We finished the well yesterday.  It is recharging to thirty meters.  Usually we need it to recharge to about fifteen from the top, being fourty one meters but Don Juan will pump it until it is recharging to the top.  We finished about middle of the day yesterday and then we went to the homestead about a mile away to throw the cast net and play a little in the pond because it was a pretty day.  We played till about four thirty then headed home.  We got about a mile away and the truck shut off.  We were not able to get it started again.  Mr.Terry had his cell phone thankfully so he got on the roof of the truck to get signal and he called Mrs. Kathy.  He wanted her to get the battery put it in the other truck SUV thingy and come get us.  She showed up an hour later in a cab.  She could not get the battery to work.  We left the truck and headed into town.  Then I had one of those moments in my life were I have no idea how I got to this place.  Ha Mrs. Kathy had made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and had brought them with bottled water with her.  I was in a cab with eight people eating cookies, covered in grease, driving at sunset through the prettiest backcountry I have ever seen.  It was ridiculous and such a God moment.  I could not help but laugh.  When we got to town we ate spaggetti and then got the other SUV working and headed back to get the other truck.  We got there and finally figured out that if we pull the drive shaft out of the back wheels then we can drive it home in four wheel drive using only the front two tires.  What had happened was all the bumps we hit on the bad roads because of the rain had crammed the Universal drive shaft into itself and broke some stuff in the back axil or something.  We tied up the universal drive shaft with a rope under the truck and got the truck working and were about to leave when we went to start the SUV and it would not start.  The battery was dead.  We did not have jumper cables but were able to push start it to start it.  Then we began the two hour ride back home in first gear.  We had to stop four times to put a knew rope under to hold the universal drive shaft because it was burning holes through the rope.  Finally we greased up an old T-shirt and put it between the rope and shaft and it worked.  We got home at about 12:45.  Then me and Mr. Terry and Mrs. Kathy sat in the kitchen and told delirious stories for about thirty minutes.  It was great.  This morning I woke up about the time for sunday school and played with the kids. After that me and Mary Lou watched High School Musical.  Then Mrs Kathy made homeade.  It was delicious.  It has been a great day.  I am about to go play soccer with the church people before church. Tommorrow the Wallers and I are heading to Santa Cruz.  Hopefully I will catch a bus to La Paz.  Mrs Kathy has to have surgery for her sinus problems so pray for that.  It will be sad leaving these wonderful people.  They have been great and a blast to be around.  I will also miss the food ha.  They have been such a blessing from God not just for me for two weeks but for all of the people in this area who they have touched.  Pray for safe travels. -Addison-

All is quiet at the Internado. I took Rachel to the bus place this morning. I would say station but its more where they just park the bus. She is going back to La Paz in an attempt to resolve some residency issues. That makes me the only Greengo at the Internado. I think it will be good for me. It will force me to use Spanish and not rely on Rachel the Translator. All but a few of the students have gone home for Holy Week and it is frightenly quiet around the home. I think Mateo and I will begin building the stove either this afternoon or in the morning sometime. I have to admit the readings on it are a little intimidating, especially all the calculations. I wish history was somehow involved and not math. I guess that would be a weird stove though. Anyway, I ask that you pray for the project and we receive understanding so that the internado can have a new, hopefully more efficient Winiarski Pot Slip stove, 2008 edition. – Jarred

We received our February Journal’s from the printer today. If you’re on our mailing list, you should have already received yours or be receiving it soon. Are you not receiving the Journal and would like to be on our mailing list? You can send your name and address to Marie Lanier, lanierm@sifat.org, to receive a printed Journal, or you can sign up for our e-Journal by sending a blank e-mail with the word SUBSCRIBE as the subject to info@sifat.org.

***Correction*** Please note that the Sarah Trust Fund thermometer was incorrect in this month’s Journal. The correct amount should have been $113,430 for February 2008. ***

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Monday morning we left to go finish the well Teo, Darwin, Benito, Teos son, Don Juan, and myself. We planned to camp for one night or so. We got to the drill sight unloaded our stuff and started cleaning out the hole. You have to clean the hole of all the stuff that has settled before making progress down. At about eleven it started raining. So we breaked and were gonna start back when the rain stopped. Meanwhile we all huddled under a ten by ten tarp. Well the rain did not stop until about five that night. We ran to the house at about three thirty to start supper ,and the house was flooded. We had tents to sleep in but no dry ground, but Teo has a small house at his homestead about a half a mile or more away to we walked over there after eating supper at about fourt thirty to go to sleep. We arrived at Teos house and we realized that his house could only accomodate one tent and we needed tents because the bugs and such. Being the largest and the one who understands the least I was choosen to sleep outside in a tent. I didnt think much of it I have camped several times and was kinda excited. I put a tarp down and then the tent on it and immediately water soaked through into the tent, But Mr. Terry packed six tents for some reason so I put two more under what would be mine and benitos and it was dry. We doubled the Tarp over the top of the tent that was missing a pole and falling down and it was good. It was the uglyest shelter I have ever seen, but it was dry. We went to bed at about six. The next day was great we got a lot done and I cant remember what our depth was that day but it was a good day. We woke up this morning and just needed four meters of sand to case it and get home. We finally hit sand at about eleven and then were about to case at about five. In this well we; Broke the top handle seven times, Lost the rig and fished it out from thirty meters twice, got the rig stuck and had to winch it out once, broke the rope once, ate rice seven times, dropped a threader in the drill shaft once (by we on this one I mean I dropped threader in the drill shaft). We finally cased it at 175 ft or so.  Its crazy to think so deep with a six meter steel pipe and the rest PVC all by hand.  It was a great three days.  I talked to God a lot because their was no one to talk to in english.  I also probably learned more spanish than I have my entire time here.  Three days no english is harder than I thought but my spanish was pretty good by day three.  It was a blast…kinda…ha. -Addison-

I guess about two weeks ago now, we were on our way to Santa Cruz via La Paz. Every Sunday and Thursday, there is a big market in El Alto, a large suburb if you will of La Paz. We were going to look for supplies in the market and I think Rachel asked Cristina, Mateo´s sister-in-law to accompany us. Anyway, Cristina lives next to Mateo´s mother, whose name I cannot pronounce or spell. Mateo´s parents own a small store that sells snacks and bread made fresh every morning. We came into the store and found his mother there. She burst into tears and started saying things I dont think Bolivians could understand. I immediately felt uncomfortable. She gave each of us a huge hug and thanked us for coming to visit. She said, ¨Come! Come!¨ She took us back to where the family makes bread each day. She told us to sit, and that we did. We listened to Mateo´s father talk for a while until his mother came back with a wide smile and told us to follow her. She told us took us into the kitchen, which is separate from everything else. She said, ¨Sit! Sit!. She thanked us again for coming to visit. The whole time I was wondering if she thought we were someone else. Although we had eaten breakfast just an hour before, she begged us to eat an egg sandwhich and have some coffee. I am not sure how old she is. Maybe mid 60s. But, she was literally skipping from the table to the stove to turn the eggs in her skillet. She brought the eggs over to the table, sliced open the bread, and said, ¨Eat! Eat!¨Yeah she said everything twice. Then she said, ¨Teach me! Teach me English so I can say Eat! Eat!¨. I still had the first bite of an egg sandwhich that I didnt really want in my mouth when Rachel said, ¨we are going to pray¨. I stopped chewing and bowed my head only to raise it back up almost immediately after she had begun to pray. Her prayer was muffled by a constant stream of tears flowing down her face. The only words I understood was ¨Holy Jesus, Thank You!¨. That was all I need to hear. I have thought about that prayer at least once everyday since then. I knew at the time there was more to the prayer than what appeared on the surface and that I needed time to think about it. Near the beginning of our time in Ixiamas, I asked the pastor what his favorite book of the Bible is. I found it interesting when he said Ephesians, not the normal reply of John, Romans, or 1st Corinthians. I read it and a verse in Ephesians 3 stuck out to me. Mateo´s mom lives this verse. The verse talks about a love beyond knowledge, and recognizing how deep, wide, long, and high the love of God is. I realized I had never literally cried out to God in thanksgiving, even moreso because strangers came to visit me. I asked Rachel about her and she said Mateo said she is like that all of the time. Then I thought, ¨oh. Well it probably wasnt that big of a deal.¨Then I though, ¨Wait, that makes it an even bigger deal! She lives her life with an open love for God and his children.¨ You can´t know love unless you experience it. As the verse says, it is beyond knowledge. Love is not a feeling, it is an action. A verb, not a noun. If service is love, than I have not loved at times when I had a clear opportunity to serve. And if I did, it was not in a manner as what I believe Jesus would have wanted it to be.- Jarred