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Auburn UMC sent a team of college students, vets, medical professionals and others to Quesimpuco, Bolivia, from May 14-24. Because the project is in such a remote location high in the Andes Mountains, internet access is unavailable. Team leader Scott Middleton has been contacting his wife Lindsey, who is sending us updates, via satellite phone. May 15 Update
I am happy (and relieved) to report that the team made it safely to Quesimpuco about an hour ago. No car troubles, no one got sick, and they made the trip in 10 hours and 45 minutes – in other words, they’ve had a really good day! They have already unloaded and are now getting settled in for the night. They will attend church in the village in the morning, enjoy the official village “greeting†and then get set up for the week. There will be no call-in to the AUMC services tomorrow – they will do that next week from La Paz (where the Bishop of the United Methodist Church there apparently is planning a dinner for the team!). They will also have a visit this week from John Funk, a missionary in Bolivia with the Board of Global Ministries of the UMC. I think we’ll all sleep better tonight, knowing they all are safe and sound — and that each team member is exactly where God has placed him or her. They probably won’t check in for another day or two, so I’ll send another update then. If anyone would like a visual of Quesimpuco as you pray for the team, Scott found this image on Google earth – it is a few years old and predates the bridge site, but it’s an amazing illustration of how far this team has gone to be the hands and feet of Christ: click here. May 17 Update Hello again,Scott had a lot of information to share when he called tonight, so I literally took notes! Today, there were about 35 optometry patients, 50 dental patients, 220 animals at the vet clinic (but word has gotten out – they are expecting as many as 1,000 tomorrow!) and about 120 kids at VBS. Some team members also built new pews for the church. When school let out this afternoon, the students came up to play, so I think they enjoyed some quality time with the high school kids, as well.
Yesterday, the team enjoyed the village greeting, which was apparently interrupted by rain (unusual for this time of year), and then went to church. They set up the clinic for today, and then went back down to the village for evening worship. Scott said the weather is windy and cold, and it took 3 or 4 calls before the satellite phone could get through. He called about 8:30 our time (they’re an hour ahead of us) and said that everyone else had already gone to bed. In other news, the Bolivian government is preparing to build a hospital and new elementary school in Quesimpuco and will apparently be tearing down the Catholic church to do so. For those of you who have been before (or who have, like me, just seen lots of pictures) this will include tearing down the bell tower, which is probably the biggest landmark there. This will leave the Methodist church as the only house of worship in the village. The missionary delegation (not sure who that entails besides John Funk and his wife) will arrive tomorrow and stay for a few days, and they will have Market Day on Wednesday. I think that covers all my notes! It sounds as if everyone is in good shape and they have all earned a good night’s rest. Scott said he will check in again, probably on Wednesday. I know we will all continue to lift up the team in prayer! A short-term mission team from the University of West Alabama’s Wesley Foundation will be in Ecuador May 8-15. Please pray for them as they serve the children and adults at Dulce Refugio in Villaflora, Quito. They will be posting throughout the week about their experiences.
May 13 Today was the last day at the worksite. It was an emotional experience. The construction team was again ahead of schedule. The rebar on the roof is now in place so that the next team may place concrete blocks and pour concrete. May 14 This morning, we woke up as usual, yet there was a difference in today’s plan of activities. Today was the day for the zip line through the cloud forest at Tucanopy. As we were on the way, the bus wasn’t able to accelerate uphill. So we’d coast to the side of the road, restart the bus, and try again only to coast to the side of the road and repeat the process. We were able to pull off at a stopping point to wait for a replacement vehicle. The two-hour ride ended up taking much longer. However, we were still able to proceed with the initial plan. A few team members were a bit hesitant about being attached to a cable and having to slow themselves with a leather brake. We all made it safely back to the beginning after flying through the rain forest. Lunch was homemade pizza prepared at the site. The pizza was made with ingredients from the reserve. Delicious! Because of the bus breakdown, we were unable to take the nature walk and had to return to the Hotel Tambo Real to pack up and eat our last meal here. We are getting ready for devotion at 7 pm. We leave for the airport at around 8:20 pm and fly out of Quito at 11:30 pm. We should arrive back in Atlanta, GA at 6:02 am, according to Delta’s flight information. Devotion this evening was shared by Dan. The two questions were used to sum up both the day and the week. A short-term mission team from the University of West Alabama’s Wesley Foundation will be in Ecuador May 8-15. Please pray for them as they serve the children and adults at Dulce Refugio in Villaflora, Quito. They will be posting throughout the week about their experiences. May 12
The entire team is the author of today’s blog. We gathered for devotion this evening led by Melvin. Dan led Communion, and the team members served one another. Afterwards, we each took turns to write a bit for the blog. The following documents what each team member has to say about the week thus far. Our current intern in Ixiamas, Bolivia, is 2008 Practicum graduate Becky Forrest. Becky served on short-term mission trips in 2007 and 2008 in Ixiamas. She is now in her second year as an intern. April 12 was Kid’s Day in Bolivia, so the Internado decided to have a celebration for the kids of Ixiamas. We made an announcement on the Christian radio station and over the loud speaker in town. Every time we looked up more kids were coming. The last count we had was 85. It was a great Sunday afternoon of fun, games and sharing God’s word. We had prizes for contests, served yupi (the Bolivian version of Kool-aid), cookies and bags of candy for each one there. A short trip to LaPaz to turn in papers to Interpol for my visa renewal turned into more than a week-long stay. Rachel, Mateo and I were stuck in LaPaz because of a strike, and the buses are not traveling down the Hill. Finally after three days of no travel, we decide I should fly back to Rurrenanbaque and take the mini bus to Ixiamas. I arrived back on April 30. The blockade continued until May 8th. This has created many problems for the people living down the road from Caranavi (which is about 6 hours from LaPaz). Most of our supplies and food comes from LaPaz, so nothing has been getting through. The shortage of diesel has created power shortages. The last week, we only had power from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. We are out of most vegetables, such as greens, tomatoes and carrots. You could still find some potatoes and onions for sell in town. Eggs were also hard to find, but we had stocked up when we realized it was going to be a while before they opened the road. We take a lot for granted in the United States when it comes to transportation. There is only one road from LaPaz to Ixiamas, so when it is closed for whatever reason, we have problems here. Can you imagine only one road from New York to Florida and all the food was grown in Florida. Or only one road from Texas to Atlanta, and no gasoline could come from Texas to Atlanta. But the people here are used to being without from time to time, and it really doesn’t seem to bother them. They just do the best they can with what they have. Bolivar Sanga, SIFAT 2009 practicum graduate, arrived in LaPaz when we got there on April 22. Bolivar has come from Ecuador to Ixiamas to work on water projects in the jungle communities that don’t have clean water. He fortunately took one of the last buses from LaPaz before the blockade. Unfortunately with the gas shortage, he has not been able to travel to any of the communities yet. We have been getting the word out that he will be drilling wells for any communities that need it. We are hoping that the first community he will be able to provide clean water for will be the village of Puerto Ruso that we visited last fall. The only water the Tschimane’s have there is from a really muddy river, and we hear of sickness among the people. Please keep this project and the Internado in your prayers. May God’s grace cover you with his love, May 11 – Body of Christ by Genevieve Baughman
We’re getting used to getting up around 6 am. Those who weren’t up this morning by then were woken with the phone call and the buzz saw outside the hotel. We gathered for our morning devotion given by Ashley, and then continued on to breakfast. Then it’s on to the bus to head to our work site. It seems a normal site to see the mountains every morning when we wake up and ride the bus to and from our destinations. It’s hard to imagine that we’re halfway through the week. We’ve become used to seeing the same smiling faces full of joy, full of God’s love and grace every day. |
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On Monday night, one of our team members, Lauren, left Ecuador to head home. We miss her and pray she is well and safe at home.
The theme for today seems to be the body of Christ. Nearly everyone mentioned something to this extent during our evening devotion. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at the start of the day, and then we’ll work on up to the closing meeting.