rainy season

Rainy season has started and with it an adventure. I, Jason, drove one of the motorcycles into town with Kody, another missionary, so he could mail some things for his visa. we got to town just in time for the store to close. all the stores close here from 12 until 2:30 for some reason so we went to the pastors house here in town and they fed us lunch. the pastor has about 10 mango trees and he let us pick some mangos. there is a type of mango called the manga rosa, which i believe means pink mango in english. it is soooooooo good and we were able to take about 15 home with us! we finally got everything done in town and the wind picked up really hard and the sky turned black. we headed out of town really fast narrowly missing the storm there. on the road back we could see lightning and rain to our left and lightning in front of us but it wasnt raining on us. with about 3km left it started raining and it felt like needles were hitting me in the face. i was pretty muddy and wet when we turned into our driveway, only to discover there were huge trees down in front of us so we could not make it to the school. we cleared a path off the road in the jungle to go around the trees only to find more trees down. we pulled what we could off the road and cut the vines with our pocket knives. we made it to school just as the storm there was leaving. we found out it had been really windy at the school and about 7 papaya trees had blown over among other limbs and trees around the campus. carrie had spent the last half hour squeegying water out of our house. everything was soaked inside. but praise God Kody and I had missed the worst of both storms and made it safely back. the boys were able to go cut the trees that fell with chainsaws so the truck could leave and pick up people from the community for church the next day. we have started putting up the internet antenna. it is about 60 meters high and i had the opportunity to climb it as we are working on it and install some cables. the sun was setting and it was a beautiful view from up there. we should finish this week and have internet next week at the school. this weekend, friday, saturday, and sunday, the fourth year students took over all of the jobs of the missionaries so they could get a feel for what it was like to teach and be in charge of different projects. i think they learned a lot and had a good time. on saturday night all the staff threw the boys in the river because they like to throw us in and since the roles were reversed we took advantage of the situation. on monday classes were cancelled so we could all go work in the chaco, which is where we plant rice. there is still more work to be done but we are making progress. God is so good and we are continually learning more and more each day. God loves us so so much and we are looking forward to sharing with everyone when we get back the wonderful things He is doing here in Bolivia.

Jason smashing yuca.

Filemon, dressed as the priest in the model sanctuary the first year students made.

Part of the choir.

Silly game the boys here play.

A fun game on student day!

Bolivian Culture

This week I have learned some more about the culture here in Bolivia. One day while I was working in the chaco, I noticed some girls who were slowing down and taking frequent breaks, so I wanted to tell them to keep working. When I took a second look, I realized I did not have a clue who one of them was. She was covered from head to toe literally with clothes. She had a long sleeve shirt, pants, and a shirt over her head with only her eyes showing through the neck of the shirt. She was also wearing a hat which came down over her eyes. Lots of students wear long sleeves when they are working because they do not want to get more sun. This week I learned why. To them to be dark skinned means you are poor, it means you must have to work a lot in the fields and to be light skinned means you are rich, you don’t have to work in the fields. They also get that impression because they think all Americans, white people, are rich. It’s sad they put so much value in what others think of them, but when we reflect on our own lives and how we get dressed, do our hair, etc every morning we realize we are just as guilty of worrying about what other people think as they are. Praise God, He does not judge us on appearances. This past Wednesday I went to Yata to help start the health classes. Nancy, another missionary, and I went with two students to give the classes. The students had prepared the presentation on the 8 natural remedies of health: water, pure air, nutrition, rest, exercise, sunlight, temperance and most importantly trust in God. When we got to town we went door to door inviting people. The people were very nice and seemed happy that we were inviting them, many saying yes we will come, see you there. Wow, what a success we thought as we walked back. Then I remembered how it is in Bolivia…people always say that they are going to do something or come to something, but don’t really mean it. Maybe they are just trying to be nice and not hurt your feelings, but it seems like a lie to me. I explained to the girl that was walking around with me that in the US people would say they are not interested and/or shut the door in your face. We decided if you are the person knocking on the door, it is better they way they do it in Bolivia, at least you leave feeling happy. It made me think of the parable in the Bible in Matthew 21:28-32, where a master sends out two servants and one says he won’t go work and later decides to go, while the other says he is going, but never goes. Unfortunately even in the US the people who say they aren’t going really don’t go. Our faith must be seen in actions not just in words. Anyway the health class ended up going very well! We had 8 ladies who were actively involved. The girls did a great job teaching the material and they all seemed to enjoy it and were excited about next week. Next week they are going to teach them how to cook with eggplant and encourage them to start their own gardens. Most of the people in Yata eat rice, meat, and yucca with very little if any vegetables, so hopefully we can help encourage them to start eating more healthfully as we give them new recipes and ideas of what to cook. They do not sell vegetables in Yata so the people will have to grow their own. Praise God that he has opened the door for health evangelism there. Back on campus, we have a student who is really struggling with belief in God. He asked the question; “How does nature reveal God to us?” We began telling him about how God provides the rain to water the plants, how the plants give us food and provide flowers for our enjoyment, the sunsets with lots of colors and the stars at night all point to the majesty of God and how everything in nature has a purpose. Later that week I went to work in the chaco again and saw this student out there and realized why he was having a hard time seeing God in nature. The chaco is a huge piece of land, several acres, that has all the trees cut down and has been burnt. Everything out there is black and we work moving the wood into piles and burning the extra branches. It looks like death out there, so I told him that is where we see sin in nature not God and that he needed to go work in the garden to see God. This past week I taught the Sabbath school lesson all by myself and am praising God that He is giving me the words to say. It is difficult because it is hard to tell if they understand the material. They will gladly read Bible verses, but to get them to respond to a question is close to impossible, even after you just said the answer. Jason gave his first worship on his own in Spanish in our family worship and did a great job! Time is flying and we can hardly believe there are less than 4 weeks of the school year left. Pray that these students will continue growing in their walk with God so they will be able to remain faithful no matter what trials they may face during their vacation.

Watching the baptisms.
Baptisms!!

Gido and the biggest frog I have ever seen. This is in the unfinished septic tank for the girls dorm. He is rescuing the frog.
Jason making Yucca.

Jason after working in the chaco.

The first week of October is here, and with it a taste of fall weather. It rained really hard for a couple days and then got really cold. But when the sky cleared it was absolutely beautiful weather. It was a nice change from the scorching heat. They said it is normally rainy season by now but it has only rained a handful of days so far. On Sabbath, we had two churches from Guayaramerin come to our school. About ten people were baptized in the river, and it was very neat to see them baptized out in nature. I couldn’t help but wonder what it must have been like to listen to Jesus and John the Baptist preaching and seeing thousands of people listening to their message. And the power with which they spoke leading the multitudes to repentance and baptism.
This week I, Jason, have been speaking on post-modernism and the emergent church and the different forms of worship/prayer that are coming into our churches. It is something that I am still learning myself and a bit complicated, and it has been somewhat of a challenge simplifying the messages so that the kids can understand. I am able to speak pretty well in the present tense in Spanish but giving devotionals I have a translator because it would be really hard for me to communicate about spiritual things in another language. I definitely wouldn’t want to portray the wrong ideas by misusing words. But I have enjoyed it very much and I have two more messages to go this week. Carrie has been doing a great job leading a Sabbath school class and preparing worships in Spanish for our family group. We have about 9 kids who come to our house twice a week for worship in the evenings and last night Carrie wrote a really nice worship on Daniel 1. We asked the kids what they would like to study and one of the first year girls said Daniel so we started that study last night.
Yesterday we cancelled 3rd and 4th year classes, which are juniors and seniors, so that we could all go out and work in the chaco. The chaco is our field where we plant rice. We have cut down all the trees and vines in the jungle and have burned everything. Now we are cutting all the trees into firewood with chainsaws and stacking them in huge piles to take to town and sell. We had an assembly line of about 15 kids passing logs of firewood to stack. There was smoke and dust everywhere and everyone was pretty black from the soot on the wood but it was a lot of fun working together.
We sold granola again today and I, Carrie, realized something that is very different here from in the states. When we go to people´s doors to sell the granola, which first off would not even happen in the states, because people would think we were trying to poison them, people often will say we have no money right now. These people live day to day. Remember we are selling the granola for $1.25 and they don’t have even that much in their house. Imagine not having even a dollar to your name. Maybe we would learn to depend on God more to supply for our needs…but for know we can praise Him for all the many blessings He gives us each day!