Santa Cruz! Volume 1

Howdy Everybody! Sorry it’s been a while. We’ve been here in Santa Cruz for a few weeks now and our time here is really beginning to take shape, in fact it seems like it will fly by.

Here's a few things will be getting involved in.

Much of what we'll be doing will be with the Ayore community. The Ayore are an indigenous group from various parts of lowland Bolvia and Paraguay. Many Ayore have moved into the city in recent years and formed urban squatters camps. Sadly, these camps have turned into more permanent residences made of mud, sticks, and tin. The SAM (south america missions) team's goal is to encourage and minister to the Ayore living to the city, but also to help them maintain their indigenous culture so they can have pride in themsleves, pick their heads up, and hopefully move out of their situation in the city. Julie and I will be working on a community garden in one of these neighborhoods as well as working with a children's ministry on Mondays. I'll also be taking a seminary class, along with Bubba Massey, with 4 Ayore men. This is a huge step for the Ayore and Bubba and I will be meeting with these men weekly to discuss class material and work on study skills.

We'll also be working various weekends with the SAM Ayore team out in villages as far as four hours from the city. There we'll be working on construction of houses and a church, travelling medical teams where Julie is the expert pharmacist, and also working with a farm that SAM has cultivated near a village where Ayore are learning agricultural and business skills.

Every Thursday Julie and I will be working at a clinic called Mision de Esperanza (Mission of Hope). The clinic was actually started years ago by a fellow Charlottesvillian. They serve the poor in the city with primary health care and aid for major surgeries. Twice a year a large team of doctors comes down and perfroms as many surgeries as possible inside of a week. A team will actually be coming in a few weeks, so we are looking forward to serving alongside them. The clinical services are completely free of charge and the place is hopping with patients throughout the week.

Thursday nights we have an English class located at the Massey's house and led by a SAM missionary. The class is open to anyone and the lessons are based on passages in a simple english Bible (the new life translation i believe?) We think the class format is aweosme and we look forward to doing something similar when we get home.

We are living with a family in a very nice neighborhood inside the city. It's a nice house and we have a small comfortable room. The family attends a professional class small group led by some SAM friends of ours. Its actually been a little weird for us interacting with the family as this is pretty much our first time engaging with the Latin American upper class. Please pray for this time with the family and for the relationships that will develop.

Well, I suppose thats a decent intro to some things we'll be jumping into. We'll try to shed some more light and fun details onto the subjects as they progress. Take care!

Joe and Julie