How Bright Are Our Lights?

The first time Kevin ever came to Mizque, it was on his way back from Pucara (the village in the mountains). The bus they were traveling on stopped at a restaurant in Mizque that was owned by a woman named Carolina. Kevin was surprised by Carolina’s kindness and interest in people. When he returned to Santa Cruz, he had decided that Mizque had to have been a beautiful place because the woman he had met was so friendly. Below is Kevin with Carolina:



The second time Kevin returned, he was out walking the street in the rain and an older woman stopped Kevin and made him get out of the rain. He spoke with her for almost an hour before the rain stopped and once again, he was overwhelmed by the kindness of this second woman who we now know is named Juana.
Now that we have moved here, we have had opportunities to see the culture and realize how different we really are. Everywhere we go we are stared at and talked about, we are outsiders to this culture and while there is a high interest in who we are and what we are doing, people are a little bit shy to speak with us. It has been Carolina and Juana who have made us feel accepted and loved here in Mizque in a way that we never expected. You can imagine our surprise when we decided to visit the Baptist church here in town. It is a church without an active pastor. They have a man coming out from Cochabamba once a week to preach but he is not able to work with the church during the week. When we walked in, there sat both Carolina and Juana smiling at us as if we had lit up the room.
After the service, it made us both think about being salt and light. These two women who portrayed the light that Jesus speaks so brilliantly should not have surprised us when we discovered they were active believers. Carolina and Juana are now role models for us and are such an encouragement for us in a new city. We believe that your prayers and God’s provision of these two women will pull us through this transition in a way that only God knew was possible.

Feeling Loved

As it came time to say goodbye to our friends, we were amazed by our friends’ kindness and attitudes. They all seemed sad to see us go, but they also all came to the understanding that we needed to go and help the people in Mizque and Pucara as well as other places surrounding Mizque. Some of our friends speak Quechua and have said that they would love to come and help us with Evangelistic outreach opportunities. As we were getting ready to leave, our church wanted to put on a going away party and we had a wonderful barbecue after our Sunday Service. We had steak, cheese rice, yucca, and salad. It was delicious. Here some of our church members are enjoying the food.



Our final day in Santa Cruz we had also been invited to our neighbor’s house for a last meal. We have learned that Bolivians don’t usually eat a full meal for dinner; it is usually some bread and tea. So, we ate some dinner before we went to our neighbors. To our astonishment, our neighbors served huge portions of spaghetti. It is the first time we have ever had Bolivians serve us an Italian dish. They went to a lot of trouble to make that meal for us. So we walked away feeling very loved and very full. Then we got a call from another pastor who wanted to stop in and say goodbye. He arrived at 9:30 with his family: parents, siblings and nieces. They brought with them a cake, bread and soda. They left at midnight and again we felt very loved and like we didn’t need to eat for a week. 
As we drove away the next morning, we couldn’t help but feel touched by the generosity of our dear friends. They have touched our lives in ways that we can never forget. Thank you so much for helping us to be here and experience such a wonderful culture and people. We truly feel blessed.

One prayer answers another

On our last blog update we told you about our little puppy Riley but what we haven’t had a chance to share is the amazing way God responded to our sorrow. About a week after Riley died, we had an unexpected visit. Another missionary living in Santa Cruz came by with a little yellow lab puppy. She said that she had been praying as she did every morning and she suddenly felt that she was to offer one of her five puppies to us. So, she called us and came right over. We couldn’t believe it when she told us that she wanted to give us one of her puppies for free. We knew this woman was selling the puppies to raise money in order to buy a fridge for handicapped orphaned babies. Of course we paid our missionary friend and we are now proud owners of a yellow lab puppy named Ruby. Below you can see a picture of her.

Wonderful Christmas Blessings

Canby Evangelical Church, one of our Pacific Conference Churches wanted to take on a special project this year. They asked if there was some way they could do something to help some Bolivians for Christmas. We decided it would be a huge encouragement to our pastors and some of the poorest members of our churches if the church raised enough money to provide Christmas packages that included: rice, noodles, potatoes, chicken and a Christmas cake. We, along with Gordon Elliott and Kevin’s Dad took half-a-day to drive all over Santa Cruz delivering Christmas packages. As we delivered the gifts, it was wonderful to see the expressions of the pastors as we told them how much they were appreciated. Here are a few of the photos we took as we went around gathering the food and making deliveries.

A Christmas Visitor

For Christmas Kevin’s dad, Craig, came for a visit. We had a wonderful time running him all over Santa Cruz. We took him on our fantastic bus system where the average height of the ceiling is 5 to 5 and-a-half feet tall. Kevin’s dad is 6.2’ and generally when people hop on micros they have wait for a seat. He was a wonderful sport and we do believe that he started to enjoy our way of traveling in the end. He also helped us deliver Christmas packages to our Santa Cruz pastors which I will talk more about in the next blog. We celebrated Christmas Eve at a nearby orphanage where we all had a wonderful time playing soccer with the kids and enjoy a special dinner. Kevin’s dad was able to meet so many of our new friends and visit the church Kevin’s been preaching at the last few months. We felt very encouraged to be able to show him all that we have been doing the past year.
While we weren’t able to spend Christmas with all of our family members this year, it felt very special to have dad hear to celebrate and encourage us. Thank you dad, we will never forget this Christmas. :)