Home Safe, by Dana

Transportation is a constant in any culture. Here in Cochabamba, Bolivia we’ve seen some heart stopping options. Mind you, when we left Helena, Montana our 4 and 6 year olds were still in 5 point harness car seats. Ahh, I’d sigh a relief when where were both clipped in, a mommy achievement that ensured they’d stay put—safe for a few moments while I finished some last minute preparations; then we could head out for safe travel.

Here this morning, I saw an adult and what looked like a middleschooler both on a motorcycle, with 3 large encased instruments. Somewhat reasonable transportation, but much more often in Cochabamba we spot an under 3 year old child clutching the handlebars of a motorcycle, an adult driving, then a 4-6 year old on the back, arms around the driver (and no one wearing a helmet). After the first few times of eye bugging shock and awe, I now casually notice. It’s simply regular transportation. Lovingly, the dad is getting his kiddos to school (and our kids wear no seatbelts in taxis each day; there aren’t any).

Almost two years ago when we were just back to Montana after our look/see/decide trip to Bolivia, our friends and family asked us, “How safe is Bolivia?” We wondered too. All residences have high stone, brick, or concrete walls, topped with broken glass bottles in the cement to deter robbers and the like. Of course, some Wall Street Journal articles and photos showing heavily armed government militia taking over privately held companies hasn’t helped the safety image. We know thieves prowl the concha (market) and some areas of town are sketchy.

But what is safe? What’s an image and what is an illusion? Is it the goal to be safe? Is safety God’s plan for us?

Very soon after safely arriving in Helena from Cochabamba from the exploratory trip, a terrible home invasion happened to our close family friends in Kalispell, Montana. At nine o’clock at night, the dad (one of Quinn’s two groomsmen) unlocked his house’s side door to pop out to the garage to get a tool. A knife wielding, mentally ill drug addict entered their home while the dad was in the garage, and upon seeing the dad back in the house shouted and started to stab the dad. This family lives in a safe area of Kalispell, surrounded by beautiful homes and a few doors down from historic mansions. Safe is how the dad thought his family was until he found himself wrestling down a violent intruder in the hallway to the bedroom where his wife was reading bedtime stories to his two children. The grim episode made National Public Radio. There’s much more to this story, but thankfully the kids and wife were safe, the dad apprehended him despite knife wounds, and held him until the police came.

Quinn and I were shocked and scared for our friends’ terrible experience (praise God, they are doing well). Our question, “Is Bolivia safe?” morphed into, “What is safe, and does God want us to be safe?”
I’m never cavalier about safety; it’s a hallmark of my birth family. However, I began to see how too strong a desire for safety, can actually be dangerous. A risk-free faith life, a kind of “playing it safe” somehow puts us on cruise control, and the hazards of complacency are not far behind. Suddenly we have no regard for the poor, our prayers are anemic, and our thoughts become fixated solely on our petty preferences. On Sunday it’s too easy to sing about the “many dangers toils and snares*” without our hearts and minds engaged.

So my understanding of safety needs to change. Am I safely in the arms of Christ? Yes. Is the food and water I consume here safe? Perhaps. Will Jesus answer my prayers to break my heart for the things that break His, revealing a possible path to dangerous routes at times? Yes.

C.S. Lewis simply and powerfully illustrated this truth in the children’s classic, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” Lucy, a child is asking about the Christ figure, Aslan the Lion.
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “didn’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver told you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.”

Friend, when our faith is safe, we may be in grave danger. And when we step out of our safety zone for His sake, He is near.

*“Amazing Grace” public domain 

Life’s Perpetual Homework, by Dana

Our new life in Cochabamba has the four us learning full throttle each day, all day.  We are now living with host family Grover and Nelvia Arancibia Cruz, and their two adorable boys Matias (5) and Nicolas (3).  They are teaching us more about Bolivian culture, food and customs.   The Arancibia Cruz home is in a section of Cochabamba called Barrio FerroBiario, about 8 kilometers from the heart of the city.  Therefore Quinn has gotten even more proficient dealing with public transportation and fare negotiation with taxis.

Each morning the four of us go back into the city together so we can all go to school.  On the way to catch a bus, there’s an abandoned railroad behind the Arancibia Cruz’s where we have seen the same shepherd a few mornings with his flock.  After finding and hopping a “micro”, we get to a large rotunda where we hail a taxi and negotiate a price.  Once we get to Despartad (our children’s school), we walk the kids to their classroom and greet their teachers and other parents.  One endearing aspect of Bolivian culture is their insistence on greeting each person, as if each person matters.  I find this to be just like God’s heart.

While it’s my goal to achieve a “3 year old’s level of Spanish fluency” it’s going to take quite a while for me to get there.  Learning Spanish starting from ground zero, is simply tough.   Living with a Bolivian family puts us in a permanent soak of learning.  Looking back at our lives in Helena, I can see how my normal life was so often in auto pilot.  Before I never had use much brain power to go to the grocery, bank, get daily directions, make friends, how to cook, get safe water, how to decipher our children’s homework directions, decide what is acceptable to wear, bring to a party—well the list goes on.  And while I’ll admit that this commitment/preoccupation with learning is a new phase in my life, I am sure it’s more of the mindset God has wanted me to have all long.

I am finding inspiration for learning in our host family.  Grover, has the heart of a scholar.  First of all, he’s fluent in four languages (Quechua, Spanish, French and English), and his home office shows his love of learning.  While he did not have an ideal upbringing, living with many different family members, he achieved many accomplishments, including being ranked number one in Karate for the whole country.  On the cusp of training for Olympics to compete in Karate, he decided instead to pursue his study of the Bible.  He is now a teacher at a Christian school, and hosts many families like us.  He teaches and preaches at his church, works with the young adults and occasionally does translation work.  Grover is a very bright, humble, hardworking man dedicated to giving his boys (including one more on the way) a stable and godly childhood, different from his own. And God has surely granted him a gem of a wife.  Nelvia is also a treasure of grace, hard work and kindness.  And (lucky us) she’s an incredible cook!

Here’s some more inspiration to continually learn what God’s gentle heart wants to teach you:

Proverbs 13: 20a  “He who walks with the wise grows wise.”

Titus 3:14  “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good…and not live unproductive lives.”

Psalm 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and my Savior, and my hope is in your all day long.”

Psalm 90:12  “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”