Today, Scott and I took the missionary van to pick up a missionary couple,
Clint and Mindy, from the hospital in town. They work at a missionary
school in Guayaramerin, 3.5 hours by flight from where we are. This past
Friday, there was an emergency to pick up Mindy, who was 5 months pregnant,
and started going into labor. It happens to be that when she was 3 months
pregnant, her placenta started to detach and she had to stay on bedrest for
about 2 months to help the placenta re-attach itself. Unfortunately, she
started to bleed and went into labor last Thursday night when they placed
the call for help. Our main pilot, Herman, couldn't pick her up that night
since the runway closest to the school didn't have lights. So he flew first
thing in the morning and took her to a good hospital here. She had to have
a C-section since the placenta started to come out first. The baby was lost
in this process. I feel very sad for both of them. This is the
2nd miscarriage she has had. They looked ok when we picked
them up, but I could tell that they were sad.
We had the funeral yesterday and they buried their child
together, saying their good-byes in private. With all this that has
happened, this couple will be leaving to go back to Canada this coming
Thursday. They have been through a lot, and they need time to heal.
The director of the school in Guayara, Suzie Cornejo (she's an American
nurse, married to a South American), accompanied Mindy and Clint during the
flight and took care of Mindy in the hospital. Just yesterday, Suzie
mentioned that they need someone to teach science classes and possibly a
music class. With Mindy and Clint leaving now, and another missionary
couple who is out of the country, they are short-staffed, and desperately
need help out there. The school in Guayara has about 30
preschool/elementary kids, and about 40 high school kids. Only the high
school kids board since they come from all over Bolivia. Many come from
broken homes, or have been abused in some kind of way.
Anyway, Scott and I felt that we needed to pray and ask God what to do
since we felt that there was a need that we could possibly fill. Scott is
strong in the sciences and I love music. We have never taught before, and
this factor intimidated us. So we prayed about it, and talked with Suzie,
and she was so excited saying "This is an answer to prayer!" The staff at
the school were praying that God would send the right people to them, and
someone else that was supposed to come ended up not being able to.
So Scott and I now have decided to pack up our few belongings and join the
missionary school in Guayara. We are hoping to fly out there this Wednesday
or Thursday. We are excited and nervous because it's a new place and things
will be very different there. But we know that God is leading us there.
Suzie says that fruit is expensive there, and other people tell me that
people don't have much variation in their diet: Rice and beans, beans and
rice… This will be a challenge for me, since we live close to Santa Cruz
(about 30 minutes by car) and here, fruits are in abundance, there is more
variety of food to buy, and food is cheaper. I didn't realize how blessed
we were until I thought about not being able to have that variety in our
diet. Other than this, we know that it's going to be a little hotter over
there, and we will be washing our clothes in the river J Kinda like
camping!
We will be living in the hut that Mindy and Clint were staying in. Right
now, someone is packing up their few belongings and putting it on a plane.
We don't know if they will be coming back to Bolivia or not. We hope they
do, though. So for now, Scott and I will be packing up our things and
running to town to get some supplies we may need while we are out there. I
understand that were we will be going to, there will be electricity (this
is a recent thing, since they didn't used to before), cell signal and a
small town 35 minutes away if we need to get something. As excited and
nervous as we are, Scott and I just want God to lead and guide us, and to
try our very best to be of help there during this time. For the time being,
we plan to be there until other volunteers re-place us. There is also talk
that if they get permission for another plane to fly, that Scott will be
stationed in Guayara and fly from there. We don't know what God has planned
for now, but we trust that He is with us. We talked to David Gates, the
director of the ministry about what he thought about our plans to help out
the school and he approved our decision and says that its great that we are
willing to help them out during this time, since the Bolivian government
could shut down the school if the required classes aren't being taught. We
don't want this to happen, since this school teaches young people about God
and trains them how to reach out to others. Scott and I hope to be good
examples to the kids there, because 75% of them come from non-Christian
homes. Please pray for us, as this is a big change in roles we are filling.
Pray that God will give us strength, wisdom and courage to face whatever
comes with this new adventure!
When Scott and I
back to Bolivia, the airplanes still didn't have permission to fly, so
Scott has been doing other things that have been keeping him busy. It so
happened to be that the cook left again for 2+ months to plan her wedding
in Guyana, her homeland, and during this time I filled in for her. I also
taught piano to the 8 missionary kids here. I enjoyed this very much! Scott
has been such a big help to me with running the kitchen. He has gone to the
market many times to buy food for the week and just did all he could to
lighten my load. I am so thankful for him!!!
I am glad to say that the cook came back 2 weeks ago, and things are a lot
better, in that Scott and I can focus on other things now. I just help
mostly for lunch now and help clean-up…etc. Although I was super excited
that the cook came back, I also knew that she was physically exhausted when
she left and I decided that things would go better if she had some help.
She appreciated this very much.
Before our decision to move to Guayara, we were approved to build on a plot
of land that was part of the pilot's side of the property here in Santa
Cruz. You can imagine how excited Scott and I have been. We worked on
designing our small 2 bedroom house and clearing some land for making our
garden. By the way, clearing a 10X10ft piece of land for the garden was so
exhausting and hard work! I slashed away with a machete, and Scott dug away
with a hoe we got from town.
During this past couple months, a lot of construction was taking place.
Three missionary homes are in the process of being built, and Scott has
been helping with this too. Also, he is one of 2 people that are allowed to
drive missionaries to town with the van. A new Romanian family moved down
here 3 months ago and Scott has been really kind in taking them where they
need to go into town and translate for them…showing them the way…which bus
to take…etc. A couple months back, Scott helped Norbert, the Romanian man,
start a couple beehives over here. Of course the bees had to be bought from
town and this took a while, mostly of going back and forth and helping
Norbert find the best bees and buy whatever he needed. Another set of bees
had to be bought since one beehive disappeared! Well, right now, the bees
are doing great and Norbert and his family are slowly adjusting to the life
down here. They are learning that things in South America don't go as fast
as in the States or Europe. They used to be so frustrated that things
happen so slow over here and people don't seem to care to be on timeJ But
now, they are accepting a different culture and learning Spanish. (From
Scott: "One hard thing to do is to be on time and very productive, even
when it seems like the whole world around you isn't.")
I will miss the people over here, but I know I will make more friends in
Guayara. This is the newest news I can tell you right now. I am happy that
we can take Raisin, our sausage puppy, with us AND our kitty cat, Olive.
Scott absolutely loves his kitty cat!!! She's 99% black with tiny white
hairs on her chest. She will run up Scott's back and sit on his shoulder
when he goes for a walk. Olive loves to take walks with Scott in the
morning. So ya, Scott walks the dog and the cat in the morning. Raisin, our
dog, used to be terrified of Olive, but now they play together. Actually,
Raisin mostly bullies Olive, and sometimes Scott has to "save" the kitty!
We are very happy together and with our pets. And we are learning more and
more about each other. One thing that we are working on is dying to self
(Gal. 2:20). When self is alive, its so easy to be selfish…but when we ask
God to help us, its amazing how He changes our attitude and actions for the
better.
Yesterday Scott and I went to the US consulate to try and see if they could
do my fingerprints that are required for my US Immigration papers that I
will need to send back to the US. Unfortunately, they couldn't do it here
and referred us to La Paz, a main city here, which is an 18 hour bus ride.
We emailed the Consulate there, and called, but we haven't gotten a
response. If we aren't able to get the fingerprints done in La Paz, our
next option is Lima, Peru. We are trying our best to get this done before
heading out to Guayara because we hear that doing paperwork from way out
there is very difficult. We will see what happens. For now we will miss the
free flight to Guayara this week and try to catch the one going in the next
two weeks, and see if we can get the fingerprinting done.
Take care and may God bless you.
Min
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