Well, my name is Katie Acker, and I’m from Ohatchee, Alabama. I just graduated high school, and I’m about to move to Mississippi to attend Belhaven College. This past spring, I began thinking about my summer plans. I knew that I wanted to take a trip somewhere new, but I had no idea where. A couple opportunities came my way, but Bolivia seemed to constantly be on my mind. My mother spent a whole summer in Bolivia when she was about my age. I’ve heard many stories about this foreign country, but never saw myself actually going. I remember saying when I was younger I would never go there just because my mom had already been. Well, God definitely had other plans because as I type I am sitting on a bunk bed in a room with screen windows and no air conditioning. I stare out the window, and I see palm trees, little huts and buildings, and a sunset that will make you go crazy over your creator. I am here in Ixiamas, and I can’t believe it. It’s nothing short of an adventure when you’re following Christ and doing his will, and that is simply why I am here in Bolivia.

Two weeks ago, I met my team from Christ Community Church and braved the Atlanta airport. I was super nervous to meet them, but then as soon as I did, they immediately welcomed me in. I said goodbye to my family and headed off to security check. I looked back to wave my last wave, and there my mother stood crying, I can’t imagine what she was thinking. She was doing the same thing 30-something years ago. Now, her only daughter was leaving for the familiar country.

We landed in La Paz super early and slowly started to grab up our luggage and, hopefully, catch a flight to Rurrenabeque. We quickly found out that the plane was not flying due to a muddy runway, which meant we would be taking the bus. That’s when I started to get a little nervous. I began remembering all the stories I had heard mom tell about the “death road” and the pictures I looked up on Google. This is when I started fervently praying for God’s safety.

What a ride it was. We saw some incredible scenery, and oh, did I mention I slept through the bad part of the drive? Some of this could be blamed on me getting close to no sleep on the flight from Miami, but another factor might be the sleeping aids I took. Boy did they work! I felt good when we got to Rurrenabeque. We arrived in the early morning and then hopped on some motorbikes to go meet up with Rachel, Mateo and Chas. We ate breakfast, crossed the river and got back on our awesome bus to head to Ixiamas. We arrived in Ixiamas, and I got settled in to my new home for the next three weeks. I met some of the kids, and I met my roomie, Miss Becky. I automatically knew I was going to have fun with her.

The next week was a whirlwind. We had devotionals at seven in the morning before the day got started. I dreaded them every time I had to wake up, but they were so good. While the team was here, we went to a village in Santa Rosa and hung out with the kids. We did work projects at the Internado and even had bible school with 200 children. It was crazy. I didn’t realize how much I had enjoyed the team being here until they had to leave. I only knew them for a week and still I cried watching them go. They really blessed me.

Rachel, Miss Becky, and Mateo went with the team to go to La Paz to finish up some business. So that meant I would be here with the kids and Chas. I was a little anxious to see how Chas and I would get along and also, just to see how the kids would be around me. I knew that doing God’s will might mean me being “alone”, but it hit me that day hard and fast; I was no longer in my comfort zone. I was in Bolivia, and I might have to put my big girl pants on and grow up a little.

Come back to tomorrow to read Part Two of Katie’s summer.

Two summer interns joined Becky in Ixiamas, Bolivia. Although they did not post throughout their time, we asked them to share about their experiences. This is the second part in a multi-post series.

So prepare, because this might be long and it might be mushy. Sorry.

I’ll start with the Holy Spirit because truly He or It has been what I have thought to be the strangest or most unknown relationship. I now call Him (or It..hah) my wonderful friend. I read through some books and prayed, but where I understood the most of whom this Holy Spirit is was through the Bible, and well I guess, himself. The Bible says the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, for the Holy Spirit is with me constantly, convicting me when I mess up, telling me to seek forgiveness or encouraging me when I’m down. During the day I’m constantly talking to him, telling him how I feel or how thankful I am for his presence. He has become a great friend to me, a truly wonderful counselor, always pointing me into the right direction. I do love him.

After that my respect and appreciation for Christ increased. Well, everything about him increased. I read through Donald Miller’s Searching for God Knows What about three times. I’m reading it for the third time now. There are many chapters talking about Jesus in ways I haven’t thought about before, and it strongly encourages the reader, at least I think, to read through the gospels and take a good hard look at who the person Jesus was while he was here on Earth. Man, I did that, and I can’t say it enough of how much I am thankful for a Savior, a redeemer. He is my rescuer, my Lord, my best friend who I don’t deserve but nonetheless have. I owe him technically and just because my life. I realized Jesus did the most beautiful thing that could have ever been done. Without him my life would be headed nowhere. There would be no peace, no true life, no God, at least no God that I would have a relationship with. Yes, I do love him so very much. Thank you Jesus. Thank you.

And lastly my beautiful Father in Heaven. I grew with him through the Old Testament and prayer. I looked back at how he faithfully guided his people through Moses. I looked at how amazing Eden was, how things were intended. I imagined and thought about how hard it must have been seeing the life intended was now gone, and the price He knew would have to be paid if He wanted a relationship with us. And boy he does. God, He created the heavens, the earth, and every clear night when I could clearly see he created those wonderful stars. They don’t shine brighter anywhere else I have been. He made me and because of everything He has done, I know him. He has spoken life into me. His affirmation and He fulfills me. I have my identity and my purpose in Him.  I know who I am, and I know who He is, and we have a wonderful relationship that will never end, and that knowledge alone is enough to change anyone’s life. Forever. I love you Father, you are so wonderful.

So sorry for the mushiness, but we’re done with that part. So lastly the thing I got from this trip was a calling. When I was in Australia, I of course got my calling to South America, but the Lord also asked me to stay in Columbus for a few years to go to school, minister to my family, serve my church and help my community. Last year when I left Bolivia, the Lord highlighted my family. I would like to say that I was wholly dedicated to them since I left Bolivia and returned but that would be a lie. I did however love them, pray for them and allow God to work. And so many of my siblings now come to church with me. We, as a family, have had a long year, some unexpected bumps, but overall I think we have all grown a little closer to the Lord.  So this years calling is for my community. We will see where that ends up, but I know right now I have accepted a job to work in local high schools with sophomores, juniors and seniors in a wonderful amazing organization known as Teen Advisors…if you want to know more (teenadvisors.org) And I have said this once, and I’ll say it many more times I think that organization is one of the biggest community changers in Columbus, and we just don’t even know it. But the Lord is showing me more than just that. I can’t wait.

Well I know its long, I’m sorry and there is so much more, but I don’t want to make you cry if I were to write it all. So if you want to know more, gladly I will tell you. Just buy me dinner one night, and you will learn everything I can think of…haha. I pray you are all well, wherever you are. I love you. Thank you for your support and prayers, and may you continue to grow closer to our Savior, our Wonderful Friend and our Father in heaven. Amen.

Chas Jordan

Two summer interns joined Becky in Ixiamas, Bolivia. Although they did not post throughout their time, we asked them to share about their experiences. This is the first part in a multi-post series.

 

I was begged to write this. I’m not much of a blogger, so this was one of the last things I would have ever really done. But here it goes.

My name is Chas Jordan, and I’m a business major at Columbus State University. I’m 21 years old, and for the last four years, I have had a calling for South America and missions. In these last four years, I have been blessed to go to South America eight times. This summer, however, I wanted to stay here for a little longer than a week. So I applied for the internship in Ixiamas, Bolivia. Here is what it has been like.

• 70 days in Bolivia.
• 50 cold showers (I promise the kids must have poured ice cubes inside of my water when I wasn’t looking because I don’t understand how water can just be that cold.)
• 95 plates with rice as the main course (probably a lot more)
• 200 plus bug bites or some kind of chigger type bug…. I hated that.
• 15 or more books some that have changed my life
• 1 and a half chicken coop, 1 rope and washer pump, 3 painted rooms and 4 painted walls.
• 2 trips to Rurre, where I really enjoyed some fried chicken and Juliano’s cooking…he might be the best cook I know other then my mom and grandparents
• 50 hours plus or minus a few, inside that wonderful hammock, reading, praying, listening to the Lord…those were wonderful times
• One group from my home Columbus, Georgia. That was too wonderful a time.
• And then, of course, countless hours just hanging out with the Lord, that was the best, no doubt in my mind.

And so those are some numbers, but let me get to the real point of my trip. Yes, I did hang out with the kids at the Internado. Some very beautiful relationships were made. I did build a chicken house, ha, and I did live in a wonderful community with some great people, but what I will remember the most from this trip is what I think all people remember the most…not what they or I did, but what the trip did for us. Some of you may be my supporters both financially and through prayer and encouragement, and so I thank you for what you did, here is how your money and prayers paid off.

I did have some wonderful relationships made, but there were three that grew to places they had never been before…and just in those three relationships, life changes in remarkable ways. I’m talking about my relationship with Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit. Because I was separated from the busy-ness of life, the craziness of living in the States and the small distractions of school, family, friends and finances, it is sometimes hard to grow these relationships. But I had all of those distractions wiped away. I had hours and hours of reading, sitting quiet, listening and then after all those hours were gone, well I could just sit in that hammock and pray or give thanks for this wonderful life.

Come back to tomorrow to read Part Two of Chas’ summer.

Our current intern in Ixiamas, Bolivia, is 2008 Practicum graduate Becky Forrest. During Practicum, Becky shared her experience on our blog. Now that she is in an intern in Bolivia, she will post updates as our interns in 2008 did. Becky served on short-term mission trips in 2007 and 2008 in Ixiamas.

The last three weeks have been different because the kids of the Internado have been out of school for winter vacation. The vacation is supposed to be two weeks, but because of the swine flu outbreak in Bolivia, they decided to extend the vacation two more weeks. A week ago Bolivia had around 500 cases mostly in the Santa Cruz area. Unfortunately, we have a team arriving from Christ Community Church in Columbus, Ga., tomorrow. I am sure they will be disappointed not see all the kids here. However since the kids are not here, the team will be able to help us with painting the dorm rooms and lower level of the Internado, which we are unable to do with the everyone here. More about the team in my next post.

Midweek of the first week of vacation, Rachel, Mateo, Chas (our summer intern) and I departed for Rurre to get a flight to LaPaz. When we arrived, it was pouring rain. Rurre has a grass runway and no landing or takeoff when raining. Chas declined the bus trip and stayed a few days in Rurre. I had to go back to immigration to see if paper work was finished for my resident visa. Yeah, Praise God, it was ready and I have my passport with the resident stamp good until June 9, 2010. After six long weeks of work, I am legal until my departure in December. However, I still have to obtain my ID card. I was told to return in a week to have a photo made for my card. Guess what; when I returned I was told no photos could not be made because the printer was out of ink…so I will be returning to LaPaz with the team to hopefully have my photo made. I must tell that my return to Ixiamas was done in record time. I flew from LaPaz to Rurre and then took the minibus to Ixiamas in only 8 hours, the minibus being 4 of those, the flight from LaPaz in only 45 minutes.

In my last post, I told you a little about the brothers and sisters living here. Now I would like to tell you a little about the remaining girls. Pati (14) was here last year. Her mother runs a restaurant in town, but because of her busy schedule there, she is unable to keep up Pati’s school work.  Yoisy (14) and Rosa (12) are from the same community about one hour from here on the road to Rurre. We will be visiting their community next week with the team. Carmen (14) lives several hours away and about an hour in the jungle off the main road. Ericka (10) is our youngest girl and an orphan. Her uncle is raising her in the same community as Marivel and Miguel.Ericka is originally from LaPaz and has been a challenge to the dorm mom because she had not been taught a lot about the hygiene necessary living in a jungle area. Once, she had to be hospitalized for a few days because of an infection from scratching bug bites. She is learning the hard way, but she is doing better with her cleanliness.

Please keep our visiting team in your prayers for travel and health while here in Bolivia.

 

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Becky

 

Our current intern in Ixiamas, Bolivia, is 2008 Practicum graduate Becky Forrest. During Practicum, Becky shared her experience on our blog. Now that she is in an intern in Bolivia, she will post updates as our interns in 2008 did. Becky served on short-term mission trips in 2007 and 2008 in Ixiamas.

This is my third week back in Ixiamas, and it has been so good to be back. English and computer classes have resumed; the kids did not forget everything in the six weeks I was gone. English is progressing well. They are now reading some small books and doing very well with their pronunciation.

   

This past Sunday afternoon I looked out my window to see Sneakers with something white in her mouth. It just happened to be the Angora rabbit that Rachel and I gave a haircut (see my last post). The rabbit cage got a hole in it, and the rabbit got out of the Bunny Hut. Sneakers was properly shamed, but I doubt she learned her lesson. We retrieved the rabbit before she tore into him. So, guess what was for supper Monday?

There was no school here last Thursday and Friday because it was the weekend to celebrate the town’s anniversary. The staff went to our cook Catalina’s farm about 3 hours or 26 miles from here — past Two Trees — to get a female pig for the new addition to the pig house. What an interesting trip we had! I had never been that far out before. Several of the kids live out there, and we dropped them off at their homes. We crossed several large rivers that could never be crossed in our truck during the rainy season. We had lunch and harvested some plantains at Catalina’s farm and put the pig in the back of the truck with several people. We had not traveled very far when he jumped out of the truck. This time we tied him down from both sides.

On the way home, we made two interesting stops. The first was to see a German Amish couple’s farm. We had given them a ride from town, and they wanted us to see their house with a basement and a washing machine run by horses. They have only been here for four years, but have done so much work. The basement housed the family’s bedrooms for the parents, four daughters and three sons. This would have been hand dug. I wish I could explain the washing machine system better but basically the horses were harnessed to go round and round and that pulled a system of pulleys that ran a regular washing machine. The next stop was at the house of the Mennonite pastor about one hour from Ixiamas. They have been here less than a year and are from Tennessee. Their home has five bedrooms and three bathrooms with a large family room and kitchen. It was really hard to believe you were so far out. They had solar power and water that came from a mountain stream pumped in to a big holding tank, so they have running water in the house.

I wanted to tell you a little about some of the kids here. We have 3 sets of brothers and sisters. Nancy (15) and Julio (11) were here last year and their father works for one of the saw mills several hours from town. Their mother was killed in a wreck when Julio was very young. When school is out for long weekends, they usually stay here because the saw mill is not a very good place for a 15-year-old young lady to stay. Marivel (15) and Miguel (12) are from a community about 1 ½ hours from here on the road to Rurre. They have a small store and farm there. My mission team visited their church in 2007. Samuel (12) and Joel (10) came the week before I went to LaPaz. Their family lives in the jungle several hours from here.

Hasta Luego,

Hermana Rebecca