Maybe NEXT week will be normal!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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