Bolivian Journal 2 July 15, 2005

Hello Friends and welcome to the second ediion of the Bolivian Journal,

Anna and I are stationed at the Seminary library msn-ing and emailing. It is good to hear the bits and pieces of news from home. Thus far I haven´t been homesick but the exhange of news on the email may be part of the reason I have been spared this little trial. All is going well with us. Today, Saturday July 10, we visted a small (capacity of eight one to four year olds -all boys) Christian orphange recently initiated and backed by an American missionary family, Mike and Bonnie Timmer and five daughters. The Timmers spontaneously acknowledged their indebtness and gratitude to Dennis and Judy Shierman for befriending them and directly them to some influential contacts to get the orphange ministry started. There are some sad stories behind those big dark Bolivian children´s eyes. One infant was the son of a thirteen year old who was a concubine of an older man. When she became pregnant he rejected her. After the birth she showed up at the orphanage saying that she couldn´t be responsible for what might happen to the baby. The orphanage took in the boy and the mother has not been seen since.

Mike and the orphanage house parents

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Plaza Principal in the afternoon to participate or at least observe the Saturdy afternoon at 4:30 baby washing ministy. Well, tomorrow has come and gone and we have attended the baby washing. It is an amazing street ministry. The mothers and their children, infants to seven or eight year olds, were waiting in the plaza when we arrived. From what I can gather these mothers and children are indigenous people from villages or countryside around Bolivia. They have come to the city to ``seek their fortune´´ and try to escape the poverty of their previous locations. The dream doesn´t work out and they end up living and sleeping on the streets begging. As we waited for the washing there were volunteer mission teams that appeared on the scene. One team of Anglicans put on a puppet show with Bible stories for the children. My eyes were not on the puppets, but on children who were taking in everything they saw and heard. Pray that seeds are planted and will one day grow. The puppeteers then turn their efforts to passing out Christian tracts among the adults relaxing in the Plaza.Eventually the organizers of the event arrived and got to work. With a variation of a Coleman camp stove water was heated. This, for the mothers is a big bonus. The word quickly spreads that there is ``agua caliente´´.Soon a metal frame and plasitc cover were put up to make a tent. Volunteers, dirty little one and some mothers enter one end of the tent and emerge in a few minutes out the other end, clean and smiling. Out side the older children and mothers wash, comb and braid their hair. Anna helped out as she could and would like to return, especially once the North American vacation season is over and there are fewer volunteers. She experieced the volunteer´s dilema of having all the willingness in the world yet not having enough to do. As the washing continues the children and mothers are given a plastic cup of milk drink and a bread bun. As probably almost everywhere in the world there are some candy bags handed out.As the event draws to a close organizers, volunteers, mothers and children head ``home´´ for the night. On the one hand this is a wonderful street ministry to the poor, but on the other hand, what do you think, is it enough? Oh yes, one added surprise to the afternoon was that we unexpectedly met our Bolivian friend Pache who we initially met three years ago in our summer ministry here. He is doing well, being involved in ministry and attending Maranathachurch. We promised each other we would connect again soon.

Sunday moring July 10 is a bit of a shock to our systems. We are accustomed to getting up on Sunday morning when we are ready, having a leisurely and usually late (late not latte) coffee and breakfast, doing devotions, reading, playing and relaxing and then heading to the Seed for a 1:15 worship service. This, on its own, is no problema. The shock comes here in Cochbamba when at 5:00 or it may be 6:00 in the morning the at the Catholic church a couple of blocks away the bells begin to ring to call the people to mass. What a great alarm clock! For some! After another bit of sleep or at least one eye closed we tumble out of bed to shower, grab a quick coffee or juice and maybe a roll and around 8:35 take a cab to Calama Baptist to be well ahead of time for the 9:00 am service. After all this the sermon is based on Psalm I20 which begins: ``I call on the Lord in my distress....´´ It spoke to me. I don't know how we will ever readjust to worship at the Mustard Seed unless we join the crew who sleep in the doorways and are always super early for Sunday service. More serioiusly, we are enjoying worship at the Calama English service. Susan joined Patricia Janke and Bonnie Timmmer in leading praise and worship. We were joined by a short term mission team of twenty - mothers and daughters- again from Willow Creek Church in Chicago. It is hard to tell yet but it is my hope and prayer there may be some curioisity on the part of Bolivians who are interested in attending a English service. Yes, the text for the sermon really was Psalm 120, the first the Psalms of Ascent or Pilgrim Psalms. It seemed a reasonable place to start to lead us to reflect on our Pilgrimage as God´s people. I am enjoyng the challenge, hard work and spiritual discipline ( not least in terms of application to my own life) of regular preaching. Please pray that God use His word to convict, convert and strengthen His people. I have yet to meet with the stearing committee due to their complex schedules, but in the meantime have made some local contacts. This Sunday I have been invited and agreed to go with Antonio, a Seminary student and local pastor, to the evening service at one of the churches that he pastors. The is a small one on or past the edge of the city somewhere. Antonio speaks both Quechua and Spanish but has assured me that the service will be in Spanish - a very small comfort to me. Also I have reconnected with Umberto who is active in Overseas Mission leadership. He tells me that Bolivian Baptists have missionaries in two countries.

At Calama church this past Sunday we are reminded by a couple of young fellows that there was a professional soccer game between the two best teams in Cochabama that afternoon at the local stadium. Anna, being a soccer player and I, being an experienced soccer father decided to go and see what it was all about. After avoiding the ticket scalpers and making our way by the police or military ( they are hard to tell apart) at the gate we walked up the tunnel to find the entrance to some unreserved seats. As we emerged from the tunnel we joined a near full stadium of an estimated ten to fifteen thousand fans complete with bands, banners, competing team colors, food and souvenier vendors. At her first soccer game with this attendance, which was slightly different from fifteen or twenty parents straggled along the sidelines at Braefoot Park ,Anna´s eyes were open wide and all she could say was ``WHOA!´´ It was a thriller of a game with Aurora coming back from 1-0 game in favor of Wilsterman at the half to beat them 2-1 at the final whistle. It as a valuable time of cultural immersion witnessing the Latin passion of the players and fans. We couldn´t understand a single word that the man a couple of rows back was yelling but Anna thought that they at least sounded like `bad words´´.
This week at the Seminary,Brian Stelck, Principal of Carey College in Vancouver, is teaching a course to a class of Bolivian and missionary leaders. This is the second course that Carey has offered here in a new program to offer its Doctor of Ministry program to students in Bolivia. The students will have to one or two courses at Carey in order to satisfy official requirements. This arrangement is an exciting new link between Bolivian and Canadian Christian advanced education and leadership development. Pray for the future of this endeavor.

We are scheduled to begin Spanish lessons next week. The three of us will begin together, but Anna will take hers as part of her grade 8 course once school starts in mid August. I am hoping that we will quickly be able pick up some elementary Spanish so that we can broaden deepen our communication with the Bolivians.

Well, my friends, that is it for the second edition of the Bolivain Journal. Keep us in your prayers and stay in touch.

Dios les bendiga,
Kent, Susan and Anna