Sunday, July 3, 2011
Friday, July 24, 2009
Returning Home
Hola friends and supporters,
Most of us have now arrived back in Sydney after around 4-5 days in transit. We left the Tans in Sucre, Bolivia on sunday afternoon and five of our team members arrived in Sydney this morning around 8:30am.
In between, we stayed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for a night, Buenos Aires, Argentina for 2 nights, went on a shopping spree and did much sightseeing in Buenos Aires, and experienced a 13 + 3 + 3 hours flight delay. As I write, Johnny and Daniel are still on a flight back from Auckland to Sydney, please keep them in your prayers.
Meanwhile, I know we have been lacking in the photos department for a while due to difficulty and time restrictions in uploading photos while we were in Bolivia. Here are a few from my phone. Hopefully it helps you understand our previously described experiences in a better light.
This is on the first day of our hike. We started near the top of the mountain and desend quickly down into jungle areas. Most of the track on our first day were these rocky paths which required quite a bit of mental energy and hard work on our knees and ankles, because you had to think about every step you make. But what grand views!
We have just completed our 3-day hike and after a hot shower and a good lunch feed at Coroico, we hopped on a bus back to La Paz to meet Freeman.
We travelled with the Tan's, and a few brothers and sisters from a Sucre church, to surrounding rural villages to set up medical clinics and run some childrens programs. It was encouraging to see brothers and sisters from Sucre city take the opportunity to share their faith with villagers who were waiting to be seen by Dr Tan, Johnny and a few medical students.
These rural villages were quite far away, and our group travelled in a convoy of three 4WDs. This one was driven by Liling. We really appreciated her courage and driving skills, especially on our 5-6 hours trips back home in the dark, on dusty and rocky roads that wind around the side of mountains!
Here, Annie Tan is being the "tap", helping us out with teaching local children about personal hygiene and washing hands. We shared 4 simple steps (soak hands, scrub hands with soap, rinse, and dry hands) and children then lined up to wash their hands. Afterwards, we gave each child a cake of soap and a small handtowel to take home. Maybe, due to the nature of the work the children do, often we found not just dirt but small cuts (like paper cuts) on their hands. For us in Australia, we might think that washing hands is a simple daily task and take it for granted. But in the villagers, patients would go out of their way to bring their children (and themselves) to line up to wash their hands!
We say goodbye to the Tans at Sucre Airport.There are a lot more photos and stories to share, but we'll do that in more detail at our sharing night. Thanks for reading our blog and praying for us regularly.
- Hannah
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
After Hiking and Village Visit
Since the last update, we...
Prayer Points
Please pray for the well-being of the team.
Please also pray for the upcoming visits to villages in the next few days.
El Choro Trek
...was really tough. We walked 56 km in 3 days and carried the tents, the food, the sleeping bags and clothes with us (backpack weights 8-14 kg).
That said, it was a great trip to see the beautiful mountains (and mountains and mountains), appreciate the nature, learn to rely on God, learn about team work and be challenged physically and mentally! The best part is, we made it..!
Presto Church Visit
It was absolutely fantastic!
Everything is basic in Presto, a village with a population of around 2000 to 2500 people and about 2 hours drive from Sucre. Basic meals, dusty everywhere, animals walking around, no showers and basic living conditions (no doors, cooking in open fire from wood, very basic to no toilet).
What we did:
The brothers and sisters in Presto were friendly and passionate. It has been a great encouragement to us to see how they sing and worship passionately, even in such a harsh condition (relatively). Back in Aus, there are so many things that can be ¨not right¨ and ¨distract¨ us from God: the lighting, transport, seating, etc... they are important, or are they really that important?
Lawrence said he felt that it has been a great encouragement to the church as well. Some local brothers and sisters had teary eyes when we left.
- daniel
p.s. Why aren´t there any photos this time? It´s 11pm, we need to get up before 7 tomorrow... How long does it take to upload photos? Longer than you think...
- Went hiking in El Choro Trek for 3 days in La Paz
- Visited a church in village for 3 days in Presto
Prayer Points
Please pray for the well-being of the team.
- Freeman got cold symptoms, some coughing and not feeling well in stomach.
- Maddi, Hannah and Steve (a short term missionary who joined us after the conference in Cochabamba) had mild diarrhea since we came back from the village on Sunday. Both felt better after taking medication.
- Johnny had an upset stomach since we went to Presto.
- Daniel had blister and infection on his toe after the hike. He couldn´t walk properly for a few days but thank God it´s almost completely healed now.
- Most team members did not sleep well most of the time.
Please also pray for the upcoming visits to villages in the next few days.
- People in villages will appreciate the medical services and have an open heart to Gospel.
- Team can arrange programs flexibly and meet the needs of local people. There are a lot of uncertainties in terms of the number of people turning up and which age groups they will be in.
- Team can sleep and eat well.
El Choro Trek
...was really tough. We walked 56 km in 3 days and carried the tents, the food, the sleeping bags and clothes with us (backpack weights 8-14 kg).
That said, it was a great trip to see the beautiful mountains (and mountains and mountains), appreciate the nature, learn to rely on God, learn about team work and be challenged physically and mentally! The best part is, we made it..!
Presto Church Visit
It was absolutely fantastic!
Everything is basic in Presto, a village with a population of around 2000 to 2500 people and about 2 hours drive from Sucre. Basic meals, dusty everywhere, animals walking around, no showers and basic living conditions (no doors, cooking in open fire from wood, very basic to no toilet).
What we did:
- Lawrence and Johnny provided medical consultations to locals, with help from Liling and Steve
- The rest of the team organised kids programs
- John preached on Sun morning (more like a Bible study)
- We were also honoured to witness the inauguration of the local church
The brothers and sisters in Presto were friendly and passionate. It has been a great encouragement to us to see how they sing and worship passionately, even in such a harsh condition (relatively). Back in Aus, there are so many things that can be ¨not right¨ and ¨distract¨ us from God: the lighting, transport, seating, etc... they are important, or are they really that important?
Lawrence said he felt that it has been a great encouragement to the church as well. Some local brothers and sisters had teary eyes when we left.
- daniel
p.s. Why aren´t there any photos this time? It´s 11pm, we need to get up before 7 tomorrow... How long does it take to upload photos? Longer than you think...
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Update from Carichipampa Christian School
Hello. Just thought I'd make a quite update. This is our last night here at the Spiritual Life Conference, and we just came back from a Kids and Youth presentation. Throughout the past three days, the children and the youth had prepared various drama, music performances and other presentations for the adults... photoes to come later.
Meanwhile, let me share a few pictures from our youth bible studies:
In our first bible study session, we showed the youth some hand actions to go with the Leading People to Christ gospel outline. Each morning, we do a "morning stretch" where the youth stand up and revise the hand actions ...hopefully, we can help them to remind themselves of the gospel each day.
We heading off to La Paz for the Inca Trail tomorrow afternoon.
But for now, Goodnight!
Meanwhile, let me share a few pictures from our youth bible studies:
In our first bible study session, we showed the youth some hand actions to go with the Leading People to Christ gospel outline. Each morning, we do a "morning stretch" where the youth stand up and revise the hand actions ...hopefully, we can help them to remind themselves of the gospel each day.
We heading off to La Paz for the Inca Trail tomorrow afternoon.
But for now, Goodnight!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Arriving Cochabamba and Spiritual Life Conference
Yesterday we took the Aerosur flight on 10:45am to Cochabamba and we landed at the airport. Lawrence, Liling and two girls came to the airport to greet us and took us to the school.
First Surprise
However, after we loaded everything onto the Tans 4-wheel drive and we got into the van, the van was broken down and could not be started. The jump start cable did not help to start the van. We have to took out the battery from the 4-wheel drive into the van to start the van and then put the battery back into the Tans car. This took good 45 minutes. But we finally arrive the conference.
Cochabamba
The weather at Cochabamba is fine. The day time temperature is max 26 degree C and - 1 degree at night. The atmosphere here is dusty and smelly at times. The sewerage system is not very good here and the smell come from public toilets and OMOS wahsing power factory from time to time. There are many gum trees and Australian natures planted here. It is very dry and without rain. There are many half finished housing in Bolivia. The building development and economic have been affected by the global recession.
The Spiritual Life Conference
We are now staying in the Carachipampa Christian School CCS, where the annual Spiritual Life Conference is held and SIM missionaries from all over Bolivia gather together.
Our main task here is to take care of the kids and youth program. There was 12 high schools 12 primary school kids. We have conducted morning worship singing songs 10 minutes, two bible lessons of total 3 hours, ball games of 3 hours and 2 hours of practicing play with the primary kids.
There are 16 families and 14 single missionaries attending the SIM annual conference. "Spirituality in the times of crisis" is the theme this year. The food is good and not too much. Most of the SIM missionaries are English speaking and come from different countries, but mostly from USA.
Getting Use to...
Please pray for our health. As the altitude at the school is over 2500m and we start to feel tire very easy with the altitude sickness. We all took the medicine. We did not sleep very last night.
First Surprise
However, after we loaded everything onto the Tans 4-wheel drive and we got into the van, the van was broken down and could not be started. The jump start cable did not help to start the van. We have to took out the battery from the 4-wheel drive into the van to start the van and then put the battery back into the Tans car. This took good 45 minutes. But we finally arrive the conference.
Cochabamba
The weather at Cochabamba is fine. The day time temperature is max 26 degree C and - 1 degree at night. The atmosphere here is dusty and smelly at times. The sewerage system is not very good here and the smell come from public toilets and OMOS wahsing power factory from time to time. There are many gum trees and Australian natures planted here. It is very dry and without rain. There are many half finished housing in Bolivia. The building development and economic have been affected by the global recession.
The Spiritual Life Conference
We are now staying in the Carachipampa Christian School CCS, where the annual Spiritual Life Conference is held and SIM missionaries from all over Bolivia gather together.
Our main task here is to take care of the kids and youth program. There was 12 high schools 12 primary school kids. We have conducted morning worship singing songs 10 minutes, two bible lessons of total 3 hours, ball games of 3 hours and 2 hours of practicing play with the primary kids.
There are 16 families and 14 single missionaries attending the SIM annual conference. "Spirituality in the times of crisis" is the theme this year. The food is good and not too much. Most of the SIM missionaries are English speaking and come from different countries, but mostly from USA.
Getting Use to...
Please pray for our health. As the altitude at the school is over 2500m and we start to feel tire very easy with the altitude sickness. We all took the medicine. We did not sleep very last night.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A few quick shots from Daniel´s phone
This is the big breakfast we had in the Buenos Aires airport. Cost about 13 US dollars for each set (3 sets in picture). Let´s just put on more weight before losing them!
Flight from Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz, after waiting for 10 hours. Turns out that we have to do an "emergency landing" in a small airport in Rosario due to a "technical problem", and we waited there for.. 5 hours.
All smiling after the long wait.. more wait ahead!
Just too happy thinking we were getting to Bolivia in 2 hrs.. too happy too soon...
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