Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Day of Prayer and Fasting and the touring day!

Most of the group :)
The "car" I drove in Bolivia!

Spoon on forehead, drinking water without stopping - Costa Rican cure for hiccups (or Ippos as they call them here). It works!!!


Communion



The day of Prayer and Fasting was a great day full of prayer, teaching, personal growth, and growing together as a group. God did some wonderful things that day, breaking hearts and breaking down barriers that keep us from really being able to bless one another and work together. We needed to ask forgiveness for ways that we have not empowered each other from country to country because of our own prejudices and pride. The most impactful for me was asking forgiveness for the way our country has looked down on our neighbors to the south and thinking that we know best. It was a powerful time filled with tears. A man from Mexico asked forgiveness too for the way they feel about those of us from the North. It was incredible and freeing. I am more and more convinced that work like this needs to happen for people to be truly free. We shared communion together, which is always a great joy! We also celebrated and broke our fast with cakes celebrating father's day here in Bolivia. Yeah, cake. (after Communion), and then we ate dinner :)


___________________________



Ah, what a wonderful day we had yesterday! God met us in some fun ways as we toured a children's home and went to the training site of SASS. I'll try to give you a snapshot of the day, in hopes that you can join us, in theory at least...





We left the hotel at around 9:00am yesterday morning (we crammed 27 people into a 19 person bus)... That was interesting and hot. We encouraged people to hang out with new people, get to know new people. We stopped first at the Stansbury Children's Home to see a YES team in action. It's an orphanage and daycare center as well. Their vision is very interesting and the place is very well kept and beautiful. They have a heart to have houses (that are in the process of being built right now) so that the kids don't have to live in dorms, but can live with a family, 8-10 kids per two parents. They also run a daycare where they receive children whose parents need to work and would otherwise be locked in a house alone all day (true stories - very sad...) They receive kids from 6 months through kindergarten. And in the process, they work with the parents to help them retain jobs and build a better life for their families. A lot of the children in the orphanage have been abandoned by their family. They receive the kids from a government agency, they do not allow parents to drop kids off at the gate. They track kids nourishment and height/weight as well to report to the government monthly and have a psychologist and social worker who work with the orphaned/abandoned kids as well as the parents of the kids at the daycare. I was impressed at the way they work and the vision and heart of the people who work there. We spent about 30 minutes praying for the leaders, for the children, for the vision.





After we toured the home, we traveled about 45 minutes and went to a small town and walked around a market and did some souvenir/gift shopping. We then took another 45 minute bus ride to the SASS training site. If I could explain the drive, I would say it is among the worst roads I've been on, dirt, bumpy, clay on the edges, so if you got off the road pack, you would flip your car... It was also very hot in our cramped bus, but we enjoyed it anyway! We had lunch at the site, then rode a horse/buggy (they are in a conservative mennonite area - the Russian mennonites and the German Mennonites). We also spent time praying for the area, the leaders, etc. It was a wonderful day full of communion with God, heat, bugs and bug bites, fun, and communication/fellowship. On our way home, some rode in the back of Estevan's truck (that group did include me - I needed the wind and air!) It was a fun ride with lots of spanglish flying around as all of us have a limited understanding of one another's language... Some went to a market and some of us came back to swim. I learned how to dive (really dive) the other day! It was so fun! I am now a huge fan of how it feels to slice through the water. I can enter the water almost straight up and down, which is scary because you meet the bottom of the pool very quickly that way... We have also been having races in the water, so that is good and fun for us! I think I need a swimming pool :)





After the outing, we had a very good time of celebrating and worship and prayer along with a devotional about running the race God has for us. It was a wonderful evening.





Two people have been sick the whole time and two of us got sick yesterday - just a sore throat, congestion, etc. bummer. But I am excited in my heart/spirit in this time, glad to be doing the great work God has called me to. There is a lot of transition in Latin American programs, staff, etc. and it is good. God has big plans for these people.




Please pray for this final day - as we have discussions on mentoring, Christ-like relationships, Dying to Self/Living for Christ, the closing ceremony, welcoming new members. Pray that God would be glorified in all we do and say. We just had a wonderful time of thanking the staff and praying for them. Many were deeply touched and deeply moved. Pray that what God began in that time will continue. The owner cried and thanked us for the ways we have blessed them.

Thank you and God bless you!



Jenny

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Update 4 from Bolivia

Worship in Latin America is FUN!!!!
Group Activity - Business Training

Break Time
Prayer for Jorge
Ah, what wonderful days we are in! This trip has truly blessed my life in so many ways. I have met people who make my jaw drop in awe of how God uses them, I have met people who really desire to see God move and work and those who desparately want to join Him. We met with one leader last night who is involved in sending missionaries to the 10/40 window from Latin America. It's pretty cool. Their training amazes me. They are very intentional and thorough.

I'm pretty tired today. Yesterday was a long day for us. We went from 7am until 10:30pm - solid meetings. But it was a good day. I like working sometimes to the point of exhaustion, but I'm yawning a lot today :)

Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm looking forward to visiting a local church and to having some time to relax and rest. There is a pool here that I would love to play in :)

I am still reading Isaiah as God has led me to, but am still a bit unclear why. He will show me the way.

Alright, back to work - I pray blessings and joy over all of you today!

Jenny

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Update 3 from Bolivia

I have no idea what this was called, but Ernesto asked me to help him lead in an exercise for the group. It was pretty hilarious. Touching hips, touching knees, touching the floor, wiggling our bodies, flexing/tensing our whole bodies, swaying back and forth... Something like that....
Worship during Annual Meeting - Day Two
My "desk" in Bolivia - I feel badly working during the meetings, but I'm so far behind... I think I was working on the grant spreadsheet and calculations for the grants... Yeah!
Last night we celebrated a couples 10th wedding anniversary with cake and a celebration. They are a dear couple who are serving from Colombia in Panama.
Thank you for all who are praying and all who have sent me...
Wow. I am not quite sure where to start since I left out an entire day... But these meetings have been incredible. We had our opening celebration yesterday and enjoyed a great day of teaching and prayer and worship.
Right now we are discussing what God taught us during some learning activities. Some had the opportunity to confess sins to each other, others were to serve people, others were to be completely silent. God seems to be moving by His Spirit in big ways here at these meetings. I am excited to see what He has in store. I think this meeting might knock my socks off. There are about 40 leaders here today from Latin America for the most part. It has been excellent. Right now there are more Latin Americans serving as missionaries serving to "our cousins" in very hard areas than any other people group. That's pretty incredible. God has a lot for these men and women to do and to experience. And I get to be here and serve alongside them and serve them. Before I came here, I was at peace about the planning and preparations (for the most part) for the meetings. I knew that God was going to do something great in this time and do something completely different and special here. Our first day of meetings, yesterday, I told Galen that I really sensed that God was going to do some exciting and amazing things here...

I have also had a chance to catch up on some long overdue work. I have been busy updating grants, recording information, and writing emails that I have not been able to focus on because of my travel/preparation/meeting schedule, so I thank God for this time.

Before and during my trip here, I was asking God what passage of Scripture He had for me for this time in my life as I serve God and serve these people. He led me to Isaiah. Not just one chapter or verse, but the whole book of Isaiah. So I have been reading that, not knowing exactly what He has for me. I am excited for it, however.

This has been such a special day. We had a lesson on the Leader and Attitude, the Leader and Authority (submitting, not always being the authority, but how to lead with submission to the Ultimate authority) and it has been very special. There is a time of brokenness happening now and I am excited about it... It will be painful for us, but also incredibly full of God's blessings. God is calling leaders right now to be broken of their pride, their denominational ties, and the desire to see their ministry succeed more than to see the hand of God move.

"Lord, send Your rain down, and Your love. Come and visit me, change me" - the song being sung right now by the leaders as they kneel on the ground, weeping and crying out to God. "You love me, You love me, You love me. I love You more than my life. You gave me a name. I am the girl (nina in spanish means girl, but they also call the pupil of their eyes nina...) of Your eyes, and You love me". All of this is happening in Spanish, but is wonderful, because the Spirit of God is allowing of us to understand and to be together. A prayer: God forgive us. Our love for You is great. Let our love lead us to serve You here in Latin America. Let us go into the world. Let us share Your love in all the countries of the world... The enemy is attacking, but there will be victory in the name of Jesus. (This is the best I can do in my understanding of Spanish...)

"I ask You for the peace of my city, the peace of my city. I ask forgiveness for my city. I now bow down and I will look for Your face. Who can I go to if this is not You?" Another song being sung...

Jorge is now praying or unity in Latin America, even among the countries. He has asked people to pray for the countries they have prejudices against. I have had to confess to a prejudice I didn't realize I had until I got here, a fear in essence of a certain group of people. I realize I am suspect of people from Mexico. Why? I do not know. But God is asking me to repent and be released from it. I asked my coworker Raquel from Mexico to pray with me and to repent on behalf of me for her people. God calls us to love each person equally. To love as He loves. In my human sight, I forget to do that and I forget to trust Him for it.
"Maravilloso, maravilloso, Jesus". Wonderful, Wonderful Jesus...

One man is repenting. I don't know what is happening, but he is on the floor crying out, "perdon", which I think he means "forgive me". There is a group around him praying... It is very intense. They are sharing that nothing can happen out of God's control. God forgives him. God needs leaders like this. Broken ones. God is moving...

We just all joined hands and sang a song that translates to "Lord, we take our crowns to Your throne and we give You the best of our lives".
Galen has been led by God to go around the circle and pray for each and every leader that what God has started here today, He will bring completion in our lives. Only as we come to the end of ourselves and realize our complete inadequacy, is He able to show His complete adequacy through us.

I must go now. Please keep praying for us. We love you all.

Jenny

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Update 2 from Bolivia

I have been incredibly blessed over the past two days. I have been able to meet new friends, and see old friends once again. We received quite a few participants yesterday, including my roommate at 2:30am J. She is a training director in Colombia and seems very nice if you can gauge someone well at that time of the day... Most of the participants will arrive today.

We have completed the majority of the pre-meeting preparations (meeting with the staff at the hotel, getting welcome packets compiled, greeting participants, getting the meeting room setup, etc. Basically just the logistics.)

Bolivia is very lovely. I have appreciated the people (very warm culture and friendly) and the weather is wonderful. It is green and lush here.

Please pray for health here. I realize there are some possible issues with food here and food borne/waterborne sickness. I thought I was getting sick today, but feel much better this afternoon.

I have been incredibly blessed yesterday afternoon and all day today so far... I have been able to sit in on the Executive Team meetings (leaders of the three tracks) and plan, dream, etc. with them as they brainstorm for the coming years. I love stuff like this. How do we most effectively reach the world with Gospel???? Questions like that. I am humbled to be among them. Not because they are great men, but because they are men who love Jesus so much and walk with much humility. I love the unity of this group of men. Their vision and focus is so clear. Their faith is strong. They challenge me. I am learning a lot.

Pray that as we complete the meetings this evening, we will have focus to finish well. Pray for God’s release of ideas, vision, etc. Please pray that, as the GDTA meeting begins tomorrow, we will all have one focus in our hearts: Jesus. There is much to do, many things to discern, areas of growth. Pray that God’s potential for this region will be realized. Much of the meetings will be translated from English to Spanish and it will slow down the flow quite a bit, but it will be very good anyway.

Ah, I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for your love and support and prayers.

Jenny
I have been incredibly blessed over the past two days. I have been able to meet new friends, and see old friends once again. We received quite a few participants yesterday, including my roommate at 2:30am J. She is a training director in Colombia and seems very nice if you can gauge someone well at that time of the day... Most of the participants will arrive today.

We have completed the majority of the pre-meeting preparations (meeting with the staff at the hotel, getting welcome packets compiled, greeting participants, getting the meeting room setup, etc. Basically just the logistics.)

Bolivia is very lovely. I have appreciated the people (very warm culture and friendly) and the weather is wonderful. It is green and lush here.

Please pray for health here. I realize there are some possible issues with food here and food borne/waterborne sickness. I thought I was getting sick today, but feel much better this afternoon.

I have been incredibly blessed yesterday afternoon and all day today so far... I have been able to sit in on the Executive Team meetings (leaders of the three tracks) and plan, dream, etc. with them as they brainstorm for the coming years. I love stuff like this. How do we most effectively reach the world with Gospel???? Questions like that. I am humbled to be among them. Not because they are great men, but because they are men who love Jesus so much and walk with much humility. I love the unity of this group of men. Their vision and focus is so clear. Their faith is strong. They challenge me. I am learning a lot.

Pray that as we complete the meetings this evening, we will have focus to finish well. Pray for God’s release of ideas, vision, etc. Please pray that, as the GDTA meeting begins tomorrow, we will all have one focus in our hearts: Jesus. There is much to do, many things to discern, areas of growth. Pray that God’s potential for this region will be realized. Much of the meetings will be translated from English to Spanish and it will slow down the flow quite a bit, but it will be very good anyway.

Ah, I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for your love and support and prayers.

Jenny

Sunday, March 11, 2007

I'm in Bolivia!!!

Santa Cruz
Sugar Cane Mill

Meat


Dinner



The view from my room!




Mtn in Bolivia from airplane window. Pretty great at 5:00 in the morning...





Con papa Jorge in back of truck on the way to dinner...






We have arrived! And what adventures we had on the way... I can now say I have a least favorite airline (though I won't say who...) and that Terminal A is VERY far from Terminal D in Miami. 25-30 minutes at a good clip. If you look desperate enough, the gate agents will take pity on you and let you use the restroom, even though they are closing the doors to the plane :) I think it also helped that there were three men being deported from the states, so that bought us a minute or two...

I have also walked (out of sheer boredom) almost the entire Chicago airport with my coworker Tim. We didn't get over to the international area, but we walked almost all the domestic terminals (which is a lot of walking - about two hours worth)... We thought we were wasting lots and lots of time, but it's hard to fill six hours in an airport. It was weird to go from thinking you were never going to fly (the airline kept pushing back the departure time) and then in the next city thinking you were never going to make it to the flight. Odd. I even cried on my flight to Miami because the stewardess was being very rude and I was a bit stressed. I love it when I'm irrational :) I got to sit next to a really cool couple though from Chicago to Miami. We talked about God and it was good.

Bolivia's customs is perhaps the shortest and simplest of anywhere I've ever been. I even saw a man put my suitcase onto his luggage cart, and wondered if I should yell at him from the customs line, or pray that he figured out what he was doing. He thankfully figured it out, so I have all my luggage...

When they woke us up on the flight this morning to tell us we were about to land in LaPaz (one of two capital cities in Bolivia), I looked out my window and through the clouds I saw some pretty amazing mountains. It is beautiful here. Once we got the passengers loaded onto our flight from LaPaz to Santa Cruz, it was only about one hour to here. We flew over rain forests and a lot of beautiful scenery. I must say I have enjoyed it tremendously so far (in the four hours I've been here :) Our new Latin American facilitator and his son picked us up from the airport. I love familiar faces in new places. The hotel we are staying at is nice (not four star, but very nice and comfortable). We are in walking distance to a grocery store (not always the case at these meetings) so I am thankful for that. We are going to work a bunch today, then head to the Churrasco for dinner (think lots of meat)... Mmm... I've had to use my spanish a lot here so far, so that is fun! Mmm... Just back from dinner and the MEAT. And the best salsa I've ever had. Really. And I've had a lot of salsa. We shared the meal with about 20 of us. It was a great time, I got to meet some new people who are working here with various organizations.

Alright, just wanted to let you all know we made it safely :)

Love you!!!

Friday, March 9, 2007

In the Air/On the Road Again - South America This Time


BOLIVIA TRIP



Map from Worldatlas.com
Well, I am almost on my way. I leave Saturday morning (tomorrow) to fly to Chicago, Miami, Lima, Peru, then finally Santa Cruz, Bolivia! For those of you who are curious of such things, the flights/airport times on this trip are close to 20 hours on the way down! I will return home on the 24th of March...


I am in the throes of final preparations for the meeting. There will be roughly 45 leaders (from Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Canada, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Panama, and USA) attending these meetings. We hope and pray that God will release a new Spirit among the leaders and they, too will leave refreshed, challenged, and ready to make disciples. I am once again in awe that God uses the weak to share His message of hope and life. I am also once again in awe that He is using me!


Please pray for these meetings. We will have two full days of Executive Team meetings before the Annual Meetings begin. I will be in those meetings taking minutes, which will be interesting. This group makes decisions on behalf of the organization. Taking minutes is my least favorite thing to do, but is a necessary part of my job :( or :) depending on how I choose to look at it. I'll go with :)


The Annual Meeting begins next Wednesday (the 14th of March) and will run through the 21st of March. My responsibilities at the meetings will be the same as in India and Kenya, but I will be leading two workshops. Almost everything we say will be translated into Spanish, so please pray that we will get the message across clearly and that those translating will be able to portray our hearts (there we go with the need for unity again).


I just received good news! The one visa issue we were having for a staff member and teacher for the meetings from India was having a hard time getting his Bolivian visa. He was just promised the visa when he arrives in a larger city in India than where he lives! Praise God!!!


This meeting has been easier to plan for in some ways and more difficult to plan for in others. I am working with a very administratively gifted Facilitator in Latin America who has had extensive experience planning these meetings, so is very easy to work with. I am so grateful for him. It has been more challenging as I learn to juggle follow-up from the meetings that took place in the past two months, continuing to process grants, send prayer requests, communicate with leaders, etc. Please pray for patience and wisdom for me as I try to figure out how to my job effectively in an ever-growing and changing alliance. There is much to do (which I am so grateful for, because that means there are more hearing the Good News!)


Alright, that is enough for now. If you would like to learn more about Bolivia, here is a link for you: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bl.html


And for those who don't have time to explore the site, here is a bit of info about the country as you pray:


  • Andean state that is landlocked (one of only two countries in South America with no ocean border)

  • Santa Cruz has roughly 1.2 million people, while Bolivia has roughly 9 million people.

  • Bolivia was once the richest area in South America, but is now one of the poorest.

  • 60% of the population has been baptized Catholic, but still practices animism or Christo-pagan religions.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Birthday

Nate and Jenny
Luke, Angela, Justin, Vanessa eating Hibachi Shrimp.

The Chef



Justin and Vanessa

Josh who had apparently gotten beaten up at a b-ball game and Andy enjoying Hibachi...

Joe playing the sax... Sweet Jazz...

Birthday fun! I got to celebrate my birthday this past weekend with some seriously awesome people! I am so excited to have such amazing friends! We went to dinner and had hibachi and sushi, then hung out at my house where Joe played his sax for us (so good!!!). Great fun!

Monday, March 5, 2007

Rook and Pizza Bash

Jenny, Kim, Rosemary at the Rook Bash
the Leader's Table


Rook Rules


Fruit Pizza


The Game


The making of the dough


I recently got to hang out with some really cool gals and help make homemade pizzas for a Rook/Pizza bash. These girls are the queens of interesting parties, and this was no exception. It was such a relaxing evening and I learned how to play Rook. I also learned that being at the leader's table for six rounds is great, until you move to the loser's table for eight rounds.... What goes up must come down... All in all, the night was a blast and the pizza was yummy!