Los Yungas
After a beautiful 3 hour journey we arrived at El Puente (The Bridge) camp. The journey we had done was on the new road thankfully, due to the fact that the old road is the world’s most dangerous road. The reason that we were all going to the camp was because we were going to be doing some maintenance work. Later in the day we (being Javier and his son Josué, Emerson and Suellen, Rolando and myself) would be meeting up with a group of Americans that have come over for a week to work at the camp.
La Paz 27th July – 8th August
I have been in La Paz for about 4 days now, I have met many of the missionaries that work here for SIM. They have a great team and they really work well together and look out for each other. My first morning I had a bit of a surprise, I was able to attend the team prayer meeting and bible study that they hold every friday. To my surprise walked in a great friend that I had met four years ago in Cochabamba and Argentina. Emerson and his wife Suellen are working as associates for SIM, they are working at a campamento in Las Yungas 3 hours north of La Paz in the jungle. It was great to see him again and see that he is using all that he has learnt at bible college for the furtherance of the gospel. Read more…
Fe Extrema – Extreme Faith
I was able to go to a youth leaders conference in Bolivia, it was a really great few days, where I was able to meet many different leaders from other churches. Also see people that I had not seen in a long time. I was really pleased to see that the youth leaders were really on fire for Christ and are wanting to teach the best to their youth groups. I was able to go to some of the workshops that were put on. One that I went to was titled “El Corazon del lider” The heart of a leader and how our hearts are before God. How can we not be right before God and teaching the youth at the same time that they need to be. We need to practice what we preach because if we don’t then we are not going to get respect and reach out in the way that we should be. Read more…
Compassion
For a few weeks I was working in a compassion ministry in Cochabamba. It was similar to the one that I had worked in previously, I wanted to see if there was any similarities or differences. The Compassion ministry that I was working in was at the church Esteban Arze. It is a great church with lots of youth willing to learn and teach others about the gospel. I was able to go in the afternoons for lunch and then spend the whole of the afternoon with them. I find compassion a great ministry where children can come in and hear the gospel on a daily basis and for those that can’t afford to eat there is a hot meal there waiting for them.
Sorry for the delay
Sorry for the delay in writing, it has been a manic few weeks and some of the time I have been in places days on end without internet connection, think of the anguish!!! Tonight I will do my best to get my blog up to date with all that I have been doing and if the internet connection is good then I will put on some photos.
Thanks for being patient
Matt
Kewiña
Since the 9th Of July I have been to Camp Kewiña twice and have worked at Compassion ministry for a week.
Camp Kewiña is a camp centre in the middle of nowhere, it is in a really beautiful place in the country. There is electricity and hot water but unfortunately no internet, it is too far away from anywhere to get a signal. During my time there I was able to help put up a fence to keep out the animals. But the main reason that I was there was to see how the camp is run and what sort of kids come to the camp. The 2 camps that I saw Read more…
SIM Spiritual Life Conference.
Last week I attended the SIM conference and it was a real blessing to me. It was held at Carachipampa Christian School, we slept on mattresses on the floor in the classrooms. The room that I was staying in was quite warm thankfully. During the week I was able to meet SIM missionaries from all over Bolivia and hear about their ministries. It was great to see the rejoicing that the missionaries felt when their ministries are going well, but also seeing the human side to them when you see the missionaries crying because of the hard times that they were facing. I think that I have gained far more than I was able to give, it was a great to be there and really get to know the missionaries.
The week’s ministry was about “training for the marathon” and how we have to be ready for the work ahead in proclaiming the gospel. The ministry for the week was lead by Rev Chris Johnson who is from Waseca, Minnesota. He is the pastor of Mike Wheeler one of the missionaries here in Bolivia. They also brought a group of people over to look after and teach the children, while the missionaries were able to have the time free to listen to the ministry. I came away from the conference really filled and blessed from the ministry that I had received.
The Widow Maker
Coachaca
Yesterday I was able to go to a place right out in the country, we had to drive through a dried out river bed to get to it. It was quite a drive with the rocks hitting the bottom of the car and dogs trying to chase alongside. Jonathan and Monica Steel are running a childrens club at their house where they have over 30 children who come regularly.
I arrived safely
I left England at 10:30pm on the 24th May and arrived in Bolivia at 8:00am on the 26th
It has been a long few days of travelling and getting over the time change. Even though I missed one of my connections due to a late flight and had to stay in a hotel in Santa Cruz for part of the night (having to get up at 4am) I don’t think that it was too bad. Along the way I was dreading having to spend 8 hours in the airport with nothing much to do. But God had other plans after about an hour of reading, walking around and listening to some music. Along comes Jennifer McNeal a SIM Bolivia missionary going back to Northern Ireland. It was great to be able to chat about Bolivia and what had been happening. The time flew by and those hours just disappeared very quickly. Since I have been here I have had a meeting with the short-term missionary coordinator to go over my schedule for the next two months, it is going to be very busy and I will do my best to keep you all updated.
This weekend I will be visiting a “Club Biblico” on the outskirts of Cochabamba I will be staying with a missionary family and going to their church. It will be great to see some of the ministries that are taking place now and the impact that they are having on the people. When I get back I will let you know how it went and how they are able to share the gospel with these needy people.
It is great to be here in Bolivia and being able to meet up with people that I have not seen in 2 years. Please will you continue to pray for me while I am here, I really want to know the will of God for my life. So that I can serve Him to the best of my abilities.
