Episode 3: The Zombie Apodcalypse

La Paz: Latin Link Retreat

Prayer walk with the team.

Token team photo.

La Paz: Community Church & The Hunt Family

Up a big hill with Mark (you're always up a hill in La Paz).

Sam with Rebecca.

The ever-developing La Paz cable-car system never ceases to enthral us. This
new blue line takes you literally to the centre of town (think Buchanan Street
subway station, but for cable-cars).

Ben on the left, Meghan on the right, Sam too tired to pose.

The following images are taken from a walk up the Muela del Diablo, the
spectacular rock formation you can see on the right-hand side here.
Disclaimer no.1: this is not my photo.

Disclaimer no.2: we drove most of the way in a mighty Lada.

Sam's ubiquitous goldfish crackers. They taste even better
at altitude.

La Paz Community Church.

One of LPCC's attendees is our old friend Dave McColl, now working as
the Samaritan's Purse chief in Bolivia. Mark called this a Scottish sandwich,
so I suppose that makes him a lorne sausage.

The Hunts' dog, Chumita, more than made up for Napoleon's absence in Sam's eyes.

The Band

The poster.

All set!

Some footage from our sound-check:

And here's our playlist. All covers, of course! The U2 and Ben E. King numbers were 'mashed-up'. Craig sang lead on Change The World, These Days and I'm On My Way, which doubled both as our encore and as an excuse to change into a 1978 Scotland shirt.

There are plenty more photos and videos from the concert. Send us an email if you'd like to see more.

Prayer Points

• Give thanks for a great time in La Paz, both at the Latin Link retreat and with friends old and new.
• Give thanks for a terrific gig on Tuesday and the opportunity to bless the Novo rehabilitation programme in this way.
• Pray for Sam at school; his behaviour has taken a bit of a nosedive recently.
• Pray for Bolivia as the country goes to the polls for the presidential elections on the 20th.
• Pray for Joe Stoneham, a new Latin Link worker who will be staying with us for a few days next week.
• Pray for the first meeting of Craig's Langham escuelita, on the 23rd.
• Pray for the launch of the church's new midweek meeting, next Thursday (17th).
• Pray for our time with our house-guest this week, Yoselín.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig, Amanda & Sam

Are You Washed?

"Well, I bet they don't mention that in their prayer letters!"

Such was my internal reaction a few years ago upon first visiting the home of a missionary family here in Bolivia. Over the years, we'd learned of overseas Christian workers occasionally abusing the long leash they have been granted -- in some cases we'd experienced this at first hand. For many it was a case of destructive behaviour towards colleagues and even family members; for others, the relative cheapness of the developing world had afforded a lifestyle of opulence well beyond their reach in the west -- and one that, alas, doubled as a fortress to put them well beyond the reach of the locals they were supposed to be helping.

So when I walked through the door that day and the first thing that jumped out to me was the swimming pool, an eyebrow involuntarily raised itself. (As it happened, this family had very wisely -- and cost-effectively -- simply dug a big hole in the garden while building their house, tiled it, and filled it with water.)

My inverse-pool-snobbery, however, has long since died a death. For it was in the September heat of last year that I practically crawled into a local toy shop, pointed gaspingly to the biggest inflatable paddling pool they had, handed over the dosh, motored home with a newly-acquired pump, let the hose run for about an hour, and without further ado, gleefully fully-immersed myself ("once a baptist...") in an extra-large DIY bath. I did it for Sam, of course.

It's spring here again and the Trinidad mercury is rising; 35 Celsius with humidity. The rainy-season levees are yet to break. And all the while, Sam's paddling-pool is fast becoming a permanent fixture of our front garden; in many ways, simply a damper, cooler extension of our front living room. Wonderfully, it's a place where the three of us can be in close proximity and not in any way irritate each another. And it's a place that's hosted a fair few children and their parents just in the last two or three weeks. While Sam and friends have beavered away to recover the Lego city of Atlantis (that's when he's not chucking the pieces), we've had several great conversations with friends and neighbours. 

Look! People coming to our house again! Our very willingness to open our doors as before is another sure sign of God's healing work in our hearts of late. What joy to break bread with friends, waist-deep in mud-tinged water in the company of inflatable superheroes. Now just watch for those Lego pieces where you sit, mind.

Prayer Points

• Last week, I (Craig) neglected to mention that at the Latin Link retreat, I was elected to serve on Latin Link Bolivia's executive committee. In a nutshell, this will require me to meet with my fellow committee members four times a year in order to oversee the general direction of the Latin Link Bolivia team: planning events, making sure everyone is being well looked after, and ensuring Bolivia is playing its part in meeting Latin Link's strategic objectives. I appreciate your prayers for myself, Julie Noble (left) and Graham Frith (far right). Louis Woodley, second-from-right, is the outgoing (in more than one sense!) team leader. We give thanks for his wise and humble leadership of the team in our first two years.

• Here are some other recent 'poolside' guests: José and Katyana, a young couple who have recently started coming along to the church and helping in various areas. Give thanks for a nice afternoon with them last Sunday.
• Sam's behaviour has largely improved this week; he has been a lot more cooperative as he has become more settled here. Give thanks.
• Please also pray for a couple in our church who are having some marriage difficulties just now. Amanda was able to spend time with the wife in the last week, and it was a great example of God using our somewhat traumatic recent experiences to indirectly help others. Still, please keep that couple -- who we will not name here -- in your prayers.
• Though we have only been back for a month now, we feel we have a much more sustainable pattern of life and ministry in place. Give thanks.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig, Amanda & Sam

Saturday Post -- 30/09/17

"So, Clemenza, let me get this straight: Is the law, therefore, opposed 
to the promises of God?" 
"Fuhgetaboutit!"

When it comes to faithfully and honestly expounding the word of God as he has given it to us, there is simply no substitute for working through a book together, Sunday by Sunday, as a church. Thematic or topical series have their place throughout the church year, but if we claim to take the Bible seriously in our congregations, then book studies must be given primacy. 

A criticism that this approach often attracts is that it lacks the flexibility to address issues the church might be dealing with at any particular moment. This can be fairly easily countered. Firstly, when choosing books to teach as a series, a church should be considering the current needs of its congregation anyway, and prayerfully selecting texts which speak to those. Secondly, as stated above, a good church will make room for thematic or topical sermons throughout the year anyway, and these provide particularly gilt-edged opportunities for such ministry.

But I cannot imagine I am alone in positing a third, far weightier reason: we have good reason to trust that God will speak powerfully to us through his word as it has been presented to us. Time and time again in my own preaching ministry, God has aligned circumstances and text in such a way that the particular text, of the particular book, in the particular preaching series, that was programmed for that particular Sunday some months ago, is precisely what the church needs to hear. This is all of God, and all the more reason to give him the glory.

This has certainly been the case here in the last couple of weeks, where I have been working through Galatians 3 and 4. We elected to preach Galatians some months ago owing to the Reformation's 500th anniversary this year, and it being Martin Luther's favourite book (his only commentary was written on the epistle, and if you know anything of his biography, it's not hard to see why). In the particular passages I was preaching on, Paul is showing that God's law, which the Galatians were depending on, is inferior to God's promise (because it came later and through an intermediary), but that it is still integral in that it demonstrates in Technicolor just how far we fall short of God's standards -- and therefore, just how much we need to respond to his unconditional promise in Jesus! He then reminds the Galatians that, as heirs of the promise, they are free -- so why go back to a life of enslavement to works-righteousness?

We have all, then, as Christians, gone from slavery to salvation-by-works, to the freedom of salvation-by-grace. But the funny thing is that Amanda and I have had a lot of experiences here recently, in our own church and in para-church settings, where the noises from the pulpit seem to suggest the opposite, particularly among young people. Something along the lines of: "Don't be like those friends of yours who are having the time of their lives; don't dance, don't drink, don't get into relationships with the opposite sex." And that's it. 

I recently read a book on preaching that contained the following simple, yet powerful, thought: that if you reckon you could get away with your sermon in a mosque or a synagogue, then it isn't worth preaching in church. So many factors, too numerous to detail here, have brought about an 'evangelical' church culture where legalism and The Stuff We Must Do have come to dominate Bible teaching, particularly among those pesky young people, who just can't control themselves, can they. And so, sermons you could get away with in a mosque or synagogue are the meat and potatoes of church experience.

It all comes back, of course, to a faulty understanding of God's salvation. Having been brought up in the school of no-free-lunches, we struggle to accept its totality, finality and unconditionality (I have this moment at least once a day!). And as a result, our obedience is motivated by fear when, in fact, if we really grasped the fullness of what God has done for us, it would flow from us naturally as an expression of love and thankfulness. Why, indeed, settle for these fleeting pleasures, when life in abundance can be ours today?

Going back to my sermons, then, it has been interesting to see how God, in the last few weeks, has used this hefty reminder of his grace to really get people thinking about the kinds of messages we are sending as a church, particularly among our young people; bear in mind that our young people are vulnerable not only because of youth culture in general, but also because they largely come from unchurched homes -- and those whose parents have brought them up in some kind of faith know only the works righteousness so ingrained in this culture. 

So this message is causing people to sit up and pay attention. Two separate young men, both regular youth-group attendees, approached me in the last week to tell me that they had never heard this before. I was simultaneously encouraged and challenged: encouraged that they were simply paying attention to the Sunday sermon (!) and that the gospel was being clearly understood; challenged that this seemed to be inconsistent with the kinds of messages they were hearing elsewhere. That was confirmed to me when a youth leader approached me to say he was concerned that the general teaching for the youth on Saturday nights wasn't consistent with the kind of gospel message being preached on Sunday mornings.

I am not currently involved in the youth ministry, but Amanda is, and has also had some interesting conversations this week on the topic with her fellow workers in the ministry; they are great, committed people, but most are new enough in the faith to be susceptible to these kinds of errors. The material used on Saturdays is essentially solid, but much of it is about making good decisions, and so the possibility of 'synagogue sermons' is very much a live one. It seems like, pretty soon, the teaching on Saturday nights will have to come under some serious scrutiny, and we are encouraged that it's not just us foreigners, for once, asking the big questions.

Of course, as with all such matters, The Godfather nailed it. Hitherto blue-eyed-boy Michael Corleone is in some anxiety as to the impact his upcoming 'hit' on a family rival will surely have on inter-mafiosi affairs in New York. Peter Clemenza ("Leave the gun; take the cannoli.") endeavours to help him see the bigger picture:

That's all right. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood.

While by no means looking to 'get rid of the bad blood' (!), I wonder if, in the church of Jesus Christ, these little grace shake-ups also "gotta happen every five years or so", much like we are experiencing now. Indeed, I suspect we depend on such seasons. If I, as I mentioned above, need to be reminding myself of God's grace every day, we can never preach this message too much. But first of all, we need to learn accept it for ourselves. 

Prayer

• We are thankful for this little reawakening which might be taking place among us, and doubly conscious that we must, as a couple, be patient and, yes, gracious with the people we are working alongside, so as not to compromise this message in any way. Pray for tact, for diplomacy, for love.
• Our fellow Latin Link workers, Graham & Debbie Frith, are due here any moment now for a weekend visit. Please pray for a time of mutual encouragement.

Praise

• The Gore family (see last week) have settled in well after their move from Cochabamba and we have enjoyed getting to know them a little better this week.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 08/07/17

I have a little time to share a quick update; we are busy, but we know people are always keen to get our news, and that will especially be the case this weekend for those from a certain corner of the west of Scotland.

The team from Strathaven Evangelical Church have been here now for a week, and their contribution has been immensely positive. After the usual long journey here, they arrived last Saturday morning, used the weekend to re-charge the batteries, and from Monday onwards got stuck right in.

(Special mention to team members Sarah and, er, ‘Mum’, who, under no obligation whatsoever, came along with us to a wedding on Saturday evening. It began around 10pm, and we didn’t leave till 1am. Bear in mind that British Summer Time is five hours ahead and you can perhaps grasp the scale of that achievement!)

Sunday was a real bonus, in that our church friends had organised two separate events outside of the regular morning service. Kenny & Claudia Holt (back from the old country for a two-week visit) hosted a barbecue at lunchtime, while another couple put on a baby shower in the afternoon, with the invitations extended to that most un-baby shower of species: men. There were ample opportunities, then, for the team to meet – or, in Mum’s case, catch up with – many of our friends and fellow workers here, and it was obviously a great little introduction to the culture here.

Bunch of drama queens (and kings).

The first couple of weeks of July are the mid-year school holidays here, and the team’s main remit this first week has been to participate in the five-day club, organised annually by FT’s sports area. The five-day club meets in a local school, and is a combination of games, praise times, evangelistic Bible lessons and group work. Every day this week, the team performed a five-minute sketch (mimed, of course!) to illustrate the main point of the day’s lesson. The team have come up with these themselves, and they have been really powerful enactments of the gospel message, yet simple enough for young children to grasp.

As is usually the case at these clubs, the group times have included the completion of a worksheet. But this time, the team members also prepared five craft activities, meaning the children could go home every day with a tangible reminder of the day’s theme.

The headline reads: 'Holidays are more fun with Fundación
Totaí'. The caption reads, 'Guitarist Craig Cunningham
demonstrated why so many have dubbed him this
century's Jimmy Page' (that's a fib).

Their contribution, in short, was immense, and was even recognised in the local press! A father of some children in attendance happened to be a scribbler with the Trinidad daily newspaper, and spent some time talking to some of the Bolivian team members on Thursday. Yesterday, just before we left, he turned up with a copy of yesterday’s edition, with a page dedicated to the five-day club and a particular emphasis on the Scottish angle.

The five-day clubs have taken place in the mornings, and the team have used the rest of the days here to read the Bible together, prepare for the next day’s activities, or just hang out with the locals (Mum, it emerges, plays basketball). They will be teaching the main lesson at the church’s children’s ministry this afternoon, and next week will see them branch out into other areas of Foundation and church’s ministry.

We are passionate about welcoming volunteers here, though it can be a lot of work. It is particularly encouraging, then, when a group arrives with their sleeves already rolled up, and a willingness to serve wherever needed. It has been a pleasure to serve with them this week, and our prayer is that the impact of their time here would be felt for many years both here in Bolivia and, we pray, back in sunny Strathaven.

Sam warms up for next week (!) as he explores the surroundings at the
five-day club with friend, Kenny.

Prayer

• As ever, Sam has coped admirably with the unique demands of this week, but has come down with a fever in the last day or two. Pray for a swift recovery.
• Pray for the children in attendance at the five-day club, that the gospel message they heard this week would be received with gladness.
• Pray for the team in their second (and final) week here.

Praise

• Yesterday, incredibly, was our tenth anniversary! God has been faithful.
• And when our twentieth rolls around, God-willing, Mauro and Mily, a young couple from our church, will be celebrating the same milestone. Theirs was the aforementioned wedding last Saturday evening, at which Craig officiated. Very few people actually get married in this culture, so give thanks for the powerful witness of this to their friends and family, and the great encouragement we feel as a church.
• We have also been really blessed by our time with various ex-missionary friends who have been in town for that self-same wedding. Our old friends Maicol & KC, with their son Caleb, are staying with us until mid-August.
• Give thanks for the team, their impact, and their own spiritual growth this week.

The day ends over Laguna Suárez, Tuesday.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 21/11/15

With Asalia (a former nurse at FT) and her baby daughter. Her husband, Yasir,
took the picture. Santa Cruz now has a Papa John's!

Our aims and objectives for our sojourns to the city are pretty straightforward: eat nice food, catch a flick or two, stock up on the harder-to-find groceries, rest well and, most importantly coming from the goldfish bowl that is Trinidad...be anonymous.

Last weekend in Santa Cruz, we succeeded in all but the last criterion, making contact with no fewer than three groups of people over our four day stay. Yet by the end of the trip, we were delighted to have broken our rules a little; and in the process, we found true satisfaction.

The main driver of our visit, indeed, was the opportunity to get together with newborn Amanda's parents, who named her after the great woman herself and asked that we be godparents (if you missed out on that saga, here's all you need to know). On Sunday afternoon, we met with the couple -- Christian and Analía -- Amanda and their other children at a kid-friendly restaurant in town; it was my (Craig) first time meeting Christian, having only met Analía at the conclusion of proceedings back in October.

Analía (left) gatecrashes the Amanda convention.

Accepting the role of a godparent in this culture can be a little tricky, as some tend to see it in purely economic terms. Foreigners like ourselves, in particular, can be asked to be godparents, only to find that the only meaningful contact with the family is a phone call from the parents in the run-up to the child's birthday, asking to fund this year's party. Aside from the very brief contact we had with them last month, we really did not know this couple very well, and so, in a way, we were taking a risk by accepting their request. Yet, for all of the hijinks of our initial meeting, we had been really impressed by their maturity, and prayerfully accepted.

Sunday afternoon confirmed that we had made the right decision. Three hours flew by as we got to know each other better while the children happily submerged themselves in the neighbouring ball pool. I had an interesting conversation with Christian, who told me he'd been involved in an evangelical church some years ago during a crisis, but working on Sundays had gotten in the way of going back (as it happens, he started a new job this week that gives him Sundays off, and told me he is hoping to return to church with the family). 

At one point in our discussion, I felt particularly enabled to say something of use. Christian shared that a struggle he has is with unanswered prayer, particularly why there are seasons when prayers are answered, and others when it seems like it is not. And in the moment, I thought of what had led us to this point. We were having this conversation because Christian and Analía had asked us to be godparents; they had asked us to be godparents as a result of that traumatic situation that had brought us together last month; that situation last month had taken place because we want to adopt a child; we want to adopt a child because we are unable to have children naturally (see also: Tim Keller's indebtedness to Watergate). In other words, a whole lot of prayer had gone 'unanswered' to bring us to this moment where we were having such a good time getting to know each other better. Genesis 50:20 indeed. He seemed helped by that.

A few hours after our arrival on Saturday morning, we made the trip to one of the city's outlying suburbs to spend some time with Graham & Debbie Frith, a couple we had heard so much about, and had been meaning to get together with for some time (a mutual friend had pointed us in their direction). The Friths have been in Bolivia for a couple of decades now, firstly in Sucre, and now in Santa Cruz, having overseen the development of a tremendous ministry called 'El Alfarero' ('The Potter'), which is doing a great work among students and young people in both of these cities (we had the privilege of visiting their headquarters on Tuesday). Here is a link to the website. 

The visit proved to be of real help to us. Amanda and I had been feeling a slight sense of aimlessness and perhaps a lack of drive in our ministry of late. Despite only having just met us, the Friths -- as a couple with significantly more experience of living and serving here -- had no qualms about asking some searching questions about the way things were going for us. We left feeling challenged, but also with a greater sense of clarity as to the way ahead. In particular, we sensed that we had subtly fallen into a trap which we spend much of our own ministry warning others about: that of seeking to minister to others without first of all being 'fed' ourselves.

And in this respect, God also proved faithful. If I may go all Genesis 50:20 on you again, our usual lodgings in Santa Cruz -- a guesthouse on the campus of a seminary -- were, for the first time in memory, fully booked. We got in touch with a friend, who pointed us in the direction of another guesthouse, this time operated by a ministry called World Gospel Mission. And this guesthouse, unlike our usual haunt, had acres of garden space: ideal, then, for finding a quiet corner and allowing God to minister to us. And on a couple of mornings, we set aside a few hours to do precisely that.

All too often, we have arrived back in Trinidad after such excursions in survival mode, counting down the months till the next break. This time was different. We feel refreshed, re-focused and, most importantly, re-fastened to the Rock which cannot move.

And Spectre? Hmmm. A 006 out of ten at best.

Prayer

• Potentially a very big week, this, for the prospective adoption. On Monday, we're hoping to get a formal request in for fostering (as a precursor to adoption) and from our experience in September, an formal hearing could take place by the end of the week. Prayer much appreciated.
• The new men's and women's groups in the church got off to a solid start two weeks ago. Pray for the second pair of meetings tomorrow afternoon.
• Craig is preaching tomorrow on Philemon 1:8-16.

Remembering the persecuted on Thursday evening.

Praise

• Thursday night saw us mark Persecuted Church Month in the church with a prayer meeting held in the usual venue, but without chairs and in complete darkness, but for candles that people were told to bring. It proved to be a small but really powerful way of identifying with those around the word who have to be so clandestine when they meet together, and it helped us greatly in praying for them too.
• For a great break in Santa Cruz and for the various relationships forged and consolidated there. 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 26/09/15

With our old Spanish teacher (and still friend) Farid, who defended his
tourism thesis with aplomb this week. The more observant among you
may note that the room was not air-conditioned.

As we continue to wait for movement in the adoption process, we’re often reminded of the need to trust God that the tough stuff we’re going through will all make sense in the end.

And for a good example of that, we need look no further than March of this year, when we were in the midst of another pretty trying time. One morning, a woman came to Amanda looking for help for her sister and brother-in-law, whose marriage was seemingly in crisis. Amanda was keen to help, but aware of her limitations in this area, having had no training whatsoever in marriage counselling, and particularly uncertain as to how to approach this with non-Christians. The woman was unperturbed: “No problem, just pretend you’re qualified,” she responded! In the end the couple decided to go elsewhere, yet the episode served to drive home our inability – as a couple, as a foundation, and as a church – to meet such needs.

Later that same week, Amanda had a conversation with a friend whose niece was looking to get married, and yet had received no help from her pastor at this time, despite actively seeking out opportunities for marriage preparation. It was clear that Christians here were indeed hungry for such input, yet hadn’t the faintest idea where to find it.

All the while, Amanda and I were some weeks into housing a friend of ours whose marriage was in a dire state, having crossed the line one time too many. And so, time and again, we were reminded that week of the great needs in the marriages in our community, yet a lack of resources, training and time to be able to address these.

The following Sunday, in keeping with tradition, we touched base with the folks back home, who were completely unaware of the week's goings-on. As it happened, Dad had just got off the phone with a couple from Hertfordshire, Andrew & Ruth Richards (Ruth is a cousin of my Mum). Dad explained that as their careers were beginning to wind down, Andrew & Ruth were looking to increasingly devote their time to missions and to supporting missionary work worldwide. To that end, they had made some enquiries, and the work at Fundación Totaí had surfaced. Hence the contact with my parents. 

But Andrew and Ruth, an engineer and schools inspector respectively, were particularly keen not to simply observe, but to go where they felt they could play an active role, albeit for a limited period. "Well, what do they feel they have to offer?" we asked, and Dad proceeded to share the Richards' own ideas. Many and varied though their talents were, we were struggling to see where we could use them in this particular ministry in such a way that they wouldn't go home feeling they'd simply had a relaxing break in a hot climate.  

At which point, Dad mentioned one final possibility, almost as an aside: "They've also run a marriage course in the past." 

Why, of all the gin joints! 

In due course, we made contact with Andrew & Ruth and began to discuss how such a course might work here. From an early stage, we were impressed by their attention to detail, their desire to serve and, particularly, their awareness of the need for flexibility in a very different relationship culture to the UK. So we were delighted when, a couple of months down the road, having considered a range of other 'offers', they went with Trinidad, Bolivia.  

And so to the somewhat less tropical Stonehouse, Scotland, where at a nearby hotel in July, the four of us sat down one afternoon to plan the course in greater detail. The Alpha marriage course is a great tool (we are graduates of their marriage preparation course), though a little Bible-lite. We were encouraged to hear of Andrew & Ruth’s plans to establish greater Scriptural foundations. This naturally led us to discuss the makeup of the group, with several non-Christian couples likely to be in attendance; again, the course would be tweaked where appropriate to ensure the gospel is preached. A particular cultural quirk here is that most co-habiting non-Christian couples are not, in fact, married, and so the importance of the marriage commitment would also be highlighted; there would almost certainly be couples in attendance who had not yet, in fact, made this commitment.

A big chunk, then, of our time since returning in late July has been spent in preparing for the course. Amanda has been particularly busy along with several other women from the church in preparing the décor. This is important as the course (which will take place on weeknights over one week) is set up like a ‘date night’. Though we expect a large group to attend, the interactive part of the course is not done by the group as a whole, but by the couples themselves, each of whom will discuss these important topics at their very own, candle-lit table, complete with a take-home centrepiece. So the aesthetics play a big part. 

As I made clear earlier, this is a relatively new venture for this part of the world. And yet, despite that (or, more probably, because of it), the response has been tremendous, with us having to up the numbers slightly to accommodate a few extra couples. We are very excited to have Andrew & Ruth come and lead this, and we’re particularly conscious of the need for this to be a platform to build on, rather than a one-off event; we have a couple in mind in the church to be the people to take this forward, and we’re hoping that Andrew & Ruth will be able to get alongside them at various points during their two-week stay here.

While I was writing this very entry, I’m sad to say that we learned of a morally compromised situation between two Christians we work alongside. These things just do not go away in this culture. We pray that the marriage course will play a small part in establishing God’s declared will for loving relationships here in this small corner of Bolivia.

"Chau"/"Bye"/"Sniffle"/"So long" (L-R). A quick snap before Maicol & KC
boarded the first of many, many vehicles.

Prayer

• For safe travels for Andrew & Ruth, who set off from Heathrow on Tuesday and eventually get to Trinidad on Thursday (the course begins next Monday, the 5th of October).
• People who came to hear our report in churches last year may remember Yoselín, a girl Amanda has worked with extensively over the years. She comes from a very challenging family background and now, in her early teenage years, her behaviour is being affected by such factors. Please pray for patience for Amanda as she continues to mentor Yoselín in the ways of God.
• Last night, our dear friends Maicol, KC and Caleb left Trinidad to begin their journey to the USA, where they will now be settling as a family. We give thanks for the way that God has so clearly paved the way for them to be able to return to Seattle over the past months, and for their great friendship to us and many others here. We will miss them greatly. Pray for the LORD’s continued guidance to them.
• Oh, and that means we are now the last missionaries standing here at Fundación Totaí/El Jireh Church (just to contextualise that, there were five full-time missionary couples when we arrived here in January 2010). That is both encouraging (the work does not depend on foreigners to move forward) and somewhat daunting! Please pray for wisdom as we seek to give a godly example in all that we do, and for others to come alongside us and encourage us, so that we can better serve others.
• There's been a last-minute cancellation for the youth service tomorrow night, and as a result, Craig somehow has to come up with a talk, er, today! Prayer appreciated.

Praise

• Craig had a really encouraging visit with Carlos & Carla earlier this week, who are holding up remarkably well despite the loss of their motorcycle, and who, in true Macedonian style, have even found opportunities to bless others this week. We’re delighted to see this.
• For a much-needed rest for adoption-related issues this week (our lawyer has been out of town). We know we need to push on with this again when she gets back, but we have really benefitted, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically, from this break in play.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 11/04/15

Alan, Jim and John.

There are few things we enjoy more down here than hosting visitors. If you've ever had the slightest notion of setting off into the wilds of darkest Bolivia (and let's face it, who hasn't?), then we recommend you get on the case sharpish: the warmest of welcomes awaits you.

This week saw the year's first foreign lodgers at Casa Cunningham in the shape of three representatives from British missionary agencies Interlink and Echoes of Service. John Aitken is Echoes' Operations Director, and was joined by Interlink board members Alan Smith and Jim Armstrong. Jim was also killing two birds with one stone, in that he was accompanied by volunteer Ruth Young, who is a member at his church and is back in Trinidad for her third short-term stint. The visitors were armed with copious supplies of ministry items and British confectionery -- sort of a pre-requisite for staying with us, I might add.

The bad news from the airport was good news for Trinidad's ice cream merchants.

Interlink and Echoes have historical links with the work of Fundación Totaí and El Jireh Church. Our old friends and former colleagues Kenny & Claudia Holt were Interlink missionaries, and the two bodies are also partners in 'First Serve', a year-long missions taster programme, through which a number of volunteers (including Ruth) have come to FT and the church in the past.

Trinidad was simply the first of a three-leg tour of Bolivia and Argentina, and the trio were barely off the plane on Tuesday morning when some unfortunate news landed in their inbox: Thursday's flight to Cochabamba had been cancelled. Amanda and I simply presumed that the flight was insufficiently booked and had therefore been cancelled, a fairly regular occurrence here, and so my first task with the Scots was to pay a visit to the Trinidad offices of an alternative airline -- only to be told that they too had cancelled their flights, due to the airport deciding that the next couple of days would be a nice time to catch up on some maintenance work. "Welcome to Bolivia," quipped our pastor Elías, in perfect English that evening in the church.

(if you took our pleas of the opening paragraph to heart, you might want to go ahead now and take out a hefty travel insurance policy)

Mercifully, the airline was on top of the situation, and simply moved them to the earliest flight out, on Friday afternoon. The visit, then, was extended by another day, but we made sure they had plenty to do in that time.

John was quick to get in on the act at the
football pitches...

Wednesday was the main day for visiting FT and its various ministries, with Amanda giving a tour of the health work in the morning. Providentially, there were a couple of surgical cases that day, and the visitors got the chance to have a look in at a core component of the ENT work from the viewing area. The afternoon saw them take in the Education and Sports work. Around 30 children from the area were learning the story of Esther at the afternoon homework class under the watchful eyes of Elizabeth and Elías; it was my first visit since stepping down from that side of things a couple of years ago, and a real encouragement to see how things had developed. Then, it was off to the various football pitches and basketball courts, to see the FT Sports department at work in training and Bible study. Thursday morning also saw the team sit down with the FT board, so as to get a better idea of the challenges of the work here.

...before apologising for another defensive slip-up.

Such visitors are not only a great encouragement to us as a couple, but also the church, and we made sure that the congregation here benefitted from John, Jim and Alan's missions insights. The excitement over visitors is always visible in the increased numbers in attendance -- we had about three times our usual crowd for the prayer meeting on Tuesday! And there, the visitors (from Scotland, not from Trinidad!) shared a little about what their respective organisations do, and touched on specific needs around the world for Christians. This can be a pretty insular corner of the world -- most people here couldn't even give two hoots about what is going on other Bolivian cities like La Paz -- and so Amanda and I have always been really keen to keep awareness of the global work at the forefront of people's minds in the church. Tuesday evening, then, was really helpful.

And when it dawned on John that an extra 24 hours in Trinidad was on the cards, he kindly agreed to give a short talk at the Thursday evening Bible study, from Titus 2, an appropriate passage for a young church such as ours. 

Amanda in bossy-boots mode. That's right: she's made a full recovery.

Besides seeing and participating in the work, of course, some time was carved out to visit the various sights in and around Trinidad; a fine opportunity for getting to know one another a little better and for hearing about another holiday nightmare from well-travelled anecdote machine Alan Smith.

All in all, it was a pleasure to play host to people who have such a keen interest in the work here and in ourselves as missionaries. A fond farewell was bid yesterday afternoon at the (newly-operational!) airport and as we wondered off into the sunset, we wondered who the next purveyor of guitar strings and Kit Kat Chunkys might be.

Our idea of a steak-out: anticipating the usual feast at Trinidad's carnivore paradise, Estancia. You booked those flights yet?

Prayer

• Pray for John, Jim and Alan as they spend time encouraging Interlink missionaries in Cochabamba, before heading to a conference in Buenos Aires on Tuesday.
• Please don't let Hernán slip off your prayer radars. He has twice been scheduled to have his skin graft surgery in the past couple of weeks, and that has now been twice-postponed, due to his failure to bulk up. We learned this week that he's not been eating well, and based on one or two things we've heard, we're worried there might be some issues here in terms of his will to carry on. Craig and Elías are hoping to start working through an evangelistic book with him, beginning this week.
• Pray for Craig as he begins a new series in 2 Peter tomorrow at church. He'll be taking the first three sermons of a seven-sermon series over the next couple of months.
• Pray for FT's sports coaches and for other Christian sports coaches in the area, who are attending a training event this weekend, the purpose of which is to equip sports coaches to communicate the gospel effectively through their coaching. Sounds interesting.

Praise

• For an encouraging few days -- both for us and the wider community -- with our guests from the UK.
• Amanda came back to work on Tuesday and has had a week without any more health issues; give thanks for complete restoration following that nasty bout of dengue.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amadna

Saturday Post -- 14/12/13

Our final week in Trinidad continued in much the same vein as its predecessor, a heady mix of housework, packing up and the unavoidable farewells.

Last week I’d mentioned that the band were preparing a little something that very evening. Well, the band, their families and several others arrived at the house straight after youth group on Saturday night, armed with home-made pizzas (I’m pleased to confirm that after four years, I’ve finally come across a decent pizza in Trinidad), guitars and Bibles. And once the food was out the way, we were serenaded!

Serenading is a common custom here among the believers. It usually takes place on a birthday or in the event of someone's departure from town. The songs sung are infused with lyrics rich in blessing. Given that we will, God-willing, be back here in 2015, we don’t particularly feel worthy of such a tribute, but I won’t deny we were both very touched. Our friends sang and shared Scripture with us for some 45 minutes, and we too had opportunities to share from the word and express our own thankfulness to these people who have become so dear to us.

As the week progressed, there were a further three get-togethers, organised by ourselves or others, to say goodbye to people. But we weren’t the only people leaving town this week. Our volunteer Aline Sacher decided to leave Trinidad a little earlier than scheduled to return home to Germany, and she and some female friends, including Amanda, met on Monday evening. And a particularly fond farewell was granted to Kenny Holt, who arrived on Sunday morning for a flying visit to pack up the remainder of his family’s belongings and settle their affairs here in Trinidad. Having left for their own furlough in July, Kenny & Claudia and their three children have opted to stay in Scotland, following the Lord's provision to Kenny of a seemingly tailor-made job with The Vine Trust.

Church, then, on Sunday morning, was a fairly emotional occasion with all these exits taking place in the coming week. Nonetheless, we were hugely blessed over the weekend and encouraged by the kind words of so many. We also had a really special time with the youth group on Saturday evening, with Amanda in full waterworks mode.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we leave the church without a missionary presence (though Maicol & KC return in March) but we see plenty of evidence that our brothers and sisters can run with the baton. This week’s women’s meeting was a great example, the first for some months after some struggles with attendance and commitment earlier in the year. 16 women from the church turned up and, most excitingly, eight of these were from the youth group. Potential.

By Thursday afternoon, we were packed and ready to leave that evening for Santa Cruz, whence I write as we await our flight to Sao Paulo tomorrow morning. Then it’s on to Heathrow on Monday evening and, provided British airports can get their act together, we will, God-willing, be in Glasgow by lunchtime on Tuesday.

As for this here blog, I think it’s fair to say that we will not be posting with the same frequency over the coming year. We have so many people to catch up with and, with only nine months or so in Sconnie Botland, I’m keen to ensure a decent chunk of my Saturdays are spent on top of hills than in front of computer screens.

However, furlough is as integral a part of missionary existence as time on the field, and so we will certainly endeavour to reflect the joys and challenges of re-adjusting to the Global North, now very much as outsiders, from time to time.

I’ve stated here beforehand that this blog was very much a last-minute idea back in early 2010, with the goal of providing up-to-the-minute (or up-to-the-week, at least) prayer information for anyone who happened to be thinking of us at any particular moment. But 32,000 hits later, we are well aware that we have built up a loyal following of weekly readers from a wide range of countries (readers in China, Russia and Romania, we’d love to hear from you personally!). And we know that the vast majority of you are fellow believers and read the blog not to be educated for knowledge’s sake, but so that you can pray better for us. Be assured: we have felt the impact of those prayers at every juncture over these past four years.

Thank you for your prayerful interest in us, have a wonderful, Christ-centred Christmas, and we look forward to sharing continued glimpses into the missionary lifestyle over the coming year.

Prayer

• For the remaining three legs of our journey home. Pray for safety and no luggage complications!
• For the Lord's work which does not stop at Fundación Totaí and El Jireh church. Please continue to uphold these great ministries in your prayers.

Praise

• For the encouragement of the new women's meeting in the church, particularly the high numbers of youth present. We've been praying that the youth would integrate themselves more fully into other ministries of the church, and this brings us great joy.
• For those special final moments with our Trinidad 'family' during the past week.
• For the Lord's work in us, in spite of us, and through us over the last four years. Soli Deo gloria!

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda