made it home!

Well, we did it... with much help from all you who prayed for us!

It was a whirlwind trip back to Billings, but we made all our connections. Our flight left Santa Cruz about an hour late. We made up 30 minutes during the course of the flight, which left us 1 1/2 hours in Miami.

T-minus 90 minutes:
We got off the plane ran across the airport to have our passports checked in and be stamped back into the US. We went through that line amazingly quickly.

T-minus 70 minutes:
We watched the clock tick for 45 minutes waiting for our bags to come off the plane so we could go through customs. The bags finally came, we went through without anyone being checked!

T-minus 25 minutes:
We ran across the airport to the United check-in. There was not a single person in line, so we were able to get our tickets and head for the gate.

T-minus 15 minutes:
There was a huge line at security to get into terminal J for our flight... things did not look good. We told one the TSA checking ID's that we had 17 people who needed on a flight that was leaving in 15 minutes. He allowed us to go to the front of the security line!

T-minus 5 minutes:
We arrive at our gate... the plane had been delayed 20 minutes and was just beginning to board! WOW... we made it.

NOT DONE YET!
Miami was our big concern. We had a 1 1/2 hour lay-over in Denver, which should have provided enough time for us to grab dinner and be on our way to Billings. Even with the slight delay out of Miami.

We boarded the plane in Miami... and sat at the gate for 45 minutes. Looking out the window to the right, there were fire trucks and police cars. A US-Airways plane had come in with a fallen soldier... the emergency vehicles are a tradition in Miami every time a fallen soldier is brought in... so we could not back out of our gate.

We final pulled out and headed for the runway... and then we stopped again... for another 45 minutes. The pilot final came on and said they had been working hard and were able to resolve an issue they were having with the engines and we would be taking off shortly. Yikes! and there goes the nice layover in Denver.

One last sprint...
Our plane touched down in Denver @ 9:05. We got off the plane, ran across the terminal hoping to catch our 9:30 flight! Once again, the plane was delayed for 10 minutes... allow us all to get there just in the nick of time!

11:15 pm... we back in Billings!

day of REST

I think we all are grateful today that on the 7th day God rested... and intends for us to do the same! It's been a great week, full of many unique and wonderful opportunities.

Today, we were able to chill a bit... the hi temp never made it out of the 50's, which is freezing around here. People were bundled up, but still came to church! I was able to preach, Chad translated, and our team led in a lot of worship... both in English and Spanish!

After church we went to Juan, our bus drivers church, where the district youth had put together a bbq for us. We spent the afternoon playing volleyball, basketball, and teaching them "screaming ninjas".

Around 4 we came back to the guesthouse, put on some movies, took naps, and laid low.

Today we are spending our last day in Santa Cruz. We'll go visit the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center, where Chad & Emily teach. Then hit up some last minute shopping. After lunch I think the boys are going to catch a movie in the Bolivian theater and the girls are going to get pedicures.

We leave for the airport at 6:30am tomorrow morning and HOPEFULLY we will be in Billings on Tuesday night! Please pray for safety as we travel and specifically that we are able to make our connection in Miami. We have a 2 hour layover... which normally seems long... but we have to get out of Bolivia on time (which is rare), then go through customs in Miami, get through the line for our tickets to fly to Billings, and work our way through security. Pray that lines are short and that we go through with no delays!

Thanks for all your prayers, support, and encouragement! It has been AMAZING for us here in Bolivia. We cannot wait to share it with you when we get home.

don't worry, be happy

Chad and I were up late last night running through the sermon for this morning, and writing on the blog spaced my mind... sorry about that!

Yesterday was our last "ministry" day of the trip. It went superb, once again. We spent the morning over at Megumi (the orphanage) and got a lot more progress on building the storage area. The were so grateful for our team's joyfulness as we played and worked.

We did our final VBS and thought it would be a smaller group as the temperature was cool yesterday (which to the Bolivians means they stay inside). When we started there were only about 20 kids, but by the time we got half way into making the bead bracelets which shared the Gospel in colors, we were up to 80 or 90 kids! It is hard to know how many truly understood the message of the Gospel yesterday... but there were quite a few who "responded to the invitation", and we trust the the Holy Spirit was doing a work in many of them. The truth was shared and God takes it from there anyways!

We had dinner at James and Jenny's home last night, and then they shared with us their story of God leading them to becoming career missionaries, and to Bolivia in particular. It is so good for our team to hear what God has done in their lives, and how to discern God's will for each of us. Their prayer has been that God would be stirring in the life of someone on our team, and possibly even call one of them to full-time missions some day. Who knows what God has planned in the future!

whistle while we work

It was another day of firsts for this trip. Today we spent the majority of our day working (and playing) at an orphanage. We had hoped to we would be able to visit an orphanage during our planning of the trip, but when we arrived it was not on the schedule. They are very careful not to "exploit" the kids in orphanages here, and have had some not-so-good experiences with teams in the past. However, James and Jenny have been so impressed with the maturity and servant hearts of our team, that they went ahead and made the arrangements for us. A really testimony of how great these kids on our team are.

The purpose of today, and tomorrow, was to help build a brick storage area in the back of the home. We moved 3000 bricks from the front yard to the back. Then Dave and crew started working on the exterior wall. The gringos worked on the front wall, and 2 professional masons started on the back/inside wall. After we got about 3 layers of brick done, they asked if we wanted to switch and do the back wall. So we switched, at which point they tore down what we had begun (obviously we are... scratch that, we were not pros). After healing up the wounded pride, we went back to it... We got a hang of it, and completed 10 levels before calling it a day. Tomorrow we will go back and finish the job!

While some were working on the storage area, others spent time playing with the girls from the orphanage. It was so nice for them to have that one-on-one time with the kids. The woman who runs the orphanage was so grateful for our team, not just for the work, but for spending time with the girls. She mentioned that this would be the highlight of their year! And it is ours as well. Again, you can see God's hand on bringing our team to love these children and complete a project literally started a couple of years ago. The were able to lay the foundation for it, but have not had the resources or the people to help since. Just recently they received money from another church in the US, which allowed them to purchase the brinks for us to build. Amazing!

It's hard to explain this orphanage. It's not like you would expect, but more like a home and family for these 13 girls who have lost their parents. What a wonderful ministry. Not only do they care for these ones who have no family, but they teach them the Word and help them to grow in their faith in Christ. It was powerful for our team to see.

Later in the afternoon we went back to the neighborhood we were in yesterday and held another session of our VBS. These kids so love us being there. They literally grab on to us when we leave, not wanting us to go. Our hope is that through us, they grab on to the Love of Jesus!

butterflies!

Today we spent the better part of the day at the butterfly factory... yes, that is right. There are several domes of butterflies which are just amazing... one even has a tall lookout tower to climb, where you can see the entire landscape of Santa Cruz. The also had several pools to swim in and a couple of small lakes we could take kayaks on... pretty much everyone ended up in the water at some point. Dave was even able to buy a fishing pole and spent the afternoon fishing. He didn't really catch any fish, but a monkey did come right up to him and stole the bate he was using!

At 3 we did VBS at a new location... we did not know what to expect, but ended up with over 100 kids there! Controlled Chaos is not just my theme for Junior High ministry, but for this trip as well. You can tell everyone is starting to get a bit more tired, but we are praying we all finish strong! It is amazing to think that we have had the opportunity to minister to nearly 300 kids during our time here! God is GOOD.

It's late and we are leaving early tomorrow for an orphanage, so that's it for today. I'm sure there are many many other stories to be told... but they will have to wait for another day.

half way done

We just cannot believe are over half way through our trip. It has been filled with so many great experiences already.

We finished up our VBS at the school today. It was hard to say goodbye as this time we could not say "Hasta Manyana" (I am sure i obliterated the spelling of that... which means 'see you tomorrow'.) We are going to a church in that same area on Sunday however, so the pastor was there today and invited them all to church!
It is always hard to know what kind of an impact you are having. Are the kids listening? Are they understanding? Is it impacting them? That is when we trust in the LORD that his word does not return void, and that his Spirit interceeds where we cannot. So, the gospel was shared today and we trust that His Spirit did a mighty work. Several kids responded to the "invitation" to receive Christ. If they truly understood or not, that is for the LORD to comprehend! I was encouraged though, that this children are capable of understanding... when this afternoon we had a young girl with our group handing out flyers for the VBS we will begin tommorrow in a different area of town. The pastor there said that she was a sister in Christ, and you could see it in her life. She enthusiastically took us to all the homes that had children in them, to invite them to come the next 3 days!

Tonight was another free evening to relax and rest up. This is such a fun group of people to just hang out with. It is a blast for us to be together!

For lunch today Juan our bus driver and a local pastor here took us to his home. His wife made a delicious meal for us all. How generous of them to feed our entire group... a huge sacrifice I am sure. He asked us to sing a few worship songs in english that he knew in spanish. Then he shared with us his testimony of how he came to know Christ... powerful is all I can say. We have it on tape, and hope we can share it with you when we get back... or maybe we'll even post it to the blog.

Thanks for your continued prayers! God is faithful.

pics from the Dunes

Video of singing @ VBS

the TUESDAY push

If you wondered what it looked like for DAVE to be mauled by a herd of kids, here's the picture!

VBS went really well today. The little kids were just as excited to see us again today, as they were yesterday. In the words of Kayla, "it feels so good to be so accepted... they really like us!"

For the craft today, we took polaroid pictures of each kid and glued it to a foam frame that they decorated. They LOVED having a picture of themselves they could keep.

Between the morning and afternoon vbs, we took sack lunches and went to the sand dunes to play for a while. We jumped off the hills, strapped on wake boards and rode the sand, and built sand castles (it was easy to see who the artists were, and who the engineers were!). On the way back, the bus actually got stuck in the sand... at that point we all piled out and pushed. Those are true missions trip experiences!

Tonight we were able to lay low, after eating dinner everyone showered to get the sand off. We then spent some time sharing with each other about how the week has gone thus far and the different thoughts we have about the trip. It is so much fun to spend time debriefing like this.

A few prayer requests...
*Everyone is starting to get a little tired. Pray for physical strength and for good sleep at night. Keep praying for good health for everyone as well!
** tomorrow our VBS story is about the resurrection, and we will be sharing the gospel. Pray that the kids would listen, and that we would be able to clearly explain the gospel.

Here are a few more pictures from the day!

First Pics

Here are two pics from earlier in the week. One is a view of the mountains around La Paz as we flew in on Friday. The other is of our team relaxing up on the porch above the guesthouse we are staying at.

great start!

It is 11:30pm... i may keep this short! But most likely not.

We had another great day. I am just SO AMAZED with this team of kids. At VBS this morning we had just under 90 kids, and then this afternoon another 30+. We thought the school we were going to was Catholic one, but it turns out to be a public school. What a great opportunity! The little kids were so excited to see us when our bus rolled on in... i cannot even describe it. The singing (in Spanish!) and the story time went great. Britni and Garrett both read the story of Joshua and crossing the Jordan river in SPANISH, so we didn't even have to have translators... amazing! All of our team joined in and really connected with the kids and were not shy at all to get in, play with them, and even try communicating. I was so impressed! Today, the outstanding award goes to Dave... I wish those of you who know him, could have seen him. I'll try post some pictures soon. He literally was mobbed by the kids, and loved it.

This between the morning VBS and afternoon VBS, we grabbed some lunch and helped move all the stuff from Chad and Emily's old place to the new place where they will be living when they come back this fall. Didn't seem like a huge deal for us as there are 16 people, but we have to believe it was a big help for them and the other missionaries to not have to do it themselves. What a joy it is to serve in all kinds of ways!

Tonight we went to a church were James teaches theology and Bible to local pastors on Monday evenings. However tonight instead of teaching, he had us share our testimonies and then several of the local pastors shared what God was doing in their lives as well. It was a powerful time. EVERYONE of our kids shared tonight... again I was so proud of them. I wish you could have heard what God is doing in each of them. I guess you'll just have to ask them when we get home!

Thank your for your continues prayers and your words of encouragement through comments on the blog! God is GOOD, ALL the time!

Big SUNDAY!

Wow, it seems as though we've already had a FULL experience and the ministry week has not even yet begun! Eye opening thus far to say the least.

This morning we traveled to the outskirts of down for church. Definitely a different experience from the "city". Church started pretty much when we walked in at 9:15ish and ended around 12:45... yep! Long services; I guess we should give Pastor Steve a little slack!!!

For us non-spanish speakers, it was a bit hard to track what was going on, but a good experience, to see what a Bolivian church service is like. Chad was the preacher today, and did a GREAT job (even though I have no idea what he said, as he gave the sermon in spanish).

After church we stayed and had an authentic lunch with the people there. The first course was chicken noodle soup... of which they let none go to waste... I was the blessed one to have the chicken foot in mine (yes, the claw and all!). Round two was rice, with more chicken (no feet this time), and freeze dried potatoes. Everyone did a good job of giving it there all to eat what was given to them!

This afternoon we headed to the "first ring" (basically downtown) to an open plaza where there were people set up selling everything from jewelry to blankets. Before leaving, we stopped at this Amazing ice cream shop. Huge portions that even put cold stone to shame... and all for less then $20.

For dinner we headed over to James and Jenny's home where they grilled up some hamburgers and we played Bunko! Most of the team had not played before... it was a riot. The kids are still so excited... I'm trying to convince them they need some sleep... we still have a full week ahead!

Tomorrow we begin our VBS, so please pray that goes well... that we are able to show the love of Jesus to the children and communicate God's Truth, despite our difference in language.

HAPPY FATHER's DAY.

Again, don't forget you can leave your own comments for us an others to see by clicking the "comments" to the bottom right of each post.

Day 2

Today we are off and running. It was great day to get settled in, get comfortable with the culture and meet some locals!

We spent the morning at the Fería, which is basically a huge market. We were able to purchase the final few things we needed for our VBS and let the kids do some shopping. It was fun to be in the middle of everything, seeing Bolivian culture!

The afternoon was spent preparing for the VBS we will be doing next week. On Monday - Wednesday we will do the VBS at a catholic school here in Santa Cruz. So there will be 120 little kids in the morning and about 80 in the afternoon. Then Thursday - Saturday we will do the VBS at a church on the outskirts of town.

Tonight, we took a walk down to the local Hipermaxi... pretty much a Bolivian WalMart! We made it back to the SAM compound around 6pm where we had pizza with some of the district youth workers. They knew about as much English as we know Spanish... but it was great being together. We sang some in English... they sang some in Spanish. We also shared testimonies. It was great getting to know them.

The day did start a bit early. The schedule had us eating at 9am, but the guest hosts here accidentally had everything ready by 8. Josh came out with his BIG hair and a few others strolled in with sleepies still in their eyes. But it was a great day!

P.S. If you want to leave your own comments on our blog, or drop a word of encouragement or prayer for our team or a specific team member, click the "comment" link at the bottom right of each post.

we made it... FINALLY

It's 8:30 pm and everyone is crashing. It was a LONG trip...34+ hours we think. The schedule had us arriving @ 8am... But reality poved it was 1pm!

It all started with a water foul delay in Denver. We were boarded and ready to fly, but the plane was going nowhere. The pilot eventually came on the intercom and shared the tragic news that 3 ducks had been squished on the runway by another plane. DIA had to shut things down and reroute planes to a different runway!

The delay was not a bit deal as we had over 6 hours in Miami before our next flight. Which was a blessing as 2 of our team members did not have their immunization cards, which were required to get our tickets in Miami (even thought in Bolivia, they never even checked them). We were able to get copies fax to us at the airport and all seemed well (althought the ticket agent said, Ï THINK they will accept a photocopy in Santa Cruz!).

But the fun had only just begun. We were scheduled to depart Miami at 11:10pm. We began boarding at 10:15 and by about 11:45 we actually had everyone in their correct seats... who knew it could take so long! Walking down the gate to the plane, I turned around and said to Dave, "no turning back now!" About an hour after take off, the pilot came on and said, "I have some bad news; it is nothing of great concern, but a warning light for the left engine was activated, and he would be turning the plane around to return to Miami". So I guess there was a "turning back". We landed in Miami for a second time shortly after 2 am. By 3 am were on a new plane heading for Bolivia once again.

After a short stop in La Paz to change passengars, we finally arrived in Santa Cruz. Then it took about another hour to get through the line to obtain our visas... which by the way, we learned that $100 bills from the US dated 2001 are not accepted here! Lucky we I had brought just enough spending cash to replace the 2 Bills we had that were not acceptable. Then came word that another bill had a hole in it... and would not be accepted either... so we turned to the few remaing students and scrounged up enough cash for that as well. I guess the American Dollar truly is loosing its value!

We are here now. 2 great meals are in our tummies and we are headed to bed. Tomorrow is a new day! We will be going to the market, finalizing our preparations for VBS, and hanging out in the evening with the local youth directors who are anxious to meet us... and we are excited to meet them as well. It is great having Chad along. And James & Jenny are wonderful hosts for our team. Speaking of the team, you parents should be proud of them. They handled all of this amazingly and with good attitudes and no complaining! I love this team!

Keep praying... God is up to great things with us here in Bolivia!

On Our Way...

4:15 am sure came early! Team Bolivia met at the airport, got our luggage checked in, headed through the security gate on our way to this great adventure ahead of us! Right now we are on the last 1/3 of our 3 hour layover in Denver, waiting to catch our flight for Miami. Good thing there are a few more things to do in DIA compared to the Billings Airport. Everyone is still a bit tired from the early morning, but smiles are beginning to perk on people's faces as they get their morning does of Caribou Coffee!

Here are just a few glimpses of the trip thus far:

* Garrett, flying for his first time tried getting his liquids through security in a 1 gallon ziplock bag... I guess even after graduating, it's hard to tell the difference between a gallon and a quart!

* As we prepared for our approach into Denver, the Flight Attendant mentioned we would be preparing for landing... "and in the case of an emergency, leave your carry-on luggage behind"... who says that? Did she think there was going to be a problem... or maybe she just remembered seeing everyone sleeping through her pre-flight instructions on how to fasten a seat belt!

The day has just begun! I did call Team Mexico upon our arrival in Denver. We have made it 500 miles, they were about to take their first break in Bozeman! Sure love to fly!

If the Miami airport offers Free Wi-Fi, I'll update again before our flight out of the country! In the mean time, continue praying for safety as we travel and for things to go smoothly in Bolivia with getting our visa's and making our way into the country.

Thanks for all your prayers! We are EXCITED!!!

New Site

Welcome to the brand new FSM MISSIONS website. We hope you join us often in experiencing what God is doing around the world through our teams and in each of us who are involved. Feel free to post comments of your own as we blog throughout our trips. Thanks for being a part of it with us!