May 2010 Update
May has come and gone, and so we want to catch you up on what has happened that month. It was a special month for me as a Mom, as I got “Happy Mother’s Day” wishes from the US on the 9th, but then on the 27th (Thur.) was Mother’s Day here in Bolivia. Our friend came over that afternoon, with her 2 daughters and 1 son. They brought me a small pillow and a rose; and that evening we took them to a special hamburger place in town, and then went to get ice cream.
Not only that, the Sunday following (30th) there was a special program at church for the mothers. The climax of the program was the last skit….which the men put on. Dwight took part in the skit, and since “pictures speak louder than words” I will just let you look at the pictures. Many of the ladies were laughing so hard….Dwight was tagged as the “estudiante intercambio” (the exchange student). After the program, we all went out to the yard of the church where the moms got to serve themselves first to the yummy chorizos the guys had grilled.
You think that would be celebration enough, right? Well, I’m not done yet. The ladies group wanted to have a special mother’s day ladies’ meeting. I invited them to have it here at the Mission home since we have a small chapel with a piano. We decided we were going to grill hamburgers since there were two grills. Well, the small chapel “went out the window” as the number of women grew from 30-40 to about 60! We couldn’t fit 60 chairs in our small chapel, so Dwight and I worked hard getting 3 of the 5 tables out of the dining room and then set up the chairs in there. When we had more help, we brought in the piano also. Well, the ladies started coming and filled up the chairs! There were ladies standing up in the kitchen area! We ended up with 79 ladies! I was told later that some of the ladies had brought friends that were not saved, so the speaker brought in the salvation message in her sharing. It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun, as several helped to put things back in place afterwards, and then sat and visited over a cup of coffee!
On to another topic now: on the 19th and 20th the leadership had their meetings again. It was approved for Dwight and I to attend a seminar being offered in Sanford. It is called the “Peacemakers”. It is course on how to help solve conflicts in a practical way. Dwight and I are very desirous of going, as we feel this could really be a positive thing in helping us develop more in the roles we have here on the field. We are looking forward to being in Sanford, FL on the 18th-23rd of July. Of course since we are on American soil, we want to take advantage of that and spend a bit of time with our kids and if we can find some “wheels” we would like to go visit our church in Iowa. We will only be in the US for about a month, and we will be bringing Dwight Samuel back with us to Bolivia for a short visit. He has been given a donation towards a ticket.
One more thing I want to tell you, is that I took a friend from church who talks Quechua to meet my “mamita” and to tell her about the Lord in her mother tongue. Please pray for mamita that she will get saved before it is too late. That day we went, I was so exhausted I was tempted to postpone the visit till a later date. But all I could think of was: “What if she dies?” and I didn’t want to go just because I was tired??!! Her life was worth way more than that! She got really sick after we had made our visit, and I was so glad that I had taken that time.
Dwight, along with our church planting consultants, flew into two remote areas to encourage the believers and see how they are doing. When they flew into the Chimane work, they took in the “fixed” transmitter for the radio station. They hooked it up and it ran for several hours and went out again. So it was once again flown to town where our co-worker, Carlos (who is very handy in things like this) fixed it. Dwight was able to fly it back up there later on, and went in and hooked it back up. The radio station is in operation again…..sending out teaching in Chimane and even a few other languages.
Prayer requests:
Pray that our time at the seminar will be very profitable and that we will retain what we learn.
Pray that we will have a time of rest and relaxation, as Dwight and I are really feeling the need for a break.
Pray for Dwight S. as this is his last semester in college. He was encouraged to find out that NTM has 4 openings for a graphic designer! Pray as he works to pay off his student loan and looks to the Lord for raising up supporters.
Pray that as we interact with our local church, that we will be a challenge to them to get involved in reaching out to others in their own country who have not had a clear understanding of the gospel…..especially in those hard to reach places.