Saturday Post -- 28/11/15

You know things are bad here when even the locals are complaining about it. Over the last week we've been in the grip of a ferocious heatwave, taking temperatures to a supposed 36 degrees, but with searing humidity thrown in, it has felt like a lot, lot more. Sleep has at times been hard to come by, with even our co-workers (Benians could sleep through an Iron Maiden concert) turning up bleary-eyed and groggy most mornings. Our air conditioning units in the house, meanwhile, have been working overtime, with every pressing of the 'on' button evoking ever greater dread over next month's electricity bills. 

Mercifully, we woke up yesterday morning to the slightest of south winds, yet it has been enough to make living conditions significantly more comfortable. More wind and showers are expected over the weekend as we anticipate the first throes of rainy season.

The week's lowpoint came on Tuesday lunchtime. I'll be careful how I put this (this is a family blog, after all), but in times of such humidity, when clothes practically have to be removed with a wallpaper stripping tool, the privacy of lunchtime in one's own home often affords one the opportunity to shed any (though not all!) unnecessary, er...ballast. Gallingly, our cleaner, Julia -- who gives the house a go-over on Saturday mornings and Tuesday afternoons, though usually from about 3pm onwards -- had turned up a whole three hours early so as to get away for an appointment. Never have I been less delighted to see such punctuality in a Bolivian!

Julia, truth be told, is the most reliable cleaner we've had so far, and proved her mettle last weekend by summoning me from this here computer keyboard and pointing out several evidences around the house of a rodent problem, which we First Worlders would have completely missed otherwise. Thus warned, we armed ourselves to the teeth with cheese and the most humane execution devices conceivable (humane as in you'd be gone before you could even say 'Red Leicester') -- I almost lost a hand just arming the things. Sure enough, Mickey bought it late on Wednesday night. In fairness, he had as much chance of survival as AFC Bournemouth.

If you're a seasoned reader of the blog by this point, you'll probably aware that the hearty servings of extraneous waffle mean only one thing: it's been a slow week. Indeed, for Amanda and most others at the Foundation, the real focus has been the coming week, when Fundación Totaí hosts another ENT surgical campaign, once again aided by Dr. Richard Wagner from the USA, and other visiting specialists (though on Wednesday of this week, weekly surgery resumed, with our new ENT doctor  -- trained in Argentina -- overseeing his first case since his approval to operate here in Bolivia was confirmed). With the year's end looming ever larger, Amanda and her fellow board members have also been going over 2016's budgets with a fine toothcomb. 

As for me, my time's mostly been taken up with one-on-one discipleship sessions, church administration, and preparation for sermons. It's looking like we're going to be in La Paz for ten days or so in late December (a Bolivian white Christmas???) for a wedding and a conference, so that's pushed several things forward as well. 

Without further ado, then, this week's prayer points.

Prayer

• For the surgical campaign. Pray for the various health professionals involved and for those going under the knife. Craig and Elías (the church pastor) will also be giving evangelistic talks to the many family members who will be gathered in the waiting area. 
• For the adoption process, of course. We are currently awaiting a key decision.
• For the family of Miguel Ángel (FT president, church elder) and Ruth; Miguel Ángel's mother died earlier this week.
• For our friends Carlos & Carla. You may remember Carlos had his motorcycle stolen back in September. We meet with them regularly and continue to be bowled over by their maturity in some challenging economic circumstances -- if anything, their involvement in ministry has only increased in recent weeks. Please pray for continued sustaining.

Praise

• November sees the end of both the school year and several activities at FT. This last week has seen end-of-year celebrations for the afternoon community classes, the football and basketball teams, and the mother-and-toddler group. Give thanks for the many young people who have come to a saving faith through these activities, and pray for continued encouragement during the long (and often boring!) summer holidays.
• OANSA (the church's children's ministry) also wraps up today. As above.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 07/12/13

Bachelor boys Arnold...

...and Paulo.

It’s high school graduation season in Trinidad and, so far, we’ve been invited to three of them, for various teenagers in the youth group, as well as a lunch on Wednesday for the son of some old family friends. So you could certainly say that the week has been a qualified success. Did you see what I did there?

With so many other things to attend to over the past few weeks, we hadn’t really factored in the usual spate of certificate-bestowal, and so we’re increasingly glad for the extra time that finishing at FT a week ago has afforded us over the last seven days. We have been rattling through a fairly extensive to-do list, with Amanda looking to clear the laundry backlog, I looking to clear out our cupboards, and both of us attending to the presentation we’ll be giving, God-willing, from January onwards – we were keen not to have that hanging over us during the Christmas holidays. In the meantime, I’ve been getting my first emails from Cornhill Scotland indicating the arrangements for the new term in January. It’s starting to feel very real now.

A fair few pictures which will be included in our presentation were taken on Sunday, which was another really encouraging day for us as a church. As mentioned last week, a course called ‘The Culture of Blessing’ was organised and overseen by a couple in the church in the afternoon. Between the morning services and the afternoon event, we had a big lunch together. And the course itself was of great benefit to us all. It focused particularly on the huge impact, for better or worse, that our words can make. It was a great message for the church to hear, in a culture where people can be a little less restrained with the tongue than back home. Inevitably, the last exercise required us to act on what we’d been learning, so I ended up having to telling a chap how much I loved him and listing all the things that were so great about him. At first, the two of us could hardly have been more petrified if we’d been forced at gunpoint to attend an X Factor finalists concert. But we got there in the end – and some kind of wonderful it was, too.

Sunday capped off another busy weekend at church, which on Saturday included the end-of-year party for the Bible Explorers’ Club. However, Amanda always prefers to go that little bit further, and so on Wednesday evening she took her teenage girls’ class out for a meal. Indeed, our evenings have more or less disappeared as we aim to spend a last few hours of quality time with as many people as possible. Last night we were out with our Bible study companions Carlos & Carla, tonight my bandmates have invited themselves over after youth group for some pizza (in fairness, they’re bringing the pizza) and tomorrow we’re planning on a meal with our fellow youth leaders. From Monday onwards, we’ll doubtless have to tell people to take the musicians’ approach if they want to see us, as we have a lot of packing to do.

One item we were delighted to stroke off the to-do list was the installation of the church’s new air conditioners, supplied by LAM Canada, which had been purchased about a month ago, yet had lain dormant in the church for nearly two weeks since their delivery. Wednesday afternoon proved a useful ‘test event’ (Brazilian football tournament organisers, take note) in the shape of the end-of-year party for the Community classes. 40 screaming, kinetic kids proved no match for our new walk-in freezer. Attending church will never have been such a refreshing experience.

Prayer

• Right. Things are now, as one might put it, very much 'on'. We have six days to organise our house, get round all the people we need to see, and pack our possessions into four suitcases. Pray for good progress and for patience with one another – these things can get a little stressful!
• On Thursday, we begin our long trip to Scotland with a bus trip to Santa Cruz, whence we hope to post one final entry on this here blog (our flights to Brazil, and then the UK, are on Sunday and Monday, respectively). Pray for safety on the road.

Praise

• Amidst the busyness of all these graduations, end-of-year events and special times at church, we’ve had really tangible reminders over the last week of the special relationship we have with our ‘faith family’, if you like. Life here can be pretty challenging at times, but the closer we get to furlough, the sadder we feel about saying goodbye to so many dear friends for a year. And that’s a happy problem, in our book. 
• Give thanks, too, for the resolution of the air conditioner situation. We hope these will be a great help to the church, where Sundays can at times be oppressively hot. Pray too that the more pleasant conditions will encourage more people to come along and be part of our community in Christ.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Holiday snaps

No regular post this weekend, but here are some pictures from our time with Amanda's relatives so far.

Token picture at the lake. Amanda with her aunt
Sally, her mum Selene, and her aunt Cathy.

With the English class.

We celebrated Amanda's 28th birthday on Wednesday at (unofficially)
the world's greatest steak restaurant: Estancia.

Aunt Sally brought whole suitcases of toys with her all the way from
Singapore, via Canada. Here are the kids from the Friday afternoon
Community class with some of them.

Mother and daughter reunited.

Saturday Post -- 23/03/13

A few weeks ago, we got word of Shona's visit and, with the house edging towards completion, we asked our builders to ensure it was completed by the weekend of her arrival. With Shona landing in Trinidad on Sunday the 10th, the goal was to be moved in by Friday the 8th, giving us a couple of days to get the house in order. Our builders were all too happy to accommodate our wishes. 

And thus began a very Bolivian house-move. For in the days leading up to our hoped-for move-in, it became clear that the house would not be delivered to us in a completed state. Among the items still to be dealt with when we arrived were:

• Paint splashes all over the floor tiles and windows
• Smudges on the newly-painted walls
• An unpainted exterior wall
• Windows without mosquito nets
• Loose rails in the showers and patio doors
• A back garden littered with builders' equipment
• Lack of electrical socket for our oven in the kitchen
• Bathrooms without lights
• Several windows without curtain rails (we're still waiting on these!)

These have, largely, been dealt with over the past couple of weeks. But it's been yet another pretty alarming eye-opener, as if it were needed, as to the quality of customer service here. We have spent, at times, consecutive days calling the same electrician/carpenter/painter over and over again, being told each time that they are coming "ahorita" ('right now'). This is a very Bolivian tactic: to keep the customer off your back, tell them what they want to hear rather than the truth. Furthermore, pride in the quality of one's handiwork does not seem to take any real precedence. Many of the problems since we moved in have been owing to negligence on the part of the workmen. 

However -- and it's a big 'however' -- we're really delighted with the (almost) finished product and already feeling the benefit of the increased space available to us. Monday (our day off) of this week was the first chance we had to spend the whole day in the house uninterrupted by builders (though, to be honest, we were waiting for them!) and we were struck by the freedom we each had to relax. While our house is not big by any stretch of the imagination, we have much more room than in our apartment which was essentially a series of four consecutive rooms, one following the other. 

We are just so thankful to have such a welcoming, airy place to come home to and looking forward to sharing it with our friends and those we minister to in the coming months.

Additionally, there has been some movement this week on the hoped-for land sale, with a visit from an interested party on Tuesday, with a view to possibly buying both of the plots. The deal would depend on the availability of funds on the prospective purchaser's end. We'd really appreciate your continued prayers as we aim to shift these plots.

All of these housing shenanigans have had to be dealt with against the backdrop of a busy couple of weeks at work. This week saw another ENT surgery campaign take place at FT. Amanda was not involved directly, but there's always a knock-on effect for her as she sees many of the pre- and post-op patients in Audiology. Since taking on the audiology work, she has never had a week quite like this one. 

Meanwhile, there have been some really encouraging developments in my educational work recently. We are now three weeks into the new year of English classes, with over 30 students enrolled in this year's class -- way more than in previous years and so many that I've had to stop new people signing up for the time being. 

We also have a solution to the staffing issues in the Community class. Elizabeth, who has been a huge help in the last year, told us that she may have to leave in mid-April to pursue her career. This left us with the prospect of having nobody to take on this thrice-weekly children's ministry. However, in the past couple of weeks, Elías (pastor of our church and a basketball coach with FT's Sports ministry) expressed an interest in taking on the work and he took up his new post this week, helping Elizabeth and short-term volunteer Deborah. We won't know till mid-April if Elizabeth is staying or not, but we're now in a good position to get help for Elías if need be. We're delighted to have this ministry secured for the year.

And I'm delighted to have another post written for the week. A happy Day of the Sea to you all!

Prayer

• For the youth group this evening, where we're continuing in a short series on the Passover and its significance for us. I'll be speaking on the Lord's Supper. Most of those who come to the youth group have never come to our Communion service at the church, with many being under the impression that it's for a particularly lofty category of Christian! Additionally, due to Catholic teaching, many have misplaced views as to the importance of the sacraments. Please pray that God would speak truth to their hearts tonight. These, like many other such issues (such as not eating meat during Holy Week), are things of which these young people simply accept society's version without question.
• We're due to get our kitchen delivered and installed tomorrow. Please pray that this goes smoothly. 

Praise

• For energy for Amanda during a hectic week. Indeed, give thanks too for the campaign in general, where about 20 patients were given world-class ENT surgery by the visiting doctors and all returned home safe and sound.
• For all the encouraging developments in the education ministries.
• Whoops! I posted this, forgetting to mention that Amanda's permanent residency visa is now here. Give thanks for that and pray that mine will arrive soon. She's not good on her own is our Amanda.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 26/01/13

Jessica Jordan at Trinidad airport. She's becoming
awfully familiar with its departure lounge.

Signing off on last week’s veritable deluge of information, I alluded to the big event of the weekend, a regional by-election which, like all elections, caused public meetings, and thus, church, to be cancelled on polling-day. The election provides an intriguing insight into Bolivian politics and perceptions of the Beni region within Bolivia.

Four years ago, as the country geared up for its next round of gubernatorial elections in April 2010, Bolivia’s ruling party, MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo – translation required? Thought not.) found itself in an increasingly frustrating position. The party had swept to power under former coca-leaf grower Evo Morales in late 2005 in unprecedented circumstances (the first single party, indeed, to win an overall majority in Bolivia’s history) with the promise of more representative government – in other words, greater recognition at state level of the interests of the country’s indigenous majority, mostly based in the country’s high-altitude western regions.

As you can no doubt imagine, those who live in the country’s more plain-like, eastern territories (namely Pando, Santa Cruz and the Beni), and who come from a very different range of people-groups, were none too enamoured by such talk. The Beni, in particular, had hardly been a land of milk and honey pre-Evo anyway; despite being Bolivia’s second-largest municipality, covering an area just shy of Great Britain’s land-mass, this sparsely-populated region has nevertheless traditionally been very much the runt of the litter when it comes to state support. Widespread civil unrest took hold just a year after Morales’ inauguration, with greater political powers sought by the eastern regions and separation even mooted.

In 2009, then, Morales had just been convincingly returned to power, but with nary a dent in the Beni. Indeed, the support for MAS stood at a mere 4% in the region. Something drastic had to be done to ensure the Benianos get with the programme. Enter Miss Bolivia.

Now, before proceeding, a little cultural context is important here. Back in the UK we tend to regard beauty pageants with a touch of remorse. Sexist, objectifying, degrading to women; like Cumbernauld, Kappa trackies and Anthea Turner, it was fine while it lasted, but we’ve moved on now, thank-you-very-much. Not so in Bolivia – nor, indeed, in much of Latin America. Actually, these women hold nothing short of icon status in the eyes of both men and, particularly, women; their every breath pored over by hordes of green-eyed, yet wide-eyed, female followers, whose diet of Miss-trivia is happily resourced by the national media.

All too aware of this, MAS recruited the 2005 victor, Jessica Jordan, as their candidate for an altogether different contest. Intriguingly, Jordan claims not only Bolivian but, through her father, English descent (many’s the time I’ve jokingly complained to a local that I came here to escape English rule, not be subject to it once again).

Now, no doubt one could argue that the selection of such a candidate was populist, cynical and an utter insult to the intelligence of the Benianos – but far be it from me to posit such an opinion in such a public forum (who knows, after all, who could be reading this?). But it didn’t half work. MAS didn’t get the victory they sought, but their share of the vote skyrocketed to 40%.

(I’ve often wondered what the protocol would have been in the event of Jordan winning the ballot. Does the title of ‘governor’ outrank that of ‘Miss’, not least when one has competed internationally under the moniker? Would her acolytes reply to her every demand with “Yes, Miss” and “No, Miss”?)

Miss Jordan’s conqueror, to the delight of MAS, found himself booted out of office in mid-2011 on corruption charges; your enemy’s enemy is by no means your friend here. An interim governor was installed until they finally got round to announcing a by-election for January 2013. And, in classic if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it mode, no prizes for guessing who MAS selected as their candidate.

Jordan’s victory seemed like a formality from the word ‘go’. She was backed up by a monstrous campaign budget, while MAS had, in reality, fired the starting-gun some months previous when they launched a series of La Paz-funded construction projects, playing the populist string in one case with a major new sports complex under construction just up the road from where we live.

And yet, their considerable efforts were, to the surprise of many, thwarted once again. Several of the smaller opposition groups shelved their candidacy and united under the umbrella of the main challenger, Carmelo Lens, a lawyer, scholar and local councillor. There was genuine shock – dare I say, relief? – last Sunday evening as the results came through giving him a 52% share of the vote to Miss Jessica’s 44% tally. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t buy the Beni.

Alas for Jessica – and, indeed, for her good friend, Evo – the noise coming out of the Beni remains a more subdued, but ever-discernible “No, Miss.”

Prayer

• For final preparations for the new youth group year, which begins next Saturday.
• For the church music ministry. Craig will be returning to the fold this week after a short break over January. With our furlough year in 2014 on the horizon, this is a key year in terms of training up the band to be better equipped to manage by themselves (the current members have only the most tenuous grasp of musical theory at the moment, for example). Pray for this work.
• Please remember our friend Porfidia Prado in your prayers. She is a primary school teacher of real calibre and is desperate to get involved in the Community class ministry this year -- she would be a great asset. In order to do this, she needs to find other work (the Community classes meet in the afternoons so she's looking for a morning teaching position). The new school year is a week away and, unfortunately, nothing has come up yet. 
• Continue to remember our permanent-residency visa application in your prayers.

Praise

• For the safe arrival of volunteer Deborah Holmes from Croydon, south London. In fact, she's been in the country for about a month, staying with friends in Cochabamba, but our friends the Holts picked her up on the way back from a family holiday and she arrived last Saturday. She's here till May -- pray that her time here would be one of blessing and growth.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 08/12/12

I have to admit something a little sad to everyone - I unfortunately have not yet been able to attempt to make bagels (writes Amanda). I know it was something that everyone was looking forward to hearing about and I am very sorry that I have failed you all. Please be assured that it is still on my mental, and very long, to-do list. Sadly, every time I am presented with free time and I look at my mental to-do list (indeed it is - Craig), sleep seems to have jumped to the top. I don't know why that is. 

However, I have done some baking this past week, as I made cupcakes for my Esther Bible Study group. I think they enjoyed them as we had smaller numbers that night and yet there were only three cupcakes out of 18 left. Oh, a quick baking question... my cupcakes always come out a bit denser than I would like. How do I make them more light and fluffy? I already fold in whipped egg whites separately at the end, but they still come out too dense. Can anyone help me?

As for work this week... it was very busy. It was my last week in Audiology on a full-time schedule, which I am quite glad about. It has been a tad difficult to stay on top of my other work when I've been in Audiology mornings and afternoons. Odalys, the full time audiological technician, flew back into Trinidad this morning (or she was supposed to) and should be back at work Monday. I left her two little welcome back pictures on her desk. When she left to go away at the beginning of November she left me a to-do list and no little pictures. I think I am the better gift-giver based on that evidence. I will continue to work in Audiology in the mornings, helping out where I can. But am looking forward to getting back on top of my other work -- this would include house work, and maybe one day my house won't look like it threw up on itself. 

Actually, the biggest job I have this month, along with a lot of other people, is organising the Christmas programme. The script has been written, the parts of have been handed out, and the kids are practising (like later this afternoon), but there are still the questions of the costumes, backdrops, stage, seating, Christmas refreshments, prizes for the kids from the Bible Explorers' Club, etc. I have to make more donkey ears (like the ones we made for the youth group social night) and sheep ears... like 50 of them. But, thankfully, God has placed lots of people in the church who are wanting to lend a hand, and we are really looking forward to the finished product on the 23rd of December. We are praying that all these kids bring their parents, friends and neighbours to hear about how God provides for us every day, but especially through his Son Jesus. 

Big news -- we officially own both plots of land!!!!! The paperwork on the final plot came out of Derechos Reales (the equivalent of land registry????) yesterday... exactly one year and one month after we first started the initial, incorrect paperwork. Praise God. Unfortunately, the people who wanted to buy the land from us a while back are no longer interested, so we are praying that God would bring other interested buyers to our attention. We have to remember to continue to have faith that God is carrying us through this sometimes complicated process. 

Craig had a big week this week... he got to throw a party and eat cake (actually, I snuck upstairs and ate cake as well, even though I wasn't invited to the party... and there were left overs, so I invited all my work friends to eat Craig's cake as well). This past Wednesday afternoon was the end-of-year party for the community classes, both the one in the Foundation and the one off-site in Maná. It was held at the Foundation and there were games, a Bible quiz, balloons, loot bags (party bags) and cake. All the kids had a great time. Craig says party planning is not his gift and that now that the party is over he can get back to stuff he's good at, but I think the kids would disagree. I think they think he's awesome at party planning and maybe he should spend more time doing it. Please see below evidence of his natural ability (he did not bake the cake... this time).

Group Picture!!

No translation required here. Right? 

Prayer

• The planning and execution of the Christmas programme.
• The kids in the community classes who are now on vacation, and some will not have contact with the church/Foundation for two months.
• Education staff at the Foundation as they spend the summer holidays planning for next year.

Praise

• Receiving the ownership papers on our two plots of land.
• An enjoyable time for Amanda in Audiology full-time during the month of November.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 01/12/12

Here are some pictures of the house taken over the past week:

The view from outside the perimeter wall, now complete with entrances for
cars and humans.

A closer look at the front. The earth has now mostly been raised on this side
to the same level as the house.

Amanda checking out her the laundry room,

which has been integrated into the back wall.

The living/dining room. The ceilings were finally put in place this week
throughout the house.

An upstairs bedroom. Most of the wiring is now in place.

Thanks again to you all for your prayers for our land application. The process has been unusually slow but on Thursday we received documentation confirming us as the owners of one of the two neighbouring plots, and the other plot, we are told, will be fully registered in our name by Monday. We will therefore by next week, after a year of wrangling and paper-trails up blind alleys, be the owners of two plots of land which have doubled in value since we purchased them – a major answer to prayer. What remains now is to find a buyer and channel any sale proceeds into the building fund. Anyway, for now we give thanks for the impending conclusion of this long process.

This was the last week of classes for the year in Trinidad’s schools and there’s definitely been an end-of-term feel to things this week, as we wrap up some ministries and continue in our preparations for Christmas.

My R.E. classes in our local secondary school concluded with an investigation into the resurrection of Christ and the various claims and counter-claims surrounding it. Thanks to some extra funds available to us this year, I was able to give each of the students a couple of booklets which look at what it means to be a Christian and who God is. Many of these young people have accepted Christ over the past couple of months but most do not come from Christian homes – indeed, many will be actively discouraged from attending a Bible-teaching church. So it’s of vital importance that, with the holidays now beginning, they ‘don’t go home empty-handed’, as it were.

Elizabeth and I have also been winding down the Community classes this week, where we gave the kids extra time to memorise verses and key facts from the story of David, both of which they’ve been learning over the past months in the class. They’ll be tested on these during a quiz we’ve organised as part of the end-of-year party. Once again, we’ve received a generous one-off gift to allow the class attendees to mark the year’s end. But rather than stage separate parties for each group, as we’ve done in the past, we’re bringing the two groups together on Wednesday afternoon.

But as the rear-view mirror shows the school year disappearing from view, a cursory onward glance shows the festive season very much looming large. This afternoon the church’s children’s and youth ministries come together for the first of four weekly rehearsals for our Christmas service on the afternoon of the 23^rd of December. From early November, the leaders of these two groups have been busy planning the programme; now it’s over to our young people to see what they can make of it.

Prayer

• For the end-of-year Community class celebrations on Wednesday.
• For a smooth start to preparations for the Christmas service, the church’s biggest evangelistic opportunity of the year, this weekend.
• For the many teenagers who’ve put their trust in Jesus from the local secondary school, that they would have access to the support they need over the holidays. 

Praise 

• For a positive conclusion to the lengthy land application process.
• For progress on our house.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda