In Bolivia, the school year starts in February (summer) and ends in mid-December. In July and August the students have several weeks off for their winter break. In February, I arrived at the mission for a five week stay, to help get the school year started. My job was to prepare the materials for the K/1 class, so that there would be a curriculum and teaching materials in place for the person replacing me. Since April, there have been a number of changes in the school, including teaching staff; therefore this report will describe the school as it was for the first two months of the 2010 school year.
Our first trip to Bolivia was in Dec 2008. I went with my wife and son to visit our daughter who was helping at the school. There were many things happening all at once and it was interesting for me to take it all in. Having been a farmer all my life drew me to the agriculture side of things. As we spent three weeks there on this first trip it gave me some time to observe how things were done in Bolivia.
Starting a new mission brings opportunities and challenges along the way. One of the problems we discussed was the need for families to make a living at the mission. As the families have more and more contact with the mission they end up being put into the ban. On a temporal side this means they can no longer buy or sell in the colony. Family and friends will break off contact and they are left to fend on there own. For the very poor it usually means not being able to provide for there families. For this reason the mission has built homes and tried to provide employment for them.
Carolyn Makus volunteered in the school here from March to July 2009. She gave a brief report about her experiences to her home church in Edmonton and kindly agreed for us to post it here...
When I think back to the 4 months I spent in Bolivia I am just filled with gratefulness. I am thankful that God allowed me this opportunity and for the way He always provided. I absolutely loved my time down there and developed a deep love for the country and its people. All though I went down to teach,this proved to be a great learning and growing experience for me and I'm sure I probably even learned more than my students. If I were to tell you about everything I learned and experienced this would take all evening so I've picked two.
Greetings and blessings to you in the precious name of Jesus!
I thought I would send you an update on my travels to hold services in Bolivia, given the unrest there and a number of your inquiries.
Praise be to God who helps us in every situation of life. I was able to spend my two weeks in Santa Cruz in safety. By the time I arrived on Sept. 9, a roadblock on the way to the church mission had been partially removed and we were able to travel freely. However, the political situation became tense and riots and demonstrations occurred in Santa Cruz. We visited the lawyer a few days later, who is helping us with our legal matters, and her office being right next to where the riot occurred, had all the windows smashed out. One evening, driving home from church services, a group of men walked out onto the road with wooden clubs and blocked our path. We retreated by following a side road. Also the roadblocks around Santa Cruz, were contributing to fuel shortages in the city and schools were closed.
Missions 