August 18, 2008

I think this is one of those weeks when I have so many things to share with you, that I'm afraid I won't be able to get them all in. I thought I would try to break them down into sections so that it would help me to organize my thoughts a bit. I also have a few pictures that I'll plan to post in this entry, but it may be tomorrow before they're actually available (I need to get them off my camera and onto the computer first). Anyway, moving on to God's presence in Santa Cruz...

Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center
School is off to a running start, last week was the first week of classes. I have not started working with students yet, as I need to wait until their regular schedules have been set before I can develop my schedule. That has been fine with me, however. I have plenty of things to keep me busy. We have already been exploring a couple of students who will need to be tested for our Special Education program to determine if there is a learning disability...which is part of my job. I am also busy completing informal reading inventories and giving advice as to the appropriate placement for specific students. The school is also awaiting a shipment of supplies which is being sent down from the states. I was asked to help with organizing that and working on getting it out of customs. It is a long and rather complicated process. I spent most of the day last Friday going through the shipment there in the customs warehouse with a couple of other workers from the school. We have to compare everything with the invoices that we have and give an account for each item. The next step is getting the invoices in order and turning them in...after that we may have to go back down and go through the boxes onces again with the customs representative. I'm praying that doesn't happen and that they let us get the things without going through it all again! Anyway...it has been an eventful week!

Church: La Restauracion (The Restoration)
Things have been a little difficult at church lately...not because of anything a specific person has done...only because we have several key leaders right now who are very sick or hospitalized due to surgeries. My pastor has begun joking that we should change the name of our church to "La Restauracion de los Operados" (The Restoration of the Operated!). In the last two weeks there have been at least 3 people to have surgeries and be hospitalized for varying lengths of time. One of them was our pastor's father, Leopoldo, who also serves as one of the associate pastors in our church. Another was my friend Beth HAuse who you may remember me mentioning before. The third was my friend Avelina's husband, Medardo. I know three doesn't seem like many...but let me try to put it in perspective for you. Our church only has about 50 active adults...so three of the most active definitely leave some big holes for the rest of us to fill. Not to mention...they've all been in different hospitals or clinics and things just take longer to do here. Even when I drive to go visit Pastor Leopoldo...it takes me anywhere from 30-45 minutes to drive there, park, and walk up the street to the hospital (due to traffic, not distance). Then the unexpected always happens. Friday night, I went and picked up a couple of guys who wanted to go with me to see him. We drove over there...to find out that the staff had thought visiting hours was a good time to change the dressing on his incision and to do his physical therapy so we weren't allowed to go in. We waited about an hour until we could actually see him. Most people here wouldn't stay for a 5-10 minute visit, typically you should stay for at least a half hour...if not longer. Then it took us closer to an hour to get back because we ran into heavy traffic and there was a broken down car at one point that backed things up! Anyway...all that to say...a visit that in the states you could easily do in an hour if you didn't live too far from the clinic...here frequently takes me 3-4 hours.

I did say that there were several people who have been out of commission. I only mentioned three here, because they're the ones that have been in the clinic...we also have had several people who have been sick or injured and are recuperating at home.

We've decided that this is getting a little old! We're all tired of visiting people in hospitals and miss having them ministering alongside of us. The pastor feels like he's spending all of his time going back and forth to the hospital for his dad so he hasn't had time to do the visitation with other church members that he normally does, which is discouraging. All in all, we could really use your prayers! I can't help but think that as a church...we must be doing something right or else Satan wouldn't be working so hard...yet I just pray that through it all we would continue to look to God for our source of strength and comfort! You can pray particularly for a service that we have coming up this Sunday night at 6:00. The pastor is calling it basically a Spiritual Renewal service and they're encouraging all of the congregation to be present. We will spend a lot of time in prayer and worship. I think it could be a great time for us as a congregation to really sit back and listen for God's voice and to bask in His presence.

Other
You may remember that I asked you to pray with me that Avelina would be open to doing a Bible study with me. I talked to her a couple of weeks ago and she was very open to it. Her day off is now set for Saturdays whereas before it used to rotate. We have not actually started the Bible study due to the fact that her husband had hernia surgery and is still recuperating. We talked about it again when I saw her briefly yesterday, so maybe by next weekend, we can get started on that.

I also have mentioned the outing I went on with the Professional Class English group. Tonight will be their first class for this semester. Although I will not be teaching right away, I plan to go and see how the classes are done and get to know the members a little more. We will start at about 7:30.

CIET classes start again this week! Again...due to illnesses...we are short-staffed for teachers. The director himself had surgery a couple of weeks ago...Pastor Leopoldo usually teaches in CIET but will not be able to this trimester...Jeff HAuses has not been feeling well for at least the last week if not longer...that really cuts down a large percentage of the CIET teaching staff! We might be off to a rocky start. Due to the Professional Class English Group...my English classes at CIET have been moved to Friday night so that I can continue helping in both.

Well, I guess that's it for this week. I'm sure I could think of more things to tell you about...but this is enough to keep you busy for awhile! Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers! They are particularly needed right now! Blessings to you all!

Happy Bolivian Independence Day!

Due to the fact that it is a holiday in Bolivia...I'm taking advantage of the time to allow myself to be a bit lazy without being too lazy! I still have studying to do after all! I started the day by letting myself sleep in until 9:00! That was exciting! Then I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while watching a movie. After that I read for a bit and enjoyed a catnap! Now I'll be doing a bit more studying before spending the evening with some friends!

The last few days I have been busily working on trying to get my classroom ready for school to start next week. My classroom this year is actually an old locker room that has been transformed into a classroom. Thanks to the team of young people from Atlanta that came down about a month ago...it looks really good! That got most everything finished up to the paint job! Typically the workmen at school will do the painting, but since we were already working on so much, I decided I wanted to paint it myself! That way I got to choose a color, rather than use the standard white! I had a few friends help me do most of the painting last Friday morning...cheap labor...all I did was buy lunch (which was chicken dinners - two pieces of chicken, rice, french fries, and soda - for all 5 of us plus 4 to go so 9 total...only about $20!!!! Not bad at all!)! Then I handled the touch-ups on Monday morning. After the hard work and an allergic reaction to what we assume was the paint thinner, which caused me to break out in a rash and get itchy...I'm ready to hang up the paint brushes for awhile! Now if I can track down some furniture, we'll be all set to role! I'll be sure to post some pictures next week once things are in place!

On Sunday I went along for a day outing with a few other missionaries. They have been working on ministering to the professional or upper class in Bolivia. One of the main aspects of their ministry is an English group that they have on Monday nights to teach them or help them work on their English. They took a break for a few months, but will be starting up again at the end of this month. I have been asked to consider working with this ministry...so we've moved my CIET English class to Friday nights at the start of the next trimester in a few weeks and I will begin going to the English group on Monday nights. This will be particularly helpful to them since one of the teachers will be going on furlough in October. Anyway, the day outing was just a chance for me to get to know some of the students or families that attend the group. Many of them are not Christians so this is an excellent way for us to share the gospel and God's love with them! Please continue to pray for this ministry. I have a few pictures posted below and will continue to share more about this a little later on as we begin classes again.





I guess those are the highlights for this week! Thank you so much for your continued prayers! They are appreciated! Enjoy the day as we are enjoying ours here!!!!!