Back in Bolivia

Friends,

It's been a long time since I have written. Here is what has happened:

We made it successfully to the United States. God chose not to allow us to bring our dog with us, and for good reason. It seems that there is a rule that airlines will not accept pets for transport if the temperature at any of the destinations en route have a temperature forcasted to be above 85 degrees F. This happened to us. Looking back, it was a blessing that we left Raisin behind because of the expense of bringing her back to Bolivia, and the additional paperwork. We were only in the U.S. for 10 weeks anyway. We were sad at first, but the time went very fast. This also allowed us to send some money back that we borrowed from a friend, and send a little more to help to a missionary who we left behind. I felt good about the outcome.

Arriving in Collegedale, TN we had $5 to our name but we were happy and in the hands of family. Our first goal for coming to the U.S. was to attend Min's brother's wedding. Bruce and Keturah were married in a beautiful wedding in Lake Lure, NC. They accomodated us well, and we had a great time with the family. Everything came together for the wedding, and they are now happily married. 

Our second goal in the U.S. was to save up enough money to file for U.S. citizenship for Min. She has been a legal resident with a "green card" for several years. Jobs are scarce and the price for applying is $680. By God´s grace, the next day or so after we returned to Tennesee from the wedding, my mother-in-law received a call for me. She had a friend who might employ me if I call him right away! Sure enough, he was a tree worker who needed help working on several jobs. I started working the next week. Our time in the U.S. was a blur for me, every day either asking questions and making sure Min´s application was filled out correctly with all necessary attachments, or working to pay the application fee. God knew we would need a lot more funding than I could earn in that short time, so he sent donations from several sources to help provide for other needs, including travel, communication, and necessities for returning to Bolivia. I was even able to fly to Washington for a few days to have Thanksgiving dinner with my parents (a week before Thanksgiving). I hadn´t seen them in almost a year. One excellent testimony to God´s provision: Min´s paperwork was sent with the fee just two weeks before our target date to return to Bolivia. I had no money for airplane tickets and prices would only go up as the time approached. A missionary bought us two tickets knowing we would pay him back. I worked as I could for two weeks, and with some family help we paid him back and flew to Bolivia. While in the U.S. we gave mission updates in three churches, and saw family and friends when we could and the whole experience was a blessing.

We´re back again in Bolivia! I´ve been helping however I can, and getting our living area more livable. I put in shelves and a place to hang our clothes, and even installed an electrical outlet professionally with conduit and a junction box. It´s different here, because the buildings are made of cement and bricks - no drywall. A HUGE blessing this time was being able to bring Min´s electronic piano with us. She likes it a lot better than the ones available for her use here, and we can travel with it too. 

I´ve been blessed to find a Bible study interest in the community next to our property. His name is Jimmy (doesn´t sound Bolivian does it?), and he drives a bush taxi. He is interested in Bible prophesy. My level of Spanish is just enough that I would attempt this on my own, and so far God had blessed. We covered Daniel 2 last time, and I plan to go through Daniel 7 next time. An unexpected surprise the last time was that he wanted to do the Bible study inside the little office they have where the bush taxis stop near our property. We ended up with an audience of four, and afterward they asked if I would teach english. I taught an english lesson and everyone wanted me to return the next week! His car broke down this week, and I really want to keep the study going so please pray that God intervenes to make sure it doesn´t fizzle out.

Min´s been giving piano lessons to five or more missionary kids here. Along with helping in the kitchen it´s a full load! We´ve been asked to be part of the music program at the Hamacas SDA church. At first we were hesitant, because we prefer our small church at Pedro Lorenzo. Hamacas is perhaps the largest church in downtown Santa Cruz with many members and many of them trade professionals. I found out it is also perhaps the most influential church in Santa Cruz. It may turn out as a calling though: Our ministry in Bolivia is a ¨supporting ministry¨ not funded or governed by the local SDA conference. This is not common here in Bolivia, and since its inception, our ministry has been looked upon with skepticism by the local leaders. We have wanted so much to work together with the conference while maintaining our own leadership and TV content to ensure the highest standards. This last year that door has opened. The new president of the Santa Cruz Mission of SDAs came to visit our facility and express the desire to work together as brethren! I believe the pastor of Hamcas was with him and some others. Now the Hamacas church has identified us as theirs, and our station director is in charge of the music program there. So we can see that by participating in the music program, we are strenghtening the ties between our ministry and the local churches and knocking down the walls of fear! 

I´ve not been flying lately. Our chief pilot is not here, and right now I am the only pilot. The planes should have permission to fly soon, but I´ll need to fly with another pilot for many more hours before flying on my own here. 

Please pray for us, and one of our missionaries, Daniel. He had a motorcycle accident today. He is fine, but someone else was injured badly and he is not sure what the government will do to him. The injured person was taken off to the hopsital by an ambulance. 

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

 

Good News and Bad News

Friends,

 

I´ve got good news and bad news this month; the bad news first:

 

Our airplane was robbed! We have a Cessna 182 turbocharged airplane that we have been working on permissions for as our workhorse. A few days ago, we were contacted by someone at the small municipal airport where the airplane was parked, stating that the propeller was missing from our plane. Jeff rushed down to the airport and discovered that at least the following were missing: Variable-pitch propeller, brakes, pitot tube and some antennas. He´s talked to the airport police and filed a report. Fliers were handed out at the airport and local bus station with a reward offered. So far to no avail. The sad part is that donations have come in enough to pay the import fees (around $16,000), which we paid and filed paperwork for importation. This plane and the Cessna 172 are the two planes that should have unlimited permission to fly in Bolivia soon. The 172 is a small plane and more suited for short flights within the jungle. This plane was going to work here, and eventually in La Paz, where only a turbocharged plane can go. (We should be able to import planes for free when the laws are enacted in our favor to do so, but for now we have to pay.)

 

There is some good news, however. In the process of talking with people at the airport about the incident and looking for a safe place to put the airplane, Jeff met two people who have hangars and are willing to let us keep our planes there. Hangar space is expensive, and we are not rich, but the owners for now are letting us stay for free. What a blessing! Our planes are much more secure now.

 

The airport closes at sundown, and everyone goes home including the police. It´s possible that someone who owns a hangar at the airport stayed late and stole the parts off the plane when everyone went home. I pray that God will forgive those who stole the parts, and that they may be saved someday. As for us, God can provide another propeller since He owns everything.

 

On to more good news:

 

Min and I received our 30 day visas! We traveled to the border between Bolivia and Argentina. The city on the Bolivian side was called Yacuiba. Our goal was to cross the border into Argentina where there was a Bolivian Consulate that would process our paperwork. We hopped a bus from Santa Cruz at 9:30pm and arrived at 4:30am in Yacuiba and made it to the border ok. It was a little scary because Min was denied entry into Argentina because she was Filipino. Three of us did our paperwork while she had to wait at the border. We stayed the night, and the next morning applied for a visa for her at the Argentenian consulate on the Bolivian side of the border. They finally decided to grant her a 3 day visa for $50! That was a high price, but we paid it and that afternoon she received her 30 day Bolivian visa as well. We traveled home safely, just in time to play instruments for a wedding. We have been applying for our 1-year residency since we returned to Santa Cruz. There is a list of 20 papers that we need in our application. Most of them have a cost attached, so I´m watching our money disappear more rapidly than I´d like. It´s ok though; we need this to be done in order to work here in Bolivia. Our only other option is to apply for a working visa each month at $105 per person per month. Instead we´re going to pay about $600 per person for the year (paperwork included).

 

While we were in Yacuiba, we met some Seventh-day Adventists who run a vegetarian restaurant. We ate there and talked with them and while we were there a little boy came in with some hamsters in a cardboard box. We´ve wanted to get a pet, but are worried about having to travel. We decided to buy two hamsters for his asking price of 40 bs ($6). After bringing them home, we found that another missionary really liked hamsters. In fact, they seemed to bring him so much happiness just holding them, that we decided to give them to him. He was VERY happy. And so we were petless. A few days later we went with this missionary to town to pick out a cage, and saw some dogs and cats. Min seemed interested in getting a dog, maybe even one like the Dashund she had when she was a kid. The next week we stopped at the same pet sellers on the way home and guess what? There appeared to be a pure-bred Dashund puppy for sale! We had enough money (the man wanted $65 but we talked him down to $50) and we bought her. Min was _really_ happy. $50 is a lot of money as a missionary, but for comparison, these dogs sell for $200-$500 in the U.S. With that in mind, it seems that God took something that would normally be outside our means and brought it down to our level! We´re happy with her and named her ¨Raisin¨ (she´s mostly black). So far I´ve learned more patience, waking up at 2am to let her pee, cleaning up after her during potty training, teaching her not to chew on everyone. I think I´m being prepared to be a father someday, should the Lord tarry. We´ve been blessed so far, as she was potty-trained in one week, although these dogs are notoriously hard to potty-train. I´ll put up some pictures of her soon.

 

A new missionary has arrived here. His name is Jon and this is his first mission trip. He´s been a blessing so far, and he´ll be here 5 months. He´s from Michigan and his girlfriend worked at one of our projects here in Bolivia. He´s just starting to learn Spanish, and we took him to town with us to buy groceries and show him around. He´s got quite a testimony, having rebelled and gotten into drugs, and then delivered. He is so serious about getting away from his old environment and temptations and getting closer to God that he came all the way out here to volunteer in Bolivia. So far he hasn´t been turned-off by the 3rd-world difficulties, the different culture, or the prospect of hard work. Please pray that his motivation continues and that God answers his prayer for a closer walk with Him in a mighty way.

This last weekend a group of us went for a weekend retreat to the hills of Palermo. Santa Cruz is very flat, but as you travel to the southwest, the terrain gets more and more mountainous. We went on the road to Samaipata, which is somewhat of a tourist destination. My friend Daniel suggested we hitch a ride on a truck coming from the market in Santa Cruz. There are buses and bush taxis that go there, but he insisted that trucks are much more comfortable. It turned out he was right - we tied our hammocks up in the back and had a relaxed three-hour ride. Before we reached Samaipata, we got off the vegetable truck we were riding in and walked up a road that went a mile off into the hills. There was a small home and church that we stopped at and spent the weekend. The home belonged to a couple of missionaries, Matteo and his wife Paola. They run a lifestyle center out of their home and local Seventh-day Adventists come to the small church next-door. Min and I stayed in a bedroom behind the church and the others stayed in the house. It was a reverent and awe-inspiring weekend. Worshipping in the small church with windows all around displaying the high hills around us was a great experience. After lunch we went hiking up into the hills for a few hours. We returned on Sunday after visiting a churchmember who had a sugar cane farm. She sent us home with two bottles of fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice. We caught a ride home on the back of a truck carrying cement to Santa Cruz. I highly recommend taking a trip up into the mountains if you live in the lowlands or city. The tall mountains made me feel small, and more in the presence of God. Oh, and stars were so much brighter out there!

Please pray for us, as we have more needs now (see ¨How to Help¨ above for details), for our missionaries, including Jon, and that God would open the doors soon for us to resume mission-flying here or show us if he has a different plan, and finally that the building projects go forward here with good speed.

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

 

News

Friends,

A lot of good things have happened here in Bolivia. Our chief pilot, Jeff, has returned along with two more missionaries, D.J. and his wife Jodie. D.J. is a pilot and Jodie is a teacher. They have been a blessing, since there are three girls who share the cooking duties right now, leaving Min some time to hang out with me :) 

Jeff is also the manager of our building projects here, and so a lot more is happening on the grounds here. We are submitting plans to the local government for our property and paying taxes on all the houses. Once they are approved, we will not have to worry about the government putting roads through our houses, land, etc. 

We have a machine for making cinderblocks and are getting it running with the right mix of sand, rocks, concrete and water to make blocks for building houses. Supposedly we can make 1000 blocks a day with it. The blocks take 6 days to cure, and then we can use them to build. Another project far to the north wants to use the block machine as well, and they will tow it up there and use it. Until then, we are going to make as many blocks as we can and have them ready for construction projects here. 

One of our pilots, Steve, is getting married this November. His house is the next to be built, and I´m sure he´d like it if it were finished for him and his wife to move into when they return after the wedding. This will be one of our main projects in the coming months.

Jeff is working on getting permission for our planes to fly, which involves getting them imported so they become Bolivian airplanes. Normally, this costs 30% of the airplane´s Bolivian value, and this has been a major obstacle for us for the last few months. However, God has provided another way. The government in La Paz, Bolivia is so interested in having our planes flying and doing the work we do, that they are willing to write whatever laws we need (within reason, I´m sure) to get our planes flying. So far we´ve asked for free importation of the airplanes (as they will be used only for humanitarian work). 

Another requirement will be that our pilots need to be Bolivian residents with Bolivian pilots licenses to fly these planes. I´ve heard from 4 different people here that doing paperwork in Bolivia is very difficult, especially if you´re American. There´s always another stamp you need, or another certified document, or the person you need to sign you off is arguing with you, telling you that you can´t do what you are filing paperwork to do. I talked to a pilot who ¨convalidated¨ his American commercial pilot´s license so that he could use it in Bolivia to work as a pilot. They did it, and put a restriction on it that he could not work for money... which is the only reason most people get a commercial pilots license! This was very frustrating for him. Jeff is going to work with the government in La Paz to make it possible for our pilots to obtain residency and licenses without roadblocks.

After talking with David, my parents, Min´s parents, and reflection in prayer, we believe God is leading us to come back here and work as missionaries. Jeff said he and the others would be glad to have us on the team, and I am happy about that. It also simplifies our plans, since now we can leave our belongings here when we go to visit the U.S. this September, and we can start on our paperwork for Bolivian residency.

My tourist visa has run out, and I am now racking up a fine of $3 per day that I will need to pay when I leave the country. This was the plan, and I was saving $200 to pay my way out of the country in September. This was the only option I knew we had at the time in order to help out here until September. Now we are putting that money toward our paperwork to become Bolivian residents. This will cost us a total of $600 each, is what I am told. To start out, we are applying for a work visa for $80 each. This will allow us to be in the country for 30 days or more to apply for residency. Residency can take 3 months or more, but we can ¨pause¨ the process by withdrawing our passports. This we will do when we come visit the U.S. in September. We intend to visit family, apply for Min´s U.S. citizenship (she is here as a Filipino), and attend her brother´s wedding. It stresses me out a little to imagine how we are going to do all of these things quickly and return here, especially since some of it costs money we don´t have yet. However, our experience so far and the experience of others here is that God finds a way every time, and we can count on Him to lead us through.

We are leaving this Tuesday on a bus to the Argentina-Boliva border to exit the country and apply for our work visas. We will take the bus in the evening and arrive in the morning. Apparently the buses are really nice, even better than a commercial airline inside. We´ll try to get some sleep on the way, and file our paperwork during Wednesday. Wednesday or Thursday night we´ll return here, Lord willing. We need to, because we´ve been given the opportunity to play music for the reception at a Menonite wedding on Friday. There are several Menonite colonies in Bolivia, and near Santa Cruz. Hopefully this experience will allow us to meet some of them and make friends. 

Please pray for us, that all goes well with our travels and work visa applications. Please pray for D.J. and Jodie as they plan to travel to Guyana and work there for a while. Finally, please pray that Jesus will come soon and that we all will be ready!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

 

Photos!!!

Friends,

I´ve finally posted photos. They will run as a slideshow at the top, or you can click on the slideshow to go directly to the album. You must go directly to the album if you wish to see the descriptions I made for each photo. They are ordered by subject but not chronologically. Enjoy!

If you are reading this on facebook, go to http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com/ to view the photos.

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

More News

Friends,

 

I haven´t communicated in about a month, so here´s what´s going on:

 

Min made it back safely on her trip, and with presents! We had four missionaries request special items from the United States, and we had our own list of things. Nutritional Yeast Flakes, Insoles, McKay´s Chicken Seasoning, raw cashews, vegetarian jerkey, italian seasoning and rechargable batteries were among the requests. She said Pearl´s wedding was great, and she brought back a hand-carved pair of giraffes made in Africa that each guest was given. (Apparently the bride´s family bought them in Africa and brought them to the U.S. for the wedding).

 

Cooking had been a bit stressful for Min. She had been cooking 3 meals a day which meant getting up at 6am to get breakfast going, followed by a cleanup, worship, a two-hour break and then get started on lunch. After cleaning up lunch she was off for 3 hours and then started dinner... finally finishing her day at 7:30pm! If she did laundry on her breaks she would have a 12-hour day. Thanks to a missionary named Carmen who came to visit, we´ve adopted a new schedule and Min´s very happy. She now only cooks breakfast and lunch, and is off Saturday and Sunday. She also wanted to cook meals just for me and her, so I bought a gas cookstove and put it in our little kitchen. We´ve cooked one meal on it so far!

 

We have an airplane! It´s not for very long, but we´ve been granted permission to use our Cessna 182 Turbo for 1 month, ending June 27. Apparently when you bring an American airplane to Bolivia, you either pay 30% of it´s Bolivian-estimated value as an import tax, or you ask permission to fly it as an American airplane. Since the second option is free, we´ve been doing that on all our planes for about a year. Sadly, it´s getting more difficult to get permission, and we think they are pressuring us to import them. This amounts to $16,000 per plane and we have at least 5. We´ll see what God does. It´s been 6 months since we´ve had permission to use an airplane so we haven´t gotten many calls yet, as people are just becoming aware that it is available. We´ve taken a pastor out to San Joaquin to work in a village for a month, and Friday we brought David Harding out to Familia Feliz orphanage in Rurrenabaque, Boliva. David´s daughter started the orphanage. We also brought them 30 or so baking pans for making bread, and took a man home to see his family who had been in the hospital in Santa Cruz. It seems that there are other mission pilot organizations in Bolivia, so we just work one area that no-one else serves, called The Beni. It is mostly jungle with few passable roads. You can read about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beni_Department . I´m learning to communicate to air traffic control in Spanish. Technically English is the official language of aviation worldwide, but that doesn´t apply in small regional airports in Bolivia. I had a fellow pilot tell me sometimes they can understand ATC´s Spanish better than he can their English! It´s very difficult for me, but it´s coming slowly. Herman, one of our pilots, told me even though he is fluent in Spanish, they sometimes use terminology with him that baffles him. So I´ve got a big learning curve to meet!

 

Another project here is the runway. We have a grass runway prepared on the property right where we live. Right now it´s 550 meters long (about 1800 feet) and ultimately we plan to extend it to 1200 meters. So far it´s been smoothed by a tractor dragging a large log up and down it, and good grass has been planted. Now we´re working on the requirements to get it certified for use. We need runway beginning and end markers, markers on the sides every 50 meters, and a windsock. Last week and this week we finished the markers. Being in Bolivia, we opted for large PVC pipes to mark the ends, and buried tires painted white for the 50 meter markers. I think in total we spent less than $50 so far.

 

On a sad note: Red ADvenir, our Spanish TV network is off the air. We´ve been waiting on some donated funds for some months now and praying, but finally we had to cease transmitting our signal last week. I hear that sufficient funds have been donated to keep us on the air, but they were sent from another country, through the U.S. and the funds are tied up in the U.S. Maybe the U.S. government thinks it´s drug money... or, more likely, Satan doesn´t want our station on the air. Just a week before this, we had a fire break out in our most critical computer room. Richard (the station manager) called the station watchman to tell him that he wasn´t receiving the signal. The volunteer watchman went out side and saw smoke coming from the transmission room! Apparently a power surge had started an electrical fire and the main power cable was fried. The fire had started underneath the signal amplifier, a $70,000 piece of equipment needed for transmitting the signal to the satellite that needed to be imported from the U.S.. By God´s grace, all that needed to be replaced was the fried power cable. The signal amplifier was completely undamaged. Within 6 hours the signal was back on the air.

A couple of good things are coming out of our current situation: Richard has had plans for relocating some of our equipment to better serve the station and aid expansion in the future. This project requires us to be off of the air, so we are going forward with it now. Another possible blessing is in working with the Seventh-day Adventist conference in Bolivia. In the past, it seems, our ministry has been regarded as a nusance and we have not had a good working relationship with the conference. However, new leaders have been appointed to the conference positions here in Bolivia, and they have already come to visit the station and extend the hand of fellowship. Here´s where the opportunity comes in: Even though we are off the satellite, we still have several TV station licenses around Bolivia. These stations were receiving our signal via satellite, and re-transmitting it via cable or over-the-air waves. The conference has an official TV station in South America called ¨Nuevo Tiempo¨. We can work together at this time by telling our TV stations to receive the Nuevo Tiemo signal via satellite and transmit it in place of Red ADvenir for now. That seems to be the plan, and in the meantime we´ll prepare for when we can be back on the air again, should God re-open that door.

 

Thank you for praying for us! Please pray for the station, the aviation program, the other missionary efforts here in Bolivia, and that Min and I would continue to be a blessing here.

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

 

A Little Scare

Friends,

    I had a little scare today! First I should say that Min is safely back in the U.S.. She has a friend that she grew up with in Africa who has been engaged for many years. So long that her friends are calling it the "wedding of the decade". Min really wanted to go, and was blessed when a friend from Florida used some of her air miles to buy min a round trip ticket. The trip turns out to be a blessing to us and those around us as well. We're getting our cold-weather clothes from home, and some needed cooking items from Walmart and the Village Market in Collegedale, TN. Some important documents are being carried to the US for a volunteer, and some items for other missionaries are going to come back here with Min. I miss her :)

    When I returned from the Airport this morning at 9:30am, our volunteer pastor was standing outside the kitchen. He was talking to Carmen, a visitor who cooks really well and is taking over for Min this week as cook. Carmen speaks both English and Spanish and was translating for us. Apparently the workers were going home, because we had received word that the government was coming to reposess the property of the TV Station! The first word we heard was that when the government does this, everything on the property at the time becomes theirs. I asked why this was happening. Carmen said, "Apparently some of the paid workers had filed a lawsuit with the government because they had not been paid in several months. The government has ruled in favor of the workers and they are coming to reposess the land." My mind raced to the computers and other equipment in the TV station that might be saved if we brought it next door. There is a property next door that is not ours yet but we're renting it. I mentioned this to others and we were contemplating the task . To move some of the equipment would mean taking God's TV network off of the air... a daunting prospect. The station director had just left this morning for La Paz, Bolivia and was on an airplane so we couldn't contact him for direction.

    Just then, the pastor returned with better information. The workers who had filed the lawsuit had been laid off months ago. Normally that means all of them must be paid all back pay within 15 days. The station did not have enough money to do this, and was in the process of negotiating a payment plan with the workers. The workers had told the government that our mission was rich, had airplanes and other expensive equipment and could pay if we wished. Today the government was simply coming to inspect us and see if these claims were true. No reposession was to take place! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and my mind raced for a few minutes more until I calmed down.

    Everyone slowly dispersed, and went to work. I welded the rest of the shelves I was working on, and by the end of the day no-one came. David Gates and Richard were both contacted and I'm sure they were working with the government during the day. It just reminds me how delicate our position is on the planet, and how much Satan would like to see our work ended. The TV station daily reaches millions of homes with wholesome Christian family programs, Bible studies, Nature videos, etc. and has been heralded as a great benefit here in Santa Cruz. I am so glad they are still on the air!

Please pray for the TV station, the workers' pay, Min's safe travels, and her friends' wedding and future life together!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling
011-591-6-780-4066 cell (Bolivia)

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

News From Bolivia

Friends,

We have been here 12 days now. Our time here has involved both great joy, and adjustment. Our joy has been the fresh air, peaceful country setting, and good company. The Bolivian people are amiable, and don't treat us poorly or try to sell overpriced items to us at the market.
They just seem a little more interested in me because I stick out. This week we went to the market twice. The fresh market called "Abasto" is where we get the cheapest and freshest fruits and vegetables. The market is HUGE. Maybe like four Super-Walmarts side by side. It reminds me a little of the Pike Place Market in Seattle as well, although there is not a second floor. We bought pineapples a little smaller than watermelons this last time, and they were 10 Bolivianos (Bs.) each, which is about $1.40, and what they call mandarines, which look like green and yellow normal-size oranges 10 for 5Bs, about $0.80. So it is possible to eat here for about 100 Bs. per week, or $60 per month per person and eat healthy, if you shop right. The people seem to think that Min is Bolivian sometimes. I had one person in the market speak to us in Spanish, and I replied that I didn't understand. They nodded toward Min and said, "It's ok, she understands."

This week I worked to lay the foundation of David Gates' new house here on the property. We had lots of help this week, so it went relatively fast. David's daughter, Katrina and her husband Jared were visiting, and Jared headed up the work. An electrician and retired pastor, Paul Eirich is here with is wife. The volunteer coordinator here Jose-Luis arrived as well. Min was surprised to be feeding 12 people for breakfast and dinner rather than the usual 7.

With all those hands, as well as one of the paid workers, Jose, we worked quickly to mix cement, pour it into a wheelbarrow, dump it into the ditch of the foundation footing, and smoothed it to the right level. Having worked for a brick mason before, I was familiar with mixing cement and pouring it, but this time I learned to smooth it. I had put metal stakes (rebar) in the floor of the ditch and had made sure each was level with the rest. I now used a large metal level to scrape the wet, pudding-like cement to the right height. Then I would use a smoothing-motion to get it all level and smooth. We also have a laser-level system. A laser on a tripod at one end of the construction site emits a laser in all directions that is level with the ground. I use a receiver mounted on a measuring rod to test the level of the cement. If the cement is at the correct level, the receiver beeps long and loud. After 3 days we had a smooth, solid, level cement footing for the foundation of the house. Just in time too - David and his wife left and took Jared, Katrina and Jose-Luis with him. Jeff, the chief pilot left with his family earlier this week, and so did D.J. and Steve, two other pilots. Now it's just Min and I, the TV station volunteers, a german couple from another ministry, and two other pilots. Of the two pilots, Daniel and Herman, Daniel is fighting Dengue Fever and Herman is busy getting permissions from the Bolivian government for the use of our planes and for the new runway to be approved.

Today I learned how to drive a piece of heavy equipment: A diesel tractor forklift. This one is finicky; It often needs to be jump-started with another vehicle, and you have to keep the gas pedal all the way down when you move it or raise it or the engine dies. I used it to move a 1000 L water tank to the pumphouse for one of our wells. I cleaned it well, filled it up, and now it's next to where 3 missionaries live who don't have running water (including us). Jeff left and hasn't assigned me something specific to do. Fauna, his wife, asked me to plant some trees of theirs and water them while they are gone. I have to dig a 3' by 3' by 3' hole to do it, and by hand, so that will take a good while and is not an emergency. Later today I am going to view a project I'll be assigned at the studio, cutting and welding some pipe into something useful for the studio. I have welded before, and am still a beginner, but they are not concerned if the weld looks great, just that it sticks and I think I can do that well. I've got until Wednesday to get this welding project done, and then the man with the keys to Jeff's container that has the tools in it will be leaving. Jeff has asked him to bring the keys to him in the U.S., which is understandable because the Lord has blessed us with some expensive tools that need to be protected from misuse. I'm not offended that I wasn't entrusted with the keys :)

Please pray for our volunteers: Daniel Adams is recovering from Dengue Fever, Daniel W. is beginning pilot training here while his wife works at another ministry. Pray that our mission here will reach many souls!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling
http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

ARRIVED IN BOLIVIA!!!

Friends,

Min and I arrived safely on Tuesday morning in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. A friend of mine and pilot for GMI named D.J. Knott picked us up at the airport and showed us around town on the way to the RedADvenir TV station where we will be working and staying. Santa Cruz is an interesting city in that there are roads called "radials" that start from the center of the city and go outward in all directions, as well as "rings" that make a circle around the center of the city. The circle closest to the center is called "ring 1" and the next, "ring 2", etc. We travel west out of the city on the radial "double via" until kilometer 17 and take a left to get to the station. It's a good distance away and very peaceful. Min and I are staying in a shipping container that has been converted into a house. It is several feet off the ground on  cinder blocks and has running water from the well at the station, and 220V electrical power, a shower and toilet. We're very happy there. I am officially working with the pilots, who have a plot of land at the other end of the property and a grass runway. The airplanes are at a small nearby airport though. Min is working at the TV station. She may be the new cook, as the current one is leaving on Tuesday. She is hesitant about cooking for 15+ people, 3 meals a day but she is brave enough to be considering it. She is working with the current cook, Monica (who is from Guyana) and we will be taking a trip to the market together soon to buy food for next week. 

Today, RedADvenir had a visit from the local SDA conference. Two officials came and were very supportive. Everyone at Red ADvenir was very pleased and excited, especially David Gates. It seems that in the past, the Conference here has not recognized "supporting ministries" which are ministries that are not directly supported and supervised by the Seventh-day Adventist Conference. However, a change in administration has taken place, and now the door seems to be opening for us to work together in harmony! I  am very happy to hear this, although I didn't know there was a problem in the past with this until yesterday.

So far I have been helping the pilots move tools, oil, etc. from the TV station to a shipping container on the pilots' side of the property. This allowed the TV station to clean up the main studio for tours, as they were able to move their things into the adjacent storage rooms that were now empty. For me, it was a lot of lifting heavy objects and moving them all day. I was so grateful for a loving wife who could give me a back massage I so much needed that night! 

A little history: The TV station has sold their old property which was in the city (actually the city grew to encompass it) and bought a property in the country. The new property had no buildings, so they are almost starting over. They have a very nice main building now, and hope to be up and running soon. The pilots are working on Jeff Sutton's house. He is the director of the Aviation program here, and the new grass runway is across from his house. He just moved into the unfinished house just recently and we are working around him and his family. Please pray for all of us as we work to get these two ministries set up in our new location.

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

http://www.missionpilotscott.blogspot.com

Bolivia Mission Trip

Friends,

The time is getting closer when we should be able to depart. We have
received enough for plane fare, and to keep up with bills while we are
gone. All that remains are visas for Min and I, and enough commitments
from donors to supply our needs while in Bolivia. We're communicating
with those who've said they want to support us, and as soon as we know
for sure, we'll post that it's been taken care of, so you all can
rejoice with us! Please pray that God will continue to lead us in a
plain path on this trip. It seems that He is opening the next doors as
we walk through the ones He has already opened. We're excited!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

Re: Going to Bolivia soon

Awesome, if we want to make a donation, where do we send it? Jason

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 3:33 PM, Scott Sterling <scott.a.sterling@gmail.com> wrote:

Friends,

We've had quite a battle trying to launch to Africa. I'll go into more
detail later, but after four months, we still do not have sufficient
funds travel to Africa. It seems the Lord has kept us here. We were
frustrated and beginning to wonder if our plans were not in accordance
with the Lord's will, or if we had somehow made it so that he could
not bless our plans. It has been hard working, waiting and wondering.
We decided last year that, if at all possible, we would be back for
Min's brother's wedding in September. However, time is short now, and
even if we had the funds, it would be hard to justify spending them,
just to return in 5 1/2 months. We really want to begin working,
however, and an opportunity has arisen. David Gates suggested that we
go to South America until September. It is much cheaper to fly there,
and he even said he can give us a ride back, making it still cheaper.
Our upcoming tax refund and the sale of our cars ought to get us
there. Please pray for us. We are very excited!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

--
--
Jason Shives, MD
---
www.jshives.blogspot.com
www.HaitiHunger.com <http://www.haitihunger.com/>
www.AudioVerse.org <http://www.audioverse.org/>

(407) 536-8280
(909) 238-0194

---

"We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way
the Lord has led us in the past."

Going to Bolivia soon

Friends,

We've had quite a battle trying to launch to Africa. I'll go into more
detail later, but after four months, we still do not have sufficient
funds travel to Africa. It seems the Lord has kept us here. We were
frustrated and beginning to wonder if our plans were not in accordance
with the Lord's will, or if we had somehow made it so that he could
not bless our plans. It has been hard working, waiting and wondering.
We decided last year that, if at all possible, we would be back for
Min's brother's wedding in September. However, time is short now, and
even if we had the funds, it would be hard to justify spending them,
just to return in 5 1/2 months. We really want to begin working,
however, and an opportunity has arisen. David Gates suggested that we
go to South America until September. It is much cheaper to fly there,
and he even said he can give us a ride back, making it still cheaper.
Our upcoming tax refund and the sale of our cars ought to get us
there. Please pray for us. We are very excited!

God Bless,

Scott Sterling

:) :) :) Married!!!!!!! :) :) :)

The wedding went better than I could have asked! The Lord provided a wonderful day, with sunshine and little or no wind. It was cool (50-60 degrees F) but beautiful. The last two weeks before the wedding were extremely busy, and many "last-minute" details had to be managed, often with much help from friends. Scott's best man flew all the way from Washington State, and was a great help. Scott's parents came out too and we all had a wonderful week together. A week later, we flew to Seattle, WA, to visit Scott's family and prepare for Africa. For updates on our status for getting to Africa, or to donate towards our mission, click the link to the right that says "how to help".  Thank you for your prayers.