April 29TH

Friday night 7.20pm, April 29^th 2011, San Fernando, Bolivia

  This past month has been heavy.  It weighs on me when I hear that my friend's husband got drunk and beat her.  If affects me when youth who have attended the church many times get drunk and get in fights. A few weeks ago three older youth broke into a house and stole hundreds of DOLLARS, just to hand it over to another youth to buy beer with, and they drank up all the money they stole in one weekend with many of the town's youth.  Very shortly the youth were found out, interrogated and  agreed to pay back the stolen money.  Two of the three boys have been in the church MANY times within the past eleven months.

  On top of the heaviness of all of that in the last week, the one-year-old daughter of a good friend of mine here in San Fernando died. That was so sad, so heavy, so wrong. The baby had been sick, but Romona truly though she was getting better when the baby breathed her last breath around 3 o'clock last Thursday afternoon.

  On Monday I consoled a young woman from Santa Cruz who is here as a school teacher, as she had just received word of her mother's death in Santa Cruz.  I have never seen a person so out-of-control and beside herself with grief. From the young woman's words that evening as she sobbed, I could tell she did not have a personal relationship with the Lord.  I could nearly hear the lies the devil was feeding her as she mourned. I spoke truth to her, but that evening she couldn't hear anything. As I spent several hours with her, and her bitter sadness slowly faded, she continued to wail.  She pleaded with her boy friend to kill her so she could be with her mother. The next day I arranged for her and her boyfriend to travel on SAMAIR back to Santa Cruz to be with her family. That same day when she had calmed down, I was able to speak to her about how the devil wants to destroy her. I spelled out for her what was true and what were lies from the devil. Pray for Carolina. To help with the cost of the express flight from Santa Cruz, Greg brought different food items for me to sell at a slight profit. And so, as of two days ago, I have a store. Nothing big, just the basics that the stores here were out of:  rice, flower, sugar, vegetable oil, onions and Mate', of course.  After Greg and his passengers flew off Wednesday morning, I headed from the airstrip back to the church, to see the line of people ready to buy things from my little store.  I know the idea is to help Carolina who had no money for a flight, and to help the people of the town who had no food, but I am NOT a store keeper. I do not like selling things from my home. Along with that, in order to help Carolina, I agreed to teach her 6^th grade class three mornings a week. The director of the school will teach the other two mornings a week. Last night and this morning I was preparing to teach social studies and science from a large text book Carolina gave me. Other mornings I will also teach music and continue with the art class I had with them.

TOWN CELEBRATION- One more new thing~ May 30^th is the town Fiesta and I have been asked to be the treasurer.  A few weeks ago there was a town meeting (which I always attend), and different people were nominated for that position, but all turned it down. The reason (I found out) was that no one wants to be responsible for the money. Apparently no one trusts themselves or those in their house, or maybe they know their houses are not secure. And so, before I was asked, I felt God preparing me.  I told God he would have to help me because I had never done anything like that.  Right now my role is to receive every person's quota, which is 100B's (their currency is in Bolivianos or B's.  There are about seven B's to an American dollar). People know to come to me. I do not have to go collect money. This Sunday May 1^st, there will be another town meeting after the church services. It will be all about details to do with the fiesta. I will read the list out loud of who has not yet paid. That is how they do things here: social pressure.

BIBLE STUDIES -  The Monday/Friday afternoon study with the believers in the church is going very well. Also, the Wednesday afternoon study in the house of one of the village women who does not attend the church is going very well. They are so receptive, it’s exciting. Wednesday nights are always great--our Culto de oracion--as well as our Saturday and Sunday services. It’s a lot, but it’s good. I seek God on my face in my room that I will only say what He wants me to. It is such a huge responsibility.

FREE TIME -  When I’m not teaching or doing house visits I’m cooking, cleaning, or washing my clothes. These simple tasks take time, as you know. It’s sad that my garden has taken a back seat. I do have chaya and beans that I eat on occasion, and I have planted Lemon Grass, that makes a wonderful tea, which is said to be good for your heart.  My duck and chickens are doing well. They roam free like everyone else's.  They sleep outside behind the church. I feed them corn or rice, but they are always trying to get inside my kitchen to find any other little scrap they can. They have LOST their glamour for me…. Ha ha ha, if they ever had any. I guess I wanted to see if I could raise chickens.  Well I can, but now the question is: Do I want to? They are annoying. Greg suggested a chicken coop.  What a lovely and novel idea.

MY CAT~   I praise God I have a cute, sweet, affectionate little cat.  He is a good little companion, who lets me hug him.  Some times he wants to sleep in my room, other nights he is outside roaming. The other night I heard him making horrible sounds outside. I knew he had caught something, but I didn’t want to let him in. Then it sounded like he was fighting and losing against some animal. That got me up at midnight to go outside and see if he was ok. I called for him… nothing. I went back to sleep that night thinking… he’s been eaten… ok, he’s only cat, I will be ok. But he was in my kitchen in the morning, without a scratch.  A day later on the little cement stage in the church I found a partially eaten lizard.

 THE RIVER -  The other day as I headed off behind the church down to the river alone, my cat came after me, and followed me the five-minute walk down to the river.  He meowed the whole time I was in the water.  The river is lovely right now.  The current is not very strong so I can get a nice swim in with out swimming in-place, or I can float on my inflatable mattress without going down-stream. And the water is not so low that the piranhas take a bite of you, but kids and men are catching many. Just last night I had piranha for dinner at the house of a couple from church.

MY HEALTH- It’s good. PRAISE GOD.

DINA- By the time you read this she will be here in San Fernando with me. I’m so glad. I’m getting tired of doing everything alone.

TRAVEL and PAOLA- Hopefully by the time you read this Paola and I will have been able to travel to San Matias to get her a new official birth certificate. Greg will be doing some flights May 7^th and 8^th, so I think we will be able to take advantage of those. I think it will be a day trip. In June, God willing, Paola and Dina and I will fly with Greg back to Santa Cruz. Dina is going to a training in Paraguay on evangelism (which is her heart passion and calling), and I will help Paola get her Carnet, which is a personal identification card that you need to do anything in Bolivia. She needs one to attend a school that I want to sponsor her to go to next school year.  Oh, I guess that is news, too. Rincon del Tigre is the name of this Evangelical boarding school that is not expensive and has a WONDERFUL reputation.  Other San Fernando kids have and are studying there. We will see if it all works out. Paola's aunt, who is her guardian right now, is not totally sure she wants to let Paola go for the principle reason that Paola’s ill grandmother is out of town, but if the grandmother were to return, Paola would be responsible to take care of her. Paola's grandmother raised her.  I would love to sponsor Paola to attend this school for the next five years. It costs less than $200 A YEAR for everything! Please pray with me. I would not raise extra money for this, of course. I would pay for it out of my salary. I am excited. Let’s see what God does!