Vamos a Nicaragua

This is Asher at his 3rd Bday party! He is the son of one the missionary couples here. Amy is American, David is Peruvian and Asher is from Ethiopia. He is so so so precious! In Latin America, the 1st Bday is HUGE and the parents have a big celebration for their child. This is the first year Asher has been with his family since being adopted so although he is 3 now, they threw him a big birthday party to celebrate Asher's life! It was wonderful!



Last weekend, we had an Ayoreo kid's camp at a missionary's house. These kids are WILD and usually do not mind anyone. They were waiting all day to swim and finally when given the oppurtunity, they stripped down (literally-a lot of the kids did not have bathing suits, but that did not stop them-they went naked) and dove in!



Tomorrow morning we head for Managua, Nicaragua (although we fly from Bolivia through Miami to get to Nicaragua...and there is a Starbucks in the Miami terminal!!!) to lead a group of college kids from UVa , JMU, VA Tech, and William and Mary. College kids are coming down during their Spring Break to serve orphans in 3 orphanages and 1 refugee camp. During the week, we take the orphans to waterparks, markets, have soccer tournaments, cookouts, etc to make them feel loved. For a lot of the college kids, this is their first time to experience poverty. It is a very powerful week for them in aspect. Joe has led these trips in the past and kids go back to the States changed. It is not a a "Christian" trip but we, as the leaders, have talks with the students at night about poverty, injustice, and loving these people and changing our worldview after seeing first hand how it is to live in poverty as orphans. We are praying that kids meet the Lord this week and that the orphans feel the love of Jesus. This is definetely a trip to love on kiddos in orphanages but it's also about changing college kids lives forever and sharing Christ with them. I guess we use a "backdoor effect" to share Jesus with them. Please pray for us as we travel and lead these kids next week. Pray that hearts will be sensitive and ready to accept the Truth.

After we lead the trip, we are heading an hour away back to Granada, Nicaragua to visit everyone from our trip last year. We are so pumped to see everyone and see what is new in their lives. Yenner, one of Joe's English students, had a baby over Christmas so we are pumped to meet her! We hope to visit Juan and Rosita, our friends from the hosptial, sweet little Natalie (our tortilla vendor), and the missionaries who are still there. when we return to Bolivia we only have 2 weeks left which is crazy! We are still planning on planting a garden for an Ayore village right in the city when we return as well as work with a group of surgeons from Charlottesville, VA at Mission of Hope. We are really pupmped about going and coming back!
Thanks for your prayers and support!
Julie and Joe

More pics from FUA

Some of the younger residents of FUA. For such a small village there are a ton of kids. they have a one room k-5 school in the village that the government of the nearest town has helped with, but after 5th grade, kids must travel an hour to the nearest town if they want to continue their education.



Working on the roof of the chruch/community center. We had all sorts of troubles during out two big workdays (power tools in the middle of the jungle?) but got a lot done on the building. It was a sweaty, rewarding experience.



A typical house in FUA, which might house multiple families. There are 8-10 of these houses in the village

Pictures from FUA

Here is an Ayore women sewing a traditional bag inside her house.



This is Toni in the middle aroudn the Ayore community during the medical clinic. I actually got to give a man a shot (in his bottom!). This was the first time in oh 5 years I have given a shot but it was awesome!



There is a specific type of beetle that eats the community's peppers plants before they can bloom and become peppers. This is a great source of food as well as money because they can take these pepppers to the market to sell but the beetles are eating them. Jason, on of the guys on our team, is a nature expert and knows EVERYTHING about plants, bugs, etc. He tried to research a pesticide for this problem but it would just destroy the whole plant so he came up with cutting a 1 liter coke bottle in half at the top and catching the beetle. We were trying to get the kids involoved in this activity (usually the kids and parents just sit and watch when we are doing work in their villages). It took some time but the kiddos where actually really excited about this and wanted to do it after lunch even. Hopefully they will continue to catch the beetles so the plant come produce the peppers.



Here we are after the long journey to San Jose-pretty orange with dirt caked in our hair! A shower felt of so nice!

FUA

Hey everyone

This weekend we had the awesome oppurtunity to go to FUA (Familia Unidad Ayoreo) as well as Santiago. We traveled with a group of 13 people total through some of the worst roads I have ever riden down. On the way there, the couple we were riding with did not have A/C so we had to roll our windows down to stay half way cool. The road is all red clay and dirt and we had 2 cars in front of us so the dust was flying everywhere. By the time we made it to San Jose, where FUA is located, Joe and I were both orange. It was caked on our faces, in our hair, on our clothes-it was pretty funny. I will put a picture up later.

While there, the guys worked so hard and almost finished a church in the FUA community. It was super hot and many electric tools broke so they had to work with hand saws to cut wood and pray over generators. This specific Ayoreo group seperated themselves from another village because they are Christians and wanted to have more support and freedom to worship. It still is made of mud houses, jungle surroundings, and a ridiculous amount of bugs but it does have a little different feel to it than other Ayoreo villages.

We also conducted a medical clinic for this village as well as another one closer into town during the weekend. Toni, one the of missionaries who is a MD, is absolutley incredible. She has such an amazing story and she truly is one of my heros, especially after this weekend seeing her interact with these people. She is American but grew up in Brazil with her family who were and are still missionaries. She went to the States for college and really wanted to train to be a doctor but wanted to serve Latin America after. She decided to study medicine in Boliva where she met her husband, who is Bolivian, and got married soon after. She knows the language, culture, and just has a heart for indigenious people.

We also traveled to Santiago to try and establish relationships with people there and see what the community needs as far as buliding projects and simply getting to know the Ayoreo villages there. There is a lot of history in this little bity town. About 50ish years ago, 5 missionaries were killed when they hiked into the jungle to first make contact with the Ayoreo Indians. These men really set the groundwork for many people after by making the first contact with these people. There is a memorial for these men on top on a cliff in Santiago with so much meaning. The book, "God planted 5 seeds," is about this situtaion if anyone is interested.

It was a great weekend overall besides the horrible road out and back. On the way home, the road was blocked because of protesters wanting more recogintion for their little town. Someone from about 10 hours away had to come and remove the blockade (which was a ton of sticks, logs, dirt mounds,etc)...Latin America! We had great fellowship with all the team members and great weather. We also got to hang out with a couple named Cesar and Mirta who are Bolivian and live in one of the Ayoreo villages closer to Santa Cruz. They are AMAZING!!! They are native, grew up in indegious culture, and again have a heart for Ayoreo people. Their support is about $10 US right now and they really don't know what they are going to do. I ask that you pray for them financially. They are such a HUGE part of this ministry and everywhre they go, they are showing God's love.

I will attach a few pictures of the weekend later.
Take care!
Julie and Joe

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

Pics from around Cocha

Our awesoeme teachers had a little lunch for us on our last day of class!




John, Jenny, Drew, Ann, Katie, Danelle, and us at Las Islas. An area in the middle of town with lots of food stalls and cheap street grills. It was actually really good! We had burritos, burgers, fried yucca, and cow heart.



Joe chowin' down on some anticuchos (cow heart)!!



Julie and I on a hill overlooking the city of Cochabamba. We were pretty blown away by how gorgeous this city is!



In the middle of the city, there is a 34-ft statue of Christ overlooking the city from atop a big hill. You can see it from pretty much anywhere in the city.



Happy Birthday Julie!!! We had a great day on Julie's bday. We woke up and had eggs for breakfast (a nice break from bread), went to a class, than had an awesome cookout with our friends John, Jenny, and all their roommates! Later we went out to celebrate, and our Bolivian madre even cooked Julie's favorite bolivian foods.

Irresistible Revolution

So maybe I am a few years behind the Christian literature (I think it was published in 2001) but gosh…I just finished reading Irrestistible Revolution and I simply can’t stop thinking about it and decided to share. It was hard and made me stop and think a lot about how I am living and where and how we will live once our Latin American journey is over. Shane Claiborne talks about our necessity, as Christians, for community and relates this to the old church. They lived together, amongst the poor, in one community. In the early church, people would fast until there was enough food for everyone to eat together. To save food or stuff yourself while other are hungry is like a silent murder. “A biological father builds a mansion while his kids go hungry-he would be institutionalized or jailed. How much more preposterous should this be in our family or rebirth in which we’ve been given new eyes to see others as brothers and sisters,” says Claiborne (refer to 2 Corinthians 5:16-21). Jesus, of course, was the prime example of living within the poor-Jesus was poor! He didn’t have a house or a place to lay his head every night. He didn’t have a 9-5 job with good benefits…so why do we worry so much about this? We were never promised to live comfortably or safely when living for the Lord in terms of materials-but living our lives for the Kingdom is worth it!

Why in the “God blessed America” ideal are we taught to save our money and be wise in which stock option we choose? Who knows what tomorrow might bring right-this is something I am struggling with big time as far as what to invest prayerfully verses giving everything away and completely trusting the Lord for my needs). Jesus clearly states in Matthew 6, “Therefore I tell you¸do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Why then am I so compelled to save? For my own comfort, indulgence, etc-to buy another pair of earrings because I am bored with the last ones I have? To be able to go out to that nice restaurant with my friends and have fellowship this weekend? Go on that nice vacation (we work hard right so we inheritanly deserve it)? To retire early and/or comfortably?

America in its prosperity and wealth is so lonely! We don’t know our neighbors, are too busy to serve in our communities, but think we have the “American dream.” I urge you to be CRAZY…have a neighborhood block party, start a community garden, serve meal at the homeless shelter, and if you have kids do it with them too! And please know, I am preaching to myself too when I say these things!

He also made me stop and think about war which I won’t go much into but…he traveled to Iraq in the midst of America bombing the country as a peace-making missionary. He went to hospitals and held babies with pieces of metal throughout their bodies from the bombs, went to birthday parties for Iraqi children while bombs were going off miles away, and went to Bible studies and church services to pray over the war. The parents of these children asked him, “What did we do to your country?” and stated, “If this is democracy we do not want it!” We are training people to fight and kill other people outside of our borders who cry, run, and smile the exact same way we do and then arrest murders while inside our border when they kill one of our citizens. Are we saying our lives as Americans are more important than our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world?

Anyways, I urge you to pick this book up. It’s a pretty easy read but definetly thought provoking and a search for the authentic church. Joe and I are struggling on how to incorportate this into our lives and community and what this will look like on a day-to-day basis. We’ve had the blessing to live among the poor but now have a responsibility from this knowledge. No actions would be a sin as well as denying what God has revealed to us here. This book has helped in identifying examples of how to this out and how to live in community, simply, and lovingly.

Even if you think some of Shane Claiborne's ideas are a little "out there" but WELL WORTH your thoughts and time.

Mother Teressa-“We can do not great things, only small things with great love.”

Miss you guys!
Julie (and Joe)