Home Comforts -- Number 7: Variable Vistas

And you thought Number 8's picture was disturbing?

Now, to be fair, I’m writing this in a country which possesses a quite breathtaking array of landscapes. If you can cope with the glaring lack of a coastline, there is really something for everyone in Bolivia: from the Andes in the highlands, to the jungles and wildlife of the lowlands; from the sweeping desert landscapes of the southwest, to two extraordinary lakes (Titicaca, the world’s highest freshwater lake, on the border of Peru; and the salt lake of Uyuni, the largest expanse of its kind on this planet). It’s a  veritable backpacker’s paradise, and shamefully under-promoted worldwide.

All well in good. And we certainly have some interesting scenery of the lowland variety around us here in the Beni region. But bear in mind that the Beni alone is almost twice the size of England. To reach anything even remotely resembling a mountain requires around 12 hours of driving (people have been known to positively break out in a sweat as they approach elevated bridges here).

And it is here that I really took Scotland for granted back in the day. A mere hour’s motoring is all that is required from pretty much any location to be able to access lochs, waterfalls, mountains, meadows and forests. Not to mention the odd beach or two – with apologies to my fellow delegates, seeing the ocean was the single most exciting thing about the LAM Canada conference up in Costa Rica last year.

I wasn’t much of a gallivanter back in the old country, but next year the time will be short and the scenery (when visible) magnificent. I intend to take full advantage, though in fairness, some Beni-like weather wouldn’t be half bad. I may just have to settle for the scenery. “The monochrome, monotonous, pancake-flat horizon is always greener…” is how they might put it in the Beni.

Home Comforts -- Number 8: Functional Internet

Dolph Lundgren's Rocky IV 'do: about as relevant as
computer keyboards, and, er, the Soviet Union.

NEEEEEEEE-nooooo-nee-nooooo-NEEEEEEE.

That, as I’m sure you worked out right away, is not a malfunctioning police siren, but the unmistakable soundtrack to dialup internet, an invention synonymous with other antiquated inventions such as keyboards, ‘email’ and flat-top haircuts.

High-speed internet is now such an integral part of ‘Global North’ citizens’ lives that the days of dialup are an increasingly fading memory. Yet Amanda and I had to very quickly reacquaint ourselves with the old way of doing things back in January 2010, when dialup was still the only form of internet available. In some respects, this was a good thing, not least in saving us from the pitfalls of procrastination while going about the Lord’s work.

Still, when the opportunity surfaced to switch to a faster connection (and broadband this was not) some months later, we jumped at the chance. And it certainly made the adjustment to life here significantly easier. Skype (for my money, in a photo-finish with e-readers for ‘Greatest ever invention for missionaries’) was now operational, bringing updates on my parents’ gardening progress at the press of a button. It was once again possible to download podcasts, so that Mark Kermode could tell me what films to go and see at my local multiplex (in Santa Cruz, 300 miles south of Trinidad). Not to mention those YouTube videos showing people performing slam-dunks with their hands tied behind their backs whilst trying to escape a car embedded in shark-infested waters (blindfolded)…all of a sudden, we were once again plugged in to real life!

Since then, we have switched to yet another plan and our internet has gone up a further notch, i.e., my email inbox will take a mere ten seconds to load rather than 20. Other improvements have hardly brought us up to speed, if you’ll excuse the pun, with the developed world. Indeed, said velocity itself varies drastically, usually being pretty rapid in the mornings and slowing down to a couple of kilobytes a second by bedtime. Rare is the Skype conversation that does not require us to hang up, disconnect from/reconnect to the internet, and then call again about half a dozen times. Have you ever seen the ‘Your message failed to send’ message in Facebook? Well, put it this way: we have!

Yep, the divide that exists between the developed and developing worlds is frequently couched in economic terms, but it certainly extends to communications. So it’s no understatement to say that during furlough, I’m rather looking forward to plonking myself in front of a computer screen, googling ‘masonic giraffe skateboards in space’ and enjoying the instantaneous, and no doubt hilarious, results. 

Home Comforts -- Number Nine: Golf

Virginia, 2011: a rare opportunity to grip-it-and-rip-it.

Not for nothing have I been compared (by myself) with the late, great Severiano Ballesteros. Like dear old Seve, I am possessed of a furious desire to win and an uncanny ability to drive the ball pretty much anywhere. The comparisons, alas, end in the car park, whence I require rather more shots than the man from Pedreña to get the ball within sniffing distance of the hole.

Though I suppose we do share one other characteristic, perhaps the single most important weapon in one’s armoury in this harshest of sporting pursuits: an unbounded optimism. Boy, have I missed the intoxicating aroma of freshly-cut grass and its promise of new and better things to come. The open arms of an ocean-wide first fairway, beckoning me to come hither, before walloping one off the pro shop. The never-fading hope standing over every ball that this, yes this, will be the one. And that magical, once-in-a-round elation when it is.

I’ve only had four opportunities (two of them here in Bolivia) to open that door and step into that invigorating, dangerous unknown since landing here in 2010. I fully intend to make up for lost time. Motorists of Dornoch: don’t say you weren’t warned. 

Home Comforts -- Number 10: Road Trips

Back in August, it was months. In September it became weeks. And these days, it's, er, days. By the end of the month, we may have moved on to hours.

I refer (of course!) to our Preferred Method of Countdown (or PMC if you prefer, which sounds suspiciously like woman-troubles, but then again, perhaps that more accurately reflects the anxiety-levels) to our furlough. 36 days remain until touchdown in Glasgow. But who knows? Perhaps by the time we're on the Heathrow-Glasgow shuttle we'll be down to seconds. Amanda's gonna love that flight!

(I've even started working out where we are percentage-wise, based on the number of days passed since the 14th of January 2010, our last day in Scotland -- seeing as you're interested, we currently stand at a cool 97.52%)

Now, please don't misunderstand my excitement as a desire to be done with missionary service. We love Trinidad and its people and fully expect, God-willing, to be back here in early 2015. But with nearly four years of ministry in which giving of oneself is a crucial factor, we are in need of a proper re-charging of the batteries.

And a key part of this process is indulging in those pleasures of which one must deprive oneself when working in an isolated region of an isolated country. Functional internet. Naff Christmas music. Queues.

So, over the next few weeks, I'm going to write an occasional series on the things I'm looking forward to most. And, being a music fan, the only way to do this series justice is to present it in the form of a top-ten countdown.

Why am I bothering with this? Firstly, as a keen scribbler, this will hopefully give me an outlet for my excitement, thus making life significantly less stressful for Amanda. Secondly, while not all of the things I'm looking forward to are necessarily related to their lack in Bolivia, it will perhaps give you a greater sense of the realities of day-to-day existence in a developing country. And therefore, thirdly, it might just serve as a useful reminder to all of us (myself included) to count our blessings.

Having been blessed by the offer of motorised transport for the year, we already have a few road trips lined up, God-wiling, for next year. We're hoping to be venturing south of Hadrian's wall on a few occasions to catch up with friends and family. We will most certainly be headed in the opposite direction to sample the glories of Scotland (on which, more in the coming weeks). And in Canada, we're looking to make the obligatory trip down to see my relatives in Virginia. However, depending on our friends' locations, we may also be taking in Georgia, Ohio and New York City! 

An iTunes 'Road Music' playlist -- which, in accordance with universally accepted truth, must begin with 'Born to Run' -- is in the works. The Boss will be accompanied by such storied road music practitioners as Kansas and Journey in the US. As for the UK...hmmm...do we really do road music? Whatever the case may be, an abundance of Murray mints and trail mix (depending on the nationality of one's jaunt) will be consumed with no paucity of fervour.

Best of all, though, will be that sweet ache of emerging from a car in the foetal position after an extended stationary period. Because here in this corner of the world, such journeys just aren't that feasible. Aside from the road to Santa Cruz, most thoroughfares here are in an appalling condition, devouring defenceless vehicles on a daily basis. And the drive isn't exactly worth staying in the car for either. There are literally no hills for hundreds of miles (again, see forthcoming posts), so unless your ideal landscape is a wide variety of shades of green, then there's not much to look at.

Not so back home! Indeed, even the lowlands of the M8 have their fair share of curiosities. Wire horses? Check. Red lego men? Check! Grassy pyramids? Check! Check! Check! 

Yep, it's fair to say the next 51,840 minutes could hardly go by sooner.

Saturday Post -- 09/11/13

Craig teaching from John 21 at Samaritan's Purse on Monday morning.

First up, a huge answer to prayer.

In last week’s prayer points, I shared our frustrations over the visa for Odalys, FT’s audiologist. It was increasingly looking likely that Odalys would not get the required documents to travel to Guatemala this weekend for an audiology course that FT had put up substantial funds to send her to. Most frustrating was the fact that the visa application was sent to the Guatemalan embassy in Peru (a neighbour of Bolivia’s) via a world-renowned courier service two-and-a-half weeks ago, and by the time last week’s post had been written, some nine days later, it was in Argentina, having previously visited Miami and Montevideo. Worse still, the embassy in Lima were not answering our emails or phone calls.

Well. We received word from Lima on Tuesday that the visa was being processed and would be ready by the following day. They would send it to La Paz. We got one of our contacts in La Paz (a former FT worker) to pick it up in La Paz on Thursday and send it through to Santa Cruz. Odalys picked the visa up in Santa Cruz yesterday morning, enabling her to catch her flight at 6am this morning. Perfect timing!

There are probably a few important lessons for us as a Foundation in terms of being a little more prepared for these obstacles. But the Lord in his grace has once again proven to be our strength in our moment of weakness. Our God is an awesome God.

"Guten tag!" to Aline Sacher.

Of equal benefit to Odalys (and fellow audiologist Amanda) is a key piece of Audiology equipment donated to FT by House of Hearing in Edinburgh, and brought out here by Aline Sacher, our new volunteer from Germany. Like Ruth Young and Deborah Holmes before her, Aline has come out to Trinidad as part of the 'First Serve' programme, a joint initiative between Echoes of Service, Interlink and GLO (more information here), which allows young people to get a taste for the mission field as part of a year of training. Aline will be here till June, long after we're gone.

However, her arrival has brought about something of a neat bookending for us, particularly Amanda. Way back in the dark days of January 2010, we had barely landed when we were whisked off by KC to the police station, Interpol, the immigration headquarters and our fair share of lawyers' offices, in order to process our one-year visa (the haste is necessary in order to avoid a fine after your month's grace in the country). Well, four years later, with just over four weeks remaining in Trinidad, this time it has fallen to Amanda to do the, er, whisking. So she and whiskee Aline have spent a good chunk of the week observing the bureaucratic process at close quarters -- i.e., sitting on plastic chairs while government officials look for bits of paper they lost.

With Javier Ríos, of SP Trinidad. Eagle-eyed
readers may have noted that the sun was quite
strong that day.

Aline arrived on Sunday afternoon and she and Amanda were already knuckling down to the paper-chase first thing on Monday morning, so important is it to get a head start on these things. Meanwhile, across town, I was giving a talk on John 21 to the staff of Samaritan's Purse here in Trinidad. On the first Monday of each month, the staff lock themselves in to their compound and have a day of prayer and fasting. One of our church attenders, Javier (see picture), was in charge of putting together a programme last Monday, and asked me if I'd come and speak on missions. It was a pleasure to be able to be an encouragement to our fellow ministers.

I was also backed up by Alex Wann, from Wyoming, who led a time of singing on the guitar. Alex (who followed this blog for some time before his arrival in Trinidad) began a two-year posting with Samaritan's Purse a couple of months ago and has been a great source of encouragement to me. I have mentioned here previously that Bolivian males in particular are extremely reluctant to let their brothers in Christ scratch beneath the surface and ask the important questions, to the extent that my most meaningful Christian relationship here has been with my fellow missionary, Kenny. Kenny's absence since July, therefore, left something of a void in that regard. So I firmly believe that God placed Alex -- a guy who wastes no time whatsoever in getting down to the important subjects -- here with my own needs in mind, just as much as those of Samaritan's Purse. I'm actually writing this after having a time of sharing and prayer over breakfast, something we hope to do regularly in the short time before we leave.

Not next weekend, though! For we will both be part of the leadership team at our church's first ever campamento, now just seven days away. In our church's short existence, this is proving to be easily the biggest single logistical endeavour we've engaged in. We get exhausted just thinking about it. But we're really excited to see what the Lord has in store in a week's time. Blogging will be out of the question, but a full report will be included in the  23rd of November's Saturday Post.

Prayer

• Camp is by far the biggest prayer point this week. Pray particularly for the Lord's anointing on Jerry, who will be speaking throughout the weekend on the topic of family. Pray for Amanda and Mariana, who still have a lot of administration to wade through before the weekend, not least in collecting payments from the members of the youth group. Pray for energy for all us leaders. Pray for the 30 or so young people in attendance, particularly those who haven't yet made a confession of faith. And pray for the church, that the whole event would continue to bind us together; though it's really a youth camp, most of the adults from the church will be in attendance in a leadership capacity, and the church is invited to join us on the Sunday for a special service.
• Pray for Craig, who is doing the final teaching slot on Esther tonight at youth group.
• Tomorrow is a church leaders' meeting. Prayer always appreciated for wisdom for Craig, Elías and Jerry.
• Pray for Amanda and Aline as they continue to plough away in the visa application process.
• You've made it this far? One more then. Craig is looking to get some English-language sermons under his belt for the UK and Canada before we leave, so as not to be spending Christmas in front of MS Word. Pray that God would reveal to Craig the right topics and the right approach, preaching in the West being a very different kettle of fish to preaching in the developing world.

Praise

• Give thanks for Aline's safe arrival.
• Give thanks for opportunities for Craig to encourage (at Samaritan's Purse) and to be encouraged (by Alex).
• Give thanks for the Lord's perfect timing in the Guatemalan visa situation. Now that is what I call a lesson in faith.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 02/11/13

FT staff and assorted family members, last Saturday.

Another Saturday, another early exit from the house, this time a breakfast date with a friend, before the usual slew of church commitments this afternoon and evening. I commented to Amanda the other day that I don’t feel we’re taking things one day at a time so much as one weekend at a time, so busy are we now on Saturdays and Sundays. In any case, I will do my best to recount some of the major points of the past week in the short time available.

I posted last week’s update as we were leaving for Fundación Totaí’s anniversary celebration out at the lake. As it happens, the steak was not quite up to the standards we usually expect around here. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a relaxing day as a staff, playing games, paddling in the lake, and reflecting on the Lord’s goodness to us. Amanda spoke for fifteen minutes about what God has done in her own life through FT, as well as the tremendous growth she’d witnessed in the institution and the staff during the time we’ve been here.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were taken up with our usual church commitments, including a church leaders’ meeting for me on Sunday afternoon. But a two-day ‘weekend’ lay in store, which served as a motivator; in addition to our usual Monday day off, with the anniversary falling on the Tuesday we enjoyed a whole 48 hours outside the FT building (which is also where our church meets, so it’s somewhat difficult to avoid): pancakes, reading marathons and extended Wii sessions ensued.

However, we did set aside a little of our time on the Tuesday to meet with our fellow youth leaders to discuss camp, now just two weeks away. There were a whole range of key points we still hadn’t finalised (the timetable, the transportation, the makeup of the teams) so it was worth sacrificing a couple of hours of everyone’s day off to emerge with a better idea of what we want to do. The week before camp, we will meet with those from the church who have volunteered to provide assistance. If nothing else, the whole endeavour should do wonders for church unity.

Another desired, if not essential, component to a good camp is good weather, and these are interesting times in that regard. Usually the winter winds die down by late August and September till November see temperatures and humidity soaring (40 Celsius is an achievable target) only for rainy season to come and ease the tension somewhat from late November onwards. Well, this year winter stretched out well into September, there were perhaps two weeks of heat and humidity in early October and since then, we’ve had nothing but heavy rain every day! As yet another storm broke during the night, I felt a strong urge to pray for this particular aspect of camp. We could really do with a couple of hot weeks to dry out the campsite in preparation for the invasion of El Jireh church.

Five paragraphs? I’ve had shorter posts on non-breakfast-date Saturdays. Here are our main prayer points.

Prayer

• For our latest overseas volunteer, Aline Sacher (Germany), who is currently enduring something of a travel nightmare – although unusually, Bolivia is this time in no way at fault! It seems her first flight (within or from the UK) was delayed, knocking everything back a few hours. She had been due to get the midday flight from Santa Cruz to Trinidad, but that won’t be happening seeing as she arrives in Santa Cruz at lunchtime. Worse still, no seats on internal flights are available until Sunday, so she has an overnight in Santa Cruz before arriving here at 11am tomorrow – or that’s the plan, at least! Pray for a safe arrival for Aline and for a good first week of settling in.
• Pray for the continued camp preparations.
• For another hectic weekend, particularly Sunday, in which Craig is preaching and Amanda has her Bible study group. Somewhere amongst all this, we also need to pick Aline up from the airport.
• …and then we some work to do on Monday! Amanda will (God-willing) be giving Aline her induction, while I have been asked to give a sermon on missions at the local offices of Samaritan’s Purse, who have a fellowship morning on the first Monday of the month. I took a missions angle in a sermon I gave on John 21 in the church last year, so it’ll just be a case of tweaking for my audience.
• These prayer points are getting almost as long as the post itself! We’re going through a somewhat nerve-shredding experience at FT right now. About a month ago, we registered Amanda’s audiology colleague Odalys for a training course in Guatemala next weekend, buying flights in the process. There were, however, two not insignificant obstacles. Odalys didn’t have a passport, and Bolivians require a visa to enter Guatemala. The passport came through early last week and on Thursday the 24^th, the visa application was sent to the nearest Guatemalan embassy in Lima, with the aid of a world-renowned courier company, to ensure that no time would be wasted
  
  
  . Well, let’s just say that the ability to track packages online is a mixed blessing. This has been the route of the application since leaving Bolivia for Peru (a neighbouring country, for the uninitiated):

o   Miami, USA

o   Montevideo, Uruguay

o   Buenos Aires, Argentina

We are, to say the least, lacking in confidence that the visa will be processed and sent back to Trinidad by next Friday, when Odalys is due to leave. Moreover, the embassy staff in Lima have thus far answered not a single phone call or email. Prayer is required for a mighty work of the Lord in this situation.

Praise

• Amanda is thankful that she managed to get through a pile of marking this week. She was correcting the ‘Kids Games’ exams, with this year’s session having wrapped up last week.
• For a good time together as a staff out at the lake last weekend. 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda