Friday morning update

Here is a pic of the team. In between John and Michelle are Rudy and Erna Friesen, who have been our gracious hosts this week. They have kept us well fed and rested at The Bridge, a dorm and conference center building located about an hour drive from Santa Cruz that they use to minister to mission teams, local teams, churches, and others. 

On Monday through Thursday we divided into 2 teams and drilled 2 wells and helped lay brick to expand a church. We were joined during the week by Pastor David Fuertes (far right in pic). A team from Agua Yaku drilled a well near Pastor David's church a few years ago. He explained that since then he has felt compelled to learn more about ways to minister to other Bolivians. He joined us to help with the projects and learn more about mission trip logistics.

Thursday night we left The Bridge and drove back to Santa Cruz. Today we plan to spend some time in the city.

The team is doing well and we have had a lot of fun together.

Thank You Gift

We just received a thank you gift from the members of the church where we helped with construction this week. They told us they were thankful for our help and look forward to working with and seeing us again. Here we are in our new shirts.

A couple of pics...

The first well site:

Construction at the church:

Thursday

Update from Nathan::

Finished work @ well & church & drove to SC. Staying @ Agua Yaku guest house. Wifi is not working tonight. Team is great. Having lots of fun. Plan to shop tom & maybe visit sand dunes. Hopefully wifi will work tom. 

Wednesday Update

Here's the latest update from the Bolivia Team. They will have access to wifi either tonight or tomorrow, so y'all should get more detailed update very soon. 

Here's a brief text I got from Nathan last night...Going to bed after long day. Good progress @ well & church. Will finish tom & drive to SC in the evening (should have wifi there!). Adam & Cody have been beasts @ the well site. Went to church tonight where we're working. Daniel, Cody & Laura shared testimonies/stories. John & I sang (mostly John- he brought songs but no one else would join him!). We all laughed ALOT about it. 2 girls from the church sang "10,000 Reasons." Precious. 

Keep praying for them as they finish today! It sounds like they are having a great time. 

SC=Santa Cruz 

Arrival in Bolivia - Finally!

Posted Sunday, June 22 (updated June 27)

Nathan here.  The team is in Bolivia!  Weather delays in Miami caused us to reroute our trip. We arrived in Bolivia this morning (Sunday) at 3:30, about 18 hours, a hotel stay in Miami and an impromptu trip through Lima, Peru, later!  We are doing well. Tomorrow we will begin construction and drilling a well. We praise God that we arrived and are excited about the week ahead.

2014 Team Departure

Our 2014 BPF short term mission trip team has departed, en route to Bolivia.  This years activities will include construction projects and water well drilling outside the city of Santa Cruz.   We have 3 teenagers and 7 adults on the team.  Several returning Bolivia, Kenya, Cambodia mission team veterans.  But also several first time participants.

God's mission is never delayed.   We however have been rescheduled in our flight plans. Due to weather problems in Miami last night, we are planning to arrive a day later, at 2pm on Sunday.  

Pray that we would remain focused on serving others and growing individually.  More later...

An Evening With the Beams!

On Monday evening, our Bolivia Team (made up of past & present trip participants) was able to spend time with Danny & Vanessa Beams (our missionary partners) right here in southern Brazoria County!  It was such a fun night of eating, hanging out, meeting families, and hearing updates.  Although we'll miss them (they'll still be stateside) when we go on our trip, it was great to see them beforehand and we're looking forward to working with their co-workers!

To learn more about the Beams and their work:  http://beamsclan.blogspot.com/

Sooo...what exactly will our team be doing while we're there??  We'll be working with our partner organization, Agua Yaku (http://aguayaku.org/) to drill water wells in rural communities.  This will not only bring clean water to that community, it also opens doors for the local pastors to share and minister in that community.  Please be praying that not only will God's love be shown, but that His truth would also be heard!

Here is a picture that Danny took last year!

More to come!
Michelle