Saturday Post -- 03/12/2016

Well, we're in our final month in Trinidad before we leave for the Latin Link conference in Santa Cruz. It is unbelievable how fast time has flown by and it is also a bit scary to think of all that's going to have to come together before we leave. The good thing is that we are accomplishing things bit by bit and I (Amanda) have full confidence that before we leave Trinidad our heads should still be attached to our shoulders and not lost somewhere. Hopefully, as we drive away from our house on the 29th of December, we will have remember to bring all the important things, like Sam. 

Sam's visa for the UK is still pending, so we continue to appreciate prayers for it. This coming Tuesday will be 14 days on from the initial interview, and they said the wait time is 15 days. I actually got a scary call from the embassy in Bogota this week. I answered the call and, after taking a couple of minutes to confirm that we could hear each other and that we could have this conversation in English, the woman asked me to confirm that Craig was a UK citizen, which I did. And then she asked me to confirm that Sam was Craig's son, which I did. And then she said, "Well then, we are unable to issue a visa!" To which my heart tried to jump out of my chest and the inner, angry Amanda tried to break forth. I explained that we had looked into all of this when we were last in the UK and we were assured that Sam does indeed need a visa and she said, "That information is incorrect." She said our two options were to apply for a UK passport or to apply for a certificate of something. I don't know what certificate, because I cut her off (inner, angry Amanda was starting to win, sadly) and started to explain how that can't possibly be correct, because the adoption is a national adoption, not international, and therefore not recognised by the UK. Sam only qualifies for citizenship if we decide to return to the UK to live. 

The lady was quiet for a while and then said, "He's adopted?" Inner, angry Amanda was really pushing hard now and commented, "Of course he is adopted, which is why you have all the adoption documents in front of you, in both Spanish and English, having been legally translated (which was not cheap) as requested."  Well, inner, angry Amanda calmed downed when she went looking for those documents and said that she couldn't see them, and it seems that the visa agency in La Paz had not sent them on. She apologised, said she would go chase those documents down and that we are indeed correct in Sam needing a visa as an adopted child. Inner, angry Amanda didn't bother getting frustrated at the agency in La Paz; 1) it's Bolivia, so no one is really surprised, and 2) the nice lady there gave Sam a lollipop, so how can you get mad at someone nice like that? We totally threw the lollipop out as we left as Sam is way too young for sweets like that, but it's the thought that counts. 

So, crisis averted and we're just waiting for them to hopefully go through the whole package once it's scanned in properly and sent to Bogotá. Craig commented that he was very glad that they randomly picked my phone number instead of his as he probably wouldn't have argued with the lady, accepted what she said, hung up the phone and then had a complete meltdown. I totally learnt how to be forceful but still polite as I watched my Mom insist that all her coupons were still valid when used all at once because the terms didn't specifically state that it was one per customer. I'm pretty sure all coupons say that now because of my Mom and Aunts. 

The Foundation has finally found Mariana 2.0. Well, actually it's not Mariana 2.0, but Mariana 2.0 version 1 and version 2. Yes, we have had to hire two people to do what Mariana, our Director of Finances, has done for the last six years. This is going to cause a financial burden on the Foundation that we were not necessarily expecting, but the Board essentially decided that there was no way that FT could function with only one person to replace Mariana, especially with Craig and I about to go on furlough. Both people seem very capable and the Board was quite impressed with them during their interviews, especially their desire to work with an organisation based in service. The man we're hiring as Administrator was actually the only person who looked the Foundation up before his interview and was able to tell us everything that we were involved in, which was impressive. And the accountant we hired wrote a very convincing covering letter, one of two covering letters we received across all the applicants. As I mentioned before, I found the process of accepting and rejecting applicants very stressful, and I took the coward's way out and asked our Secretary to call everyone who was not successful and inform them as such. Although I knew I was doing it from a distaste of that particular job, I also justified it by stating that our Secretary is just so good at jobs like that; it was probably better for everyone. Both new employees are going to be trained through the month of December and be put on payroll in January. Please pray that they adjust to the Foundation and that all employees adjust to them as well. 

Monday is the start of this year's Major Ear Surgical Campaign. I try to stay as far away from this campaign administratively as possible. I find too many fingers in the pie is quite destructive in an endeavour like the surgical campaign, but I obviously stay as informed as possible. We have fewer patients than we would like for the campaign, but I kind of think that's because we've operated on everyone in Trinidad with major ear conditions. We need to go further afield for more patients for next year, but for this year I think we'll end up with 15 overall. Dr. Wagner from the States arrives tomorrow and leaves on Friday and the Foundation will be absorbed by this for the next week. It's always fun to have so many surgeons arrive at the Foundation. My sister is going to be is studying to become a surgeon, so I know what I'm talking about..we never fought ever, she's the most placid person I know (major eye roll). In all seriousness, we're very grateful for the services that these surgeons bring and we pray that the campaign will be a physical and spiritual blessing to many people. 

We're at the end of the school year here and all the major services and ministries are having their year-end closing ceremonies. Sports had their clausura last weekend, the community class's was this past Wednesday and Juguemos Juntos (the Mom and Tots group) had theirs yesterday. Sam and I attend this group, so the Moms played competitive games like dodge ball and steal the bacon, where I might have accidentally slapped a fellow Mom in my enthusiasm. I totally won the egg-and-spoon-race-while-balancing-a-child-on-your-hip; Sam ate most of my prize. And today is OANSA's (children's programme) end of the year fair. Although, we're not specifically involved in OANSA, we're going to go along and watch all the kids play at the fairground stations; it's something that Sam will love. Every time he gets excited about being around other kids I look around to see if children really do grow in the garden, because this child desperately needs a sibling. Sadly, it's not as easy as that. 

Prayer

• For the new employees, Hernán and Vladimir (my first thought still strays to vampires when I read his name on paper), as they start in FT this month.
• For all the end-of-year closing ceremonies.
• For the surgical campaign this coming week.
• For Sam's visa.
• For preparations before we leave Trinidad.
• Craig's is speaking both at the youth group tonight and at the OANSA prize-giving tomorrow morning.

Praise

• For God's protection over FT .
• For a sense of progress and productivity as time moves along.
• For Craig's English classes finishing well this past week.
• For our visit from Brigitte from Latin Link this past week. She's the short-term coordinator, based in Cochabamba, and came out to see the volunteer opportunities that FT and El Jireh church have to offer possible short-termers who come out with the Stride programme that Latin Link offer. We had a really good time with her.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig, Amanda & Sam

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 -- 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 -- 15/06/13

Involved as we are in a great variety of programmes, activities and services (ecclesiastical and otherwise), it can be easy to lose sight of the key commodity in missionary outreach: people.

Fortunately, one of the areas I’m involved in here in Bolivia gives us a great chance to touch base with individuals and develop Christ-centred relationships in the process.

FT, as I’ve probably mentioned before, is the official centre in the Beni region for the Emmaus correspondence course, in which students study the Bible, with the aid of course texts, and submit exams at their own pace. The whole course consists of around 40 texts, which go progressively deeper into Scripture. For example, the first two or three texts are steadfastly gospel-centred, communicating the Good News in simple language. But later texts focus on particular themes such as Baptism and Communion, particular books of the Bible, such as Galatians or John’s epistles. The texts are of particular use here, where daily Bible reading aids are sorely lacking; many students find themselves doing ‘a bit a day’ of their books.

Once completed, and the accompanying exams are submitted, it is over to KC (who oversees the programme), Elías and me to correct these – a fairly simple task, as they tend to be predominantly made up of true/false questions. However, most of the exams close with a series of open-ended questions, which usually apply the theory of the text to the individual. These questions, naturally, can throw up a whole variety of answers (some of which, occasionally, suggest a lack of real understanding of the text as a whole), and so our policy is to meet with each individual student when we return their exam.

On this basis, I’ve been meeting with a young man called Alfredo over the past few weeks. Well, not exactly. Alfredo, a cobbler in one of the markets here, is unable to walk without support and, naturally, struggles to get around. So instead of coming to us, we have been going to him – KC was visiting him until motherhood kicked in and asked me if I could take over this duty. It was hard to find a time that suited both of us, but recently we’ve been able to find a time every week that we can meet. This doesn’t give him nearly enough time to finish a text. However, it gives him regular contact with another Christian male and the chance to discuss what he’s been studying with someone who knows their Bible.

I’ve been greatly encouraged to meet with Alfredo and get to know him better. Despite having no support from family or friends, he has a real passion for his Bible and has spent a lot of time thinking about his faith – a rare commodity in this culture. His condition makes it hard for him to get to church. In our own church, which meets in an upper room (purely coincidentally, I might add) we are about to install a bannister (like so much in this culture, this depends on the guy who said he’d do it turning up when he says he will!) and I’m really hoping that once we have this in place, that we can bring Alfredo along to our congregation on Sundays where, God-willing, he can benefit from more support than he currently receives.

As Amanda mentioned last week, I made my own visit to a church on the other side of town to promote the Emmaus materials. Many of those who attend our church are ‘doing’ the course (though submission of texts tends to be somewhat infrequent) and so we’re keen to push the course, which is a terrific resource in evangelism and discipleship, into other faith communities in Trinidad.

This weekend is a relatively quiet one – for me, at least. Amanda is knee-deep in a weekend-long training course for the Kids’ Games programme at FT (which we ran last year between September and November – see posts from that time for more details), which is being supported by some visitors who have come all the way from Cochabamba to facilitate the training. So once this is posted, I must do for others as I so often have them do for me, and embark on the mother of all shopping trips. Nothing quite like Trinidad on a Saturday morning.

Which is itself complicated by the fact that we will soon have an extra mouth to feed. On Wednesday afternoon, our latest volunteer, Joe Sturman, arrives from the UK. Joe has just finished his second year of medical training at Birmingham and will be staying in our home during his month of volunteer work at FT. We’re looking forward to getting to know Joe over the next few weeks and, in particular, receiving his tribute of Dairy Milk bars. Godspeed, my friend!

Prayer

• For all those who have recently enrolled in the Emmaus course, that they would complete their texts promptly and would grow in Christ in the process.
• For Amanda and her fellow participants in the training course this weekend.
• For safety for Joe as he travels here on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• For Alfredo as he seeks to grow in his faith in challenging circumstances.

Praise

• For so many opportunities to get alongside people and share Christ with them, which the Emmaus course affords us.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 29/09/12

Football school coach Luis Savaraín "San" Oniava at work this week. 

Another week of civil action by educational workers (a three-day walkout to show solidarity with the country’s striking miners – how very noble) put paid to much of the schools work this week. Plenty of time freed up, then, to attend to other matters, such as the latest update for FT’s supporters, which I wrote and sent out this week – on which note, if you’d like a copy of the newsletter, or to add your name to the e-mailing list, get in touch.

As missionaries we also took advantage of the quieter working week by meeting together as a team, something which, regrettably, had fallen by the wayside over recent months. Indeed, we had made a commitment in the new year to meet every couple of weeks to pray together, so it really was high time we convened. Over the past few years, as its separate volumes have been published, I’ve been delving into Alastair Campbell’s intriguing diaries of his time working under Tony Blair, and something that frequently comes to the surface is a sense of cabinet ministers – who, through the media lens, appear largely united behind the Prime Minister and his agenda – in practice becoming increasingly lost in the business and bureaucracy of their individual departments and attendant Sir-Humphreys. Funnily enough, our experience here as missionaries is not without parallels (minus the Sir-Humphreys, thanks goodness). Though we are, in theory, united by a sense of purpose which many of our fellow workers at FT lack – particularly our non-Christian colleagues – we are, at the same time, deeply embedded in FT’s four main areas of service. In that respect, one can very quickly lose sight of that united purpose if one is not careful – and it is therefore of vital importance that we meet as regularly as possible to bear one another’s burdens.

So it was great this week to dedicate a morning to just that purpose, giving equal weight in our discussions to our roles in the church. Indeed, speaking of church, Amanda came away from the meeting with a whole new job! KC and she had been discussing the need for greater co-ordination of the youth programme. The church’s youth meetings largely go off without a hitch. However, with all of us on the youth committee deeply committed elsewhere (not unlike the missionary team situation, truth be told) there is a sense in which we fly by the seat of our pants, getting from one Saturday to the next.

For a long time, we’ve sensed a need for enhanced strategic planning, particularly when it comes to special events and fundraisers for the end-of-year camp (run jointly with other youth groups in town). One idea knocked around earlier this year, to give an illustrative example, was to make and sell a meal (a very common way of raising money here) every two to three months, with the proceeds going towards helping the young people, many from poor families, pay for camp. We managed one such fundraiser early this year but quickly lost sight of the long-term goal.

What KC and Amanda will do in the next few months, then, is look at next year’s calendar and plan the group’s activities accordingly, not only around fundraising events, but also special, one-off meetings and trips. The Olympics-themed activity, which came to a close last week, highlighted the boost that an incentive-based scheme can bring to proceedings (the young people were divided into three teams and competed for the gold, silver and bronze ‘medals’ – in reality, three exceedingly good cakes baked by Amanda and co-leader Mariana) and they’ll be looking into taking a similar tack, but over a full year rather than a few weeks.

Returning to the present, we start a new, four-week series with the youth tonight in Daniel, a book whose relevance to youth ministry is, to me, blindingly obvious, as we read of these exiles in a foreign land, the at times suffocating pressures they came under to conform, and, through it all, the awesome robustness of their faith – the three rebels’ cry of defiance in verses 17 and 18 of chapter three a sobering inspiration to all of us who count the cost. The lessons of Daniel have especial relevance in this culture, where, alas, peer and familial pressure to follow the crowd are largely indistinguishable. It will be a particular privilege to introduce this book to the several teenagers in attendance who have never had meaningful Sunday School contact. In any case, I’ll be kicking things off tonight with a focus on chapter one and the episode not otherwise known as Diet-gate.

Here's our house as it stood on Thursday, with work beginning on the,
sadly necessary, surrounding wall. Work on the roof should hopefully
begin soon -- recent blockades have frustrated progress on that front.

Prayer

• For improved time-management and self-discipline from ourselves as missionaries as we seek to meet more regularly to support one another.
• For Amanda and KC, that God would infuse them with a vision for 2013’s youth programme.
• For the young people as they begin to reflect upon the challenges of Daniel tonight. 

Praise

• For our meeting this week as missionaries.
• For the Lord’s faithfulness in protecting the youth group – indeed, our numbers have grown considerably in recent weeks – when we’ve been distracted.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 01/09/12

The Intermediate English class: certifiably talented.

No doubt about it, missionary work is far from straightforward. Actually, I’d go as far as to argue that if all is running smoothly at one’s mission station, then there’s probably something wrong. Because, ultimately, ours is a field which deals in that most inconsistent of commodities: human lives. We minister to a vast patchwork of needs, failures and hurts. It sure can be a messy business.

Throw a place like Trinidad into the mix, where in any given day technology will break down, institutions will shut down and people will let you down, and you can see why, for us, such a concept as a ‘typical day’ doesn’t really exist. I have surely at least once referred on this webpage to George Verwer’s warning not to become involved in missions work if one is not prepared to have one’s heart broken – this is a regular, sometimes daily, occurrence for us. We bear our fair share of burdens – and are honoured to minister to broken souls.

Nonetheless, one of the great pleasures of the English class this year has undoubtedly been the opportunity to work alongside a mature, responsible and largely independent group of people, with ages ranging from 12 to 52. While Amanda and I strive to create a warm, fun learning environment, there’s no question that the homework demands in the first few lessons have a way of separating the wheat from the chaff. What remained was a core group of a dozen or so students who came regularly to class (consistency of commitment is, in itself, a rare quality in Bolivia), learned to speak a language, heard the truth about the Christian faith, and, in the process, developed into not only fine students, but great friends.

On Wednesday evening, then, we rounded off the year with a dinner in one of Trinidad’s fabled steak restaurants, where everyone received their final certificates. However, the prevailing mood was not so much ‘adios’ as ‘chau’, as we investigated how to keep up English practice together – my hope is that we’ll be able to meet as a group once a week to converse in the language, using news articles, songs and other stimuli.

Meanwhile, the more chaotic side of our ministry was very much in evidence yesterday in the outlying village of Maná, where we staged the first ‘off-campus’ community class this year. Eagle-eyed readers may remember that last year we decamped to this village for a few weeks, however, we’re hoping to run the class every Friday until Christmas. A similar curriculum – of Bible teaching and literacy development – to the one at the Wednesday class will be taught, though part-time education worker Elizabeth, volunteer teacher Porfidia, and I will have to revise our execution a little over the coming week. In the end, 30 kids turned up, but the first of these arrived some 30 minutes after the scheduled start-time and we were well into the second-half of the afternoon’s teaching when the final kids made their appearance. Compared to sleepy Maná, the Trinidad mentality is positively New York-esque, and we will have to adjust accordingly.

Porfidia teaches the kids with Elizabeth (in black) looking on.

However, we all had a lot of fun reaching out to a whole new set of children. Which brings us neatly to Amanda’s major activity of the week: preparing name-tags for the children who’ll be coming to a new kids’ club the Sports department of FT are launching next week. But how, pray tell, do we even know the names of the kids? Because, wonderfully, a local school has allowed us to take two whole year-groups out of class for two hours each Tuesday for their ‘R.E.’ time. But there won’t be much time for ‘chalk-and-talk’ as the programme includes singing, team games and interactive Bible lessons. Our friend and fellow missionary KC Rivero is spearheading the operation and Amanda was only too happy to get involved this week as she eased her way back into work.

Must dash, for reasons outlined in the prayer points, below. Token house construction-progress picture to finish.

Prayer

• For the kids’ club, starting next Tuesday. Pray for all the FT workers who will be involved and for preparation of the children’s hearts to hear the Good News.
• For wisdom and discernment as we seek to refine our approach to working with the Maná kids.

Praise

• Give thanks for a great year with the Intermediate English group, and pray for the Basic class, starting on the 18^th of September.
• We’ve been thrilled upon returning from our stint in Santa Cruz to have seen the youth group so rejuvenated by a programme of activities inspired by the recent Olympic Games. A fair few new faces were in evidence last weekend. Give thanks for that and pray for our watersports activity this morning out at the local lake resort.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

P.S. Next weekend I’m rendezvousing in La Paz with my good friend Dan Wynne, who arrives next Saturday for a fortnight’s trekking in Bolivia and Peru. Indeed, I’ll be accompanying him for a few days to the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt-lake and just about the last major tourist attraction in this country I haven’t yet experienced. I hope to share some striking photography in a couple of weeks’ time (I'm not showing off -- it's not hard to take great pictures when this is your canvas) – in the meantime, hopefully I can convince Amanda to put in a shift next Saturday. TTFN.