This is the first blog post about Bolivia, and this is what all of them will look like. You won't be able to see the whole post in the email, so just hit the "Continue Reading" button at the bottom and you'll hop over to the blog and see the post in its entirety. If you didn't get an email for this post, just let me know and I'll make sure you're subscribed. If you're not on the gmail hangout, just click the link. It will only work if you have a gmail account. That's where I send out instant updates and pictures.
So.... I'm flying to Bolivia the day after tomorrow. It's exciting, surreal, scary, a dream come true - everything at once. It all started at Mission Fest in February. My cousin Isabelle and I had been actively seeking God's will for our missionary hopes since the previous July, and at Mission Fest my Mom's cousin Carolyn heard we were looking for an opportunity and told Aunty Syl about the missionary families in Bolivia who needed a mother's helper or two. Long story short, God made it clear to both of us that this was the thing for this fall.
Here's the deal: Rudy and Doreen Neufeld and Martin and Margie Friesen and their ten collective children are living in Charagua, Bolivia, and ministering to the Old Colony Mennonites in the area. They run a radio station and Bible studies among other things. They are missionaries with Avant. Isabelle and I will be mostly helping with the homeschooling of the chidlers - a "classroom" of seven or so. We'll live in the little guesthouse in the Neufelds backyard. Then there's Jake and Anita Derksen who recently moved to Santa Cruz from Alberta, enroute to join the Charagua crew. We'll split our time with helping them as well (they have six under ten).
The reason you haven't heard much about all this until now is that both Isabelle and I were at camp all of July and August - me until the 17th, her until the 26th. (Oh yeah. We're young. We can handle it.) We fly out of here, missionary partners at last, at 4:45 on the 30th.
Below are some pictures from summer 2018!
This was my home for much of the summer.
We played a lot of Mafia one week.
My camp name was Rapunzel.
One of my campers got ahold of my camera.
We went out to the field last night and goofed around with the camera a bit.
Now I'm busy packing and making sure everything is set to go.
I guess I was really stressed out, 'cause I broke the stress ball.
