the tigers will eat you, I brought them a very special dinner!!” But I wasn’t scared.
So I journaled a lot in the Chapare. I was super homesick, mostly the first day. It was crazy! It was probably because while I was gone my parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary and my oldest brother Peter celebrated his 25th birthday (but I got home that day, and I did get to talk to him). I think this will be my biggest struggle. Yeah, it probably will.
One thing that I was super thankful for was that we didn’t get sick the whole time we were there!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, yeah, so we did work really hard there in the orphanage. We scrubbed plaster off of bricks, the floor and the “ceiling”. We got really dirty, so the shower was also a huge blessing. I also hand washed some clothes so it was all good.
Hmmm….what else…Oh, yeah. Mosquitos in the jungle are vicious. I literally look like I have chicken pox on my legs!! The bananas were GREAT. To say that there are “thunderstorms” in the jungle is kind of an understatement…it rained REALLY hard!
It took about five hours to get back by public transportation. A bolivian man fell asleep on my shoulder on the three hour stretch of the trip. I found it rather amusing, though slightly uncomfortable...!
Alright, I guess that’s probably all you care to know about the jungle for now. I’ll try to put some pictures up soon…
Dios le bendiga!!
-Kristen

At last...

2008-02-10T11:28:00.000-08:00

Today is February something…I lost track. I arrived on Thursday night, the plane ride was about 35 minutes (it takes between 8-10 hours to drive if that tells you anything about the roads here!!). Mike Timmer met me at the airport. I was so happy to finally be here!! There are three other interns here; Jaclyn, Michelle and Justin.

Yesterday I had orientation in the morning just learning about the culture, how not to get sick, and how to keep from getting ripped off or pick-pocketed. I realized first thing in the morning that I was missing my camera and I felt so sick to my stomach. The only place I could have lost it, I reasoned was in the airplane, or in Mike’s truck. Fortunately, it WAS in Mike’s truck. Whew.

In the late morning we went grocery shopping for snacks for the kids’ outing, then we went to the Timmers so I could meet Bonnie. We met Nate, who has a very cool accent, who drove us to get the kids from Villa Israel (orphanage 2). There are 7 kids there plus the baby of the house parents. Then we took the kids to the park. They rode the bumper cars, climbed everything in sight, ate and ran around. There is one girl who’s 11 and the baby is a girl, and 6 boys. I still don’t know all of their names. Erlan was the youngest boy. He’s three and oh so cute!

Then we wandered around town while Nate took the kids to the doctors, and went to have tea at Michelle and Jaclyn’s Spanish teacher’s house. I still feel like even with a Spanish degree I have a lot of learning to do. I’ll probably try to take one or two language lessons a week. I hope.

The kids from the other orphanage went to the doctor the day before and all of them were malnourished, and have to take de-worming treatments. I asked if that was common here, and I was told that it’s almost normal. The water is really not good, but people drink it. We don’t.

Today we tutored in the morning at Muyurina orphanage. (That´s Jaclyn reading to the kids). The house also has 7 kids plus two that belong to the house parents and one that belongs to the maid who also lives there, the kids were very affectionate and welcoming. The interns each tutor two kids and Maria the youngest just wanders around. I tutored Johnny and I felt so accomplished when he figured out how to add big numbers and spell “igual” (equals). Smart kid. Then Maria sat on my lap and just wanted to play with my sunglasses. After lunch we went with Mike to roast coffee (“Bolivia’s Best Coffee” is a business to support the orphanages), It was a very educational experience. Mike dropped us off at the “Young Professionals” bible study that the interns are involved with.

Oh, and just to clear things up there are 4 orphanages. Only 2 are open, the other two should be finished by spring. One’s in the rainforest and rains have slowed down the building process. Mike says that they turn kids away every day because they do not have room for them. They can’t accept kids until they have room for them. The kids are able to be adopted but there is a lot of paperwork involved and because most of them are older it’s not likely that they will be (says Jaclyn). Plus there are two sets of siblings who should be placed together and most parents don’t want 4 boys all at one time!

Sooo….anyway. We´re going out to the jungle next week for 7-10 days to work on one of the unfinished orphanages. So there might not be an update for awhile. But I´m sure I´ll have lots of good stories when I get back!

Sunday I’ll go to the International Church with the interns and Timmers, but I really want to go to a Spanish church. So next week, (or the next time when I’m not in the jungle) I’m going to try to find a church. I met a girl who works at the Centro de Amistad who goes to a Spanish church. So I’ll probably tag along with her at least once.

Okie doke, Folks. Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement. I really do appreciate it!

Love.

Kristen

One of these days I will probably try to post pictures…so keep an eye out…

Here we go

2008-02-03T09:48:00.001-08:00

I'm having issues with my blog, so I hope this works. We might have to stick to e-mail updates if not. Grr.
Anyways, I MADE IT TO BOLIVIA!! Wohoo! Thank you so much for your prayers, I made it to Santa Cruz Bolivia after an exhausting day of travel. However, the good news is that I was so happy and relieved to be here that I didn't even care (that it was such a long day)! It was a day of miracles. I think so at least...There were approximately 500 flights canceled out of O'Hare that day that I left. But mine wasn't!! The lady who took me to the airport kept saying, "if this flight goes out I'll be blown away!" (because we had so much snow the day and night before), but I just said, "yeah... BUT there are a lot of people out there praying for this flight to go out today". And it DID! I knew God would come through for us. Then I almost missed my flight out of Miami due to delays, but a lady let me cut in line and then they pulled me up to the front of the security line (there were like hundreds of people in line).
I arrived in Santa Cruz a little after 11. Immigration, customs and baggage claim went so much more smoothly then I feared. Karen and Neal and their 5 kids, Carl, Abi, Nathan, Tomas and Tessa met me at the airport. I'll be staying with them for about a week then I'll go on to Cochabamba to meet up with the Timmers and the ministry that I'll be helping with there. Karen's been a good friend for years, incidentally she used to babysit for me and my siblings, so I would say she knows me pretty well. She's kind of been one of my mentors ever since I started praying about doing missions work. She and her family have been in Bolivia for almost 6 years, I think. It's been very nice to be here with them, and they've been able to give me a pretty good briefing of Bolivia...it's a good foundation to work with at least.

Oh, and let me just say that the week of missionary training was GREAT! I learned a lot more about the organization International Teams- more in-depth of their core values and also about a lot of the ministries that they are doing around the world. It was so cool to see what God is doing through this organization. I also met a bunch of other people training to serve around the world. I had three great roommates, 2 of whom will join me in Bolivia during the summer. You can pray for them too as they fund-raise, apply for visas and all that fun stuff.Never had I met people who from the very beginning cared about me so much. I was very encouraged. One of the girls had been to Coch last summer so I even got to see pictures and hear stories about what we'll probably be doing.

Happy Superbowl Sunday! (We will be celebrating here, just in case you wondered!)
Love.
Kristen

stop and smell the roses...

2008-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

On Sunday my pastor was talking about Joy and how we have joy when we count our blessings and remember how faithful God has been to us. So I thought I would take a few minutes to count my blessings so you can also rejoice in God's faithfulness...and just maybe you will take a few minutes to count your blessings too.
1. I arrived at training!! It was a crazy trip coming but God worked everything out and I am learning a lot and am so encouraged just being here! Sooo good.
2. AND I got to go running today. It was unusually warm for Illinois and January. And I ran under this cool bridge to a marsh. It was so beautiful and I was thanking God almost the whole way for giving me the ability to run, and just how He uses that for me to clear my head and spend a little extra time with Him.
3. Mi Familia!! I had the awesome opportunity to go back and live with my family for the last two months of my time in the USA and it was really great. I learned a LOT about me and got a more realistic picture of my heart and attitude which often needs adjusting. But God used that time as a great way for me to appreciate my family more and hopefully express to them how much I love them...'cuz you just never know when your last chance to do that will be.
4. My Christian Family. Never have I been so blessed, humbled, encouraged, and amazed by my Christian brothers and sisters. There is a handful of people that has been incredibly supportive and encouraging of this adventure and it's so humbling to know that people are praying for me every day...but I know they are.

Okay...there's probable about a million other things that I could list...but I guess that's enough for now.

I leave FRIDAY for Bolivia. Pray that travels go well!!

Keep it real, ya'll.
Kristen

One day at a time

2008-01-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

Well I DID get my VISA for those who don't know. Yay!! It came via courier mail so I didn't even have to go all the way back to Houston.
I finished up at work last Saturday. :( Sad day.
I managed to pack my life for a year into two suitcases and two carry-ons. I am so proud! And they even made weight-'though the carry ons just might be almost as heavy as the checked bags!!
Then I said goodbye to my amazing family. I think I probably have no real grasp on going a whole year without my family!! But I know that if God tells me to do something He'll give me the strength to do it, even if it means bringing me through homesickness.
I was blessed with the opportunity to make it back to Ohio for a very brief stay to tie up some loose ends and visit some dear friends and family. I even got to go to church!! I was quite happy about that! And I saw snow. I never thought I'd be so happy to see that. And I think Ohio's not soo cold as I used to think...or else I just came at a good time! (I might try to put some pictures up for you Texas folks!)
Then I said goodbye to the rest of my family and my house--which will never be mine again. It was a good house.
My flight left from Cleveland at 3:34 today. I was then supposed to fly into Philadelphia and from there get a flight to Chicago which would arrive at 7:30 p.m. local time. However once in Philadelphia the plane had some technical difficulties. So we hung around for two hours, then they canceled the flight. Soooo....I am now in a hotel in New Jersey for the night. i fly out tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. and should arrive in Chicago at 9:05 for my missionary training. I leave for Bolivia on FRIDAY!!! Cool! I cannot believe how fast time flies!!
Thanks to all of you who so faithfully pray! I am so humbled to know that people are lifting me up to the Most High God. That explains why I feel so at peace. God is sooo good!
Good night everyone.

VISA update

2008-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

I should have my visa by noon tomorrow. So keep praying!! I'll be soo happy when I get it! :)
I'm starting packing...it's really hard to know what to pack for a whole year when you only get two suitcases and a carry on! What's a girl to do?!

Video!! by Mike Timmer

2008-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

New Year, New...well, basically everything.

2008-01-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

*sigh!*
Life's been so crazy lately.
For the most part it's been a pretty good few weeks since I wrote last.

The youth pastor here asked Katie and I to help out with the youth overnighter. I had a BLAST. It was really fun! I'm developing a new love for teens (who aren't related to me, of course). I'm thankful to Darryl and Joey (and Jon!) for cultivating it! I love feeling like I'm helping! I know it's weird, but it's been a tested spiritual gift of mine! It was the my first overnighter...like in my whole life! ...and I survived! We had a video scavenger hunt and played games all night so we weren't tempted to sleep. I came home really sore and a little bruised (we played a game kinda like capture the flag in the dark sunday school classrooms).
My Sunday School class is GREAT! My teachers are like geniuses...no exaggeration. One invented the first PC and sold it to a friend who sold it to Bill Gates. It's in the Smithsonian! And our other teacher is a military man, a university professor...and a rancher! (I saw him at TSC one day!) Anyways, we just finished studying the book of James and I learned SO MUCH! I love studies where we just dissect passages of the bible, because 1.) I learn so much, and 2.) I get so motivated to go home and learn more. And I think that's what a good teacher does, whets your appetite so you WANT to go learn on your own.

The weekend after Christmas we went to the Coast. It was so fun! I could only go for a day because I had to work the next day. The weather was pretty nice and my cousin came and taught us how to surf and skim board...I didn't try surfing this time, though. It was super fun, until my cousin's friend had a severe allergic reaction and the ambulance came and took them away. She was okay though.

I'm still waiting on my VISA. I drove to Houston last week to get it and they were closed. Argh! Who would have thought that the Bolivian Consulate would be closed for TWO WEEKS for New Years and Christmas. Well, they are. So I have to go back this Thursday--As if I have no better way to spend my days and money! ...So PRAY that I get it this time!
I still love my job. I think I just might cry when I leave.
It breaks my heart to think of leaving my family for a whole year. In fact I just can't think of it very much or I get very very sad.
I miss Ohio, and can't wait to go back and visit.
I'm still (most of the time except when I'm sad about leaving here) super excited about going to Bolivia. I have heard from two of the interns who are currently there.
I got my plane ticket! That's when it started to hit home...
I got an i-pod which should make the 12 hour plane ride and 3 hour layover go a little faster. I also have 3 1/2 blank journals and a backpack full of books (the missionary said English books and literature are difficult to come by over there.)

Pray that I sell my car too! I'd like to have it sold by the time I leave.
Well, I guess that's all for now.
Keep on keeping on, y'all!
Love.
Kristen

Woohoo!!!

2007-12-27T18:42:00.000-08:00

So I just learned that I have the base amount of support that I need to go to Bolivia!!! Yay!! (Not counting a small amount that I'll need for transportation). I just HAD to let you know!! I'm so humbled by everyone's gracious giving! As I told my pastor, I feel so unworthy [to have this amazing opportunity and such amazing people supporting me], but then I remember that this is all about God and He does deserve the best we have to give. So thank you ALL who have supported the ministry with the International Orphanage Union, The Timmers and Me in Bolivia both financially and prayerfully!

This is a verse I like to dedicate to you all:

I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all,

in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:3-6

Happy NEW YEAR!! Hope it's one of trying new things, learning new things...and maybe even going new places!! :) Love you all!
Kristen

Feliz Navidad, Y'all!!

2007-12-24T17:35:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas Eve. Though, it still doesn't really feel like it. I worked today at TSC, like my favorite job ever!! Rachel arrived this afternoon she drove here with only a few stops and delays along the way.
Yesterday my Dad's brother and sister and their families came over to celebrate the holiday. I think I've said it before but it is SOOO nice to have family around. While, I'll miss the rest of the family who we always celebrated Christmas with growing up, it was nice to see some other family that we didn't see as much before we moved here.
As I was sitting in church tonight listening to some great Christmas music on the Cello, I was reflecting on the meaning of the season, and I felt kind of sad, first to think that Christmas has almost passed me by without me really thinking about it, but second that sometimes I spend more time doing "Christmassy" things, without really remembering why we as Christians really celebrate this holiday. then I was thinking about how last year my little niece Sadie was born right before Christmas, and I remember feeling like I maybe understood even less how God could've let His little boy come here, yet because of His great love He send his own precious, perfect little boy as a vulnerable baby to grow up in this crazy world just to save us crazy people. And Mary....Mary knowing she was going to give birth to Jesus, but all along quite possibly thinking that He would grow up to be more of a King... Not a man who was rejected, mocked and ultimately killed by those He came to redeem. Just another example of how God works in mysterious ways.
So yeah, that's my non-theologically-trained understanding of Christmas...for now.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Mom's Birthday and update on life in general

2007-12-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Sooo, Sunday is Mom's birthday. She'll be 27!! *I know it's rude to tell a lady's age*, but I think it's okay this time! :) I think we'll try to do something great for her since she's the best mom in the WHOLE WORLD!! (I can't tell any more 'cuz she'll probably read this!...I'll have to tell you next time!)

This week I worked kind of a lot. It was okay though. Next week I work even more. Now if I only had time to go birthday and Christmas shopping... *sigh*. The department store is a little boring...or a lot, I'm not gonna lie. I work in the shoe department, and it's just not that exciting. I think I'll be happy when it's over. :) Now, my job at TSC is GREAT!! I LOVE it! My boss is so good, the management and basically everyone there is pretty cool. They're fun, and NICE! It's a much better job. Today at lunch time I was walking down the sidewalk to get some fresh air and run some errands and I was thanking God for being SO GOOD! Sometimes I just don't get it. Why is He so nice to us? I don't really know, but He is, and it makes me happy! :) And even when it seems like all is falling apart He's still faithful.

I pretty much like our church. There's a college and career class but there's only like 5 of us (counting me and Jon!) We hang out with the youth group sometimes. That's kind of weird, but mostly only when they ask how old I am. I have to make sure to tell them that I'm not still IN high school! Wednesday I got to talk to the youth group and sponsors about my trip. It went well (I think). The youth pastor told me that I had the WHOLE TIME to talk. It was kind of scary thinking that I had to talk for that long (1/2 hour). But I did it without too much of a problem. Huh, imagine that! I guess I'm my father's daughter after all! (Once you get him started on something he's excited about he could talk forever!! If you don't believe me ask him about his mission trips to Mexico!) Speaking of...He went to Mexico last weekend to do a survey trip for the spring trip down to Saltillo. So if you're interested in a good short term mission trip... (hint, hint!) It will change your life. I promise!

I still haven't found a car. Or sold mine. So keep praying (especially for the sale of mine!) I work pretty close to the church, Jenny's school, Bizzy and Bekah's respective workplaces so it's normally not too bad finding a ride, and I can walk to Bizzy's place or the church. (or my other job). But I'd really like to sell my car before I leave. I just don't need to be paying insurance on it for a year while it's sitting around.

I just finished the book From Foreign to Familiar about different cultural differences. But all cultures are basically grouped in one of two categories. Hot and Cold climate (relationship vs. task oriented.) I learned a lot. Even about inter-familial (is that a word?) relationships.
And on a side note I LOVE my little siblings. Coming from a big family was one of the best things God could have given me. There is absolutely nothing like coming home after a 10 (or 13) hour workday and having three little boys yelling your name across the parking lot because they're so happy to see you! I LOVE it!! :)

One of the coolest things I did this week was on Tuesday night they do a thing here called Blue Santa (I never heard of it 'til like 2 weeks ago). Basically they collect a bunch of toys for kids who otherwise wouldn't get stuff (maybe kinda like Angel Tree). So volunteers come and get names of kids and pick out of piles of toys 3 things for each kid, then we wrap the presents and the Blue Santa people deliver them. So Jenny and I went with the Youth Group and did that. It felt so good to do something for someone else. It was a good time. :)

YEah...I talk A LOT!! If you made it through all of this Thanks! You're a good friend!! :)

I have an unspoken prayer request about some logistical stuff that needs resolved before I leave... umm, yeah. I'll leave it at that. God knows! Someday I can let you know how He answered!

New Jobs

2007-12-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

I feel like things are changing all the time (so frustrating at times!), so I might as well keep you updated.

Okay, first off, I will not deny that moving cross country is an adjustment. it's kind of a HUGE adjustment. Mainly just not having any friends here (besides my wonderful family). But I am meeting some people and church and work. Plus, my Aunt and Uncle just moved to San Antonio with their two little ones. They're still family but not quite so immediate (if you know what I mean)! It was so nice to get to see them! We went to the museum last week with my grandparents and my aunt and uncle and her parents. It made my day!

Second: work is challenging. I had forgotten how tricky it was getting a job. It wasn't so much getting a job, but getting one that fit me. I worked at IHOP for a week and was pretty disappointed with the hours, the really low pay (I'd make like $12 in tips and work three hours before they sent me home because it was so slow). So I began praying for a better job with more...shall I say...uplifting co-workers. (I can't really handle too much yelling, complaining, and gossiping.) So the day I began sincerely praying for a better job TSC called on Friday(I had interviewed with them the week before and they wanted someone more long-term) and said they wanted me to come work there even if I could only work there until February. So I was very happy. They were so nice and flexible. The manager's dad was actually a baptist pastor! Then a local department store called me back on Saturday-after I quit at IHOP-to see if I could still come work for them a few evenings a week. So all that to say that I'm in training again. Hopefully this works out a little better!

Bizzy and I are car shopping. It'll be her car but I'll drive it until I leave. Think we might get a JEEP!! I've always wanted a jeep. :) I'll keep you posted.

I'm at about 53% of my support! Woohoo. Sunday night I went with my parents, Jon, Bekah, and Bizzy to the annual Christmas/Missions banquet. It was so inspiring. I just wanted to leave right away! Here's a REALLY good song that I rediscovered there. (or you can copy and paste this link) http://free.napster.com/nweb/view/artist/index.html?id=12016749. Both songs are good but my current favorite is "Our heart". Enjoy! :)
I'm currently reading a book about Elizabeth Elliot's first year as a missionary. She was a single woman working in Ecuador doing translation with the Colorado Indians up in the mountains. It's pretty interesting stuff. (And can I just say that I hope I don't ever have to do an autopsy on a dead man?!) This is a quote I read today that she wrote right after her language partner was murdered. She was so deeply distraught and felt as though her work was finished. She couldn't understand how God could take away her only language partner. As she struggled with the truth that God had a sovereign plan she wrote, "Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain." Whoa. The book is basically her journal chronicling struggles, experiences and challenges from her first year as a missionary. I imagine that 'though raising support, surrendering to God's call, trusting Him to provide finances and the way for me to finish up things here in the USA provides many tests of faith, I know that once I get there I will quite possibly be faced with more numerous and more intense struggles. I prayed to have more faith, so here we go! I very much appreciate your prayers, encouragement and support that you have continually showed. You guys give me plenty of reasons to be thankful!! Love you!

Bolivia Support

2007-11-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

I'm now at a little over 50% of my support!! Woohoo! To God (and you guys) be the glory! Thanks for giving generously and being a part of the work in Bolivia. I can't wait to go and tell you all about it!! :)
www.iteams.org
(If you choose to give online make sure you designate that the money's for Bolivia and me! :)

Congratulations to me!

2007-11-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

I got a job!! (Maybe two by tonight). Yay!! I'm waitress by day at IHOP. It's a pretty-busy good- sized restaurant. (My Dad says the service isn't very good, but that was BEFORE me!) So yeah. It should be a great experience.
I finally got new running shoes. After 4 months the search is over. I was kinda forced into the decision since I intentionally left my grungy holey 3 year old junky running shoes *that I loved* in the garbage in Ohio. So I'm going running today! Woohoo! It warmed up since the weekend which makes running conditions a bit more agreeable. This makes me very happy!
Hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving and good time with family.
This week I start my assignments for I-teams. I'm doing a country comparison report which should give me a better understanding of how Bolivia rates up next to US, neighboring and other latin countries. I'v attached a link to a song by Avalon called Orphans of God. It's a great song and keeps me in line as far as my perspective on going to Bolivia, and reassurance of God's calling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFWR5gP9bo (Copy and paste the link into your browser to play the "video")

Have a fantastic day everybody.