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"Our heart, our desire, is to see the nations worship
the Lord." - Psalm 86:9
Boliva Team March 2010
Where to Start?!?
Guess Who!?! We are back, and my thoughts
are as bumpy as the roads back! There is so much to tell...and
I thought I`d start while the rest are showering!
Well, as we headed out early Saturday morning, we drove over
very rutted, bumpy eroded roads, even a bit worse than usual
because of the rainy season a few weeks back. Some of those
hairpin turns were pretty narrow and washed out...but the
Lord took us safely to every area we needed to get to. Only
1 flat tire, and a whole lotta`bouncing! We had a bit of a
new experience in that we arrived in a very remote area to
come up over the edge of a hill and saw a HUGE brick building,
kinda`in the middle of nowhere, to find out that was where
we were doing radios! It was a community municipal building,
still being built, and 7 villages were coming there that day
for a community meeting, and a local Bolivian pastor who works
out in those villages had asked if we could give out radios
to all the people coming. Now, that sounds great on the surface...but
none of these people were receptive to our coming, and made
it very obvious. Hector explained that the people in this
area are very suspicious of any outsiders, particularly because
of the Spaniards who pillaged their land and stole their children
so many years ago. Some of we ladies would approach a group
of sitting mothers and children, and they would actually turn
their heads as we tried to strike up a conversation! One little
girl I managed to convince to take a candy from me actually
went around our jeep and spit it on the ground! It was a little
disheartening...but we realized that in spite of the cool
reception, these people had never heard of God`s love and
if they wanted us gone...the radios they were willing to receive
would talk to them in a much better way than we ever could.
So we got their village lists, and handed out hundreds of
radios.
After that bit of a bumpy start, literally and figuratively,
we were off and running! Approx. 1350 radios later... the
village we ended in was such a stark contrast to that huge
brick unfriendly place...a tiny little poor adobe village,
where we slept on the mud floor of the little adobe and mud
church...but they gave us such a loving reception, and the
only food they had...a little bowl of corn on the cob and
sheep cheese. As we sang and played and made crafts with the
20 children in the schoolhouse, gave them little teddy bears
and bouncy balls, it was obvious these were the only toys
they had ever had, and their little brown eyes just danced!
And our final 50 radios were placed in such welcoming, weathered
hands...we were blessed beyond measure to complete our mountain
days with these dearpeople.
And on the lighter side, I have learned a few new cultural
tips...for instance, when you find a dying pheasant on the
side of the road, it makes a great hostess gift to the receiving
village! And tho we tried to add to that initial gift by chasing
a large jackrabbit full tilt in our jeep in the dead of night
around haripin turns in the Andes mountains...well, let`just
say that was not one of our best ideas, and the bird had to
be given alone...and VERY well received, I might add.
Also, when you sleep in a village deemed a chagas village,
it`s a good idea to run your tarps up the walls as well as
the floor. For explanantion, a few of these places had signs
on the road, calling them chagas project villages. This is
where the straw roofs which carry a bug which brings a nasty
sickeness called chagas...well, project are underway to replace
many of these roofs with the clay tiles, thus helping to eliminate
this terrible disease. So we did stay in a few places that
were in the midst of their chagas improvement ...thus the
wise idea of tarping as much sleeping area as possible. So
far, we are all bug free, but we`ll see.
Well, the shower stall beckons, and I must sign off. We had
an incredibly healthy, unified team...and we thank each one
of you who thought of us and prayed for us. We really could`ve
never done it alone! And we`ll be home late Sunday night,
hopefully, and will be looking forward to your welcoming arms
and smiles!
With Love...Tired, Smelly, but Greatly Blessed
Karinna
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