blessings others is one of the greatest blessings

God blessed me so much through my host family in Caranavi. The parents, Arturo and Lucia, were school teachers and they had two kids, Yermai and Judith. The parents knew a lot of English.
Each day for the two weeks we were there, we (patti and i ) would have lunch with the family. It was the highlight of my day to go back to our host family for lunch and spend time eating great food and having fun conversations! Arturo and Lucia always spoke to us in English so that we could help them improve their English. It was so encouraging to hear how God was working in their lives. I was blessed through hearing their stories and hearing the passion they had for Christ.
I figured i would learn a lot of Spanish staying with a Spanish speaking family, but after a week, i realized that I wasn't learning Spanish because we always spoke English with them. I had some thoughts about how I wasn't gaining the benefit of the Spanish language for myself. Then God showed me Philipians 2:4, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." It hit me that I wasn't put in their home so that I could become fluent in Spanish. I was put in their home because they needed people to practice their English with. They kept telling us that we blessed them so much by staying with them and they were so happy that they were able to grow so much in speaking english. God really just showed me that blessing others is the one of the greatest blessings a person can have. -Michelle

Final Words

Hey everyone! This is Nate here just wanting to say that we are all back home safely and soudly from our trip, and what a trip it was!!I've just got a few parting words of reflection before i sign off once and for all.
One of the things that really stood out to me the most on our month long adventure in Bolivia was some of the cultural differences that we experienced. I'm sure we all went through some culture shock down there, and me especially. We found out very quickly that Bolivia is a very relational-oriented culture as opposed to a time-oriented culture. I for one am very accustomed to being time-oriented and puntual and all that jazz, so this was pretty tough for me to get used to. Down in Bolivia they put huge emphasis on greetings and farewells, even moreso than actually showing up to the said event on time! A punctual person in Bolivia is about as common as a palm tree complete with coconuts here in Camrose! Very different. God definitely stretched me in this area and helped me be flexible and not to worry so much, and beleive me, there were a plethora of opportunities to worry! A verse that came to mind when i thought about this was Matthew 6:34 which says, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Amen to that! God was faithful and brought me through all the potentially stressful situations and really taught me to give it all up to Him because He is the one in control, not me!
Well, that is about it for me. Catch y'all later!

Nate

God's love is just like a grapefruit

Having the opportunity to spend two weeks in the jungle city of Caranavi, Bolivia, in South America is more than I could have ever asked for. Being able to spend those two weeks hanging out and playing with little kids made it that much more special. I don't think I could have picked anything I would have liked more. I get a real kick out of being with kids, and going into this experience I wondered if it would be the same in the deep, deep south. The south american children were everything I could have dreamed for, and much, much more! I never would have guessed that they would get such a hold of me, and keep such a precious place in my heart.
The language barrier with the kids never really played a large role in our time with them, not like it does with other "adults". There were times of frustration because we couldn't speak Spanish, but because of this our hand gestures and acting skills improved a lot! It got to be a fun game to try and figure out what the other person was trying to tell you. Then when you finally figure it out, you get this sense of accomplishment, and this "Oh, now I see!" moment.
Throughout my time with the adorable Bolivian kids, I was constantly reminded of the passage of scripture found in Matthew nineteen, "... But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs." I never imagined that I would meet so many amazing kids, and be so richly blessed by them in such a short time.
-Austen

Evangelism Here we Come

Overview of the last week.

-We have been busy working on what we are going to teach for evangilism classes.
-Done a little shopping.
-had some fun getting to know the people of the church.
-Varnished lots of furniture at the church.
-Work with AMOR in ACCION street ministry.
-taught suday school.
-went to a south american futbol(soccer) game.

Well that is about it from us. We are almost home. Most of the team is ready to got home but i (ang) really dont want to, but i guess if i have to i will see you on Sunday at oh lets say 2:52pm? NO YES? see you then.

The coolest person that I know
Ang

Patti really is coming home

Sorry for all the confusion about the last blog. It was in reference to the fact that our missionaries in Caranavi think that Patti is called to missions. BUt no need to worry she will be home on the 28th of may with the rest of the team.

As you may have guessed we are now in La Paz safely and healthy. We are going to be doing some work refinishing pews and teaching an Evangelism class to the young adults in the church. Also we have the oppertunity todosome street ministry(ang is super stoked). And dont forget about the sunday school class we will be teaching in all Spanish that should be interesting.

Did we happen to tell you that we are also going to have to chance to see a pro football(soccer)game. In South America.

Well thats all for now.

Love Ang and Michelle
YOUR FAVORITE BLOGGERS.

Death Road Trip Numero Dos!

¨¨So, Austen, hows it going?¨
¨¨well...i´m standing here watching men blow up mountain 30 feet above the road i´´m supposed to be driving on right now. Does ANYONE know whats going on? Does anybody speak English?¨
¨¨No Austen...only us...we´re the only ones that speak English and no we don´t know whats going on!¨¨

3 Hours Down the road....

¨¨¨Why is the bus stopping¨¨
¨Well it seems we´ve run out of gas...and the driver is removing the aisle panelling...this isn´t right!¨¨
Michelle; ¨¨Ang, whats your problem?!¨¨
Ang; ´¨¨ well i´ve had butt in my face for the past 3 hours...this man should just move...how do you think i am?!¨¨

Well, we got to La Paz only a couple hours late!

that sums up our second trip on death road....

patti may or may not be coming home....don´t worry she´s healthy.....

love michelle and ang....the hottest canadians in bolivia

White Canadians Can´t Dance

Well its been a while since our last blog and so much has happend. So we will just give you a quick overview,

-We have Been on a Steve Kaack death hike to a beautiful waterfall.
-We have created a new set for ABC KIDS tv program, it has gone from Random bright colors to a wester theme.
-we taught high school english
-got our but whipped at both wally-ball and soccee(latino kids are amazing)
- we did a hip hop dance on tv we are probably the best dancers.(joking)
-and did we mentioned that we were cowboys on tv as well.
-and not to brag or anything but we went to a lamma party with Marsh from the History Channel. lamma is amazing to eat.

Well that is all for now. Kerep you posted.

Love
Ang and Michelle the hottest cowgirls in Bolivia.

Noodle Mush

Well lets just say that if you are not from south america dont cook in south america unless you have lots of help. Well the team was asked to cook for like 20 people so we dicied to cook Tandori Chicken with pasta turns out that wasnt really a good idea. The pasta here really isnt the same at all. I soon learned that you have to fry the raw pasta first. it was a total gong show. The people at the radio staion took over and made rice, but the rest of it turned out good. The Bolivians loved it. That was how our friday night went.

Well today Saturday the 6th was our TV debut. We were probably the coolest and hottest clowns that the Bolivian people have ever seen.lol but really. also we cleabrtaed TJs bithday [our missionaries son], he is 9 today.

Tonight that boys went out to a small settlement with nick and shannon kraft to talk about abstinence to youth and young adults and the girls have th night off and tommorow we aer going to a waterfall all day to go swimming and have fun for a day off.

This is also exciting for the artistic peole on the team so nate and me the others are going to help create a new set.

Well hope all is well
Ang and team bolivia

Happy Birthday Chrissy, we love you