Home Sweet Home!!!

We are home at last after 33-34 hours of traveling! Yes, you read that right. Our trip home was quite interesting and we wanted to get on the blog to let you know to pray, but we couldn't get on in the airports for various reasons!

We got up Friday morning to be at the airport in Santa Cruz by 7am. After checking in and making it through immigration, customs and security, we left Santa Cruz an hour late due to a delay in our plane coming in from La Paz. On the way to Miami they called for any medical personnel on the plane to come help in the first class cabin. When we got into the airport in Miami, it looked like a flight attendant was being attended to by some medical personnel. Since our plane left late, it arrived late into Miami. Going through customs, immigration, etc took a long time and we were pushing it to catch our next flight. Some of us literally ran to the gate, but they had already locked the plane and therefore would not let us on. By this time we were all tired, hungry, and thirsty, but the men got in line to try to get us all onto the 9:30 flight. It took a LONG time, but finally we all got booked on the 9:30 flight only to learn the flight was delayed by 2 hours. Thankfully they gave us some meal vouchers to use while we waited. Before long, the 11:30 flight was listed as 12:30 am. Ugh! We had a hotel already booked and paid for in Dallas, but at this point we were almost hoping they'd cancel the flight and let us stay the night in Miami. We waited, and waited, and waited and FINALLY our flight left Miami at 1:30 am. The pilot tried to make up as much time as he could and really put the pedal to the metal, only to realize later in the flight that one of the pilots had had a slight stroke during the flight. So, as we landed in Dallas at 2:50 am local time, they asked us to wait until medical personnel could assist him. We got off the plane, gathered all our luggage and finally made it to our hotel around 4:00 am (5:00 am body time!). After a couple hours of sleep and a shower, we were back on the shuttle to the airport at 7:00 am. After checking all our luggage back in and clearing security once again, we learned that our flight was delayed due to some mechanical problems - what next?!?!?!? We finally boarded the plane shortly after 10 am for our 9:30 am flight and thankfully arrived in Wichita at 11:15 am!

Stella Harder (Laura's sister in law) brought Shonsee and Keegan to the airport as a surprise welcome home for Corny and Laura!

After lunch at Wendy's where we all enjoyed some greasy American food and cold drinks with ice, we hit the road for our final leg.

We pulled into Cimarron around 4:30 Saturday afternoon and are all now unpacking, doing laundry and hoping for a good night's rest!

Thank you for your interest in our trip. It is fun to hear that people were reading our blog. Your prayers were definitely felt and appreciated! We could see God working in so many different ways and have SO many pictures to share and stories to tell! ~ Sherry

Day of reckoning

What a lousy day to volunteer for blogging. Why, why did I volunteer??? Bob warned us that the day would be emotional and I figured, well, yeah I know. The morning tried to be a disaster because we found out that we had taken the same kids pictures the second day as the first and so instead of having five, ten or fifteen pictures to complete the craft (of giving every kid a personal picture) we had close to a hundred. Bob told us that on this trip we would be working with the knowledge that Bolivia starts with a 'B'. As in if plan 'A' doesn't work, there is always plan 'B'. Well, today we were going to find out what plan 'E' was all about. Don't worry, we got all their pictures taken but..........whew!! Okay, that must have been what Bob was talking about the day being emotional. Noon found us eating with the kids at the Christian school and hey, everything is still on an emotional high. We get back to the hotel after lunch and a few of us get taken back down town for a last chance at souvenirs (sp) and I got to spend the entire hour waiting at the optical store because I broke my eyeglasses 2.5 days ago. I did get them back but they aren't fixed. Now it is a mad dash back to the hotel because we are supposed to go to Talita Cumi for a last meal and program.
I still haven't shed a tear so the day is still on cruise control. Arriving at Talita Cumi the kids greet us with hugs and kisses. Great! The new parrot is still at Talita Cumi and so we are amused and the atmosphere is still quite positive. Greeting staff and new friends seems so much like normal. The meal comes and is awesome again and so I continue to extend my streak of not being hungry in Bolivia yet. (Don't worry, it's normal for me) A few glimpses of tears around has brought a few unguarded tears for me but nothing too hard to handle. My prayer child gets a prize so I am allowed to go up for pictures and prayer with him. (Doing okay so far) Gifts are given by both sides and appreciation is shared. I decide to tell Jose Maria that I will come back to see him someday. He handles it fairly unemotional so I decide to tell his sister Valoria. Valoria has seemingly has chosen me instead of the opposite. I have to admit I am becoming more emotionally attached to her than I realized. After telling her the same news with an interpreter she stands still for a second, then begins to hug me around my neck. (I am kneeling) After a few seconds she begins to shake and I loose it. Okay, yeah, now I think I know what Bob was warning me. I really hadn't planned on this. Thank goodness that we can know that God will care for these kids when we are gone. Wow, I think maybe these kids have gotten to me more than I every figured they would. It's going to take a while for me to process this. See you all in a few days.
Ken

Goodbye . . .

The goodbyes have begun as well as the tears as we had our last VBS at the Christian School this morning. They had prepared a very touching program for us where each grade came up and either sang a song, read a letter, gave us a gift (yes, they gave us gifts!), etc to show their appreciation to us. It was very touching and meaningful. Please keep us in your prayers as we go to Talita Cumi for supper and a party as we say goodbye to the children this evening. ~ Sherry

Wednesday Recap

Picture 1 - Interesting working conditions; Picture 2 - Small classroom at the Christian School; Picture 3 - Laura hard at work; Picture 4 - Groceries for lunch; Picture 5 - Lunch preparation; Picture 6 - Kylie gets a hug from Fanny.

(Darren) Today was another typical work day with VBS and work projects in the morning and everyone busy with work projects in the afternoon. As you can image, everyone is quite tired by this point. There are also a number on our team who are dealing with some health issues. For myself, I wasn't feeling well yesterday and this morning, but have felt much better later today.

This morning was our family's turn to help with purchasing groceries and preparing lunch for the Talita Cumi children and our team. It was interesting to experience a Bolivian grocery store and to see the process involved in feeding a large group. It's good and sad at the same time to see that the Talita Cumi children are eating much better this week because we are here. They normally don't have as much for their noon meal and their evening meal is even less.

This evening something special happened at the restaurant where we ate supper. We had a buffet which was fixed special for our group. When we were done, there was a quite a bit of food left over. The restaurant staff brought out a bunch of to-go containers and said that we had paid for the food so we could take what we wanted. The group got busy and filled up around twenty containers to take to the orphanage. This will save them a lot of money. God is good!

I also receive a surprise request at noon today - an opportunity to speak at a rahab facility for women late in the afternoon. There were few details available and I was quite nervous about this. Plus, I hadn't prepared anything. But I felt that I couldn't say no to the opportunity. I spent the afternoon nervously thinking through what to say. Our (Sherry and myself) ride arrived after 4:00 p.m. to pick us up and take us to the facility. As Bob was helping us exchange phone numbers, we discovered that this was going to be and all evening event and we wouldn't return to our hotel until 10:00 p.m. Which, in Bolivia, could easily be midnight - in which we would miss supper and our evening group activities. Needless to say, God intervened and I didn't go to speak. We were quite relieved that we made this discovery of miscommunication before we were on the road and an hour out of town.

We continue to praise God for good weather. The locals have been amazed at how warm it has been. It has been ideal for the work projects lined out for us. Again, God is good!

Pray for our team tomorrow. It will be a difficult day as we have to say goodbye to the orphans. We have all grown very attached to these children and they have been attached to us even though we can't speak their language. We have had more hugs and kisses than you can imagine. I am constantly amazed at how loving these children are after all they have been through in their short lives. There is a special evening planned with supper and a party to close out our time here.

We have also come to love and appreciate our new friends from North Carolina. God knew what he was doing when put this team together. (Should we ever doubt that!?) It will also be hard to say goodbye to them.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers. They have been sustaining us through some challenging days. (Darren)

P.S. Please pray for Ken. He broke his glasses on Tuesday and they found a place to fix them and they'd be ready on Wednesday. The machine to fix them broke and he was not able to get them on Wednesday. Please pray that he will get them back soon. He is functioning, but it has to be miserable not being able to see.

Visit to Mennonite Colony

Yesterday Corny and I got to go out to a Mennonite community for a visit. This had been a dream of ours when we first heard about the Bolivia mission trip. Corny and I have both been raised in German Mennonite homes so this was of great interest to us. However the missionaries that serve there were having a 2 week Bible school and would not be able to take us out there. But God saw fit that we could go. We happened to meet their daughter who was able to take us with her. The settlement is about 1 1/2 hours from Santa Cruz. So Monday morning we piled into the taxi and off we were for a wild ride. We made it there for lunch and got right to work. We chopped up LARGE amounts of potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage for the borscht for supper. Rudy & Erna Friesen have been serving there in Pailon for 5 years now. Their main ministry is through low German radio broadcasting. They have just recently opened up a ministry center for retreats and other ministries & a women's center for abused women. They now had a team there that was doing VBS for 2 weeks. This is for ages 4- adults. Here they teach the children about Jesus and the adults have classes on parenting, marriage, health etc. Some people traveled 1 1/2 hours in the back of a grain truck with 32 people piled in the back. They feed them supper and a snack between classes. Some of the children came with no shoes and very empty stomachs. Coming back for seconds and thirds. This was heart wrenching to see. But the smile on their faces when they were done eating was priceless. God is really working in the hearts of the German Mennonite people here in Bolivia. They are searching for more and this ministry is definitely reaching out in a way that speaks to them. Praise God we got to go, it has really touched our lives.
As for the rest of our team they got to tour the city and listen to a great testimony of a Bolivian woman. Today we continued with our VBS and lots of painting, sanding & bending rebar, and we're exhausted again. Weather has been great. Thanks for all your prayers. God's great!
~ Corny & Laura
The Couple in the first picture are Rudy and Erna Friesen, the missionary couple that we got to go see there.

Pictures from Monday

We went to visit Elba, who was a maid for Bob & Denise when they lived here. Friesen's helped build her house for her.
Elba's house
Shopping in the market

VBS crafts outside - a challenge in the wind.
David with the principal of the Christian School where we are working.
VBS at the Christian School.
Maddie is right in the middle of it allHey, this is Kaitlyn and Talley! Today has been a full day! We ate an early breakfast and crammed into the Micro for another long day. We went to the Christian school and they were having Day of the Teachers (dia de la miestros) and they were dancing for the teachers. They even drug us into it! The teachers on our team thought we should have this holiday in the States! We had VBS and ate lunch with the orphans. It was a bit of a challenge with the wind! The craft was also kind of a difficult one for the kids. We went to the market and saw many interesting things! The most interesting for me (Kaitlyn) was the meat isle! It was not a pleasant sight! There wasn't any refrigeration and the meat was hanging right in front of us. There were whole chickens just sitting on the table in front of you! We got to buy some fruit from that market and experience fresh Bolivian fruit! We haven't actually gotten to eat it yet because it has to be disinfected. After we were done in the market, we went to a lady named Elba's house. (See picture above) We got to experience Empanadas and Cunpe and they were very tasty! We heard Elba's story and then went on a walk around the neighborhood. It was amazing to see the lifestyles of the people. There were many stray dogs around and lots of chickens! The streets are full of trash and we saw kids playing in their yards and in the streets. After the tour, we went back to the hotel and we got to rest. That was much needed! Some of the kids went swimming in the freezing cold pool. We went to Los Lomitos for supper and it was very good! It was more traditional Bolivian food! One of my favorites in fried Yuka. It's really good! We came back and had devotions and now it's time for bed! We have another long day tomorrow!

Sunday in Bolivia

Picture 1 & 2-Spanish Church Pictures 3- the crowded micro Pictures 4 & 5- Shopping in the Plaza. Picture 6 - Do you think we're tired?

(Marie writing) Hello everyone what a awesome day we had today. PRAISE GOD we were able to sleep in this morning. It was great to be able to start our day off refreshed. We had breakfast loaded the micro(boy were we ever packed!) We headed to church, attended Iglesia Universica, then had lunch at the plaza. After lunch we were able to have some down time shopping at the plaza. It was alot different than the mall. We finished up with some awesome ice cream at Bits & Bites. We then loaded back up on the micro and headed back to the hotel. After an hour of free time we walked about a quarter mile to a restaurant for supper. We had eaten so much today that it was hard to be hungry but we enjoyed good Bolivian food anyway. Back to the hotel and after a little time to refresh we had a great time of singing and then we divided up for devotions.