Up – up – and away!

Today I will make the spectacular flight over the Andes from CBBA to La Paz.  Here in CBBA, and in many parts of the country there is a thick fog of smoke.  Many farmers burn the trees on land to prepare for planting, and since this is spring, there are many fires burning.

You know how you can be in a place and never allow yourself to see the ‘touristy’ things?  Well, on Friday, Gladys and I took the double-decker bus tour of CBBA.  It was fun to see the city as a tourist after being here for 5 years and this was the first time Gladys had been on it as well, so both of us really enjoyed it.

What struck me was how beautiful the old buildings are – from the ground, one only sees the crowded sidewalks and the fronts of stores etc., but from the bus we saw the 400 year old facades of Spanish architecture.

My four weeks in Bolivia have gone quickly, and it is wonderful to see the interest in the Groups of Hope program and to hear often the question:  “When will you be back?”

I am grateful for the prayers of those whose support financially and in prayer make the work of the Groups of Hope here in South America possible.

I will be in Armenia, Colombia by tomorrow, Monday, August 30 at 7 pm.

How wonderful it will be to connect with old friends and to share the Groups of Hope in the place where it had its beginnings.

Blessings…

WHAT is that noise?

I had been shown to my room in the hotel in Sucre…it was beautiful – with a view over the city and the mountains.  but there was a noise like construction with a jack hammer that vibrated in the walls and the floor.  I checked out the window and couldn’t see anything – called reception and they checked and thought it was coming from the ceiling.

Since they were checking it out, I decided to unpack and found – to my surprise, that the noise was inside my hardshell suitcase! Tthe switch on my electirc toothbrush had been pressed and it was working away – causing the whole suitcase to vibrate and from there the sound travelled through the floor to the walls and the ceiling!

I called reception – embarrassed to tell them the noise was from my own suitcase – and learned a lesson:  from now on I carry the elecric toothbrush in my hand luggage!  I felt I was really fortunate it didn’t start up while we were on the plane, or my suitcase might have been destroyed – it sure sounded like something dangerous was inside there!

Yesterday I met with a wonderful young woman who has been part of the Groups of Hope sessions over the past three years, and who has been mentored by Gladys in leadership as well.  She shared her vision of wanting to begin to use the groups first in her family, then in three churches where she knows women.

Her goal is to lead those women through the program and prepare them to be able to use the Groups of Hope with the mother’s of the hundreds of children that are in programs in the churches through Compassion.

She shared how God had been leading her and giving her this vision, and it thrilled my heart.  To see God using the program of the Groups of Hope to touch lives that need to know His love and presence.

I am into the last couple of days before I leave for Colombia.  Gladys and I will spend the morning together in the city and then have lunch with Emigdio and withVicky – who leaves this evening for Toronto, after working for  four weeks in the Casa de Amistad.

Gladys and her husband, Emigdio celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary this week, so this is a celebration lunch!

The last week in Bolivia

Hard to believe that the four weeks here is drawing to a close! 

Tomorrow and Thursday I will be teaching in the seminary here in CBBA for two hours each day.  It is something I really enjoy and I am looking forward to meeting the 9 first year students.

Yesterday we had an afternoon with 20 women here in CBBA …once again we had translation into Quechua … and once again we all expereinced a wonderful sense of God’s presence and many voiced feeling more able to go back to their places of ministry with renewed energy.

This dear little girl – called Abigail, like my granddaughter, played peek-a-boo with me over her mom’s shoulder as I waited to begin the workshop.

Her mom’s smile echoes the smiles of others who attended the workshop and left feeling refreshed.

Today I am off to help a good friend finish packing up before she moves from her apartment on Friday.  Rebecca will spend a few months in Canada on home assignment and then move to Tarija, to be the regional support person for youth ministry.

I am taking a bottle of white wine from the vineyards of Tarija to help celebrate – and make the packing more fun

Climbing the ski hill…

Picture one of our ski hills – shorten it by half or a third, then think of someone laying cement and putting big stones into the cement – a rough cobblestone surface.

You have the picture of the entrance to Cristo Rey church, perched precariously on the side of the hill. I stopped 2/3 of the way up the ski hill entry way and my pulse was going 150 a minute!

Thirty eight women with around 7 children crowded into the little church for this afternoon’s sessions.  It was a challenging day because many women arrived as the afternoon wore on – meaning that there was a pretty constant stream of new arrivals.  At one point I asked them not to greet each other when they arrived when we were in the middle of something in the group.

Culturally that isn’t easy, but most respected that so we could at least move ahead with the program. 

When we finished the session about leaving our burdens at the cross, the women held hands and Lily, one of the leaders, prayer before the women from Potosi hurried to the bus station to take the ‘flota’, the small bus that will take them home.

I had forgotten during the afternoon that when one climbs a steep hill, there is only one way down!  So down we went, Gladys on the arm of a youth leader, and me snapping many pictures on the amazing slopes and the way the houses seemed to cling to the cliffs of sand and shale by their toenails!

I am really tired tonight.  We have parts of three sessions tomorrow morning in the church we were in yesterday, then rest and packing up for the journey by air in the evening back to CBBA.

It has been a good weekend, but I am definitely ready for a rest.  I am grateful that my Spanish is so much more fluent.  Thanks for your prayers.

Step over the carrots…

When Jesus went to the market place to minister he touched the lives of those who needed him. The church where we were this afternoon for the first workshop in Sucre, is in the middle of the Farmer’s Market that encompasses several streets.

Right in front of the door to the church, which is called ‘Christ lives’, was a woman selling carrots, but that didn’t stop 24 women from coming this afternoon.

Twelve women had taken the bus from Potosi, along roads that had been blocked by political protest for several weeks and just reopened two days ago.  Several of them were Quechua women and Gladys translated for them as we led three sessions.  Several of the women were in their early twenties and that was wonderful to see.

After Gladys did the drama of the woman who was bent double for eighteen years and then Jesus saw her and healed her, we asked the women in pairs to share a burden that they were carrying with each other and then to pray.

As I stood and watched the ten pairs of women share their hearts with one another and then begin to pray, I felt like I was hearing the angels sing.  What a wonderful sound it was, the quiet hum of twenty women praying for each other.

When we took a break, one of the women came to me and explained that in the other Baptist church, which is farther out of town, there are several women who just can’t afford to travel into town and could we hold tomorrow’s session in the other church so those women could participate.

I was moved with the concern the women today felt for those who couldn’t come, and we scheduled tomorrow’s session for 2 pm in the other church, and the 12 women from Potosi took their K’epi’s and sleeping bags and went to the other church to sleep for the night.

We were told we could expect as many as 40 tomorrow – I am grateful for God’s creativity to adapt the Groups of Hope to many situations and numbers.  Thanks for your prayers that those who come will be aware of God’s wonderful presence and leave refreshed for their home and churches, and for Gladys and I who need God’s strength and energy to manage that large a group.

Laughing together…part of the journey.

This morning we headed for the airport to take a plane the 25 minutes to Sucre.  We were flying with TAM…the letters standing for Air Transport for the Military.  I think it is one of the president’s initiatives to introduce more competition into air transport here in Bolivia.

We passed through security and the young guy asked to check my carry on which contained all the supplies for the Groups of Hope.  I had forgotten a small pair of scissors I was using to prepare maple leaves for the last session yesterday, and once I took them out of the pencil case all was fine.

However, Gladys grabbed them and said…”No don’t give them to him, I’ll take them out and give them toEmigdio,”  her husband who had brought us to the airport.  She had already given me her boarding pass, but she disappeared back though security with the scissors in hand.

I waited for almost 5 minutes and was just about to ask permission to go and find her as I wasn’t sure she would be able to re-enter, when I saw her coming through once again.

She told me she forgot that her cell phone was in the basket on the conveyor belt, and her husband had already gone, so she hid the scissors in a plant out in the airport, and then told security that she had entered with the ‘gringa’ and he allowed her to enter again.

We both got laughing about it…the scissors  hidden in a little garden, Gladys shouting for her husband in the parking lot and not finding him – all for a pair of scissors that cost about a dollar!

Then we got onto the plane…I have never been on a Hercules transport carrier in Canada, but I understand it is quite a noisey experience.  This plane was not well insulated, and it felt like we were going to shake apart when we took off. 

The air attendant was a soldier…and when he suggested that Gladys slide her bag under the seat, there was no hesitation.  I had noticed on our other flights that she kept her bag at her feet and suggested that she put it under the seat for safety, but she had given me the Bolivian shrug…but not this time.  Again we had a good laugh to ourselves.

The whole flight from gate to gate was 30 munites, so you can imagine how short the time in the air was!  I was amazed to see the attendants serving drinks and giving us little snack boxes.  I commented to Gladys that I was amazed that they would do that on such a short flight…she said any company that didn’t serve something on a flight – no matter how short – was considered stingy!

The seat pockets contained one plastic bag between the three of us sitting in #14 D,E,F.  No safety info and no magazine…this was a no frills flight…except for the hurried snack.  Our ears really popped when we started to come down…and the attendants rushed the cart to the front to stabalize it and then came back later and gave us the little snack boxes.

So we are here…in this beautiful city…from our hotel high on a hill we look over the city of red rooves and white walls.  Tonight we are going to a cultural display that introduces one to all the cultural diversity of Bolivia…something I have never had the opportunity to attend, and neither has Gladys.

I just spoke to the woman who is going to organize the sessions, Friday and Saturday afternoons from 3 pm to 6 pm.  Eight women will come by bus from Potosi to join us.  thanks for your prayers that each woman who comes will be aware of God’s healing touch and leave with renewed hope.

Reflecting on the Workshop August 17th

Thirteen of us gathered on the patio at the Casa de Amistad for the Tuesday workshop.

What a beautiful place to have it – the breeze was fresh and the shade from the sun made it ideal.

As we shared our burdens and concerns and felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, all of us were refreshed.

After two sessions we took a break to prepare lunch, so the cooks could be with us for the sessions and not be in the kitchen alone preparing the meal.

That time of meal preparation became part of the fellowship and fun of the day.  And the french fries from those peeled potatoes where fantastic

As we finished the 5 sessions around 3:30 pm, all of us felt that it had been good to be there, that we had been reminded again to leave our burdens and cares at the cross, and to know that God walks with us even in difficult times.

Tomorrow Gladys and I fly at 0930 to Sucre - the beautiful capital of Bolivia – surrounded by mountains.  We will be conducting the Groups of Hope sessions on Friday and Saturday afternoons and evenings and speaking on Sunday morning before we fly back home in the evening.  We are looking forward to a restful and fullfilling weekend.

Thanks for your prayers.

Over the Andes

The flight between Santa Cruz and CBBA on Monday morning took us over the ancient, wrinkled, craggy peaks of the Andes.  I hope to be able to show you a picture of them, but sometimes the speed for uploading makes that impossible.

As far as ones eye could see the brown and grey contours stretched, filling one with awe at their immensity and at the tremendous forces of nature that  led to their birth eons ago.

Yes…it worked…now you can share what took my breath away!

Today we are conducting a workshop at the Casa de Amistad.  It is a ministry that reaches out to men and women in the two prisons here in CBBA.

Here in Bolivia, ones children are taken into jail with you if you don’t have someone to take responsibility for them in the community.  That means that children leave the jail to go to school for half a day and then spend the rest of their days in the jail!  One shudders at what their lives must be like.

So ‘The Casa’ takes 100 of those children for the half day they aren’t in school, gives them a hot lunch and helps them with homework, providing lessons and recreational activities, before they return to be with their parents overnight.

Our workshop of the Groups of Hope is with the teachers and psychologist and other workers who go into the jail.  Please pray that they will feel God’s presence and leave the day retreat feeling refreshed, having had the chance to share their burdens and to know that God walks with them, offering His strength in this challenging ministry. 

I have such admiration for them and respect for the job they do day after day.  Thanks for praying for all of us today!

Peace in the midst of turmoil

Gladys and I returned home to CBBA today at 0930…to a city shut down for a fiesta weekend.  It is a celebration of a famous virgin in Quillacollo and Emigdio told me that people travel from the states and several South American countries to celebrate.  In a quarry people pound away to try to break off a piece of stone…the bigger the stone you can break off the bigger the blessing you take home.  There are lots of candles lit and incense burning as people honour the virgin.

Of course there is the rest of the things that go along with holidays…lots of drinking and partying in the streets and lots of street vendors.  I didn’t go out to the party…too tired!

I wanted to share a story with you.  As I was finishing supper last night in a little cafe in the main Plaza in Santa Cruz my cell phone rang. ( I had had trout from Lake Titikaca…absolutely delicious and it melted in my mouth). 

Sarah was calling me from the hotel where I stayed over the weekend.  She wanted a chance to talk to me, after having met me and attended the sessions at the little church on Thursday and Friday evenings.

I walked back to the hotel and invited her to my room.  She shared her story -  her pain was etched on her face.  She and her husband have three children, and like many couples here they decided to go to Spain to work to try to earn more than they could here.  They left their two children, ages 4 and 2 with a woman they hired.

They got a call in Spain to tell them that their little girl had a high fever.  Many phone calls followed, trying to make suggestions and find out how their little two year old was doing.  She was diagnosed with meningitis and was left with a severe mental handicap.

Sarah shared how she had come home from Spain and how she had had to teach her little girl everything – all the things that she had learned had been erased, so learning to walk and toilet training and other milestones were only memories. Sarah began to provide the 24 hour care that her daughter, Melania, has needed for the past 12 years.

I had met Melania in the sessions we held, realizing she was challenged and hyperactive, and watched several times and she perscipitously jumped up and ran from the church and her mother followed, bringing her reluctantly back to the circle.

The school system is not able to cope with her hyperactivity so Sarah takes Melania with her while she runs her little stationery store in the market area.

Her husband has abandoned the family financially and emotionally and tears ran down her face as she talked about her loneliness and how hard things are financially.

I listened and empathized and then suggested that we read Philipians chapter four together.  As she read the words:  Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will gaurd your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus., I could see the change in her face and she actually gasped. They were not new promises to her.  She had been a Christian for many years, but suddenly she knew the words were written for her!

As we prayed together we could feel God’s presence surrounding us, and Sarah shared, as we parted when I had to leave for the evening sessions, that she didn’t feel so alone.

It was a good reminder to me that she didn’t want me to find a solution for her.  She needed to have a listening ear and to find comfort in the fact that God promises His presence in even the midst of the most difficult times.

   

In the Windy City

Arrived yesterday afternoon to 32 degree weather and a very hot dry wind bending the palm trees double.

Our session last night was great…13 people in a little church on a gravel lane, surrounded by the Thursday market.

It was good to be together and to feel that God met people in the places where they needed His presence and strength. 

We were talking about depression – and sharing ways to cope on days when we feel down.

Tonight there may be a few more there and we will do parts of three sessions in the hour and a half. 

This morning the temperature had dropped to 15 degrees with a cold wind blowing the dust and dirt of the streets high into the air.   As I started out for my walk I passed a family  of four sleeping on the sidewalk on pieces of cardboard covered by a blue tarp. 

The cold weather this past month has been especially hard on those who are homeless.  As I passed them on my way up the hill, I thought again of the dilemma of how to make a difference in a hurting world.