April 1, 2007
Yesterday when I was thinking about writing the team newsletter I thought, man, nothing has really happened lately. But, the more I thought about it, the more I found myself to be completely wrong. For instance, today for the second Sunday in a row, I attended some baptisms at a camp pool right outside of town. Today the whole team went and really enjoyed an afternoon "tranquilo" as they like to say here. It was also very refreshing to see people ready to show the world that they follow Christ by taking part in baptism, and also good to be reminded of the commitment I myself have made to the very same God who has brought me here. Particularly special was to see the daughter of our boss, Lucy, get baptized by both of her parents. Lucy's husband is the pastor of the Principae de Paz church which was having baptisms today.Yesterday was also a very important day for a lot of children in the Stansberry Children Home as they are now moved into 3 large houses, each one complete with a set of parents for the 9 kids living in each one. We are very excited to see this change taking place as we have become friends with the kids here and believe they can now have a life a little bit more normal than just living in an orphanage and sharing rooms with several people and not having very much parental attention. The change is large for the children and teens involved as well as the new parents, so please be in prayer for all of them during this transition.
Another exciting thing that happened last week was that on Monday we were visited by another YESer, Janene's, parents. Janene is one of my good friends from Hesston and is currently serving with the Guinea-Bissau team in Africa, however, her parents came to Bolivia to visit her older brother who is a missionary in La Paz and thought they'd make a much-appreciated trip down to see us as well. We were very blessed and encouraged by their visit. It was good to see some familiar faces once again!
Blessings,
Rachel Albrecht
Praises:
Our Spanish is getting pretty good
We are finding ways to get involved in the community outside of work in the daycare
Health in general has been pretty good
God has been providing for our needs, even those we didn't know we had
Prayer Requests:
Rachel and Beth's backs as working with little kids has been quite hard on them
Encouragement for the team
That we would keep our focus here till the end
That we will trust God with all the details of our future plans
That health will continue to stay good
That God will open doors for us to share the Gospel as it is sometimes hard to find opportunities to share as we are somewhat boxed into our work at the daycare and in the church
That we reflect Jesus to the children we work with daily
P.S. Sorry about the website not being updated much recently. The computer we usually use to do that at the daycare has been down for a while so we're not sure when we'll be able to post more pictures and whatnot. Please be patient! :)
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Finding Friends and Water, By: Bethany
March 20, 2007
Greetings to all from the sunny land of Bolivia! This past weekend, we had an amazing time attending a conference held right here in Santa Cruz called the Global Discipleship Training (GDT) Alliance, where representatives from all over the Americas (North, Central, and South) have come to attend this meeting to compare notes, encourage one another, and figure out new ways to evangelize and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has been a very encouraging time for our team, and we are excited to attend the closing program tomorrow to spend time together withour brothers and sisters from all over the world!
Our time here continues to grow more and more interesting...for example this past Saturday, Jess and I woke up to find that we had absolutely no water in our house, and we realized that in order to clean, make breakfast and shower, we were going to have to find water. So, we decided that the best thing to do was go ask one of our neighbors, which just so happened to be Jess´s aunt here in Bolivia, if they too were out of water. Well, when we realized that not just us, but in fact the whole neighborhood was out of water, we decided that some action must be taken, and seeing as we were the first ones up that morning, we would rescue the other girls on the team and find water to make breakfast! Being the great thinkers that we are, we realized that the hogar de niños has a separate well from the city, and would therefore have water, so we went over there to lug home a big 5 gallon bucket of water, only to discover that the other girls were up, had breakfast made, and in fact were using water out of the faucet that had just been spitting out air 15 minutes ago! So, we ended up not rescuing our team, but if ever we should be in a shortage of water in the future, Jess and I have a whole rescue plan made up, and will be right on the job in minutes!
Work at the daycare has been keeping us hopping and on our toes, and we are constantly asking the Lord for patience and strength daily, but He is always faithful to meet our needs and lift us up when we fall. I personally am beginning to really learn what it means to make the joy of the Lord my strength, and He continues to be our constant source of hope, strength and joy! I pray that the Lord would continue to pour out His blessing in your lives as you continue to serve Him with all your heart!
Things to keep in prayer:
-Strength and patience for each and every day as we work with the kids, that we would see them as Christ sees them and show them His love in everything we do and say
-All of our backs as we are constantly bending over the whole day and lifting kids around
-Our Spanish language as we learn more and more, that the Lord would continue to open our minds and allow us to communicate easily with all the people that we have come to love so much here
Praises:
-The overall health of the team has returned, and although some of us have a little bit of a cold, our stomachs are doing a lot better
-We have had an amazing time meeting brothers and sisters from all over the Americas, and it has been very encouraging for our spiritual lives
-We have discovered amazing Spanish worship music here, and have all fallen in love with this beautiful music which is such an encouragement after a long day of work
¡Dios les bendiga!
Greetings to all from the sunny land of Bolivia! This past weekend, we had an amazing time attending a conference held right here in Santa Cruz called the Global Discipleship Training (GDT) Alliance, where representatives from all over the Americas (North, Central, and South) have come to attend this meeting to compare notes, encourage one another, and figure out new ways to evangelize and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. This has been a very encouraging time for our team, and we are excited to attend the closing program tomorrow to spend time together withour brothers and sisters from all over the world!
Our time here continues to grow more and more interesting...for example this past Saturday, Jess and I woke up to find that we had absolutely no water in our house, and we realized that in order to clean, make breakfast and shower, we were going to have to find water. So, we decided that the best thing to do was go ask one of our neighbors, which just so happened to be Jess´s aunt here in Bolivia, if they too were out of water. Well, when we realized that not just us, but in fact the whole neighborhood was out of water, we decided that some action must be taken, and seeing as we were the first ones up that morning, we would rescue the other girls on the team and find water to make breakfast! Being the great thinkers that we are, we realized that the hogar de niños has a separate well from the city, and would therefore have water, so we went over there to lug home a big 5 gallon bucket of water, only to discover that the other girls were up, had breakfast made, and in fact were using water out of the faucet that had just been spitting out air 15 minutes ago! So, we ended up not rescuing our team, but if ever we should be in a shortage of water in the future, Jess and I have a whole rescue plan made up, and will be right on the job in minutes!
Work at the daycare has been keeping us hopping and on our toes, and we are constantly asking the Lord for patience and strength daily, but He is always faithful to meet our needs and lift us up when we fall. I personally am beginning to really learn what it means to make the joy of the Lord my strength, and He continues to be our constant source of hope, strength and joy! I pray that the Lord would continue to pour out His blessing in your lives as you continue to serve Him with all your heart!
Things to keep in prayer:
-Strength and patience for each and every day as we work with the kids, that we would see them as Christ sees them and show them His love in everything we do and say
-All of our backs as we are constantly bending over the whole day and lifting kids around
-Our Spanish language as we learn more and more, that the Lord would continue to open our minds and allow us to communicate easily with all the people that we have come to love so much here
Praises:
-The overall health of the team has returned, and although some of us have a little bit of a cold, our stomachs are doing a lot better
-We have had an amazing time meeting brothers and sisters from all over the Americas, and it has been very encouraging for our spiritual lives
-We have discovered amazing Spanish worship music here, and have all fallen in love with this beautiful music which is such an encouragement after a long day of work
¡Dios les bendiga!
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