Mt. Paran CORE Final Team

And just like that it's over...

What an amazing summer we had w/ all the folks from CORE! Team 3 was just as exceptional as the previous 2 and we just wanted to thank you all for such a spectacular week. I don't know when I've laughed as much over 8 days, and this team left us & our kids with some wonderful memories to be cherished. Anna Beth had her sweet 15 here, and was a great sport about the ole Bolivia b-day customs. Malik was hilarious, hard-working & insightful. Javon worked his tail off & never tired of giving piggy-back rides at the girls' home or going up for coconuts. Ken & Angie shared the Word & together w/ Wayne were the even keel for the group. Michelle, Kim & Anna Beth were all tremendously graceful, loving & diligent at every task we threw their way. Grace, Raluca, Sierra & Roxana made us proud staying on for 2 trips, helping out at the girls' home, tie-dying away, sprekining espanol, giving away pics & constantly writing notes for the kids, cleaning chickens, varnishing posts - not to mention that Sierra made an entire fence... practically by herself. Thanks you dear, dear friends. We miss all of you & wait anxiously for your return!

Mt. Paran CORE Team #2

Near freezing cold temps, unseasonal rain & some wicked air in La Paz made the 2nd team's mission a bit more of a challenge; but there's no doubt this was indeed a VERY special team. Made up of a nice mix of Bolivia veterans such as: Amain B, Grace, Sierra, the Ispai, Elaina V. & Annie G.; and 1st timers P James, Tiffany, Pablo Clayton, Will, Anna, Misgana, Karina, Libby, Rebecca, Sophie & Natalie - team 2 worked AND played hard all week. The team got to experience World Cup fever in S. America, dug a trench, made a ton of fence, took time to pray & minister to each one of our boys, went racing, shared the good news & helped bandage up the sick on the streets & kept the Man-swim trad. alive @ the Cortez. It was really momentous to have Amain & Grace back for the 4th year in a row - not to mention all of the Ispai on one team! The team really got after it and were a great witness & light all week in the homes, at church and on the streets! Thanks guys!

Highlands Bring Joy to Bolivia !

'The River' Youth from Community Bible Church of Highlands has gone international! Bringing a huge heart to serve & love, they came to Bolivia & held nothing back. Lead by Pastors Greg S. & Jimmy B., along w/ the uber-talented Steve & Corrie and pilot/developer/father of the trip J.B.; this was needless to say, a well rounded group. They were warriors in the trench at the girls' home, shared their life stories & a wonderful time of worship w/ the boys, went into nasty sewers to bring street kids into the light of day & encourage them to come off of the streets, taught us about the ways of 'ninja,' & were always looking for what else they could do to help. We were all really impressed w/ their up for anything attitudes, promptness & overall witness. We miss them & hope they'll be back soon. Thanks guys!

Mount Paran Returns to Bolivia 2010 !

Coconut harvesting, fence making, Bolivian soccer, street ministry, sanding, varnishing, C B Otts music, Collin & Micayla's drum & bass, Felicia's O Happy Day, concrete mixing ... and that was just the 1st couple of days I think! Wow, what an amazing week w/ the 1st CORE team of 2010. Andrew, Austin, Felicia, Esosa, Micayla, Rashida, Colin, Chelsea, Danielle, Mason, Olivia, Heidi, Silvana, & Jim it was an honor to host you guys; thank you so much. This was a team of extraordinary energy, talent, joy, love & determination. Thanks for making us laugh, dance, sing, bowl, dig deep & spin faster . You helped make our home a safer place, gave our tables & playground a new shine, helped update our kids' wardrobes & left an indelible impact on all of our lives. We had a blast w/ all of you & hope you can all come back next year!

Missions @ Aposento

Bolivia is expanding its vision for the Nations!

At the beginning of the year, our pastor at Aposento Alto, Dilmar Carrasco, announced he wanted our church to host a missions conference at the church sometime in May of 2010. This was new for the church, but we were very excited that Dilmar was now ahead of the charge in stirring up the local church's heart for the Nations!

The 1st ever Missions Conference at Aposento Alto was held during May 14-16, Friday - Sunday. We invited every church we had contact w/ & also talked it up on the Christian radio. Speakers were invited from Uruguay, the U.S., Ecuador & Bolivia to help infuse Christ's passion for the lost & hurting. Our good friend Susan, from N. Point Church in Alpharettta, GA, even came to share her missions' experience w/ us on Saturday. The focus was to be on 1) Local missions 2) International missions 3) and the church's role in Social Justice issues. Local missions organizations CET, CEC, Viva Network, Crown Financial, Campus Crusade for Christ & YWAM were also invited to set up stands & promote missions efforts in their respective organizations. The Aposento missions' team throughout the conference raised money for the 2010 missions trip effort to Haiti, by selling t-shirts & key chains. Even had a Bolivian folk band the last evening, who led us in a time of worship that roared through the neighborhood.

The Aposento team did an incredible job, decorating rooms in the church to remember God's faithfulness in all the different short-term trips the church had taken over the past 6 years. Patty & her team organized an extraordinary Sunday morning tour of the Nations for the 200 kids who participated, complete w/ passports & a time of intercession for the countries around the world.

Many young folks came forward to make a commitment to 'Go' during a Saturday night youth service. Scores of children's minds were opened to the need, not just in Bolivia, but around the world. And a few brave souls from different churches took the step to turn in their applications for the Haiti trip. Overall, we were very happy w/ the 1st ever Aposento Alto Missions Conference, & we feel confident that many seeds were sown that God is going to grow in years to come!

Do YOU have a Winston Churchill in your home?

Yeah I didn't think so. Well . . . we do.

Yes, the newest member of El Camino is quite the character. WInston Churchill Vaca is 16 years old, & lives every bit up to of his name. Doesn't quite have the bulldog face. Jolly good chap though seriously. Fresh off the streets, lots of energy, trying to fit in & find his place at the home, so keep him in your prayers please!

Joel ... Keep em' comin'

Alright, this is Joel. He's 17 and is the brother of the ever popular Luis Miguel (for those of you who've visited the boys' home here). Joel came to us out of desperation. He'd been kicked out of his house, kicked out of the nice neighbor lady's house, kicked out of his nice friend's house, of his other friend's house, & was now on the streets. I couldn't believe his step-dad wouldn't take him back into his house, so I went with him to 'sort it all out.' Well . . . let's just say there was a lot of profanity & Joel was basically crushed by the end of the conversation, & we were asked to leave.

I won't get into too many details, but the quick version is this is now Joel's past life.

As you've probably figure out already, he's with us now at El Camino (our boys' restoration home), & is basically kicking butt. Really great kid, studying hard to get back into school, super-helpful around the home, respectful - guess he just really needed a fresh start. His dream is to be a physician in order to help folks. Anyway, the honeymoon always wares, & at some point changing our lives always opens up some nasty wounds - so a new face for your prayer list.

Angel

So this is our friend Angel Lazarte. He is the younger brother of one of our guys at the boys' restoration home 'El Camino.'

Raul's in great shape. Angel as you can tell by the photo is not. Angel's 12 years old now, & strongly addicted to a form of smokeable cocaine ('pasta base'). He lives underneath a bridge in the city w/ some other 'friends,' who share the same problem. He's extremely malnourished, a runt for his age & is heading nowhere fast. We want to enlist everyone who reads our blog to pray for Angel, that he'd come off the streets, give his young life to the Lord & develop a repulsion to drugs. There's a group of 7 of these young guys trapped in serious drug use. We've managed to get one of them (Mauricio, posted in a previous blog), off the streets & he's doing well, hasn't looked back - so it is possible. Help us to pray Angel off the streets. We've gotten him as far as the reception house, but he stayed on a day or 2. We've also shown him filmed messages from his brother at the home in great shape, but so far naught. If you have any other creative suggestions drop us a line? We believe God CAN resurrect his life, EVEN after having been buried in the ashes of a crack pipe.

Carlos Andres

Carlos Andres is 17. He was put in an orphanage with his younger brother after his parent's split up at age 8. After having to defend his brother from getting picked on by the older kids, he left the orphanage and wound up on the streets, where he would spend the great majority of the next 9 YEARS. We have known and worked w/ Carlos for nearly 6 years on the streets.

Nevertheless, it was only after, Carlos Andres was hit by a car late one night during one of our recent street visits, that he decided to come off the streets.

He'd hit his head pretty hard & his bottom lip was totally busted. Iris, our volunteer doctor, stitched up his lip & we invited him to come back to the reception house, where if he wanted to he could stay. The following morning he DID INDEED choose to stay and turn his back to the streets. He spent the rest of the week at the reception house, where we were getting him ready to go to El Camino (the boys' home), & embark on his new life free of drugs & crime. The best news of the week is that Carlos Andres accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord & Saviour on Good Friday and will never again fight his battles alone!

Carlos is now at the boys' home, where he's adjusting to an academic routine, 3 square meals, lots of soccer, morning devotionals, household chores, new friends, and a healthy life.

Carlos Andres needs your prayers. It's not easy to change habits that've been ingrained in him for the past 9 years (most of his life). He's shown a great heart, an affinity for soccer, good work ethic & is loads of fun to be around. Pray that the Lord will continue to heal his whole person, that he would plant deep roots at the boys' home, for good influences to help encourage him, & just a total renewal of his mind, heart & soul by the Holy Spirit.

Baptism of Juan

Another one of our college boys got baptized last week. Juan, who's in his 2nd year at University studying electro-mechanical engineering, chose to profess his faith in Jesus Christ publicly on Good Friday. Juan graduated high school at 16, and has taken huge steps in his walk with the Lord since then. He attends the same church as Raul, Humberto and his brother Francisco, where there's a really vibrant group of youth passionate about the Lord. We're praying that God would continue to use Juan as salt & light at his university & beyond.

Juan has a great future ahead, & look forward to keeping you posted.

Concert in the Plaza

The worship team from the boys' home was recently invited to minister in the main plaza of the local town of El Torno, which is the largest town near the home. Luis Yerson plays bass, Severino plays drums, and while & while we're trying to integrate other boys to play guitar & sing, for now Larry & Patty are helping out w/ guitar & vocals. The concert was held to reach out to the local youth from the area, on a weeknight night when many would have otherwise gone to clubs or gotten drunk w/ their friends. The boys' home worship team ministered along w/ other local church groups. The event also included a evangelistic, drama performance from a YWAM missions team from Barbados who was visiting. The night was a tremendous hit & the boys were complemented by everyone involved. Their confidence is growing & they are seeing how 1st hand God can use them & their gifts to bless & reach out to others!

5 Guys

Ok so we're not really calling it that, but the boys @ the reintegration house ARE becoming micro-business owners (see 2 of the 5 boys pictured above Raul, left, & Humberto, right). Now at the end of their (South American) 'summer' break, we came up with a plan together w/ the boys to hopefully empower them a bit more economically & help them take another step towards integrating back into society as mature, restored, responsible young men.

The 5 boys: Raul, Abel, Francisco, Juan, & Humberto have agreed to start their own small lawncare company in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We've helped w/ the initial investment & contacting potential clientele, but now they are in charge & will handle all the accounting, client management, scheduling & maintenance.

So why lawncare? Well . . . it's rainy season in Bolivia, the grass is growing like crazy, we know several families who pay for this service already, & (unlike a normal 8 - 5 job) it allows for flexible work hours for when they need to study extra for exams, or have classes in the a.m. & the late evening. The goal is to help generate income to help cut expenses at the reintegration house where they live, while at the same time empowering them to pay for some of their own living expenses & teach them responsibility, team-work, time management (of work, school & household chores), as well as how to handle their own money.

We're excited. They're excited. And we know that it'll in time be a blessing, a great learning experience, & help to lessen the financial burden at the house.

Purpose

(Pictured above, part of our small group of older boys, at the boys' restoration home 'El Camino').

2 years ago, at the boys' home El Camino, we saw the need to deepen & improve discipleship with the guys, and felt like a small group format was the right step to help achieve that. So now we've divided the boys into 3 groups at the home basically by age. Patty is over the youngest boys, (under 13); our friend & ministry partner Roberto works w/ the middle-aged boys (13-16); and Larry ministers to the older boys (17-21).

Tuesday nights are our small group nights, & overall it's been a tremendous success. The smaller audience groups the boys w/ peers their own age, & enables them to talk about & go to what the bible says about real issues, problems, & insecurities they're dealing with everyday. Years of having to survive on the streets, has hardened the boys & many have expressed feelings of great loneliness, despite being around caretakers & other kids 24/7. Part of the idea of the small groups is to create (or restore) TRUE community & friendship within the home. We've begun by trying to shed light on 'normal' teenage issues, going against the internal notion that most harbor, that they're the ONLY ONES feeling what they're feeling, struggling w/ what they're struggling w/ etc. The goal is to inspire the guys to follow Jesus from a young age. Part of that is linked to them releasing & being honest about some of the intense inner conflict that almost all of us feel during adolescence, & allowing their roommates/peers the space to do the same. So far we've been able to tackle issues ranging from honesty to sexuality to decision-making and now . . . Purpose.

We're using Rick Warren's, 'Purpose Driven Life,' as a tool to look at what God's Word says to questions about who we are? & what we're created for? The older boys just finished the little over 7 week/40 day study & it's been a wonderful eye opener for all of us. The boys are maturing & asking great questions, beginning to see their lives past, present & future from a more Godly perspective; & are being challenged to rethink a lot of what they believe about themselves, God, His world & His plans for their future.

Welcoming Ruth!

Above is Adela Ruth Alvarez, 15 years of age. Ruth was taken to the girls' restoration home yesterday after spending nearly a week at the Reception house.

Ruth was born in Bolivia, but came to us from the streets of Argentina. Long story short, Ruth's mom sent her off w/ her uncle to Argentina to 'work' illegally, & Ruth within a short time wound up on the streets, into drugs & in with the wrong crowd.

Ruth is definitely a sweetheart, has recommitted her life to the Lord while at the reception house and has stated that she dreams of being a teacher one day. She also loves to sing and enjoys dancing. Help us pray for Ruth that she will make friends quickly at the girls' home, continue to seek the Lord and know Him more, and also make the most of school and different vocational activities for the girls there.

HAITI . . . Confirmed

We have shared w/ many folks our desire to have this year's Bolivian missions team go to Haiti. Looks like that's 100% confirmed. We just saw in the news that there's over 100,000 presumed dead in the capital after a major earthquake rocked the capital. The presidential palace is ruined, the legislative building is destroyed, the main cathedral is was also damaged and so are many hospitals & schools.

Please pray for the nature & timing of our trip - & for God's direction in the best way He could use us to help restore hope & aid those in need.