Connections and a Prayer Request

So last night I got a taste of the relational-ness of Latino culture.



A little background. There is a 6 year old Ayore girl, Guisella, that was seen during the medical clinic during the Women's retreat last weekend. She had bruising all over her body that wasn't from any trauma. Our doctor asked if she'd been seen by anyone else and the Mom replied they took her into town, but all the labs they did had come back normal. Our doctor suggested going into Santa Cruz for another blood test. The labs were taken and every level was extremely low- as in there isn't much blood in her body, she's been bleeding (hence the bruises). They admitted her to the children's hospital in Santa Cruz and labeled her case as "dengue" (which is a ridiculously wrong diagnosis- btw).
Pros: She is in the hospital being taken care of
Cons: They have mis-diagnosed her and aren't willing to do further testing to find out what is really wrong.

I was talking to Dr. Toni about this little girl and we were praying for her. Dr. Toni doesn't want to be very involved in this particular case because if she shows up at a state hospital and asks for treatment for Guisella they will start charging the family an arm and a leg. At this point, any 'gringo' (aka north american) involvement would make it seem like the girl could afford to pay more. Toni was trying to think of a connection our team might have with someone on the inside.

Dr. Roger Montero- Noah's pediatrician

So this is where I come in. Noah has a pediatrician. We haven't seen him in probably 3-4 months since Noah has been very healthy (Praise the Lord!). However I figured he might know someone who works at that hospital who could look into the case. I told Toni about it and she thought it was a great idea, but wanted me to make the phone call since I have the relationship with Noah's Dr. Ha! Relationship? I must admit it felt really strange to call the Dr. at 7:30pm to ask him a favor for a little girl that I also don't have a close relationship to either, other than we work in her village and she needs serious medical attention. You would never do such a thing in the US! But I did it, and sure enough, true to Latino form, Dr. M didn't hesitate. He asked a few questions about her case and said he would give his friend a call and follow up with Toni later.

Please be in prayer for Guisella and her family. She is 6 years old, and the granddaughter of one of the sweetest Christian Ayore ladies that I know, Robertina. She and her family live in Poza Verde where Jason and I do much of our work.

The Interns

On Friday two interns with our mission came down to stay with our mission for a month. Their first assignment: Helping corral the unruly children of Poza Verde during the Women’s Retreat. Despite a challenging first couple of days they both have jumped in willingly, getting their feet wet and their hands dirty.

I give you Sarah and Naomi:

Sarah W. and Naomi K.



 Sarah hanging with some kids during the Women's Retreat

Naomi and Sarah joined the girl's Bible study on Tuesday night

Learning some basic Ayore phrases

They were super kind and bathed our kitten 

Sarah is already hooked on the local stimulant: Mate

Did I mention Naomi is too?



Poza Verde Ladies Retreat

As I drove into Poza Verde on Friday I knew right away we were in for a treat. There were already ladies sitting on the ground in circles outside the church chatting and waiting for things to begin. Mirtha and I have been planning and praying for this ladies’ retreat for about 4 months.

On Friday my team leader, Toni, taught 2 different sessions covering the topics of “Security of our Salvation”, “The Christian Walk”, and “The Work of the Holy Spirit”. There were probably about 50 ladies from about 7 different communities. Toni is a great teacher and all of the ladies were very attentive. On Saturday my dear Bolivian friend, Elva, gave a great message on the armor of God and how to deal with spiritual warfare. It was great that an indigenous woman could speak to these other indigenous ladies about spiritual warfare since their culture and perspective is so different than that of North Americans. I think coming from Elva the lesson was so much more relevant.

Elva teaching the Armor of God

Saturday afternoon we set up our little makeshift clinic and saw patients. Toni along with 2 other doctors did all the work of seeing everyone. I worked as a pharmacy tech, finding and counting pills to hand out to the patients. We saw probably around 70 people. It was a long day, but a good one.

On Sunday morning Toni spoke again. She spoke of Deborah and how God used a woman to raise up her people to come back to God. Toni exhorted these ladies to be strong women of the faith, to speak out against the vices and problems that the youth are getting into and to be leaders in their communities. The women who came are the wives of leaders in the communities. Each woman could have a huge amount of influence if they wanted to exert it in their communities.

The whole thing ended with about 2 hours of women standing up and giving testimony to what God is doing in their lives. Unfortunately it was all in Ayore so I couldn’t understand what they were saying with their words, but with their voices and their actions I could tell that God had been speaking to them this weekend. Thank you to all who prayed for us!

Noah enjoying the kids

Some of our awesome helpers keeping the kids occupied so the moms could concentrate

What are you going to do this summer?

Go on a river trip in the Amazon basin! That's right, we have 3, ten day trips through the Beni region (Amazon Basin) of Bolivia and you're going!

Your transportation and lodging

Your sleeping quarters

Every year our mission hosts several boat trips into the Beni (Amazon Basin) region of Bolivia. We visit various villages along the river system providing basic medical care, hold little church services, childrens' ministries, and meeting needs as they come up.

We have been building a relationship with these communities over the years. Medical experience or ability to speak Spanish would be helpful but not necessary. Most of the medical care will be provided by medical missionaries and ministries lead by Bolivian believers. Basically we are looking for people who are very flexible and willing to fill in as needed, often in less than glamorous grunt work. Plans change rapidly from moment to moment as does climate and conditions so flexibility is ESSENTIAL! Conditions can be challenging on a crowded boat, food selection is... unique (often what we hunt, catch fishing, or trade with the villages for), weather changes from very hot to very cold and back again that time of year, it can be very wet or very dry. If you are willing to come down with an open heart, open mind, and willing to serve, this trip is for you! This is probably one of the most "pioneer" type short term mission trips you will find.

Eat your food before it eats you!

Onboard Laundry Service

These dates are first day on the boat to the last day on the boat so plan for travel days on either end:
Trip #1 (mostly full)
May 29th - June 8th (Arrive in Santa Cruz no later than May 27th and leave Bolivia at the earliest June 10th)

Trip #2
June 12th - June 22nd (Arrive in Santa Cruz no later than June 10th and leave Bolivia at the earliest June 24th)

Trip #3
June 24th - July 4th (Arrive in Santa Cruz no later than June 22nd and leave Bolivia at the earliest July 6th)

Let us know ASAP if you would like more information of prices, support raising, or anything else.

Read about last year's trip here

Photos from last year's trip:

Viaje del Rio 3 - de Jason Weigner

Painted

Walt and Sindi, a newer SAM missionary couple who run the SAM guest house in Santa Cruz, came out to the Pailon area these last two days.  Sindi came to bless our little church with her artistic skills.  She and Walt completed painting a mural on the church wall today.  The words on the wall above the Toborochi tree, as seen in the photo above, are the beginning of the 23 Psalm "The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not be in want."

Christmas in Bolivia

With 90-100 degree weather, lack of Christmas decorations and traditions, it did not feel much like the Christmas season this year.  With only a few days until Christmas we decided to find ourselves a tree.

After searching through palm and fig trees, we finally found the perfect tree!

I chopped it down.  Apparently artificial pine trees grow in Bolivia, who knew?

We lugged it home through the snow... uh... I mean sand.

Okay, so actually we found the tree abandoned in the mission mail room.  Due to our lack of ornaments, we had to go Little House on the Prairie on it and strung popcorn.  It didn't look half bad!

Noah sure enjoyed his first Christmas.

Especially eating the paper

"Okay so the dog is nice, but what did you do with the wrapping paper? I wasn't finished eating it!"

We may not have had snow, but I bet none of you went out back to pick the Christmas Watermelon!

Our family grew a little this Christmas.  Jenna got me a Blue Winged Parotlet!

It was a wonderful, quiet Christmas with our little family.  The only problem we had was a small plumbing issue in the bathroom

2 for 1 Christmas Shopping Ideas

As you all are running around trying to find the best Christmas deals, I thought I would pass on 2 different ways you can get your shopping done AND help us out at the same time.

1. Shop through iGive.com and help our ministry out
You can shop all your favorite stores, just do it though iGive.com and a percentage will be donated to our ministry by the company you purchase from. This past year you all raised $67 for our ministry by using iGive! Here is how to do it:
1. Go to http://www.iGive.com/SAM70493

2.  Register for an account* (its quick, easy, & free) and make sure "South America Mission IRE Mercy Ministries" is the charity selected (should be automatic if you follow the above link). 

3. Login to iGive.com to do your online shopping.  You can select stores like Amazon.com or eBay through the site or search for merchandise through iGive.com. A percentage of the purchase price will then be donated to the IRE ministry by the store you make your purchase through. Make sure to do the shopping through iGive to make sure the donation is made to SAM.  Right now, anyone who makes a purchase through iGive within 45 day of setting up an account will get an extra $5 towards our ministry. 

*When you register for an account, they give you an option to download the "iGive toolbar".  If you are comfortable using this, this helps track you online purchases at eligible stores to make sure the donations are made. Also, if you use the toolbar, $0.02 will be donated for every search made through the toolbar. If you don't want to use the toolbar, you can search through this site: http://www.iSearchiGive.com/SAM70493 and earn $0.01 for our mission for every search.

2. Help us out by purchasing Christmas gifts on RedBubble.com

You can purchase some of my photos from Bolivia and various other travels at: http://jganjay.redbubble.com/

You can order my photos as cards, prints, or calendars.  Calendars can be customized with any of my photos on RedBubble.