Bolivia City Team 2015

Hi family, Francis here! We miss all of you like crazy, but are having so much fun here in Bolivia. We really wanted to update y'all daily, but have been so busy with doing God's work. So here is a synopsis of what our days have entailed...

Wednesday 6/24: A couple of people went furniture shopping for Iglesias Kairos with Vanessa, while another group stayed at the church to finish up painting and cleaning. The church looks amazing. Even though we are great painters now, we don't want our families getting any ideas! Of all the places to eat, today we ate Burger King for lunch. That's another thing… lunches here are eaten late in the day and the people take 2-3 hours for lunch time. All of the shops close for three hours. I want to take that aspect back home!

After that we went to meet with some ladies from El Alfarero, which is a University Student Help Center that has a branch similar to a Bolivian True to Life Ministries! Then we went to the University and  half of the team played a game called, Solarion with different students and the other half passed out flyers advertising El Alfarero and prayed with students. That game consists of a deck of cards with different images used to gain insight on each of the student's perspective and relationship with God. Even though we got kicked out by the security guards, it was such an amazing experience that impacted numerous students as well as ourselves.

We had the honor of not only attending bible study at Iglesias Kairos, but leading the bible study with a message on forgiveness. Rosie, Brittney, and I prepared fried pickles, a vegetable tray, and ranch dressing (which Bolivians LOVE) for the night. Everyone loved the fried pickles and ate every single one. We are going to have some Texans at heart over here!! Brittney was amazing and led our study with Chuy, Nancy, and I each giving our testimonies. Each of us gave a personal testimony in regards to forgiving ourselves, others and God.  Not sure what it is about telling your story, but even though it is tough, seeing the impact it has on someone else truly a blessing.

We continued to have fellowship with the people of the church and really got to know one another. When bible study ended we went to Boston Grill, with some of our new friends to have a late night dinner. We were tired, but if someone puts food in front of you here, you EAT IT!

Thursday 6/25: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORAL!! This lady here is such an amazing person!

Woohoo! We got to sleep in a bit extra today. We have been super exhausted, but God continues to refuel us in every aspect. A couple of people started to feel sick with the weather change (it's cold and rainy) so we appreciated the extra rest. Brittney stayed home sick today with a horrible cold, so we are asking for prayers for healing.

Today, the gals and guys split up so we could get the finishing touches done. While the guys finished up the church, hanging things up and playing with power tools, us chica's went in to town for more supplies. When we finished up, we met up to have lunch together at Cafe Republica. We celebrated Coral's birthday and surprised her with a delicious cake.

After the celebration, we split up again to go back to work. We finalized everything that needed to be done for Iglesias Kairos' renovation. Iglesias Kairos now looks even more beautiful and with the church members  it all blows me away.

We were invited to visit a plant church in San Isidro and Chuy was asked to give a lesson on 'Jonah and the Whale' to the children. This church is in the middle of a yard owned by a gentleman named Manuel. It is sandwiched between two of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Santa Cruz. He gives the space so that people can hear the word of God every Thursday. The way the children praised and worshiped gave me such an overwhelming joy and the holy spirit was so evident as it moved amongst them.



Chuy was able to interact with the kids during the lesson and made them laugh. They were so excited when answering questions about the story and knew that God loved them to no limit. Some of the kids came to us and talked to us. Kids sure do have so many questions, but they were all so welcoming and full of joy after worshiping and listening to the lesson. The opportunity to love on these kids and receive the same from them is a blessing from our Lord.

The night ended with a yummy caldo that was made by our house mom, Noemi. There was no talking at the dinner table, because it was so good. Now, we are all gathered around the living room at the moment, discussing our day and sending you all greetings from Bolivia!
Buen Noche.

June 22, 2015 update!

Hey Hey Guys!!

This is Brittney! The past couple of days have been so great. Traveling to Santa Cruz, Bolivia was actually quite easy as far as getting to and through the airports. The overnight flight was a little rough for most of us and didn't come with much actual rest, but we made it!!! When we arrived on Sunday morning we were greeted by Danny, Vanessa, their son Isaiah, and Pablito- a friend from the church that will be helping the city team!! This group of people were so warm and welcoming, it was refreshing to get off of an airplane after long travels to such sweet people! We left the airport and went straight to Kairos Iglesias (the church that we will be helping with). Kairos (pronounced "ky-rose") is a German word meaning time. So the church name basically means God Time or Time with God. It was amazing to go to this church service and worship with this group that God has chosen for us to work with and for! The service was about how everything will happen in God's way in his timing. No matter what you have planned for yourself, God is going to make things happen that are for his greater cause. We have to be completely open to God and even though sometimes it is not easy, or not what we had planned, we follow his plan. We praised our Lord and worshipped. Just being in this church, the people there were so loving and grateful that we were there. I've never met friendlier people!! The rest of Sunday we went to eat and then to the house to rest and spend time together. The Pastors and their wives came to our home Sunday night. We got to know their stories and how they all came together and how they came to Kairos. We ate dinner together, shared stories, a lot of hugs, and laughter. Monday morning the City team went to the church to start getting some work done and the wells team left for the town where they will be staying (about 5 hours away from the city team).  In the time we spent at the church on Monday we all got to know each other better, started to form some amazing bonds, and surprisingly got a lot more accomplished than we thought we would. We are starting to see a little bit of what God has in store for us and it is incredible to see a small piece of his great picture!!

We have more work left to do at Kairos, evangelism planned at the university, and we are leading the worship service on Wednesday night! Tons of exciting things happening. We can't wait to see what all is in store for this week and to share it with all of y'all!

2015 Kickoff

Hey guys!!! Michelle here.

We made it to Bolivia on time and with all of our luggage this year…woo-hoo! We went straight from the airport to a church service at Iglesia Kairos. It was incredible…a member of the team will tell you more about that in another post!

After church, we walked to the "social club" in downtown Santa Cruz to have a buffet style lunch. Chicken & veggies, rice, peanut soup…it was quite a smorgasbord. It felt good to sit down, drink some water, and eat some food.

Then we came and got settled in at the guest house…it felt good to stretch out on a bed for a little bit and check in with you guys back home! Then Thomas Lee, Nathan Mitterling, and I went with Danny Beams (our missionary host) to the Hipermaxi to pick up some groceries for the well-drilling team. We got some fruit, cereal, oatmeal, coffee, tea….you know, all the super healthy stuff that well drillers need for sustenance. And also some Oreos. :)

After that the whole team had an orientation with Vanessa Beams (our missionary hostess) to learn more about Bolivia and "hot climate" cultures. Great stuff! Then the pastors from Iglesia Kairos and their families joined us for dinner! Rotisserie chicken, fries, & fried rice. One of the ladies, Vivi, brought dessert…I would call it a snickerdoodle cupcake and it was as delicious as you're thinking it was.

Then we finished cleaning up and hit the hay……

This morning we found out that our two additional teammates, Scott & John, will not be able to join us. There were problems with the plane and the soonest they would have been able to get here was Wednesday. :( We are all very disappointed, but know that God was not caught off-guard.

The city team just left with Vanessa to start their work for the day at Iglesia Kairos…painting! Cody Mueck and Chuck Pate went with one of our helpers for the week, Pablo, to pick up some extra supplies for sharing our faith with the villagers where the well site will be. The "Evangecube" is very effective here and they're also getting some Bibles to leave with the families we get to meet.

Thank you for joining us in Bolivia through prayer…you are truly every bit as much a participant in what God is doing here as anybody on the team. We love you!

Stay tuned for more this week...