I'll be doing another interest meeting for the Bolivia mission trip in a couple of weeks. Here is the information below.

Just a quick reminder - if you have already decided to go then the first deposit is due on or before Feb.7. This will help me lock in the cheapest airline tickets so that I can make this trip as inexpensive as possible for you.

You can make a deposit by writing a $250 check to the Brazos Pointe Fellowship, marked "Bolivia deposit for _____" and either mail it to the church at 224 Plantation, LJ, TX 77566 or bring it by the office or the easiest thing to do would be give it to me or place in the offering basket on Sunday.

Bolivia Mission Trip Interest Meeting • Sunday, February 7th

Interested in joining the BPF Bolivia Mission Team?

We will be working on 2 projects this coming summer. First, we will begin our work in the Ruth and Naomi Transition Home for girls. This is a home for girls that graduate out the orphanage at 18, or are homeless, or are in a crisis pregnancy and need help. Our other project will be to take a team into the jungle region of Bolivia east of Santa Cruz and drill water wells for those that are in desperate need of clean water for their families.

If you are interested there will be a brief interest meeting after each service on Sunday, Feb. 7th

Trip Dates: June 11th - 20th

First Deposit due of $250: February 7th

If you can't attend and would like more information about this trip or Bolivia Missions in general contact Jason Beams at jbeams@brazospointe.com

Thanks - it's going to be a great trip this year!

Jason

Update on Transition Home

This is an excerpt from from Danny and Vanessa's monthly newsletter:

Ruth and Noemi Transition House update: We have three new girls in the transition house this year. Juana, Fernanda, and Marina have come to us from Talita Cumi. Each have turned 18 and need to leave the orphanage. Bety recently decided to leave the transition house, so we now have four girls (including Paula, who has been with us for a number of months). Marizabel, the house mother, and Sara, our volunteer from Australia continue to work closely with the girls. We have had to move the transition house out of our formal rental property because of some legal issues with the property. Thankfully, we have found a new apartment that is in an ideal location next to the Centro de Vida crisis pregnancy center we work closely with. We have temporarily moved the girls into our old house, which is now the Agua:Yaku office and a mission guest house, until the new apartment is ready on February 1st. Please continue to pray for all of these girls, but especially for Bety as she tries to make a life on her own.

2010 is here! Which means our Bolivia 2010 mission trip isn't that far off! The first deposit of $250 is due Sunday, February 7. Here is some more vital information about this year's trip.

WHEN:

Friday, June 11 through Sunday, June 20, 2010

WHERE:

Santa Cruz, Bolivia (and surrounding areas)

WHAT:

We will be working on 2 projects this coming summer. First, we will begin our work in the Ruth and Naomi Transition Home for girls. This is a home for girls that graduate out the orphanage at 18, or are homeless, or are in a crisis pregnancy and need help. We would like to lead a retreat for the girls as they transition several new girls into the home around this time from the Talita Cumi Orphanage. We could lead them in Bible studies, lead them in training sessions, maybe begin to teach them how to do certain crafts that they may could begin to sell and make an income. And then also build relationships with them and invest our lives in them to let them know that God cares, we care, and are praying for them.

Our other project will be to take a team into the jungle region of Bolivia east of Santa Cruz and drill water wells for those that are in desperate need of clean water for their families.

HOW MUCH: $1500 (estimated)

Pictures from Bolivia

If you'd like to see pictures of our trip then go here.
http://www.pbase.com/beamsclan/bpf_2009

This is the church!

5 men from BPF plus 5 missionaries standing before a group of 65 children and teachers in the middle of the Bolivian jungle about to pray a prayer of dedication for a water well that we are giving to them as a gift from God the giver of clean water and living water - THIS IS THE CHURCH!

What an honor it has been to represent Christ and BPF this week. We have been able to bring clean water to a people in an incredibly remote area of Bolivia (a 4 hour boat ride into the jungle). These people have no missionary or evangelical presence among them at all. They are an unreached people. Thanks for your prayers and for giving to this church so faithfully. This enables us to send teams just like this one to the remote places of the earth and share Christ by meeting some of the most basic physical needs like clean water, in his name, and to share with them why we have come, which is to let them know that they are not forgotten, that God loves them and cares about their needs!

So as you gather as the church tomorrow for worship, know that church really isn´t just about Sunday´s. The church is so much more. We gather to honor him and learn from his Word on Sunday but then scatter from there to take him with us where ever we go. Thanks for letting us take him this week to Bolivia! This is the church!

Jungle and Well Drilling

To get to where we drilled the water well we had to take boats as there was no direct road access. The wooden boats were long and skinny. They were powered by small lawn mower type engines. We had a lot of gear with us and the boats would barely stay above water with us in them. The ride to the village was about 4 hours. Water leaking into the boat kept us busy - we had to bail water from the bottom every 10 minutes or so. We also had to fill the motor up with gas from cans a couple times. The ride lasted into the pitch black night and the boats have no lights so we used flashlights to spot and dodge debris in the water and to signal other boats passing by.

We made a small campground about a 100 yards from the river after we landed at the village. The village (called Nuevo Caperneum) consisted of a couple of wooden huts in the jungle and a concrete and brick school that 60 students attend. The students (age range from infants to teenagers) came from up and down the river and stay at the school long term. Six teachers teach, feed, and take care of the children. We were touched by how friendly the students and staff were and how happy they were that we were there to help. There is no electricy in the village, and the only source of drinking water is the nearby murky brown river.

We placed the well in the school yard. We started by pumping water from the river into temporary pools. We pour this water down the well as we drill to fluidize the sand and clay that we dig up. We set up a frame and pulley to suspend the drilling pipe. We started the actual drilling on Tuesday morning and were able to dig about 35 meters the first day. The second day was much slower due to some thick clay and hard sand layers. We started earlier and drilled into the night and finally reached a sand layer that would likely produce fresh clean water at 51 meters (about 150 feet). We had a lot of help on the drilling from the students and teachers and enjoyed interaction with them. As Ronnie mentioned in his post the well produced a small amount of water the next day. Danny tells us the well will produce more water in about a week. Our prayer is that the village will have abundant clean water.

A small luxury in the jungle each night was a bath in the river to remove the thick mud that caked on our clothes and skin during the drilling process. We had to be on the lookout for rays, anacondas, and pirannha in the water (the day before we arrived one of the teachers was stung by a ray). Another treat were our campground meals cooked by Angelica who is part of Danny´s drilling team. Other members of Danny´s team included Irai (from Brazil), Carlos (from Colombia), Thomas (from Belgium). We became close friends with each of these folks and learned a lot of culture and Spanish from them.

After 10 more hours of boat and truck travel we´re now back in Santa Cruz, Bolivia nursing our numerous bug bites, achy muscles, and sunburn. Sleep last night was a major blessing. Today we will spend some time seeing Santa Cruz. We leave for Miami and then Houston on Sunday morning. Thanks to everyone at home for your thoughts and prayers.

==Posted by Wes Heinlein and Jay "The Well Man" Wellman==

What An Incredible Week

We finally arrived back in Santa Cruz late last night after 3 days in the jungle. What an experience! The team is all well, with the exception of hundreds of itching bites each. Last night in the hotel was like heaven.

The good news is ... we got the well drilled. It was extremely tiring work from morning until evening. The locals pitched in alot at the beginning, but as the new wore off, much of the labor rested on the team and 2 or 3 locals. When the reached what I believe was a depth of 51 meters, the call was given .. ¨"Alto!" .. and we were overjoyed. After some more work, it was time to test the well.

We initially got water, but then it stopped. We tried again later and got the same result. Danny Beams, Missionary on Sight, said that this happens sometimes, and that he was certain that the water production would improve as they used it and new tributaries to the pump were formed. So the well was a success, it´s just going to take some time.

I have much more to say, but computer time here is in demand so I will go for now. Thank you so very much to all of you who have been praying for us. The boat rides to and from the village were long and hard, but God was gracious to us in so many ways. Lots of stories to tell.

Today, I will finish some interviews for the Transition Home with Vanessa Beams and we will have some very exciting things to tell you about it, and how Brazos Pointe Fellowship can partner with that part of this incredible ministry in Bolivia.

I´m ready to come home. I miss my family.

== posted by Ronnie Whitehead ==