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UPDATE:
July 16, 2010
Dear family and friends,
Well, we arrived in Bolivia on June 26th in the morning.
It was so good to be back. So good to see so many of our
Bolivian friends again. What a blessing to be a part of
the Km 14 La Gracia Church service our first Sunday back in
Bolivia. The church presented our family with a cake at
the end of the service to celebrate our return. We shared
it with the congregation and it was a very special time for all
of us! We just love these people!
Just a few days after arriving in Santa Cruz, we started working
on our paperwork for our one-year residency. We hired a
Bolivian lady to help us with this process because it can be a
little tricky to do on our own. Our first stop was at the
Interpol office where they will do background checks on us.
Our helper, Yermi, explained to the guard why we were there and
he gave her a pass to go on in. We started to follow her
when the guard said that we could all enter except for Trevor.
When Yermi asked why, the guard said it was because our son was
wearing shorts. All men had to be wearing long pants to
enter the building. We were in a little bit of a dilemma
because it was really important to get these background checks
started right away, and we had driven clear across town to get
there. On the mission field you learn to improvise so we
quickly came up with a great plan. Dan and I went into the
office with Yermi and started our paperwork. As soon as
Dan was done he came out of the building, found Trevor, together
they found a bathroom, and they swapped pants/shorts.
Trevor then came into the Interpol office wearing Dan's pants
(which were obviously too big for him) and was able to get his
paperwork done also. The things we do to keep from having
to make another trip all the way across town! It's a good
thing that I had bought Trevor some new shorts before returning
to Bolivia and had bought them big because he keeps growing so
much. Otherwise they never would have fit Dan when they
had to swap their pants.
We have been getting settled in a different mission house than
we were in before. It has been good to meet several of our
neighbors, and we feel like we are once again in a good
neighborhood. One thing we noticed when we moved into this
house was that all the faucets only had one knob. We
realized very quickly that it was because there wasn't any hot
water. This is very common in many Bolivian households,
but our first experience to live in a home without hot water.
So I'm getting used to heating water on the stove to do dishes.
These things help us to slow down the pace of our lives a bit.
In our showers we have electrical attachments on the shower
heads called "widow makers" which heats up the water
so we can have warm showers. Notice that I didn't say HOT
showers. Our first morning in our home I took a shower in
our bathroom off of our bedroom and got a good amount of
electrical currency in my whole hand when I turned the knob.
We are still waiting for an electrician to come and work on
fixing that problem. We are very thankful that we have
another bathroom with a shower that we can all share for now.
One week after we arrived in Bolivia a missions team of 20
people arrived to work alongside the Olsons, the Gablers and us.
They held evangelistic meetings in our Km 14 La Gracia Church
neighborhood for two evenings and shared testimonies, drama,
singing and messages. They had the opportunity to present
their program in several of our churches here in Santa Cruz, and
spent five days out at our Camp Buena Vista working to fix the
camp up. They also spend some time at our house painting
our outer wall and working on a few plumbing issues that we had.
This team was called the Exite team and they were led by Don Ten
Hoeve, Director of Field Operations at Grace Ministries
International. There were youth and adults from five
different states, representing ten different churches. We
were truly blessed by working along side this team and
appreciate so much all the work they did both at the camp and
here in Santa Cruz. They definitely made an impact in
Bolivia. We said "good-bye" to them Tues.
evening and they headed back to the states. Now we have
about twelve days before the next missions team arrives.
We are so excited to be back in Bolivia! Each day we are
seeing people that we knew from before. What precious
people! We look forward to the many ministry opportunities
which are before us, and pray that the Lord would lead us into
the specific ministries that He would have us do at this time.
We are also looking forward to several more teams which will be
coming over the next few months. Thank you for your
interest and support of our ministry here in Bolivia! We
so appreciate your support both financially and through your
prayers. If you would like to donate online to our
ministry through Grace Ministries International, please click here.
Please pray:
1. for us as we are getting settled and accustomed to life
in Bolivia once again.
2. for follow-up opportunities with those who came to the
evangelistic meetings.
3. for the next missions team (from Holland, MI) as they
minister in our Bolivian schools.
4. for our oldest son, Taylor who finished his first year
at Grace Bible College and is now working. It is very
strange not having him here with us in Bolivia.
5. for our residency paperwork to be processed quickly,
without any problems.
Praise:
1. for our safe return to Bolivia, and that all of our
luggage arrived with us.
2. for our faithful supporters who made our return to
ministry in Bolivia possible.
3. for our Bolivian pastors and their families.
4. for the ministry of the Exite team in several of our
churches and Camp Buena Vista.
Serving through Christ,
Dan, Mary Sue, Trevor, and Tasha Reed
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Son,
daughter-in-law, and grandchildren of our own Pastor Dwight and
Jane Reed, this dear family was very active at Berean.
Hearing the call to serve God in Bolivia, the process of becoming
missionaries began. Along with Dan's sister, DeAnna , and
her family, they began their new service in Cochabamba on January
31, 2006 and have moved to Santa Cruz. |
