Compassion International in Bolivia

I had the chance to visit a Fair put on by Compassion International recently.  Compassion has invited us to provide them with some feedback on their plans for encouraging entrepreneurship among their youth as a way to break the cycle of poverty.  It's very cool to see what business can do for people who otherwise have few options.

Compassion International does some great work with kids in dire circumstances.  But I was very impressed to see that they were working hard to help these kids find a way to become self-reliant.

My colleague Duane, from Canadian Baptist Ministries talks to some of the Compassion project directors.

Talking to some girls about their marketing plan.

Combining the idea with the understanding of business processes.

Potential business ideas ran from very traditional, to quite innovative.

Learning some new moves- by Dana

Quinn’s and my time in language school is drawing to a close.  Quinn’s next steps in Business as Mission are a bit more defined than mine.  I’m on the lookout for what ministry opportunities will  arise.  In some ways I feel so helpless with my language skills.  After 3 months, I am about at the level of an 18 month old baby.  Gaining ground in Spanish will open up more ways to serve here.  However I was happy to be asked to speak last weekend at Comunidad Cristiana Belén (Bethlehem Christian Community) on the topic of friendship. 

Angelica and Dana speaking together

One of the directors of our language school is Angelica Echalar.  She’s a bright, caring and committed Christian.  Quinn and I both have enjoyed classes with her as she’s engaging and expressive and anything she says in her native language sounds so beautiful and romantic.  My Spanish will never mimic hers I’m afraid!   Today in Bolivia is Día de la Amistad, a day to express friendship through cards and the like. 

So when she asked me to speak at her church, I was honored.  Angelica translated my message sentence by sentence or phrase by phrase if I got too wordy.  At first when I put together my thoughts on friendship, I worried that there wouldn't be any “meat” to the topic.  And yet as I dug into examples of Jesus’ friendship and the many passages throughout Scripture on friendship, I was quickly surprised at how much I wanted to say.

After the message, a young woman asked me again for some of the Scripture references and said she thought the talk was “just for her.”  She said she’d been missing her friends during her time away from her regular friends and family, and she was encouraged by the talk.  This feedback made my day.

Paola and the Sparkle kids

Taking the lead from Mother Theresa’s wise quote that, “We can only do small things with great love,” I have also been helping a local group launch “Sparkle,” a music and movement class for toddlers.  My friend Paola (the one who helped us find our apartment) is the leader and she hopes to use the Sparkle classes to bless small children and their moms, while gently introducing young families to the love of God.  She has the support of her church, sister, and our children’s school.  And yet she still craves a bit of help with the dishes and has needed “practice kids” so she can rehearse teaching before the first class.

And so Kellton and Astoria have learned the Spanish songs and the fun movements, and I have helped in small ways washing the dishes and serving refreshments after class.  At the very first class, I enjoyed seeing a grandmother and toddler, and several moms who appeared to come from very different walks of life, all enjoying Coca tea and chocolate cake at the end of class.  The love of God was there and I am thankful to have this tangible opportunity to pray for and help with this creative outreach.

A good description of Angelica and Paola is found in Proverbs 11:24-26 (NIV)  One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.  A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.  (emphasis mine)

The moms enjoys some tea and cake while the babies play.

Astoria enjoys the dancing in Sparkle.

Work as Worship

It seems like I've been inundated with information, questions, and reminders concerning the idea of a theology of work lately.  Some of this has been from other missionaries, some from local Bolivians, and even some from friends back in the states.  I hope to share some more information regarding this topic in the future, but for now I just want to share a video from the Work as Worship Network that I hope gives you something to think about.  The reality is that many of you in the workplace have more opportunity to impact non-Christians than those working in full-time ministry.  I hope you enjoy...

Ducks in an Apartment Building, by Quinn

We continue to have experiences that remind us that we are not in Kansas anymore... Or Helena, or Indianapolis, or Bozeman, or anywhere else familiar for that matter.

Last week, Kellton and Astoria came home from school with two baby ducks.  Dana thought it was quite funny to just set the box on the table and have me open it without explanation...  I have to admit the ranch kid in me just about lost it.  What was my wife doing buying ducks as pets?  Doesn't she know... well, the smell, the odds of survival, the smell, we live in an apartment building, did I mention the smell?  OK, so it was actually homework from the kids' school and we only had to have them for two days, but she still loves to tell people of the look on my face when I first opened the box.  And yes, for only two days, I can admit they were very cute.  OK, and my kids are pretty stinkin' cute with them!

For two days and nights, we fed and watered them, and kept them in our shower.  Kellton and Astoria kept a vigilant watch on them, and those ducks generally tried to make themselves at home in our shower.  I couldn't help but wonder what kind of reception they would receive if they escaped though.  Imagine a couple of ducks wandering through the halls of our apartment building, cheeping fairly innocuously, but leaving behind messy reminders of their passing, that probably wouldn't be so well received.  And then it occurred to me:  I'm a duck!

As I wander around the city of Cochabamba, I generally stick out like a duck in an apartment building.  I try to communicate to the best of my ability, and for the most part, people are very accepting of my 'cheeping' and making noises that obviously aren't local!  And my communication continues to improve.  That's not the problem.  What am I leaving behind?  Hopefully the reminders and legacy I leave behind don't stink and require a lot of cleanup on the part of others.  (Yes, cleaning the shower required bleach, and leaving the bathroom window open for several days to air it out.)  The tough thing about trying to operate in such a way that it is building others up, and not creating more problems, is that time is required just to understand the culture, the business environment, the local laws and expectations; and figuring out what aspects of my former education and experience need to be discarded in order to appropriately apply other aspects.  This means that things don't happen on MY timetable.  It is often difficult to feel like I am 'accomplishing' anything, when much of my job is to observe, learn more language, and observe some more.

Speaking of time tables:  Dana & I were both a little shocked to be told that winter break may be moved up because it is so cold here.  First off, I haven't stopped wearing short-sleeve shirts and have only worn my coat once, because it was raining.  So "because it was so cold" seemed a bit different from a snow-day back in Helena.  But secondly...  you can just change the dates of the school vacations?  Don't people plan around that?  How are we supposed to plan for our language school classes, when we don't know where the kids will be?  When we have tried to express our surprise to others about this, they have just laughed and replied that "everyone knows" the vacation schedule is never the actual schedule...  Yep, still working my mind around that one.


In the meantime, I can only hope that being a duck means I am half as cute as this...

Just like home (only totally different), by Dana

A few things are different here in Cochabamba.  Well, perhaps most things are quite different, but this beautiful city with lindo (lovely) people is beginning to be more like home, especially now that we have rented our own apartment.

After four months or so living with four different families in Montana and Bolivia--each one a real blessing--we are happy to be in our sparsely furnished flat.  A bit of God’s smile shined through as our building is named after Abraham Lincoln, and the adjacent park is parque Lincoln.  Perfecto for us!

Renting an apartment here isn’t as simple as whipping open the Sunday paper and scanning the ads.  Our Bolivian friend Paola (an answer to many prayers) helped us find our place, and because of her family’s friendship with our landlady, Paola assured her that we would be good tenants.  Simply having sufficient funds would be insufficient to secure a place to live.  So I am thankful for our new friend’s kindness in giving her recommendation on our behalf.

Learning the ropes of shopping is new here…in the olden days of Helena I drove my SUV to Costco and loaded up a cart so large it was the same size of some streetside restaurants here in Cochabamba.  Now when I shop, I walk to an outdoor tienda and eke out my Spanish questions and place my order for fruits and veggies right off of a busy city rotunda.  Then I carry all the produce up the hill a mile or so back to our place. I really enjoy combining shopping with exercise and getting to know the vendadora who’s at the stand every day.

Some other things are different about our new digs:

Hats and sunscreen are a must.  The elevation of 9,000+ feet plus sunny weather every day makes this a constant thing to remember, especially for our kids.

What's for dinner?  Hamster?

Lots of kissing.  When you meet someone new, or say goodbye, while touching the persons cheek with your cheek, you give a little kiss in the air close to their cheek.  Even my children’s lovely and (equally) rowdy playmates from upstairs politely kiss us all goodbye after a rough and tumble play date.

Dirt.  They say that in Cochabamba a plane touches the earth before it actually lands (due to all the dusty air).  Even if I sweep our floors cada dia, I can see what looks like a landing strip cleared of dust where we most frequently walk.  I am thankful I am not uptight about a squeaky clean home.

Food.  Who knew Astoria would love chicken hearts?  Walking to school today we saw a convention advertisement promoting healthy hamster meat.  And now in an effort to avoid water at a restaurant that may make us sick, Kellton has fallen in love with the orange sugary soda Fanta.  Thankfully, making fresh tumbo juice is now also a family favorite.

Transportation.  I’ve decided that either I either need to go on heart medication or ramp up my prayer life on the way to school.  The drivers seem most comfortable with close calls.

New friends.  Most of our friendships in the States are relationships we've had for many years.  Shared history, inside jokes, past foibles all weave us together.  Now we are investing in new relationships, and have met many interesting and thoughtful business people.  So between language school and setting up our new apartment, Quinn is enjoying a small taste what will be his central work to come.

Construction.  Buildings here, even 10-story ones are built largely by hand out of concrete.  There’s a building we watch out our window and the laborers are leaning out the widows, smoothing out the concrete with their little spatulas.

So yes, many things are different, and constantly learning Spanish is the most prominent new change for us.  Our many life changes have me constantly thinking throughout the day on the topic of change.  As followers of Christ, change should be central to our lives in many ways.  Our God does not change, and yet if we do not, we block Him out of our lives.  If we resist the changes He is calling us to, we cannot be His disciples and His word is no longer alive in our lives.  He wants to change our ways of injustice toward others, alter our attitudes, transform our pockmarked habits and secret sins, and alter our false notions that perhaps God is off duty.  Sometimes His changes are painful.  Sometimes they’re healing and peaceful.  But more often than not, He has changes in store for us.

Naturally, I resist change, even if the change might be for the better.  I’d rather stay comfortable than take a risk and try something new.  I find words like traditional, classic, and always a comfort.  And yet, God loves us too much to let us stay the same.  He wants us to look like His Son.  Therefore the need for major overhauls again and again.

I was moved when a new friend told me that his brother had fundamentally changed when he’d married a Christian woman.  While our friend has not yet come to faith, he was struck with how loving and patient his brother had become due to his growing faith and changes he’d made in marriage.  How might we all reveal this kind of change to our friends and families?

So while I work through all the new changes in our surroundings here in Bolivia, I am also trying to yield my life to the changes God wants, so He can mold me to be more like Christ. 

Isaiah 64:8 (NIV)

⁸ Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”  --C. S. Lewis

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.”