Always an Adventure!

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

The new church that has been established in our friend Simon's house continues to meet every other week, and they are doing so well with encouraging one another and persevering in the faith. Though we want to meet with them and have not yet been able to, we are excited that they continue to do this without any input from us!

Prayer Necessities:

1. Please pray for our upcoming women's evangelism conference that will be held in Ayuma in July or August. Ask the Lord for wisdom for us in knowing how to put this together, and ask that He would send women who want to learn His Word and obey it.

2. Pray for Nelly, Marina, and Agripina, the three women in Ayuma who are learning the stories we are teaching. Pray that they would be doers of His Word and not hearers only and that they would be willing to begin teaching the stories to others in their community.

3. Please pray for Xtreme Team members, Trent and Kay (pictured with their daughter Maya in the top left in the photo here, with their son Jack being held by the young man at the bottom right) and Adam and Jessica (pictured with their daughter Sophia at the bottom left), who are currently investigating new people groups in Peru. These couples are traveling together with their families by bus and boat deep into the jungles to meet with leaders of these tribes. Ask the Lord to guide them to people of peace and that He would give them wisdom to know whether they should work among these groups in the future.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

Leah and I are preparing to leave tomorrow to make a one-week trip to Ayuma to work among the women there. We are now teaching stories about the New Testament church, and we are excited to see what the Lord will do in this village as we begin to teach them about the acts of the Holy Spirit!

We had intended for this trip to be longer, at least three weeks, but it has been complicated by our visa process, something that always seems to be something of a hassle. We will have to return to Sucre on April 7 in order to complete the last piece of paperwork required to receive our two-year visas. Hopefully, after this, we will be granted the visa that will allow us to remain here for the rest of our time in Bolivia. There's something else for you to pray for!

As the changing of our trip's timing illustrates, life here rarely goes according to our plans. It just confirms the Lord's words in Prov. 16:9:

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps."

I think the LORD illustrates this to us almost every time we go to Ayuma, but never more clearly than on our last trip. As I've often said, life is always an adventure in Bolivia. :)

Our last trip was our longest one yet to this community, a full two weeks and, by the end of it, I was definitely ready to return to Sucre. I was looking forward to my shower and my comfortable bed after two weeks of lukewarm sponge-baths and a straw mat to sleep on. We were due to leave on a Friday morning, and I had been looking forward to it for a week!

We had chosen to make the trip to Ayuma via public transportation because, during rainy season, it can be particularly nerve-wracking to drive our truck. Despite the fact that it's four-wheel-drive and has great tires, sometimes the deep mud on the roads and the high river waters are too much for any vehicle except the largest buses. So we hopped on a bus for the first three hours, followed by two minivans for another couple of hours, and finally a 1.5-hour walk to Ayuma. We figured the trip back would be slightly easier because we would have less food to carry.

Our first week in Ayuma was beautiful. It was almost unusually sunny, with no rain at all for five days. But the second week was exactly the opposite. By Wednesday, the sky was completely overcast, and there was daily rain that made the ground a muddy mess and the rivers treacherous to cross (I'm pictured here after we returned in the rain and hail from the market in a nearby town).

I kept hoping things would improve by Friday. There is a river between Ayuma and the main road that we would have to navigate, and I was worried about that. So we kept an eye on the sky, and every day of grayness just seemed to make the ground that much muddier.

By Thursday, there were overcast skies, but it did not rain all day, so I was hopeful that the river would be down by the following morning. We were due to leave at 6:00 am, and I had been counting down the hours for the previous few days. When we went to bed that night, there were about nine left.

I heard the rain begin at about 4:00 am on Friday morning, and I prayed for it to stop. And, after about an hour, it did, something that gave me renewed hope.

Well, we got up to pack at about 5:00 am and, when I went outside around 5:30, the sky was gray in every direction. It looked as though, once the rain started, it would rain forever.

At exactly 6:00 am, the rain began again, and I was nothing but angry. I began to complain to the LORD, "Why are You doing this to me? I have done everything You asked of me on this trip, and now all I want to do is go home to my shower and my bed. Is that really so much to ask?" He reminded me of the crucifixion story I had taught to Nelly earlier that week. You know, the part where Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, says, "Not my will but Yours be done." I hate it when the LORD does that to me. :)

But I was hearing none of it. I didn't WANT His will, I wanted my own. Knowing it would be miserable travel for both Leah and me and for our dog in the rain, we chose to remain inside our house until things calmed down. But, as I sat inside and stewed made frequent trips outside to glare at the gray sky, I couldn't imagine that the rain would ever stop. I began to wonder what it would be like to live in Ayuma forever. Um, yeah, I get a little dramatic when I'm angry. :)

A few hours later, our friend Piscinta came in with food and asked when we were leaving. We told her that we were trying to wait for the rain to stop, and she looked at us like we were crazy. She then told us that it wasn't raining that hard and that we could go whenever.

After investigating for ourselves, we decided to take her advice, and we left our little house in Ayuma at about 10:20. The rain had slowed to a sprinkle and, as we walked up the muddy path toward the main road, it stopped completely, and the sun eventually came out. Just making progress toward home made me happy, and I found myself thanking the LORD rather than complaining. I even stopped to take pictures of some dirt formations in the hills on the path out of Ayuma (pictured here).

We knew the river near the main road would be too dangerous for us to cross, but we knew there was a bridge about a half mile up-river from where we normally crossed. We took a different path that took us toward that bridge, and we only had to cross a small stream to get there. We were loaded down with all of our stuff, but we were happy to be going home!

As we were getting ready to cross the stream, with the bridge in sight about a quarter of a mile in front of us, we met two men who were crossing in the opposite direction and headed toward Ayuma. They asked us where we were going, and we happily told them Sucre. They looked at us with strange expressions and then asked, "Don't you know that there's a strike today? There's no transportation on the road."

Seeing our crestfallen looks must have been comical, but they took pity on us and told us we could possibly find a private vehicle that would give us a ride. There was nothing to do but press forward, so we walked on toward the main road.

Just like that, my previous happiness was gone, and I began to wonder why the Lord was doing this to us. We made it to the road and tried to flag down four or five vehicles, only to watch them wave their hands at us in a "there's no room" gesture. We had made that gesture ourselves many times to hopeful Quechua people standing on the side of the road, and I had done it simply because I didn't want to share my truck with someone I didn't know or to try to communicate in a very difficult language inside my own vehicle. Now, with the shoe on the other foot, I realized what a selfish jerk I had been in the name of my own comfort.

As we sat on the side of that road in the now blazing sunlight for about an hour, I felt so abandoned. I began to wonder why God had let us come this far, only to leave us on the muddy side of this gravel highway.

We finally decided to walk a half-mile back up the road to a little town, hoping to find a vehicle there. Once we got there, we found a man we had met previously and asked him to drive us to Potosi, a larger city about three hours away from where we were and about 2.5 hours away from Sucre. I was prepared to offer him every penny I had because, even if we had to spend the night in Potosi, we knew we could get hot water and a nice bed in one of the hotels there.

The normal procedure on this type of journey is to drive to a little town called Ventanilla, which is about halfway between where we were and Potosi. In Ventanilla, there is a constant supply of minivans that make the journey between Potosi and Ventanilla all day long for abou $1.50 per person. But our concern was that, with the strike, there would be no transportation from Ventanilla, and we would be stuck there.

So, when this man offered to drive us to Ventanill for about $20, I was getting ready to make a sizable counter-offer to get us to Potosi.

That's when a dump truck loaded with people drove up. We ran to ask the driver if he could take us toward Ventanilla. He agreed, and we climbed in the back of this dump truck and tried to make ourselves as comfortable as possible among the rocks, pickaxes, and gas tanks that lined the truck bed.

There was a Quechua couple in the truck bed with us, and we discovered that they were believers. I conversed with the wife in my broken Quechua for a bit and then contented myself with standing up to watch the surroundings pass us by as we drove. We made it to Ventanilla in about an hour.

As expected, when we arrived, there were none of the normal minivans lining the streets. It was almost shocking to see how deserted it looked, but we prepared ourselves to wait and try to flag down a passing vehicle. That's when the owners of the truck got out and asked us if we were going to Potosi. We said yes, and they said they were also going there and would be happy to drive us. Praise the Lord!

Just one problem: The sky was once again threatening rain.

We had not been going more than half an hour when the driver stopped and pulled out a large plastic tarp. We spread it over the four of us (well, five, counting Riley) and tried to make ourselves comfortable for the two-hour journey. It was not easy, though, as we were freezing, trying to avoid sitting in water, and sitting in an very uncomfortable position hunched under that tarp.

But the drivers made it to Potosi in record time, and they dropped us off just outside the bus station at 5:00. I've never been so excited to see that bus terminal in my life!

Leah, Riley, and I headed inside and quickly found the bus line that we had taken from Sucre, the one that would allow us to bring our dog with us... with the purchase of her own seat, of course. :) The sign told us the bus left at 6:00, so we shelled out the $6 that would allow the three of us to travel and headed downstairs to the restrooms and snack stores while we waited for the bus.

At about 5:30, we decided to check our tickets. When we did, we panicked. They said the bus was to leave at 5:15!

Leah ran upstairs to question the clerk at the bus station, who confirmed that our bus did leave at 5:15 (not 6:00, as advertised). We then had to buy a new set of tickets for a bus that left at 7:00. At that point, we decided to wait right by the bus terminal door so there was no way for us to miss this bus home.

We did make it onto the 7:00 bus, which made the 3-hour drive to Sucre in four hours. After getting our bags and our dog off the bus in our home city, we got a taxi and finally walked in the door to our house around 11:20. We made a trip that normally takes six hours in about thirteen, but we were so happy to be home!

So what did I learn from our latest adventure? Well, I'm still a spoiled brat who feels entitled to always get what she wants and expects the Lord to give it to her. I'm still an untrusting wretch who gets dramatic when she doesn't get her way. And He didn't during this trip, nor will He ever abandon me. For His Word tells me this:

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deut. 31:8)

Maybe one of these days I'll learn that lesson. Until then, I'm so glad He is patient with me.

The Resurrection and the Life

Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised:

Leah and I just returned from a two-week trip to Lima, Peru, where we attended our annual team meeting. We now have five teams of missionaries working in Bolivia and Peru, and over half of these missionaries are from South America! (Check out the picture of our team below.) This excites all of us because it means the local people are grasping the vision for doing this work, and they are far more effective at it than we North Americans.

Prayer Necessities:

1. Please be in prayer once again for our visa process. Leah and I have begun the process to receive our two-year visas to live here in Bolivia, and we are hopeful that it won't be quite as dramatic - or traumatic! :) - as last year's version. Ask that the LORD would once again grant us favor with the Bolivian immigration officials so that we can continue with our work here.

2. Continue to lift up the community of Ayuma and its church there. The believers love us so much and are so wonderfully hospitable to us, but there doesn't seem to be much love shown toward one another. Please pray that, as we begin to teach stories of the New Testament church, this little church would grasp the concepts Scripture gives them and would love one another as they love us. Pray that this love shown toward one another would be attractive to the non-believers in the area and that the disciples would begin to multiply there.

3. Please pray for our upcoming women's evangelism conference that will be held in July or August in Ayuma. Pray that God would send women who will be workers in His harvest field and that they would learn and share the stories we will teach.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

Since Leah and I no longer have short-term missionaries on our team, our role has transitioned from that of team leader to more of a frontline role in the work. Our goal in the community of Ayuma is to teach a set of discipleship stories (eight from the life of Christ and eight from the New Testament church in Acts), followed by a short set of stories for evangelistic purposes. The women with whom we work are already believers, so the goal is to give them these stories so that they can effectively share the Gospel with non-believers.

All of that means we have recently been spending more time out in this village of about 75 people. It's definitely a difficult life, but we are encouraged by Nelly, who has now learned all eight Jesus stories, and by Marina and Agripina, who have recently begun learning the stories as well.

On one of our recent trips, something happened that really drove home for me the reason that we are doing this work. Leah and I were spending a Saturday with Nelly, who had asked us to go to her field with her to bring back some onions. We agreed, not really realizing exactly what that entailed. For those of you who are agriculturally challenged like me and have no idea where onions come from, they're a root that you dig out of the ground. (I'm pictured to the left digging up one of them.)

We set out in the late morning and soon discovered that Nelly's field is on the other side of the river. No big deal, right? Yeah, that's what we thought, too.

But we were in Ayuma during the latter part of rainy season, and the river was raging. It wasn't all that deep - maybe just up to my knees - but the river was raging.

Now, there is a bridge over the river, but it's not quite finished. That means you climb up to it by means of two rickety wooden ladders tied together - up to a height of about 20 feet. Once you're up there, you just walk across the bridge to the other side, where a few wooden planks pushed together make a makeshift ramp down to the dirt path. (You can see a picture of it below, but it's not very good quality.)
Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm terrified of heights?

So, yeah, there I was, clinging to that wooden ladder and refusing to look down for fear of losing my nerve. I finally made it to the top of the bridge and over to the other side, where I just wanted to kiss the ground under my feet and forget about the fact that we would have to get back across that river again later.

But there was one problem: Riley.

We couldn't take our dog up the rickety ladder with us, but she loves the water, so we assumed she would just cross the river on her own and meet us on the other side. We didn't count on her being afraid of the fast-moving water just as we were.

So I wound up going halfway back across the river to pick her up and carry her to the other side. Thankfully, we both made it across with no problems.

On the way back, things were a bit more harrowing. I was carrying about 25 pounds of onions in a bundle tied across my shoulders (see the photo to the right) and 20 more pounds of Riley under my right arm as I tried to navigate the fast-moving, shin-high river waters. Once again, we made it with no problems (aside from sheer terror on my part! :)), but I was more than happy to be back.

Once we made our way to the town plaza, we learned some distressing news. Emiliana, one of the older ladies in town and a local believer, had just a few hours earlier been swept away and killed by the very same river Riley and I had just crossed!

Death in Bolivia is, of course, just as sad a thing as it is in the US, and funeral customs are relatively similar. But one major difference is that, because of the lack of embalming, there is a legal requirement to bury within 24 hours.

So, on Sunday afternoon, Leah and I, along with nearly everyone else in the community, went to Emiliana's house to pay our respects. We ate all that was offered to us, while Emiliana's body lay on a table in the room up above us. Once everyone had finished eating, they loaded her into a black wooden coffin (pictured below), and we all began the short walk outside the village to the cemetery.
As we followed the procession through the plaza, Emiliana's granddaughter began to cry and, as I reached out my hand to rub her back in a meager attempt to provide some comfort, I was surprised to find tears streaming down my face, too.

If you know me at all, you know I'm not a crier. As a matter of fact, I HATE to cry. And we had barely known Emiliana. We had never spent any significant period of time with her, and the only time I had ever even spoken to her was when she asked us to pray for her. So I wondered why I was so emotional over this woman I had hardly known.

That was when I thought about the shortest verse in the Bible. You know, "Jesus wept"?

We laugh about knowing that verse, but do you know the context in which it was written? If not, let me share it with you because it was a very similar situation to the one I was in. Lazarus had died and, despite his sisters' request for Jesus to come quickly, He had arrived four days later. When He did come, Mary went out to meet Him, and the story goes like this:

"When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 'Where have you laid him?' he asked.

'Come and see, Lord,' they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, 'See how he loved him!'" (Jn. 11:32-36)

Jesus cried because His friend was dead, and He cried because of the grief He saw and felt in those who loved Lazarus. And I'm sure He cried because of the cause of it all, the sin that would eventually send Him to His own death.

I think my tears were for similar reasons. Though I didn't know Emiliana, I could see and feel the grief of her granddaughter, who would never again see on this earth someone she loved so much. And I cried because of the sin - MY sin - that caused it all.

But I rejoice to know that there is a cure for this sadness, that Jesus' sacrifice makes Emiliana's - and my - eternal life possible. This is why we must keep going to Ayuma, why we must keep impressing upon these believers the importance of allowing the Spirit to work in and through us so that the life of Christ may be seen in us, why we must keep sharing the truth with those who don't know Him.

Jesus said, "He who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matt. 24:13).

May these words be said of me!