Mosaic Reunites with Bolivia

Mosaic Christian Church has come and gone and left their mark on Bolivia once again. The team was about the same size as last year and we worked equally as hard, filling each day with various activities, energetic kids, and construction/painting projects. So how did I find time to post you all a blog update halfway through their trip last year and this year I barely checked my email you may ask; this time I had a little Angie who also needed my help even more than the gringos.

I don't even really know how to start catching you up on all the adventures we had and great things they accomplished, but I'll try. We thought it would be fun to take the kids from Talita Cumi out for an afternoon of chaos so Saturday and Sunday we took the girls and boys, respectively, bowling and out to dinner. It was somehow less chaotic than the madness of Angie's bowling birthday party, and it was a serendipitously great way for the team to learn the kids names since every round each child's name appeared on the monitor as they went up to give those bumpers a run for their money. Monday and Tuesday we also worked with the TC kids painting some of their building, protecting them from mosquitoes with new screens for their doors and windows, and a little VBS action in the afternoons.

Sunday, we worked with another of Mosaic's adopted "partnerships" my church, La Viña. Since we moved in last December to our great little facility, we've not really added any color or life to our white walled sterile facility. So Sunday, before having fun with the niños in class, we "planted" some flowers to the 5 random flower beds that adorn the building and made some other small updates.

A sister project of La Viña is the home for sick babies, Judah Quy. The team and its financial supporters very generously contributed some new cabinets to the baby home, a bunch of little supplies like diapers and baby monitors, and a new storage shed. I'll let the guys on the team tell you about that silly door that didn't want to hang where it was supposed to, because I'm sure I couldn't have done much better against that beast.

On Wednesday, we loaded some pretty tired (partially Dramamine induced) people into a pretty crowded Landcruiser for a trip to Postrervalle's children's home. By trip, I mean 6 hours of bumps and turns that nearly made me, the driver, car-sick. But most of the team did a good job of fighting off car sickness by snoozing. Here you see my fearless co-pilots/navigators hard at work.

When we arrived we went straight to preparing a feast for the kiddos of homemade french fries, hotdogs and

hamburgers. We soon learned that someone had been harassing the home for the past few nights. So, we felt God's hand at work bringing us to be a presence of 8 adults to guard the home for two nights and give the 22 year-old girl in charge of 36 kids a couple nights of rest and peace of mind. Please help us continue to pray for the safety of the home. The following day the kids went to school with little invitations we'd made for them to pass out about the VBS that afternoon. We had no idea how many to expect... At the beginning we tried to get a count of the little wiggly ones while they watched our skit, we came up with 98. But word of the actors' prowess must have traveled fast because between the drama and the craft the number multiplied to somewhere between 100 and 1 million munchkins. A good problem to have. A better problem to have if you have a microphone or even megaphone. But we can't complain, a lot of little ears heard the gospel that day.

Saturday, we may have overcommitted our last few hours before their return flight that night. Our finale of a project was to paint the inside of the church. With the help of a couple church members and an "interminable" (36 slice pizza) we managed to brighten that place up very well if I must say so myself. And this morning the rest of the church was pretty excited with the results as well. By the time I let them stop working to board that plane I think they were pretty ready to sleep even sitting up in turbulence.

Thank you Mosaic, you impacted SO many people here, I hope they impacted you too. It was a pleasure serving with you, let's do it again soon!

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." -Mark 10:45

Angie Meets the U.S.

So, it turns out 24 hours/day of English is not necessarily Angie's cup of tea, but I bet she'd tell you driving a tennis ball, golf cart, or jet ski are pretty amazing, and maybe a in a few days she'll even tell you they're worth all English all the time! At least 10 days of it. This morning, we made it back to Bolivia with twice as many bags as we left with, a little tanner, a lot exhausted, and very spoiled by the love of the family and friends we were blessed to encounter.

Culture shock was not a huge problem. I guess for a growing mind that's yet to define "normal", everything is possible, just add airplanes and expressways to her ever broadening understanding of what the world holds. She rarely asked questions or made statements about the strange things she experienced, with a couple exceptions. The dishwasher, a machine I daydream about sometimes here in Bolivia, did not induce similar envy in Ange, but merely curiosity about just how lazy North Americans can be. She really couldn't understand the need for such a waste of space. And she was similarly confused by our visit to some friends in the nursing home, why do people live there instead of with their families? Well... kinda the same reason as the dishwasher; partly because we're kind of lazy, partly because we idolize efficiency.

English shock (if it's not a term I'm coining it) was pretty difficult though. The normally talkative, fairly independent, social butterfly became a magnet. When peeled away from me for any number of fun activities, or solely so I could have a conversation with other grown ups, she'd drift right back, and unfortunately not always in the best mood. However, before the trip that turned little Angie's world upside down, we'd had three weeks of almost perfection in the attitude and behavior departments. So, I pray that now as we adjust back into our version of normal we'll settle back into that sweet spot as well. And that next time we're in the States, probably a year from now, her English will be more than a whispered rehearsed response, and you will all get to know and love the confident beautiful person that you saw glimpses of all week.

"And we all ... are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord" -2 Corinthians 3:18

Winter Vacation

Or, in other words, "take your daughter to work week." When we're going to be traveling to the US for more than a week of her three week winter break from school, it didn't really make sense to get her into any kind of program. So, Ange is knitting in my office right now. Sometimes she's painting, she used to work on the computer until her laptop quit on us a couple days ago, sometimes she's running errands or teaching class with me, other times she's my surgical assistant (she's a pro!) And often she just tries to drive me crazy, bouncing around, squealing, asking me questions repetitively. How do you stay-at-home-moms do it??

Last week, we visited the dentist for her first time. She was not excited about this. Have you ever had your daughter who's been dreading her first dentist appointment so much that she cried outside the office stare at you from the end of the dentist chair while the dentist drills out your filling that needs to be replaced, or worse blows cold air in that cavity that's been bothering you? I would not recommend this in the least. (The purple on her teeth is a dye the dentist used to show her the plaque and teach her where to brush better! Don't ever let her know you saw this picture I'll be in big trouble.)

Speaking of mothering acts of strength, I had my first 2am "I think I'm gonna vomit" wake up. Holding your kiddo's hair back in the middle of the night's gotta be some kind of rite of passage, right? Next time we're gonna try to make it to the bathroom a little quicker though.

As we count down the days till the culture shock begins (3) what's making her nervous is flying, what's worrying me is English overload. There's not much we can do to practice for flying, so we'll just have to pray that goes well, but we're cramming for the English weeklong exam like she's taking the National Boards tomorrow. Kind of like when studying for boards, instead of trying to absorb all the material, we're focusing on what's most likely to be asked. Here are some of the questions you should be able to ask her and she may respond (if you make her feel comfortable, talk slowly, and use exactly the same accent I have) in such a way that you would never guess those are the only words she actually knows in English.

Hi (Hello, Good Morning, Good Afternoon), how are you?

What's your name?

How old are you?

Where are you from?

Do you like the United States? (She will probably answer "Yes" even if she's miserable, because this is all she's practiced.)

What is your favorite food?

What is your favorite color?

If you stray from this list, my guess is she will run to me and ask if she can play games on my cell phone for the rest of the night, so be gentle. And see you sooooon!