Bolivia Mission Team ~CLBI~

blessings others is one of the greatest blessings

2006-05-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-29T23:09:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-05-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

¨¨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

2006-05-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

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

tuesday

2006-05-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

hey everybody! so its tuesday now, about 2 o´clock and here i am in an internet cafe in Caranavi! its nearly winter here, and i am sweating. it´s humid and probably around 20 degrees c. we got out first real sleep last night, as we had pretty much been up since saturday morning! good news! our luggage made it and is being deliverd later today! praise the Lord! so as i said we are now in caranavi, which is about 6 hours north of la paz - where we landed. it was the most beautiful and scenic drive i have ever been on. unbelievable. it wasn´t really until then that it hit us as to where we are!we are in south america! ah. Caranavi is about 12-15 thousand people and is neat. kinda what you´d expect i think, markets, crying children, wild drivers, spanish. its wild. we kinda got split up for our sleeping arrangements, nathan and I are staying together at an orphanage - where no one speaks english. it is enjoyable to say the least. ang is staying with the our missionary family with theïr¨"maid" type friend julia. michelle is staying with some teacher from the school who knows a little english, and they are soon to be joined by patti who stayed with another teacher last night, but that didn´t really work out. anyway...

we are all doing pretty good, especially now that we have slept! we met the crew at the radio station last night at supper. they are nice. shy, and young. kinda like 20´s. so it looks to be a good time. we didn´t really "work" today, as we are playing catch up from the last couple days. but by tonight and tomorrow we hope to be fully involved with them. exciting. we´ll keep you posted as to how it goes with the tv/radio station!

so the krafts our the missionaries here. they are nic and shannon with there kids madison, moses, tucker, and tj. they have been awesome to us and made us feel so welcome. nic picked us up from la paz yesterday, so we had 6 hours to get to know him, interesting man, very fun! he figures with the new government though, he and other americans only have a couple years left before they get kicked out. i guess we´ll see what God has in store for them.

well, i wish i could write more, i could probably write about 30 pages and its only been 2 days. crazy. please keep us in your prayers, especially for ang´s mono and for all of us to get enough rest and not over do it. pray that our minds would be quick at learning spanish and to not get frustrated when we can´t figure it out. thank you for all your support, thank you for giving us the opportunity to come here, it truly is a blessing. please keep checking back here and feel free to email us to say hi and let us know how you are. we love and miss you all! God be with you all.
austen and team bolivia

We've Arrived!

2006-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

We are safe and sound in La Paz Bolivia! We got here on time... but our bags did not. Our flights were good, the descents were a bit hard on our bodies. We haven't slept very much or well since waking up saturday morning, but it is all part of the adventure. We currently have 1 change of clothes, so this could be an interesting few days until we get our bags. Please pray that our bags would arrive soon. Also pray for us as we go down to Caranavi today, it is a 7 hour drive.. for 200 kms... a dangerous road I have heard. We will be staying in host homes, so prayer that we will get along ok with minimal spanish, and try new things, food mostly, but stay healthy.

Team Bolivia

We're Off!

2006-04-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

It is friday afternoon and we are attending to our final details before heading out to Bolivia on Sunday. It is also Ang's 20th birthday today. There is a lot of excitement in the air along with a multitude of other emotions as the year is ending and we prepare to leave and say our good-byes to the 1st years.

Please keep us in your prayers as we pack, review details and travel all day Sunday. We leave Camrose for the airport around 3:30am, and we will arrive in Bolivia around 5:30am Monday morning. We will be spending the first 2 weeks in Caranavi working with the Kraft family and the ABC Kids Television program doing evangilism. The second 2 weeks we will be in La Paz with the Groff's helping out at Redeemer Lutheran Church.

We will update this blog as often as possible to let you know what we are doing, how we are and prayer requests.

Team Bolivia
- Patti, Austen, Nate, Ang and Michelle

Team Bolivia

2006-04-20T19:48:00.000-07:00