FBC Missions

Hola!  This is Kara Meeuwsen and I am going to give you an update on our Sunday experience on July 1st.  We had initially intended to join the youth for their contemporary service at the Babtist Church, but instead ended up helping them get organized for a bbq by washing pealing vegetables, etc.  I enjoyed this because it gave me another opportunity to work and talk side by side with some of the Bolivian women.  At 11 we headed into the sanctuary and attended the normal service.  The congregation was very welcoming and even sang us their traditional welcoming song while we were up on stage. 

After the service we went out to lunch where we all ate an extraordinary amount of meat.  In order to work off some of our meal, we decided it would be a good idea to hike up to the top of El Cristo.  El Cristo is the tallest Christ statue in all of South America.  Earlier in the week we had been debating on how fast we could make it to the top of this mountain in order to reach El Cristo.  (There is a tram or taxi available for most, but that just takes out the pride factor).  Tony decided that 20 miuntes would be the time to make and so that became several of our teams goal.  The hike is only about a mile, but it is very steep and at an already high elevation, this seemed like a lofty goal.  I believe there were just under 1000 steps to the top.  A fair amount of our group have also been entertaining colds and other illnesses, so we weren´t in the best of conditions by any means.  In the end, three of us made it under the mark, although I have to say I was beat by the end.  We were able to climb up inside of the Cristo about to His arm and walk around, etc.  This was definately a memorable experience.

Our final event for the evening was going to evening services.  Our group split into two and we went to churches we had never been to before.  The services were very different from each other.  The church that I went to was very small and very traditional.  Many of the songs we sang were in Ketchua (spelling?).  I would say that both groups learned something new about Bolivian culture and what an impact leadership can have on a church.

At the end of our Bible Study that night everyone was very exhausted.  We decided to integrate free (nap) time into more of our days and it has brightened our spirits greatly since then.  I would ask though for prayer that our spirits would continue to be lifted as we near the end of our trip and our days are still long.  Thank you all and goodnight.

Kara Meeuwsen

Two weeks. 14 days. 336 hours. This is how much time that Paul Calvert had to learn Spanish before embarking on a mission trip with nine other college age students to Bolivia. ¿Was he successful? More or less.

Only with the knowledge of English, French and Japanese did Paul enter the appenticeship of two Spanish Majoring friends, Carrie and Rebecca. Through rigorous hours, daunting conjugations and many moments of clueless histeria, Paul came closer to conquering the exotic lanuguage of Spanish.

Once in Bolivia, however, it quickly became apparent that Paul understood very little, if any, Spanish at all. Riding on a bus for six hours from La Paz to Cochabomba, Paul could not distinguish at all the conversations or lives going on around him. Even after the bus ride there was no reprieve. Riding with a Pasorial worker from the Church, Jonny (now our favorite local), regaled many stories of novelty and exravagence, none of which Paul could understand.

But Paul was not alone. There were others on the trip who understood little Spanish at all. Gaining support and strength from these compatriots, Paul felt compelled to enlist the aid of more knowledgable individuals on the trip. Great Spanish scholars such as Bri, Ty, Jenna and Kara provided much of the experience and insight that Paul needed to communicate with the people of Bolivia.

Paul soon found his chance to put his newly acquired Spanish to practice. The team was going to do VBS at Camp Jireh, a ministry for children from the streets. While playing soccer with these wonderful children, Paul found oppurtunities to yell “AQUI” and “GOAL!” With these small trimuphs, Paul became more venturous and talked to Escarletta (a little girl) through a sock-puppet snake named Bernardo.

As Paul became more proficient at Spanish, he continued to learn and make mistakes. Mishearing Ty at a dinner with another family, Paul mistakenly said “Oil travleing to Bolivia” before Ty intervened, restating the Spanish word making it “BEFORE traveling to Bolivia”.  At that same dinner, Paul meant to say “a little hot,” but accidently called Kara “a little shut-up”. Quite embarrassing for Paul. Someone that Paul felt very comfortable making mistakes with was Jonny, our Pastorial friend. This was excusable, because while Jonny taught Paul Spanish, Paul taught Jonny Japanese. Jonny´s favorite phrases at the moment are “Konnichiwa” (hello) and “Arigatoo” (Thank you).

This all came to a head on Saturday night: College Youth Group. Dan leads the college group down here, so it only came naturally that we would meet our respective peers. These were no children still learning Spanish themselves. This was no forgiving local learning Japanese. These were College students just like Paul and the rest of the team.

And how did Paul do? Wonderfully. He was quite surprised, actually. He rambled on about anything and everything, and through limited help and exaggerated hand gestures, Paul was successful in communicating with them. They talked about their individual studies, family, the decorations being from Roccoco era in Europe, how Bolivia was, everything. Paul was so enthralled with speaking with a student named Jorge, that he failed to notice the tiny dog ¨Guapo” (”handsome”) eating his delicious pastry. Paul met Davide, Alejandro, Daniel, Andrea and Damaris, all of whom were inexplicable and amibable people. They would no doubt be Paul´s friends sooner if they lived with him down in Eugene.

After that evening though, Paul realized that we in the Church share a bond that goes deeper than any language ever could: genuine love. Everywhere that the team has went these past few days, we have been welcomed by our gracious hosts and loved upon (they usually do this through food). Though half of us could never understand what they were actually saying, we could feel the love and joy of Christ coming out, and that is what matters. Not only is this awesome, but it also means something. Even if there are those that will never understand what we say (figuratively and literally), we can still make them feel loved. And that is only one thing that God has blessed us all with through joining his family.

 Sincerely,

Paul

Hello from Cochabamba, Bolivia. Though the title says this is being written by Genna it is actually Bri this time. This is the morning of day 5 and we actually here at Dan and Daryl’s house for a sweet breakfast that will consist of pancakes, eggs, a fruit salad and some other goods. Today is going to be more relaxing, we have this breakfast and free time until lunch so we can visit the nearby saturday market. At 3:00 or noon westcoast time, we will head to the church and help out with the Awana ministry which will be followed by “tea” at a local baker lady’s house (sweeeeet), making pizza for dinner, and the spending time with the local college ministry here. Tomorrow is church and Genna as well as I and some others will be sharing our testimonies which should be interesting and challenging, at least for me I know.

So, personally, how has the trip been going? I must admit that I have been having a pretty unique experience. The culture here is very similar to the one I encountered in Peru with the poverty level very similar and the native dress almost exactly alike to what I saw in Peru as most of the native people here are Quechua Indians. Two days this week we went to Los Molinos and while there I planned two Vacation Bible School lessons, one went way better than the other but we talked about Creation and later Death and Resurrection. I planned activities that went with those and we played lots of games with the kids which was super fun. One day we did Creation paper plates and the next we did sock puppets. I must admit that stepping into the “teacher” role has been very challenging, something I enjoyed in Peru was having a personal relationship with the kids but that wasn’t very possible when I was running around making sure that all the kids understood the directions, trying to keep things running smoothly and then translating on top of that for 5 other team members. Don’t get me wrong, I have enjoyed this new role, I have absolutely loved stepping up and translating, I am just very thankful for this slight break in routine. It has been awesome to be around spanish again, so welcome and fun to learn new Bolivian words and communicate with the people here. When we pulled up Thursday and saw the 600 kids we met a German couple who spoke broken English so we communicated in Spanish. CRAZY! Next week we will do 2 more days of VBS but this time with 20 orphan girls who all come from very different backgrounds so I am super excited to meet them. I have been very impressed by all the team members’ willingness to step up and help out and all are very quick to use the little or many words of spanish they know to communicate with the Bolivians here. I am so glad that we have another week to go, projects to start and finish and more opportunities to interact with the native people. Dan and Daryl are AWESOME, so welcoming and patient. I am super glad they are here taking care of us. Today the team was split into a small group that spoke spanish and another group that doesn’t. The group that is….um, Spanish challenged were dropped off in the market with a map, some Bolivianos and directions to buy flowers, fruit, and milk on their own. What a great experience and it went well, they had fun and the rest of us hung out with Daryl. We are constantly learning new things which is great and bonding together through VBS, construction of playground sets, and interesting meals. Yeah for Bolivia!

Prayer requests: Please keep our health in your prayers, some of the team members are battling colds and we have been eating some interesting foods so prayers that our stomachs will keep cooperating. Also, being in constant closeness some of our patience in being tested so that we will stay united and patient and loving with each other. This week has gone really well so thank you for all of you at home who are praying for us. I miss my fam but am excited to see them in one week

Hope everyone is doing well at home, hugs from Bolivia!

Love,

Bri

I know it says ¨by Genna¨ just above this, but it´s actually Ty writing today. 

The Good:  You can do a lot more with a motorcyle in Bolivia than you ever dreamed possible in the US.  Five passengers, a bathtub, anything and anyone can go almost anywhere on two wheels down here.

The Bad:  When you go to prison in Bolivia, your wife and kids come with you.

The Beautiful:  Bringing a smile to a child´s face warms your heart more than you ever thought possible when that child has no parents, no home, and shines shoes in the city just to eat.

My world has bee sufficently rocked in the last three days, and I still have not seen the poorest slums of Cochabamba.  Today we spent the afternoon at a youth camp outside the city which sits on a mountain a thousand feet above where we are staying.  When we arrived, we saw not the fourty children we expected, but instead more than 600 Bolivian youths.  Tony said it reminded him of how he pictures the setting when Christ fed the 5,000–as we looked up the hill, we could only see children.  We later found out that these were not the kids we came to visit and serve, but a seperate group which consisted entirely of children who lived with their parents in prison.  From my understanding, the system works roughly as such: if a parent is convicted of a crime, the are forced to move to prison along with their whole family.  The family is required to pay rent for their stay in jail, so typically the non-convicted spouse and the children leave durring the day and make money to support the family´s rent and other monetary needs.  Since the Bolivian children are out of school right now for winter break, they are taken on trips around Cochabamba.  Today they were at el Campamento Los Molinos.  Even though they left soon after we arrived (giving us a chance to work closely with the 40 children we came to see) their presence was no less powerful in my heart.

My mind is blown.  These were some of the friendliest, most outgoing and joyful kids I have ever met–and they live in jail.  There is something different about life here, a different understanding of priorities and worries and joys, and I think all ten of us on the team are benefiting greatly from learning about the Bolivian world view.  I feel like in some ways the children I played football (soccer) with today might be clued into the way God sees the world a little better than I am–and most of them probably don´t even know it.  I could go on for pages about my experience with children I´ve spent the last two days with, but that is not the goal of this blog–we want to share with all of you back at home what God is doing in our lives. 

I led our morning devotinal time today and we read out of Mark chapter 10 where Jesus shares his compassion and adoration for children with the disciples.  We discussed the wonderful nature of a child´s faith.  Thier sense of joy and acceptance of God.  They believe not because they have no reason not to, for surely the Bolivian kids we met today have been delt a harsher hand in life than any of us, but because they understand that the world and life and everything around them is far too complicated to be fully comprehended.  They love and cherish the idea of a God who has authority over them because the recognize that they  can´t live their lives alone.  They need help…and so do we.  But kids have something special–they immediately recognize the need for a savior.

After our discussion of Mark´s account of Jesus, we turned our hearts and minds to Psalm 139.  Read it.  Believe it.  God has searched our hearts and knows our inmost being.  Awesome, huh?  I find this notion so beautiful it makes me cry a little when I think about how the God of the universe knows every single child I met today.  God knows Oscar.  God knows José, Daisy, Escarleta, Richard and Rosalina too.  What´s more, he has knit each one of them together in their mother´s womb to be unique and special and beautiful in his eyes.  I´m only beginning to understand what that means, but I tell you, friends, it is already changing my life.

Thank you each so much for your prayers and your support.  You are all changing the world right now and I count every moment I spend here as an absolute blessing.  (Please forgive any horrible spelling errors, this computer can spellcheck, but only in Español.)

 Be blessed,  Ty Williams