At last...

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

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...

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

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

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

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

*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