Jan/Feb 2012 Update
Sorry, we didn’t get an update out for Jan. Those days just flew by!
January 2-7 found us at the annual Mission conference. It was held at our mission training center in Santa Cruz. The speaker was a big encouragement and blessing.
January 9-14 found us at our church’s youth camp. There were about 71 of us including the staff. There were kids that had come from three other towns in Bolivia, besides the ones that came from Cochabamba. The exciting thing was that the parents of one of the kids came to visit the camp and see how things were going for their son; while there, our Pastor talked to them about the Lord and they accepted Him as their Savior! Dwight
and I will probably start discipleship time with them soon. The last night of camp we had a camp fire and many kids re-dedicated their lives to live for the Lord. Pray for the new converts and that the young people will follow through with what they decided at the campfire. The 3rd of February Dwight submitted paperwork to renew his pilot license as it expired on that day. This is normally something he needs to do every six months, but with the delay of it being issued last time, he only had a license for four months. Pray that they will issue him the indefinite license as they keep promising to do.
Feb 5th was the church’s Thanksgiving supper. We prepared tables for 150 people. The church bought the chicken and one of the women from church baked it. Then everyone else brought side dishes and desserts to share and a drink for their table. At dessert time…you would have laughed if you had walked into the kitchen.
There was not enough counter space, so you would have seen several of us women using the floor to try to divide out the desserts in 150 little dishes. The next day my body was so sore, and I couldn’t figure out why….but then I remembered all the “contortions” I went through to try to make up the dessert dishes on the floor. Needless to say, I used some muscles I don’t normally use! Yikes!
Feb 7th found Dwight and I on the road with the old Mission van, taking a load of Ayore Bibles and song books to Santa Cruz, where we were going to have our field leadership meetings. Our meetings were on the 10th and 11th, and the rest of the time was spent doing other Mission business that we couldn’t do from Cochabamba.
We wanted to return on the 14th, but then there were major blockades on the road. Finally Wed evening the blockades lifted, so early Thursday morning we left the guesthouse before 6am, hoping to get past the busiest part of the road. Needless to say, that didn’t help as I think all the truckers who were also waiting for the blockades to lift, also decided to wait till morning to leave. The first half of the trip went fine although there were TONS of trucks to pass on the two lane highway. The worst part was when we got into the mountains and trying to pass big semi’s on a curvy two lane highway is quite a challenge. We got into several “traffic jams” because of vehicles stopped on the road or construction going on, so the traffic was down to one lane. Then we got into rain and it started to pour so hard, the side of the mountains became like a huge water fall! To top it off, the defroster on the van wouldn’t work, so I was out of my seat belt, leaning way over on one hand, so I could reach Dwight’s side of the windshield and kept having to wipe it off so he could see through the rain and fog. (I felt like a human windshield wiper!) We arrived at a
police checkpoint where the guard leaned over and told us to put shampoo on the inside of our windshield! We were willing to try anything at that point, and so promptly bought some tiny little bags of shampoo from a little shack on the side of the road. I had to smear the shampoo on little by little because it would foam up white, but then leaving it on, it would dry and GUESS WHAT? IT WORKED! We could not believe how it helped the windshield from not fogging up. So to make a long story short, our trip should have been 8 hours, but it took 11! We were so happy to get home safe and sound. My friend called us when we were on the road and said they were praying for us, and I kept thinking about that. I was so grateful to know someone was praying for us on that “adventure”.
We are back at home and the 20th and 21st were holidays for Carnival. Yesterday we went downstairs with our neighbors and joined the water fight that always goes on this time of year. Then our neighbors invited us for lunch which we ate about 2:30. At 6:30 a bunch of ladies from church were coming over to have a little party. (This was actually initiated by one of them saying….Let’s have a party at the Brown’s house! So I said
agreed. ha!) There were about 14 of them, and we had fun telling about something funny or scary that happened to us. Then we spent a time in prayer, and then a few minutes accepting suggestions for the ladies’ weekly meetings that were going to be starting up soon. There was lots of food, as most everyone brought a little something to share.
Pray for the sale of the Cochabamba guesthouse. Dwight is overseeing the process and the Mission is downsizing the guest facilities. Pray that the Lord will give wisdom in the whole process. Pray about the timing of us taking a bit longer furlough. It needs to be worked around our team’s furloughs, and new personnel arriving, and responsibilities that need to be taken care of before taking a furlough….which can get a bit complicated.
We just want to thank each of you who are a part of team here in Bolivia through your prayers and/or financial gifts.