Kinetic 2008

7/31/2008 - A week and a day in...
Thank you much for your prayers. It seems like we've always been here.
A brief update on our activities (I can't remember when Kimi and Brent emailed the last update, so I'll start from Monday):

MONDAY - Day of personal worship and rest at the house; in the afternoon Pastor Juan shared his testimony. It was beautiful. Pastor Juan has spent more time hanging out with the whole`team than in previous years, so that has been really special. In the evening, we visited Cristo Viene, and the girls asked about every team member from previous years that they could think of. I can't guarantee it, but I'm pretty sure one or two hearts were fairly crushed to learn that Andres Schwab has a girlfriend. However, the girls were pleased that Shaggy is on our team (with no hints or encouragement from any of us, it only took six minutes before someone recognized him).

TUESDAY - In the morning, we took the boys from El Eben-Ezer to the park (remember chasing after Roberto? Cody happily reminded us...). Bryce has high hopes that Kimi may yet become a runner; she spent the majority of the morning running behind Julio. Jeanie patiently stood by the gate with Richard for most of the time while he just watched traffic. Tuesday afternoon we went to the souveneir shop, and in the evening the team returned to Cristo Viene for hair styling and giving piggy back rides. Cody and I were blessed to spend the afternoon and evening with Jeff and Beth HAuse (and Pablito, who can now read Cody's mind).

WEDNESDAY - El Eben-Ezer again; because of the rain, we weren't able to take the boys to the zoo, but we were still blessed to be with them. Natalie used her guns and her heart to hold Victor (Kristen Martindale's friend from last year) the entire morning, and Cari S. valiantly and joyfully endured Miguel's continuous popping of los globos (balloons). The SAM meeting was supposed to be a game and dinner night at the SAMAIR hangar, but was moved to the base because of rain; Cody shared from Ephesians 3:14-19, and we ate "John the Baptist heads." We spent the evening one more time at Cristo Viene, this time walking with the girls to a park.

THURSDAY - This morning Liz Morriss (a teacher at the school) gave a tour of the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center, and Jeff gave us presentation about SAM at the base. After lunch we spent a half hour walking and praying at the same market that we visited last year. Now we are at a house that you get to by going a few blocks, turning at the brick wall, and then walking until you come to a wall that has broken glass on top of it. Bill Smith is delighted to be grilling lots of meat for us, and the group is enjoying the trampoline, swimming pool, various animals, and being with Pastor Juan's family. Tonight we'll hang out with more MKs at the Cine Center.

So much for a brief update...

Please pray for our last days of ministry; we have one more time with each of the orphanages and we'll be hanging out, hopefully, with many missionaries at Hotel Cortez. Pray especially that we can encourage Jeff and Beth and Pastor Juan, and that we will be a blessing to the MKs (Kyia has been amazing in this; pray that God will continue to use her and the rest of us).

Grace and peace. For the team,
Ellen

- 7/28/2008 -

Wow, it is so good to be back in Bolivia. I am really enjoying my time, but it is already going so quickly. We spent almost all day Friday and Saturday at Megumi, a girls orphanage. We painted three bedrooms, an office, and the living room for them. They loved having us there and we played a lot of games with them and helped do some other little projects for them. One of the nights we had some of the missionary kids over to the house we are staying at. It was a lot of fun to spend some time with them and play some games. Over all we are all doing pretty well just the usual being tired but it is a good tired. I am really excited to see what God is going to do during the rest of our time here.
Happy early birthday mom! I love you all!
Kimberly Bjugstad

Hi from Santa Cruz Bolivia. Overall things are going well so far closing in on half way done. The first day down here we used to rest from the full 24 hours of traveling and plan the rest of our time. The next two days we spent at a girls orphanage of about a dozen girls. Roughly half the team played with the girls while the other half painted, switching often. Evenings have been filled with spending time with missionary kids and each other. Today (Sunday) we are going to three church services where Cody will speak at one and we'll do a skit at another. Almost everyone agrees that the food is delicious and plenty of it. Sicknesses have been limited and short-lived, but most people are getting tired at the moment. However, tomorrow morning and maybe the afternoon we will take to rest and hopefully be ready for the rest of the week.
Brent Schott

- 7/23/2008 -

We have safely arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia! The flights (and the layover in the Miami airport) were very long, but we only had minimal illness; Cody felt very poorly for a the first part of travel, but he also said that he's never experienced prayer answered so fast in regard to his feeling sick in Bolivia. We thought that we may have problems with the visas because the Bolivian reps. at the airport could not accept $100 bills from a certain series and year (they must have been having issues with counterfeits) - praise the Lord that we only had one of those bills and that Cody was able to use other cash to compensate for that one. The visas did cost $135, so it was good that we brought along the extra money. Tony made it through with no problems!

Heather and Pastor Juan were waiting for us at the airport. It was wonderful to see them. We did bookreading at the Holcombes (at whose house we'll be staying) this afternoon and are now at the SAM base for the Wed. prayer meeting. Tonight we will eat at the cowboy restaurant, tomorrow we'll do orientation, and then we will begin visiting orphanages on Friday. It's good to be here.

Please be in prayer for us, as we know you will be. Some specific requests:

• Continued health, especially for Cody
• For energy for Cari Robertson and that Drew and Tony will adjust well to being in Bolivia. Tony is very active and hasn't been napping particularly well.
• Pray also that we can be an encouragement to Cari.
• that we will be a blessing to Heather and the other missionaries
• that God would guide our planning, especially tomorrow as we talk through ministry opportunities.
  

In Christ,
Ellen

P.S. A cool blessing: In the Miami airport we met a missions team from an Assemblies of God church in Virginia that was on its way to El Salvador and we had the opportunity to pray for one another there in Miami. :)

Kinetic 2007

Hola to all our faithful family and friends,

Today is Monday July 30th.  It is about 3:00 pm, and we have just returned from helping out at a Vacation Bible School and from eating lunch.  But perhaps we'll start at the beginning to give you a proper update on our time here.

Day 1
We arrived on schedule on Wednesday night without a hitch and drove straight to the camp where we are staying.  It is different than Arrowhead but does many things the same - like taking rental groups like us in the non-summer months.  We sleep on bunk beds like at camp, and they even provide bedding for us...what luxury!

Day 2
We were able to sleep in a little and wear off some of the jet lag.  Then after lunch we went to a home for disabled boys and did their laundry and spent quality time with them.  It was beautiful seeing the team from Arrowhead serving in this ministry of compassion.  From there we went to an orphanage for girls.  It was a blessing to be back with this group whom many knew from last year.  We had supper and a purity class with them this night.

Day 3
On this day we went to another different orphanage for boys and girls and did some physical labor things like sanding, painting, and knocking out a brick wall...Andy Schwab can really swing a hammer.  We had lunch with the girls and then later in the day made our way out of town to a home for street boys.  The guys on our trip played games with them and then had a time to share with them later in the evening.  This was a very exhaustive day for our group.

Day 4
On this day we went once again to yet another orphangae for girls...that's five different ones for those of you keeping track...  Here we macheted the grass...that's how they mow the grass here...by hand...with machetes.
And we pulled weeds, too.  We then had lunch with them.  That evening we went to a church and shared and played games for their youth group night.
So cool to see each one from this team serving and sharing and giving of themselves.

Day 5
We went to Dr. Heather's church and shared during the morning for their Sunday School time.  Then that evening we went back and shared for their church service.  We had a wonderful time worshipping with our Bolivian Brothers and Sisters.  Towards the end of the evening three members of our team were not feeling well.  We dropped them off to stay the night in a little more comfort at Dr. Heather's.

Day 6...today
Praise the Lord the three from last night are doing much better.  We all with the exception of Erik...one of the three...were able to go and be a part of the VBS time this morning.  By the time we returned from VBS even Erik was doing remarkably better.  Continue to pray for him as he looks to spend less time in the bathroom and more time with our group out serving.

In fact could you continue to pray for all of us on the trip that we would remain healthy and available to be used by God.  Tonight we are going back to one of the girls' orphanages that we visited earlier to do another purity class.

This is really the first chance I have had to sit down and do an update, so please be patient with us since I'm not sure when we will have this chance again.

Serving the King,
Jeremiah and the Kinetic Discipleship Group from Arrowhead Bible Camp