A Taste of the Bolivian Countryside

The past few weeks John has had the opportunity to visit the various work zones where FH Sucre is currently working. These zones are sprinkled across the countryside and typically 2, 3 or 4 hours away. Initially John will be working out of the central office in Sucre and in the neighboring suburb called Horna C’Kasa. However, starting in July, John will begin visiting several of these locations on a monthly basis to strengthen relations with pastors and begin implementing training on Biblical principles and wholistic ministry concepts. Many of these villages are tucked in the mountains of Bolivia and a rugged 3 hour ride across, alpaca pastures, rocky cliffs, and flowing rivers away. You definitely can’t consider half of the paths anything close to a road! The villages however, are filled with a unique countryside charm and the people (though Quecha speakers) are often very gracious and welcoming. Below are a few pictures and a brief description of the villages.

The flowers of Tomoyo. Tomoyo is a village located in a fertile plain between the mountains. Currently FH is working with 2 churches in Tomoyo and is training farmers with a large agriculture and live stock project.

Village stream outside of the FH Tomoyo office

FH Tomoyo office. The best mode of transportation through the mountains is via dirt bike.

This is a view out my window as we travel up the mountain from Tomoyo to Ravelo. Yes this is the road and the bridge all in one.

Our FH vehicle. The SUV's never come back the same color they left.

View from the road to Ravelo.

Village street in Ravelo. In a few short months this will be the home for the Hope Church team!! Yeah we can't wait!

FH office in Ravelo.

Up the mountain even further to Ckda Ckda and Ocuri.

View of the mountains from Ocuri. Ocuri is at an elevation of 13,500ft. One of the highest villages in the world.

The FH office in Ckda Ckda and Ocuri. Better bring a parka if you plan to sleep in Ckda Ckda. The weather at 13,000ft is quite cold and unpredictable. Projects in this region include, church strengthening, health and nutrition, and agriculture. At this elevation you really can't grow anything but potatoes so the families struggle greatly with health and nutritional problems.

The following pictures were taken on another journey to Chiuqisaca Central. Chiuqisaca Central is at a significantly lower elevation than Sucre, thus the landscape is lush and the climate warm.

Street view from the village of Padilla. FH assists in a variety of irrigation and agriculture projects in this region.

The village of Sopacuay. FH just began a partnership with a church in Sopacuay. John will be making occasional trips here to meet with the church pastor and leaders to facilitate training's on Biblical principles.

City square in Sopacuay. It's a beautiful little town.

"Christ Is My Lord Church" in Sopacuay. Here is will John will be spending a little time over the next few years.

Family Visits!

We were blessed to have our first visitors from home! John's parents, John and Roseann Warden, came to stay with us for 2 1/2 weeks. It was so fun to share our new world here with them. Of course, Ella was especially excited to have her Grandparents here.

We were able to show them how everyday life runs for us here in Sucre. We showed them the markets, stores, and parks. We were also able to visit several museums and other tourist places. That was extra fun for us as well because we hadn't taken the time to see some of those things. They were great sports in taking the public transportation (micros), as you can see below! The micros can get a little tight sometimes!

John and Roseann were also able to go with John to work a few mornings to see first hand the ministry that we are doing here, and meet the people we are working with. They were able to meet their sponsored children face to face and spend time with their families, which was really special. One Sunday we attended the Shekina Church, run by Pastor Elvis (black hair yes, side burns no...). John has been working closely with this church for the past few months and we have grown close with the kids that attend there. After the service we took a group picture with everyone who was there that Sunday. As you can see, the church is made up of mostly youth. It's really hard to reach the adult population here as they are so ingrained in their animistic religions. We are trying to empower these kids to know that they have the potential within them to change their generation.

Over Easter break we took a trip to see Lake Titicaca in Copacabana Bolivia, with an overnight stop in La Paz. John and Roseann really got a taste of what travel is like in Bolivia. We arrived to the Sucre airport around 10 am for our 11:15 am flight to La Paz. When we got there, we learned that they had changed the flight to 2:30 pm, two week ago! Normally the travel agency that you book your tickets through notifies you of these kinds of changes, however they must have forgot this time! So we made the decision to just wait it out at the airport instead of paying for taxis back to our house. 2:30 pm came and gone and we were still waiting for our flight to arrive. Finally, we boarded and took off around 3:45 pm. After spending the night in La Paz, we boarded a bus for a 4 hour ride to Copacabana. The bus ride was surprisingly pleasant as the landscape of the altiplano and mountains were spectacular. Three hours into our trek, we came to a port along Lake Titicaca that we needed to ferry across. The whole process was fascinating. All the passengers were unloaded from the bus and then ferried across the strait. The empty buses were also ferried across on little wood "barges."

Once the barge was full, 3-4 men with big sticks would push the barge from the dock, out onto the lake. (This was not an easy job as you can see in the video below!)

You can see below that they put two more cars on with the semi! I hope that last car has a good parking brake as it's just inches from rolling off.

Finally, we arrived at Copacabana on the shores of Lake Titicaca. The Lake is incredibly beautiful and actually quite large. Titicaca is the largest lake in South America (115 miles long and 50 miles wide) and the highest navigable lake in the world (12,500 ft in elevation). Known for its Inca history Lake Titicaca has several historical sites as well as spectacular views. The Andes mountains frame many views of the lake and the sun sets across the water at this elevation are magnificent. It was a great way to end our time with John and Roseann as well as a beautiful reminder of God's spectacular artistry. Their trip here to Bolivia was a blessing and we had a great time together!

Our first short term Missions Team!

This past week we said goodbye to 11 new friends. For 6 days we were part of hosting a short term mission’s team from Mt. Christian Church in New Mexico. Mt. Christian Church has partnered with FH Bolivia to establish a C2C (Church to Community) relationship with a neighborhood bordering Sucre. This was Mt. Christian’s second trip to Bolivia over the past year so a good relationship between the neighborhood of Horna C’Kasa B and the church has been established. The team of 11 members helped with various events throughout the week and participated along with the families of Horna C’Kasa B in a variety of activities. On Sunday FH hosted a community wide event along with the local church, Shekina, to celebrate family and the importance of God’s role for the family. There were a variety of trainings focusing on the role of the father, mother, obedience by children etc, as well as games for all ages. Below are a few pictures of participants in the games.

John giving a lesson on honoring your parents to a group of 6-12 year olds.

Mom and Daughter egg race

Winners of the Father and Son three legged race

Another highlight of the week was the opportunity that the team members had to visit their sponsored children and the child’s family. The worth that the families in Horna C’Kasa received from having “friends” come and share with them was immeasurable. You could visually see the excitement they had to share their story with their visitors and welcome them into a glimpse of their life. The visits were extremely powerful as well for the team members. To have the opportunity to meet and hear the story of these families is humbling, exciting and heart wrenching all at the same time. It was a blessing for Jennie and I to be apart of these visits and help facilitate the translation process.

The visit from Mt. Christian Church was a great reminder of the power of obedience by God’s people across the world. They came with such great attitudes and desire to see God honored with their time in Bolivia. They were an encouragement to us as a family and a blessing to share a week with. We are looking forward to their next visit in July!

Everyday Life

The kids ministry at Hope Church in Mason, Ohio has been one of our biggest supporters. They raised over $1,000 for our ministry (see previous blog entry), gave us a huge going away party, and even sent us little valentine notes of love and encouragement. This Sunday we are being highlighted as missionaries in the kids ministry and were asked to send some pictures of our everyday life. Last Monday, I took the camera with me (Jennie) while I ran errands and was out and about the town. I thought maybe our blog followers would enjoy seeing some of these pictures as well.

Our apartment building. We are the top window in the yellow section.

View from our living room window. We like watching the storms come in over the mountains.

Our family room, when it was decorated for Christmas.

Kitchen

Entrance into the Central Market, just 3 blocks from our apartment. Part of it is outdoor and part is indoors. We buy all our produce here.

Part of the fruit section

Bananas have their own section.

Veggies

One of many meat stands. I spared showing you the stands that sell the faces, hooves, teeth, and other various animal parts. (We don't buy our meat here! Can't get over the flies and smell yet.)

Our favorite little tienda just a block from our home. Milk, butter, eggs, condiments, toilet paper, juices, soda, candy, laundry detergent....you would be surprised at all the stuff in this little space. Kind of like a CVS. (Shout out to my brother Dan!)

Tigo office, where we go to pay our internet bill each month.

Post office

Inside the post office, where we pick up all the packages so many of you have lovingly sent us!

A Micro. Public transportation which we use often. 0.20 cents per person.

Church that John is working with in Horna K'Casa, a neighborhood outside of Sucre.

Inside the church

John and Pastor Elvis! They have become quick friends.

Supplies!

For those of you who have followed our blog for awhile you will remember a post we shared this past July about the Kids Ministry at Hope Church raising money for our ministry through their annual VBS. Through the generous giving of the kids they we able to bless us with over $1,000 to be used for ministry here in Bolivia. This past week we had the privilege to witness first hand the incredible way that God took the sacrificial gift of children in Cincinnati and used it to provide hope, joy and educational opportunities for underprivileged children in Bolivia. Yearly, FH supplies each sponsored child with a packet of materials for school. In Bolivia, all students are required to have their school materials within the first 2 weeks of school or they are not permitted to continue. With that said, many of the families that FH works with do not have the income to purchase school materials for their children. Thus, their kids are left with little to no education and little hope of escaping the generational poverty that limits them. This year as FH organized their budget for school supplies they realized that due to economic conditions and the additional number of sponsored children that they were stretched to find sufficient money for this project. With the help of the Hope Church children’s ministry the necessary amount needed was exactly met and the materials were supplied for each child. For some, this project seems small and insignificant, but for the children of Orna C’Kasa this project provides hope for a better future. On behalf of 850 children in Sucre Bolivia…. thank you Hope Church children’s ministry for your generous gift. You may never realize the opportunity that has been given through your sacrificial giving. Below are some of the faces you have blessed some 4,361 miles away!

Preparing the supplies the day before...we had lot's of help, including the dog!

Supplies given to each child: 2 notebooks, 2 folders with paper, 2 pencils, 2 pens, 2 erasers, 1 pencil sharpener, colored pencils

Supplies bagged and ready to be given away!

Since we knew each and every sponsored child would be showing up to get their school supplies, we tried to get a few other things accomplished as well. Below are the steps each child took to get their supplies.

Step 1: New photo for their sponsors.

Step 2: Registration with Pastor Pancho

Step 3: Updating their information with Jhonny.

Step 4: Writing thank you cards to their sponsors.

Step 5: Doing their part. Each child was asked to contribute 3 bolivianos (0.40 cents) towards their supplies. Even though the cost of the supplies is much more than this, it reinforces a feeling of ownership and serves as a reminder that they need to take an initiative in creating a better future for themselves.

Step 6: Receiving their school supplies.

Next...Pictures of kids with supplies and happy faces!