Saturday Post -- 10/12/16

Well, we had hoped to have news of Sam's UK visa by now, but no concrete answers have been forthcoming. We wrote to the embassy in midweek, and we were informed that further enquiries are being conducted. Yesterday, we received an automated email informing us that the application had now been passed on to an entry clearance officer. We had been told that we would receive this email as part of the process, so hopefully that means things are progressing again. We have had no indication of timing yet; hopefully we will have an answer this coming week.

We can 'only' pray, and this morning we were reminded of the need for persistent prayer in all circumstances in our final Langham escuelita of the year, where I preached on Luke 18:1-8, and Edwin was once again in attendance from Cochabamba. Edwin took the opportunity to encourage the group to continue to meet in my absence. My right-hand-man Cristian will take charge while we are abroad, and dates have already been put in place for Edwin's next visit (in March) and our next conference (in September). When we look back on this second stint we have spent out here, Langham is an undoubted highlight. What a provision it has been to the churches involved, and what encouragement we all gain as Bible teachers by meeting together in this way.

Dr. Richard Wagner boarded Edwin's plane back to Cochabamba, having spearheaded another ENT surgical campaign at Fundación Totaí this week. We're happy to report that this year's campaign went by without a hitch. All the while, Amanda was working closely with two new staff members at FT, who will be replacing our outgoing Director of Finances, Mariana. As if to underscore Mariana's importance to the work, it has been necessary to hire both an accountant (Vladimir) and an administrator (Hernán). Mariana is staying on until the end of December so as to ensure a smooth transition, before she heads to seminary in the new year. 

Amanda and I continue to chip away at the long list of tasks that remain, though the closer we get to leaving, the more things we remember we have to do. People here, so thoughtful in this regard, are also keen to ensure we get a proper send-off (we're only away for six months, guys!). Among other things, an FT staff member is trying to organise a farewell event for Mariana and Amanda, and I may be required to speak at a wedding on the 27th of December -- a mere two days before we are due to set off for Santa Cruz. We are truly honoured -- while secretly wondering how on earth we will squeeze such things into our to-do list. We'll cope, I'm sure; somehow, by God's grace, we always do.

Prayer

• For a prompt -- and affirmative -- answer to the visa question.
• For cool heads and the courage to take things one day at a time as our exit nears and the workload doesn't feel much lighter.
• This Christmas, our theme at church is 'The Light of the World'. Craig kicks things of tomorrow with a sermon on Isaiah 9:1-7.

Praise

• Craig and fellow elder Miguel Ángel had a really encouraging chat via FaceTime this week with Miguel Ángel's son and a missionary friend of his, who are based in Cochabamba. They are hoping to come through to Trinidad once a month to help support the preaching and music ministry next year. This will be a great help to Miguel Ángel and the church while I am away, especially as our pastor, Elías, is stepping down on the 31st of December.
• For a successful ENT surgical campaign.
• For the blessing of Edwin's final visit to Trinidad of the year, and the blessing of the Langham programme in general to our church and several others.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 03/03/12

That's us in Trinidad's zoo with a family of kids who attend FT's Community classes and various church activities. In December of 2011, they found out they wouldn't be seeing their mother again for many years to come, for reasons best unmentioned in the blogosphere. Anyway, on Monday, which is our day off, we took them out for ice cream and a visit to the local animal hangout. With alligators aplenty (literally crawling around in a marshy area in the middle of the park, cage optional), there was certainly reason for mild trepidation for certain visitors. As it happened, the snappers kept themselves to themselves, leaving Bambi to wreak havoc instead. That's right folks, Amanda was frantically pursued by a deer. I wonder if it was the odour from the dogs.

Methinks all this japery calls for a classic Simpsons moment.

Anyway, we certainly made the most of Monday's break, with a busy working week ahead, featuring the launch of this year's R.E. and English classes. I introduced myself to my three new classes and we had an introductory discussion on religion, evangelical Christianity and the Bible. Here, there is relative freedom to teach what you like, so long as you frame it as your own personal belief. It proved to be a lively discussion and it turned out there were a few believers in there too. We'll continue on the same theme this coming week before launching into our study of John's gospel. My classes were just three of 8 in total which took place through FT educational workers this week, meaning over 250 kids in the neighbourhood will be getting a weekly diet of sound Bible teaching in 2012.

As for the English classes, things started a little slowly with just 8 in attendance at Tuesday's launch class. But it turned out one of them is a lawyer and local TV presenter, with a show here every weeknight from 9pm till midnight. So I inquired as to the prospect of a free plug that very evening. Sure enough, on Wednesday morning, I spoke to around a dozen people about signing up (seemingly he'd been going on about it the whole show), and by the time Thursday's class came round, numbers had more than doubled. Most importantly, though, 18 people got the chance to read and translate a simple English passage about God and his granting of freewill to us. 

Another new facet of our day-to-day work this year is also well underway, with Amanda and I holding several one-on-one sessions with FT staff members, whom we meet and pray with. This week I met with Wilson, who works in administration at FT but is also a fellow church band member. Wilson is a couple of years younger than me, but already has two school-aged kids with his wife, and they live with his parents and other family members in a fairly diminutive property. Such living arrangements are not uncommon here, but his extended family are not believers, and so encouragement can be hard to come by once church is over for another week. 

Amanda, meanwhile, met with a fellow nurse and an administrator, neither of whom are believers, but who are both really open to sharing with her. As Amanda dug a little deeper, it turned out that both are by no means uninterested (indeed, we see the administrator at church now and again) but they have some challenging obstacles to overcome to get there -- unsurprisingly, in a church culture where accountability can be sorely lacking, the behaviour of other Christians has proven to be a big stumbling block. An important reminder to us both of the fact that, as missionaries, we are constantly under scrutiny -- a heavy burden to bear, yes, but at the same time, what an opportunity!

Prayer

• For the various staff members mentioned above. Pray too that we would be good listeners and would steer clear of glib, easy answers.
• For Craig as he preaches on John 18:28-40 this weekend.
• For the church's children's ministry which launches this afternoon, with the Sunday School having shifted to Saturdays.
• For Amanda's study in Esther for young women in the 18-25 bracket, which begins tomorrow evening.
• For safe travels for Amanda's cousin, Rebecca Chee, who will be making her way down to Trinidad from Toronto on Friday and Saturday, and who will be joining FT as a volunteer in the educational ministry for a few weeks.

Praise

• For a wealth of encouragements this week as the English and R.E. classes began.
• For the opportunity to minister to our fellow workers and church family this week.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!


Craig & Amanda

Diego & Jo: An Appreciation

Trinidad has lost a couple of great servants this week in the shape of Diego and Jo Santana, who on Friday set off with their three daughters for Santa Cruz, a few days ahead of their departure for Diego’s native Tenerife on Monday, bringing to an end a combined 28 years of missionary service in this corner of the globe. In their most recent guises, they served as president and administrative director of Fundación Totaí and it has been our pleasure to work alongside them over the past couple of years. Trinidad will be without a couple of rare vision, who have, with the Lord’s help, established an Ear and Hearing Care service which is unrivalled throughout Bolivia; we, meanwhile, say goodbye to a family who have made a great impact upon us as individuals and as a couple.

I first got to know Diego & Jo during my gap-year at a project called La Palmera in 2000/1. The Santanas arrived in October 2000 for the first time as a married couple and got down to business in typically speedy fashion. Diego took charge of the fledgling health centre, while Jo resumed her duties as the school’s headteacher.

Professionally, I learned much from Jo, who imbued me with the confidence I needed to stand in front of thirty unintelligible teenagers and teach English. It proved to be the first step along my education-centric career path, even if I wasn’t to know it at the time. Though I had no medical interest, Diego was a particularly powerful example to me as a young Christian. He’d come to Bolivia as a highly-skilled ENT surgeon but his work that year – and for a few more later on – would be limited to general practitioner shifts with the schoolchildren and their families, as he endured a seemingly endless wait for his papers to come through from the government. Years later, his wait would, in the end, be rewarded, as thousands of ENT patients can now testify. But his patience and grace as he went about his day-to-day work impacted me greatly.

Diego and Jo’s influence was, if anything, even more keenly felt outside of work hours. Though conversation in the home often took in our shared sporting and cultural interests, it was never too long before spiritual concerns came to the fore. With their vast array of apologetics texts, Diego and Jo were the first Christians I’d met who challenged me to be a critical thinker when it came to my faith, and brought to my attention aspects of my faith I hadn’t even yet considered. Furthermore, I saw at first-hand a fine personification of Biblical teaching on the roles of husband and wife. To be in their home in the build-up to one of Diego’s sermons or Bible studies was to witness not simply a marriage, but a partnership, with Diego busily scribbling notes to the sound of pages being sifted, as Jo plucked out one supporting verse after another.

In summer 2008, a year into our own marriage, Amanda and I were feeling a lack of satisfaction about our professional and personal lives, and sensed that God might be calling us to full-time service – though exactly how, we were not then aware. That same summer, the Santanas (now with three bonny daughters in tow) arrived in Scotland for their latest furlough and when we got round to meeting them, we were left in no doubt as to the need for people with our skills at Fundación Totaí (which they had since set up in 2004). Though keen on a change of direction, we were somewhat unprepared for such a big one. Jo, in typically brusque fashion, encouraged us to take the decision in prayer and the doors would open. And as many of you know, they did and some!

Since January of last year, we’ve been glad of the opportunity to renew our acquaintance with the Santanas. I’m not really sure that white guys like us can truly adapt to life here, but to the extent to which it’s possible, Jo has been of seismic importance, whether pointing us in the direction of the best TV repair guy, waiting for hours with us in queues (or melees as they so often become), recommending the best place for ice cream, or providing us with transportation in those first six months when we were sans voiture. And this time around, they have opened their home to us in the most literal sense, effectively converting their upstairs into a separate apartment and thus giving us a place to call ‘home’.

But this is no eulogy. The family is moving on to pastures new but their passions will not go unpursued. Indeed, Diego is taking on a high-profile Senior Global Advisor role with CBM (Christian Blind Mission) and will, in fact, be able to return to Trinidad a couple of times a year to carry out ENT surgery, as part of his remit. And with the girls continually growing stature and independence, Jo will be freer to pursue her own career, whether that be in health or education (she’s supremely gifted in both). So we look forward to seeing them all some day in the future – Diego, God-willing, in 2012. But until then, we will, as the writer to the Hebrews urges, ‘remember…those who spoke to [us] the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.’

Saturday Post -- 12/11/11

The above pictured are four girls from the Wednesday Community class at FT, which Craig runs along with a fellow Bolivian worker (from left to right, Tirza, Ailin, Litzi and Joselin). Shortly before we left here for Canada, we received word that our missionary organisation, LAM Canada, had received a substantial donation specifically earmarked for the purchase of Bibles. We were able to tap into the funds ourselves and bought 50 of them in Santa Cruz upon our return to Bolivia. These four children are the first recipients of them. Two of them, Ailin and Joselin, are also regular church attenders at El Jireh, so having Bibles to hand should be of use to them at church services. But more than anything, please pray with us that they would grow to study and know God's Word, that they would be changed by it, and that they would hold fast to it. They come from a very poor village just outside of Trinidad, where some pretty desperate domestic situations are played out on a daily basis. They are in particular need of the unshakeable foundations of Scripture.

On the same note, last week I blogged on my impending session with the youth group on the necessity of regular Bible reading. They seemed to appreciate what I had to say, particularly when I used the anecdote of finding Irn-Bru in La Paz to illustrate the precious nature of Scripture. Furthermore, they all made a firm commitment to read their Bibles every day. Pray for them as they undertake this endeavour, which certainly requires discipline in the early days.

Our FT work this week continued to be dominated by planning for 2012, with various departmental meetings taking place to discern God's will and hammer out solid targets for the next 12 months. I'm particularly excited about a potential new endeavour as part of the Education programme. Amanda and I certainly enjoy teaching English classes here. It's been a great way of establishing relationships with people in the community. However, of late we had been questioning the long-term value of the classes when it came to reaching people with the Gospel -- it had not immediately appeared to be the most natural avenue.

However, while we were in Canada, Amanda's aunt Dorothy (who herself is an ESL teacher) encouraged us to get online and seek out materials which use English to teach Scripture (and vice-versa). I had not quite realised the sheer abundance of useful materials out there, and the extent of their use throughout churches, particularly in North America. A visitor from Scotland is due to land in Trinidad today, and she should have with her a couple of textbooks I ordered on the subject. Our hope is that, by next year, through the use of such materials the English classes will have a significantly greater evangelism and discipleship focus.

Finally, an update on our building plans. The landowner was in town this week and we managed to conclude the lion's share of the land transfer documentation which pertains to her. Indeed, in order to start building, we just need to take care of a few small details ourselves. So having been so galled by events a fortnight ago, this really was a huge encouragement for us. Thank you for your prayers.

Prayer

• For a series of seminars which are taking place at El Jireh this weekend, chaired by Pastor Juan Antonio Maldonado, on Christian family life. Juan Antonio, from La Paz, is an old friend of the church's (he helped me immensely in acquiring the band equipment earlier this year) and gave his first talk last night, where a number of new faces appeared. Pray for more of them!
• For all the young people we work with, that the Bible would become a key tool in their daily struggles.

Praise

• For progress in planning for 2012 this week.
• For significant advances in the last few days as we have sought to finalise the land transfer.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 29/10/11

Energy and patience were the two buzzwords I left with blog visitors last week as I prepared to head for Santa Cruz. Well, I received just about enough of the former to get by, while the latter, I'm afraid, was forcibly drained by the recipient of my visit.

That would be the (now former) landowner of our plots, where we had been hoping to start building our home in the next few weeks. That is now not looking likely, due to a combination of the rapid disappearance of 'dry time' to get the foundations laid down before rainy season and, alas, the devil-may-care attitude of the landowner.

When I called her a week past on Friday, to propose meeting her in Santa Cruz, and thereby hastening the building process, her effusive reaction was akin to that of someone being told 'You've just won a million dollars. Would you mind if I pop round with it to your house?' "Oh, but of course! Come! Come!"

And go I did. On Monday morning, I arrive at her palace home at the appointed time. All the signs of unfettered opulence. And, without wishing to dust down me old red flag, that's a warning sign in itself. There is no middle class in Bolivia, and so people of her income bracket more or less run the show, are unacquainted with the word 'no' and often tend to have a stupendously obnoxious attitude to those further down the societal rungs. For more on this, see Psalm 10.

Strangely, she isn't there. 45 minutes later, her gleaming SUV appears. She'd been at the gym when she noticed some random person kept calling her. I wonder who that could have been?

Nevertheless, we quickly get down to numbers and she sees that we've covered our end of the bargain fairly and squarely, meaning that we can meet later at her lawyer's to process the necessary documentation. An upturn in fortunes, it seems. Only I take my leave of her with an ominous warning ringing in my ears: most of her relevant paperwork is in Trinidad!!!

And sure enough, that afternoon, I secure from her just one of four documents I'd required from her and which she knew I had come to draw up with her. Without these documents, Amanda and I cannot legally proceed with construction. I didn't hear a word of apology from her the whole afternoon -- not a hint of it -- but, then again, perhaps I should have shown more contrition. After all, wasn't I the one inconveniencing her?

And as I trudged back to the bus terminal that evening, unrested, unwashed and unhappy, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that the whole trip had been the biggest waste of time since Neville Chamberlain took a trip to Munich and decided that chap with the ridiculous moustache wasn't so nasty after all. I had well and truly been taken for a ride.

We met with our architect the following day and he confirmed that we were out of options until we could secure the rest of the paperwork from the heroine of the piece. She will, in fact, be in Trinidad for the whole of November -- unfortunately, too late to break ground before rainy season. However, we will certainly keep pestering her until she decides she can't take any more of us plebs and hands over the documents.

Furthermore, when all is said and done, we can be thankful that we have a guaranteed roof over our heads for the time being -- indeed, the terms of our stay in our current apartment are entirely up to us. So we're obviously disappointed and frustrated over the week's events, but so thankful that our need to build is not urgent.

Today is the seventh anniversary of Fundación Totaí, one of the two ministries we work for here in Trinidad (the other being our church 'El Jireh'). To mark the occasion, the whole staff is leaving in about an hour's time for a family day by the river. Which doesn't leave me with a lot of time, but I'll briefly mention the other event we left with you last week, the planning meeting which took place on Wednesday and Thursday. There, as a staff, and as individual areas (i.e. Amanda with health and I with education), we assessed where we are now and the kinds of long-term goals we can be committing to in the coming years. And from that, we then began to plan in earnest our day-to-day work in 2012.

It's always good to pause and take stock, and as a staff we all feel the benefit of having done so, with an eye on what awaits us. I'm particularly excited about the potential of the educational work; more than anything, I'm hoping to expand and diversify the range of evangelistic activities in the community, be they religious education classes, support activities for local churches, or English classes which use the Bible as the basis for learning (or, indeed, vice-versa!). Over the coming weeks and months, I'll hopefully be able to share in a lot more detail. Until then, we love you and leave you.

Prayer

• For continued patience and grace as we seek to conclude our land dealings in the coming weeks.
• For wisdom and discernment as we seek to implement the changes discussed over the past few days as a foundation.

Praise

• For God's provision for us. We wish we could build soon, but the need is not a pressing one.
• For safety during Craig's travels, and a little rest too (four hours' sleep on the overnight trip home is a new record!).

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 22/10/11

One obvious way in which we've seen God's hand at work over the last couple of years is our never wanting for shelter. Our missionary colleagues have graciously opened their doors to us from the start, with Kenny & Claudia affording us an en-suite bedroom at the beginning of 2010; a few months later, Diego & Jo vacated their whole upstairs area, allowing us to move into an 'apartment' of our own. We have been here ever since.

All the while, however, we've been keenly aware of our need to get a first footing on the property ladder. Last year, when some neighbouring plots went up for sale, we decided to put a deposit down for some land, though we had no immediate plans to build (which is the significantly cheaper option here). But earlier this year, our hand was somewhat forced, as Diego & Jo made the decision that they and their three children would leave Bolivia by December. Reassuringly, the home's future owners have said we can stay here as long as we like. Nonetheless, we reckoned it might be time to speak to an architect.

Edwin, highly recommended by all and sundry, came on board in July, and has been sketching away ever since to design a simple three-bedroom home, which we hope to populate with local visitors, foreign visitors and, if God wills it, our own family. If you've read the blog much, you'll have noted the recurring theme of our knocking doors and the Lord flinging them open, and naturally, we see this house as something of a leap of faith, taking our long-term commitment here to a new level. Well if the speed of this process is anything to go by, we are clearly meant to be here -- three months after contacting Edwin, we're all set to break ground.

The only significant hurdle which remains is the transfer of documents of land ownership. Now that the land belongs to us, we need to meet with the former landowner to transfer the paperwork to our name. Though resident in Santa Cruz, she is planning on coming to Trinidad in November. However, with rainy season looming large, Edwin is keen to get the foundations down ASAP. So we've taken the decision that I will travel to Santa Cruz via overnight bus on Sunday night, meet with the former landowner on Monday morning, and head back to Trinidad that night. While the thought of getting this process out of the way is appealing, I am a light sleeper at the best of times, and am anticipating a rough couple of days as a result. Please pray for energy and patience.

And pray that we'll both be rested up for the remainder of the week, as the Foundation is closing for a couple of days so that we can sit down and plan our future strategy as an organisation. We need a sense of the Lord's guidance in a big way throughout this process.

I've been challenged this week about what it means for the Christian to listen to the Lord and discern his will. Tomorrow I'll have the opportunity to give my first sermon since our break on John 12:1-19. The first chunk of this passage is taken from Jesus' visit to Lazarus, Mary and Martha's home in Bethany the day before Palm Sunday, and Mary's anointing of his feet. I was struck by the contrast between Mary and the disciples in this scene (albeit the only disciple in John's account to kick up a fuss is Judas). They consider Mary's use of this expensive ointment as wasteful. Jesus, of course, defends Mary, explaining that she's simply preparing his body for burial.

I thought about how it could be that such a gulf of foresight existed between the disciples and Mary. How many times had Jesus forewarned the disciples as to the events of that coming week? Yet on as many, if not more occasions, we know the disciples ignored these forewarnings, sometimes even attempting to convince him not to pursue such a path. What privileged access they had for three full years, and yet what glaring lack of belief.

What did Mary have that even the disciples didn't? As I meditated, I remembered that Mary had a previous connection with the Lord's feet. In Luke 10:39 we read '[Mary] sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.' No protestations. No niggling doubts. Just a willingness to humble oneself and hear what the Lord had to say.

Secondly, and briefly, I read Daniel 6 as part of my readings yesterday, which recounts the great Sunday School tale of Daniel's 'disobedience' and relatively uneventful night in the lion's den. I had read the passage so often in the past, but the Lord drew my attention in a new way to a simple narrative aspect of the narrative in verse 10: 'he had windows open toward Jerusalem'. God had granted Daniel with such wisdom that fame and fortune had followed him wherever he so much as breathed in the great ancient city of Babylon. He had been taken as a captive from a spiritually-destitute Judah and within years had had bestowed on him the highest titles outside monarchy itself. He doubtless had full access to the greatest pleasures of the world at that time. Yet, above all, he had windows open toward Jerusalem. Daniel knew that the real glory was on the horizon, and he was in no mood to miss out on it.

And so we pray for ourselves and for others that we too would learn to humble ourselves in a status-driven world, to keep our own eyes on the Lord when there is so much to distract us, and to listen to him when our every fibre of our frail beings says 'no'.

Prayer

• For safety and energy for Craig as he travels to Santa Cruz, and success in the transferral of documentation.
• For the Lord's wisdom during the planning days for the Foundation later this week.

Praise

• For the Lord's blessing of our home plans thus far, and therein, his clear instruction to us to remain in Trinidad.
• For all that God continues to teach us through his Word.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 05/03/11

Last week, loyal readers were left on something of a cliffhanger as I alluded to my forthcoming meeting with the local school head-teacher, with a view to providing English classes there. Well, we met and I was thrown straight into things, given 8th-grade and 7th-grade classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, respectively, and starting the next day.

As I walked into the classroom, I realised that, while I had been participating in various educational ventures over the past year as part of my work here, it had been some 14 months since I had stood in front of a group consisting solely of pre-teens/teens. I acknowledge that the thought of working with teenagers will cause most people to reach for the anti-shuddering pills. Yet as I delivered the lesson, entirely free of nerves, communicating with clarity to the students, I felt such a powerful sense of re-affirmation that the Lord has graciously gifted me in this field. It was a real encouragement.

And now that my working week is far more centred around education, I do feel a greater sense of purpose to what I've been placed here in Trinidad to do. It's not that all the little, non-educational jobs I was doing before were not important; they're just better suited to those whose talents lie in those areas.

Amanda, too, is experiencing similar feelings. The directors here saw our first year as being very much a trial period -- not for us personally, so much as our 'getting to grips' with the language and various aspects of the work. Now those 12 months are complete, we've been encouraged to hone our focus. In Amanda's case, this has been in Audiology. The other day we were talking together about how much more busy we have been since we got back from Santa Cruz, yet how much more fulfilled we feel in our work and in our personal lives. We still miss home very much but feel more convinced than at any point in the past that this is where we are meant to be.

An extra-curricular avenue opened up this week as Amanda and I realised another life-long ambition: we were invited on to the board of a football club, I as vice-president and Amanda as a sitting member. Our friend Maicol's team, Libertad, are getting ready for the domestic league season which kicks off at the end of March. This being Bolivia, part of that preparation involves mounds of paperwork and part of that paperwork is the formation of a board. Now, at the very thought of my new role, I had been planning on dropping in on training sessions in my club helicopter from time to time and reading the riot act to disenchanted players after a poor performance at the weekend (those who have seen me play will no doubt be contacting Chambers to assist them in changing their definition of 'naked hypocrisy'), however, it appears that the role simply entails signing a few forms from time to time. The chopper, too, will have to wait, but there are other perks: Amanda and I both get a free pass to all league games, saving us a tidy 30 Bolivianos per match in the process.

All that talk of paperwork reminded me that I almost forgot to mention our visa application, which was finally 'completed' this week. We can't be 100% sure as the people in La Paz may well get in touch within the next couple of months to request more items from us. However, it's on its way now and we just have to pray those passports will be well looked-after.

Lent starts on Wednesday, meaning this is Carnaval weekend. Given that Lent is a period of abstinence and reflection, the preceding three or four days must automatically be a period of debauchery and recklessness. Right? Sadly, that's very much the prevailing mentality down here and we can only pray that the people will at least be safe. For many of the younger people who come to church, such festivities aren't much fun; one girl we know was dumped with her baby sister at Christmas while her parents and other family members partied for some 36 hours, leaving no food in the house.

So, to keep their focus on what matters (and to keep many from going crazy) the youth group are staging a day of games, worship and teaching here at the church. In fact, we're expected there any time now, so that'll be it for now. Thanks for your continued interest.

Prayer
• For safe travels for our passports and visa application.
• For the event at the church today and, indeed, all the Carnaval festivities, which continue until Tuesday. Pray that, in the quiet moments of reflexion, more and more people would appreciate the meaninglessness of such events and their need of a saviour.

Praise
• For an encouraging season of re-affirmation and purpose in our work here.
• For the opportunity we have to work with, and minister to, so many young people, in the church and FT.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 11/12/10

Sorry, folks. After that refreshing, feminine-infused interlude last week, I'm afraid you're stuck with me again. But I'll see if we can hire her for another appearance soon. She's not bad, you know.

BREAKING NEWS: A shop has opened within a stone's throw from our house. It has bread and everything! Our neighbourhood, very much on the brink of Trinidad, is undergoing something of a transformation, with people buying up land and building properties. The dirt track that leads to our flat is fast becoming just another street. So the shop's opening is further proof that we ain't in Kansas no more (when I say 'shop', I refer to an oversized shed, as most such establishments are here). Many's the Saturday morning back home when, with both cupboards and botheredness levels running on empty, we'd nip round to the neighbouring Co-op for some munchies, often in a state of wanton jammie-bedeckedness. So you can no doubt understand our sheer giddiness at the latest turn of events. Right?

If you want another slice of Trinidad life, try this for size. The other week one of our tyres got two major punctures. We took it to a tyre specialist and got the punctures repaired for the princely sum of 25 Bolivianos, or about £2.50. Back home, that would have been a straight replacement. The lack of such resources here leaves you with no other option when it comes to cars, but doesn't it say a lot about us Westerners' disposable outlook on life?

We've had a pretty busy week. Amanda mentioned the graduation ceremony last weekend and we've included a picture from it, above. We thought that was it for 2010 until, on Sunday morning, we got an invitation to another friend's school graduation party, on Monday evening, beginning at 9pm. Now, back in the UK, if you're invited to something, there's usually a good half-hour of leeway re. the actual arrival time. But in Bolivia, if the invite says 'Come at 9pm' what it actually means is 'See you at 11!'.

This left us in a bit of a quandary. You see, we're not getting any younger and rare's the night we're not sound asleep by 10.30pm at the very latest. And, of course, it was a school night. Very much a school night. So we reckoned there was only one thing for it: show up at 9, look like idiots in the process and politely slink away about 90 minutes later.

Well, as Meat Loaf once eloquently put it, two out of three ain't bad. It was at least two hours before the whole party had arrived and the obligatory parade of the new graduates didn't start till about 11.30pm. The rest of the week has therefore been a bit of an upward struggle, energy-wise. However, we're just chuffed that people would think of us in that way and, as you can imagine, it's a great opportunity to develop relationships with some of the families around here.

At work, we've both been busybusybusy, with Amanda really getting into the nitty-gritty of the data processing she's been tasked with, while I'm at the beginning of the long process of preparing curriculums (should that be curriculi?) for next year's Community and English classes. I'm also taking meditations next week, which requires a lot of preparation.

Excitingly, though, we got our Christmas tree up on Wednesday evening. If you haven't already seen the pictures on Facebook, here are a couple. Many thanks to Chicho and Rachel for lending us the tree and decorations. It's my first faker in years, something of a challenge to my principles, but as you have probably guessed by now, like Co-ops, tyres, and most other things, real ones are hard to come by down here.




Prayer
• For Craig as he leads the meditations next week.
• For Amanda as she organises the data for FT’s EPPDATO survey on hearing loss in the Beni region. It’s a huge project, with the deadline at the end of January.

Praise
• For the opportunities in the last week to develop relationships as part of the school graduation festivities.
• For getting through a busy week with significantly reduced energy levels!

¡Que Dios les benidga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post - 04/12/10

Another Saturday Post... and well, this task just seemed too much for Craig this week, so... yes, this is Amanda. Since I haven't posted for ages, hopefully I can offer a bit of a fresh perspective on some things. And for those of you who didn't understand anything that Craig was talking about in the last post regarding the Mamoré football match (myself included), I want to assure you that this post will be football-free.

As mentioned in our previous post we had our friends Omar, Lucy, their kids and Omar's father, Hugo (pictured, above), over for lunch last Sunday afternoon. The time with them was great... and both Craig and I felt really blessed by it. To be honest, sometimes I feel frustrated in situations like the one on Sunday, because my Spanish, and sometimes Craig's as well, does not allow us to have really deep conversations with people. I feel like we spend a lot of time saying, "What/Qué?". Sometimes I feel like they are missed opportunities, but I was reminded this week that when words fail us God can still use our actions... and it is an awesome reminder to be aware of not only our speech, but our actions as well.

As an interesting side note, the lunch with them also reminded me of the native population's diet. At one point in time I used to think that Mexican food applied to all countries that spoke Spanish, but it doesn't. We ate fajitas, and while they recognised it as Mexican food, I don't think it went down that well. And I made the classic foreigner mistake of not putting loads (actually any) salt in my rice. Oddly enough, they loved dessert, which was pumpkin pie. At least the kids didn't leave on any empty stomach.

Last Sunday was also my last Sunday School class until the next school year... Jo and I ended it with a class game of Taboo in Spanish, which was great for my Spanish. I held the buzzer for the whole game... normally I have a lot of trouble understanding these teenagers, as they are teenagers and therefore they don't speak, they mumble, and when they do speak in an audible voice they use loads of slang that they don't teach in language class. So, I was really forced to concentrate to try and hear if any of them had said a taboo word. It went well... and in the final round I had to describe the word for both teams... and I even impressed myself with my Spanish descriptions.

Today is now actually Sunday the 5th, because I ran out of time yesterday to finish... I will now continue.

For me the work week was filled with a lot of paperwork, which is fine, as I don't mind paperwork. There is something fulfilling about finishing a report or getting through a stack of data entry. The deadlines are kind of stressful though. Myself and two other nurses also started attending PAN (Programa de Atención a Ninos) locations in order to carry out otoacoustic emissions testing. The PAN locations are essentially nationalised daycare centres with anywhere from 10 to 25 kids between the ages of 0-6. The testing involves a visual component with an otoscope and the actual OAE test. I place a rubber ear piece, similar to an ear plug, into the kid's ear, which is attached to cables and ultimately a small box. This box sends emissions at various frequencies into the child's ear and reads how the emissions are received. The child doesn't have to move, say or do anything... I prefer that they sit perfectly still and let me tug on their ear to my heart's delight... but the screaming and crying that goes on when they are just asked to sit next to me does my head in every time. After mornings like these I sometimes question why people ever have children. But the effort is worth it, as all results that came back "refer" means that the child should get examined by an audiologist for more specific testing. The child and their family are referred back to the Foundation where a further contact with the population is made.

Last night, Saturday the 4th, we were invited to the high school graduation of some of the girls from our church. It was our first experience with the graduation process here and it was extremely interesting. I had a great time, though Craig spent a lot of the time reading his Bible on his mobile phone while they read through all 89 names. The place wasn't filled until about 45 minutes into it... and people spent their time chatting to their neighbours the entire time, like it was no big deal. But it was a huge affair with every person inviting everyone and the mailman's brother. The secretary's son from the Foundation was graduating as well, and so there was an open invitation to everyone at the Foundation and a lot of workers came just for the Secretary. Each graduate is gowned up like in the States, or for the Canadians and Brits, like our University graduations. And every graduate is announced forward, escorted by a family member, whose name is also read out, to receive their certificate/title. 89 people and an hour-and-a-half later we start with the speeches. Our Pastor's step-daughter, who was the equivalent of the valedictorian, gave a speech and there were a lot of special awards and plaques being passed around. There was also a little slot where the graduating class passed on their standard to the year below them. My favourite part through this was that there were ladies walking up and down the aisles with baskets selling peanuts and candy just like at a baseball game. After that we went to celebrate with one of the graduates... it was KC and Maicol's neice and they had a really nice dinner for friends and family. And after church today, our Pastor, Elias, and his wife Porfi, had friends and family over a very nice celebratory lunch. We've been invited to another one tomorrow as well... it is Promoción season... which is where I think we get the word Prom from, or at least from the Latin equivalent.

Craig spoke at church this morning on 1 Samuel 30. He used points from David's experience with his men to encourage the young people to develop into strong leaders in the church and in their own homes. As I said above, there was no Sunday School and when I arrived at church there were not many people there, but wonderfully, in true Bolivian style, people arrived late... arriving being the most important thing; arriving late being something that will never change. We pray that the message will touch the hearts of the people present this morning.

Prayer
• That the young people will continue to think about the message they heard this morning.
• For guidance for Craig as he starts to develop the cirriculum for the Community and Education classes for next year.
• Amanda as she continues to work hard to get her work down within the deadlines given to her.

Praise
• The blessing that Craig felt from this week’s sermon prep.
• The blessing of knowing how deep our friendships with people are as we were invited to share with these high school graduates on their big day.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 27/11/10

With summer now very much upon us, football season in South America is drawing to a close (though, as in most of the world, that doesn't necessarily mean a break from football). We're entering the final weekend of fixtures here in Bolivia, with Trinidad's Real Mamoré travelling to Sucre, where a point would guarantee them survival in the league. This comes hot on the heels of a heroic home victory over third-placed San José on Sunday afternoon, or a sobering insight into the darker side of South American football, depending on your point of view.

A John Major-dull first-half gave way to explosives in the second, with a penalty being awarded to the home side for a spectacular, non-contact dive in the box. 5.9 for technical accuracy etc. In spite of this, the ref didn't even think twice. And no wonder. The past weekend, a Mamoré-incited riot on the pitch, as a response to some poor refereeing calls (in their opinion) had almost caused that game to be suspended. The added sweetener of a red card for the player who didn't make the tackle confirmed that this particular match official was in no mood to be hounded from the field of play. Penalty successfully converted, Mamoré went on to romp it 3-0. Hard to begrudge them the victory, but the circumstances made it harder to applaud.

Things have mostly returned to their normal pattern at FT now that the Campaña has come to an end. I've been spending some time taking in the classes which are held for children in the Community on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. These are groups of children who live nearby, or in, Trinidad's men's and women's prisons. Convicts in Bolivia (I stop short of calling them all 'criminals' due to the imaginative criminal justice system in place here) get the added bonus of taking their families with them to jail, should they so choose. Thus, many children find themselves living in these atrocious conditions. They go to school, but the state schools are pretty useless here and, given their family background, many have very much missed the starting gun as it is.

So, FT sends a bus to the prisons, which ferries them here in the afternoon. The classes have a mix of Bible teaching, English teaching and homework assistance as part of each lesson, but at the moment a curriculum isn't in place. So, once the classes finish for the year in the next couple of weeks, I'll be sitting down with Sammy (who is currently taking the classes) to set out a vision for 2011. They're very poor kids but they love the input of the Community classes -- they represent something of a refuge for many of them -- and I'm looking forward to playing a part in that.

Amanda has been back into the regular nursing rhythm of things, carrying out vaccinations in the community and visiting schools for health checks. She's taken on more administrative tasks recently and she's really enjoyed the extra time she now has in the mornings, having finished her Spanish classes, to see to those tasks. She and I got some great news this week in the shape of our first family visit! Jessica, Amanda's younger sister, is coming in mid-January to spend some time with us.

Tomorrow lunchtime we're looking forward to hosting Omar & Lucy and their two children, whom you may remember me mentioning in previous posts. They're a great young couple who can definitely be filed under the 'seeker' category. Our co-worker, KC, has been meeting with Lucy regularly to study the gospel of John and Omar is showing similar enthusiasm. They threw a surprise birthday lunch for Amanda in September and we've long been looking to repay the compliment. Please pray for our time with them.

Prayer
• For our time with Omar & Lucy tomorrow.
• For Amanda as she takes on more administrative work in these next few weeks.

Praise
• For confirmation of Jessica’s visit in January.
• For the opportunity for Craig to use his educational gifts in the community classes.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 30/10/10

We were engaged in much merriment yesterday (Friday) as, together with the rest of the Fundación Totaí staff, we marked FT's sixth anniversary. The above picture shows FT staff and various family members at the official climax of the day's festivities. It was a good opportunity to consider how far FT has come and the Lord's provision over the years.

I say official climax as my favourite bit of the afternoon came later on, when about a dozen of the workers got changed and had a game of football out on the field outside our house. Believe it or not, this was my first proper kickabout since we came to Trinidad nine months ago and therefore embraced by yours truly with no little fervour, though admittedly no large flair. Indeed, if you're a secondary English teacher and you're in need of a simple, easy-to-understand definition of irony for your pupils, a simple photograph of me in my Barcelona 'Messi' shirt would be of immense benefit. Forgive me, Lionel, for I have sinned.

Nevertheless, a great time was had by all, not least the opposition goalie. This week also marked the climax of our Spanish classes with Farid, with Amanda concluding her lessons on Wednesday -- though, of course, the learning has only just begun! Cheesy, that, but true. We're glad that, with a freer morning schedule, Amanda will have more opportunities to learn in practical, everyday situations in the workplace. And we're particularly glad for the relationship we've been able to build with our young teacher over these past months, and will certainly be looking to maintain that friendship in the years to come.

On that subject, I was able to take advantage of our newly-turbo-charged internet speed earlier this week to meet, via Skype, my uni flatmate of two years, Dave Vinton, who like ourselves has recently left familiar shores to serve in a new environment -- though in many ways, it couldn't be any more different than Trinidad. Dave, originally from Bath, is working as assistant pastor at Grace Church in Greenwich, Connecticut or, in his own words 'the Tunbridge Wells of the USA'. Just 30 minutes' drive from New York City, Greenwich is America's unofficial hedge fund capital and home to some of the world's big economic players. Like ourselves, adjustment to the new culture has its ups and downs, but he is relishing this new opportunity. For all that our respective 'fields' are in such contrast with one another, I was intrigued to realise, as I chatted to Dave that, in many ways, we face similar hurdles to the gospel, particularly with regard to the whole concept of salvation by grace and not works (admittedly, something that none of us will ever truly grasp this side of Glory). Here the root of that confusion is centuries of Roman Catholic influence; up there, men and women who have gotten where they are in life by being very, very good at what they do.

I really appreciated getting back in touch with an old friend -- you have no idea of the encouragement that that sort of contact can be to us down here. I heartily commend his ministry to you and direct you to his own website, which details his work.

http://davevinton.blogspot.com/

Prayer
• For both of us, that with our formal language training now at an end, we would not slacken off in our Spanish studies.
• For Amanda, who has taken on further administrative tasks this week as part of her work, that she would keep afloat among the paperwork.

Praise
• For big progress this week on the new FT website, which Craig is developing.
• For some great opportunities to spend time with friends this week, be they work colleagues or old pals from home.

¡Qué Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 11/09/10

We’re both going on a somewhat holiday. Tomorrow lunchtime we’ll be vacating the Trinidad region for the first time since we arrived back in January and flying to La Paz. Our intention was to take a break from our life and work in Trinidad and, location-wise, we couldn’t have done much better. A vast metropolis set at a height of over 3500 metres above sea level and nestled within a dramatic crater (Star Wars’ Millennium Falcon would not be an unseemly landing vehicle), La Paz provides a stark contrast to the hot jungle lowlands of the Beni region. Weather-wise, meanwhile, it won over this Scotsman long ago. 20 celsius would be a pleasant day (though the proximity to the sun can make it feel warmer) with temperatures plummeting to zero or below in the evening. Needless to say, as oxygen lacks, hills abound, so a few days’ acclimatisation are essential.

Culturally, things are no less distinct from the Latin-infused Trinidad. La Paz is the main hub of the majority Aymara population of Bolivia, who descend from the country’s native Indians. Women in bowler hats carrying babies in their back-pouch can be seen trundling up and down the streets all over the city. Vibrant arts and crafts are furnished and sold at many a street corner. And rare is the restaurant meal which isn’t interrupted by a folk band thrashing their charangos (a Bolivian variation of the mandolin) and beating a drum.

All of which will be wonderful. But I’m not going to lie to you. Probably the thing we’re most looking forward to about La Paz is that, as a big city, it provides many of the amenities we took for granted back in Glasgow. It has bookshops. It has a multiplex cinema. It has Burger Kings – I’m not even sure if I’ve visited a Burger King this millennium, but all of a sudden the thought of a Whopper prompts me to reach for my bib.

It’s a ‘somewhat holiday’ as we have items of business to attend to but we’ve managed to keep these to a minimum; one being to purchase tracts for Fundación Totaí – a simple and effective way of ministering to those who pass through our doors every day – and the other is sourcing a new laptop to replace our faithful Macbook, which processed its last megabyte a few weeks ago. This coming Sunday, we’re hoping to pay a visit to the church of a chap called Juan Antonio, an old friend of the church here, whom we’ve heard so much about over the last few months.

On Tuesday, we’re going to take a three-hour bus trip up to Copacabana – not the beach in Rio but the original town from which it took the name. As a small town it’s worth a visit in itself, but the big attraction is the body of water it sits upon, the largest in South America at 190 km long and, at 3,810 metres altitude, the highest of its size in the world. I refer to Lake Titicaca, shared by Bolivia and Peru, as close to the sea as you’ll get here, but what a substitute! The navy blue water gleams like a diamond on the usually sunny days up there and is surrounded by some dramatic mountainous scenery. While we’re there, we hope to do something else we were getting used to back home, albeit, a lot more healthy than an XL bacon double cheeseburger: walking. The Isla del Sol, a two-hour boat ride from Copacabana, is home to some well-preserved Inca ruins and some excellent paths for exploring.

So much to look forward to, and you can probably sense my excitement, but above all, we just want to have a relaxing week and re-charge the batteries for the end of the calendar year, which we’re led to believe is usually the most hectic period at FT. And we hope that, in the moments of solitude in our hotel room, in a boat or on the road, the Lord will continue to reveal his plan for us and our work here in this country, where the myriad of spectacular landscapes provide a backdrop to corruption at all levels of society and rabid superstition (of which more when we return).

No post, then, next weekend, but I’ll be sure to regale our readership with photos and anecdotes when we return. God bless you in whatever situation you find yourself in right now.

Prayer
• For safety as we fly to La Paz – the smoke of a few weeks ago has returned to a lesser extent than previously. Flights are operating to the best of our knowledge.
• For a relaxing time away from Trinidad, and a renewed vision for our work.

Praise
• For Craig’s sermon on Sunday – really felt the Lord’s guidance as I addressed a difficult topic.
• For successful completion of all the usual end-of-month admin tasks.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 31/07/10

Amanda, as legions worldwide are already aware, is a woman of many talents. Thorough yet thoughtful, kind yet crafty (in a good way), she brightens the lives of all she encounters. I am indeed privileged to call her my wife – and she the very picture of grace to call me her husband.

Anyway, given that Amanda is to administration what Tony Hayward is to career self-destruction, her abilities were always going to be a perfect fit for Fundación Totaí, as transparent and thorough an organisation as any we have come across. In Bolivia, however, such scrupulousness leads to inevitable skyscrapers of paperwork, making it exceptionally difficult for FT’s admin staff to keep up (though deadlines are seldom missed).

Back in her previous work in a Glasgow health centre, it is said that computer keyboards shuddered in fear at the very mention of Amanda’s name, knowing a severe bashing was on the cards. Therefore, we knew that when her Spanish reached a certain plane, her administrative portfolio would soon grow to the same extent as her nursing work. And in the last couple of weeks, we’ve both been really encouraged to see some tasks that required a particular administrative flair being passed on to Amanda. We hope she will be of particular assistance to Jo Santana, wife to Dr. Diego, whose clerical burden at times beggars belief.

Elsewhere, I’ve been up to my usual tricks in education, though towards the end of the month the work always increases a couple of notches with reports and sponsor updates to be delivered. I’m particularly enjoying my temporary charge of the Emmaus distance learning Bible course – such an encouragement to guide so many people in Biblical truth. And I’ve been digesting a bit of that myself, in preparation for my next sermon, which is on Sunday. I’ll be speaking on 2 John 7-11, which warns against false prophets, but amidst everything is buried the telling phrase ‘watch yourselves’. As I type the words I will speak, I can assure you that I write to Craig Cunningham as much as anyone else.

Prayer
• For the administrative burden upon both of us which we usually face around this time of the month.
• For Craig as he preaches on Sunday.
• For continued guidance as to the direction of our work. A few interesting developments this week.

Praise
• For Amanda’s talents and their being used to great effect.
• For the Lord’s continued assurance of our place here in Trinidad.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda