ESL and Cross-Cultural Communication

Well the fact that we haven’t blogged in so long attests to how busy we’ve been in the last two weeks. On Thursday we began our ESL classes at Calama church. Phil is teaching at an advanced level and Tarryn and I are teaching basic. We’re all enjoying it a lot. It’s difficult at times, given my poor Spanish, but it’s also very helpful and rewarding. Last night I taught them basic pronunciation and how to sing the English alphabet. It went well, even better than expected. Although you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is for some non-English speakers to pronounce certain sounds that come so naturally for us (e.g. the Z sound, the difference between “sit” and “set” etc.). ESL is also really great because it's a good chance for us to get to know some of the Bolivians and ultimately, it's a place where we can represent Christ. Please pray that we would not only be effective teachers but that Christ would be glorified in our teaching and in the relationships we develop.

On Saturday we went to the airport to pick up Dave Roberts, Tyndale’s Missions Mentor. He has been here all week teaching us a class called Cross-Cultural Communication. The whole point of the course is to teach us how to serve God effectively in another culture. It’s been wonderfully practical. Dave spent twelve years living in Africa. It was great to be able to learn from his experience and to be challenged by his teaching. Over this past week I feel like I’ve acquired a renewed passion for Bolivia and motivation to learn and understand all aspects of the culture. I've also been convicted about some of my cultural orientations that could serve as a hindrance to ministry. Dave has taught us to really consider what it means to be servants to all (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

On Thursday afternoon we were able to climb the Cristo (1136 steps

 to the top). It was a great experience and the view of the city was breathtaking.

This Sunday will be sort of a Tyndale worship service at Calama’s English service. Dave is preaching and we are leading worship. It should be fun. Your prayers would be appreciated; for the service and also for Dave’s flight home, which leaves on Sunday.

One more important update. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, Terry and Pat will no longer be involved with the Baptist Seminary (we will hopefully still get to stay here in the Seminary but we're still not sure). Please pray for them as they seek new opportunities to serve Christ in Bolivia.  We would also appreciate your prayers as we wait on God to continue to provide us with ample opportunities to develop relationships and to serve.

Thanks for your support.

Dave

Miniature Earth

Numbers and statistics can be really difficult to get our heads around. For example, take the population of the world, which is approaching 7,000,000,000 people. It's too large a number to comprehend. But what if that number was smaller, much smaller, something we could visualize?

Try to imagine, then click here... 

San Lucas 12:37-38

Last week was our first full week of ministry. Dave helped out with the Jireh Project playing games with children and youth who shine shoes in the streets and helping them a bit with their homework. Phil helped teach a few English classes at The Colegio Evangelico Emanuel an elementary and high school and I did a little bit of both. So far I am really enjoying teaching at the high school. Since we have begun I have been able to teach seven classes and am slowly getting to know the youth. For the last part of the last class I was in today I just ended up talking to a few of the students and getting to know them. They invited me to play soccer with them and to come to their church. I can't remember why, but some how we ended up talking about museums and they all thought it was pretty cool that in Canada we have a wax museum and a cheese museum. Or maybe they thought it was a little weird, but I am choosing to believe otherwise.

We also managed to fit in some hang out time with our friends into our busy schedules. I finally convinced a group of Bolivians, including about seven guys to go see '27 Dresses'. In case you don't know what that is, it's one of the newest chick flicks playing at the movies. It was a good time minus the fact that Phil got everyone in trouble for starting a popcorn war halfway through the movie. I think the guys may have been a little bored.

Thursday night was another interesting evening. Let's just say that we truly experienced the indirect communication and lack of timeliness of Bolivian culture. We were told to meet at the church at 7pm to meet for dinner with the young adults group. Knowing by now that 7 never means 7 we purposely showed up at 7:30 thinking we would be in time for dinner. We didn't leave the church until 8:30 and eating dinner was miles down on the agenda. However we didn't find this out until we actually completed the crazy adventure we were about to embark on. After leaving the church at 8:30 we drove for about 20minutes out of town with no idea where we were going. We made a stop at one girl's house to pick up a mystery item and then another stop to a bunch of guys standing on the street and then one last stop to pick up chocolate. If this doesn't make sense to you, don't worry it didn't make sense to us while it was happening either. We kept laughing that a car rally or some sort of scavenger hunt would have been the perfect explanation for what we were doing. Finally we arrived at a home with a big field in the backyard. There was a large bonfire in the middle and about 50 chairs set up around it. We played games and listened to a pastor give a sermon in lieu of Valentines day. We finally did get dinner that night. It was at Harvey's at 11:30. Although we all knew it wouldn't feel great eating so late the next morning, after a 10 hour fast it was all that I wanted. There have been few times in my life that I have laughed so hard and could think of a more ridiculous adventure, but that is a good thing because I like adventures.

At this point I am beginning to miss home a little bit and it is the little things that I find myself remembering and being most grateful for at the end of the day. For example, having one of the students remember me from helping out at his youth group makes me think that slowly relationships are being developed here. Or, going to Volleyball Monday nights at Calama church and not playing but just watching and talking to the people who come and getting to know them. Or when Ivan makes us coffee and lets us hang out in his office and watch TV while our laundry is being done. Or walking into the grocery store and finding maple syrup and American style peanut butter on the same shelf. Ok, maybe that last one is a little less significant than the others but you would be surprised how good a little taste of home can make a person feel.

- Tarryn

Happy Valentine's Day!

We just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you and let you know that we are so grateful for your continued support.  Thanks to all of you who have helped us get here financially and thanks even more for all of you who have remembered us in prayer.  We wouldn't be here without you!  You really are a part of this team, so thank-you for faithfully reading the blog and we wish you a Happy Valentine's Day!

Final Carnival Craziness, Ministry Begins

Saludos!

So in case you couldn’t tell from the video, we all had a lot of fun with the Jankes at the Carnival parade on Saturday. One of our most memorable moments occured when we were leaving. After squishing our way through a sea of Bolivians and almost starting a riot, we had no choice but to cross the parade road in the heart of a water balloon-throwing warzone. We made it across staying relatively dry…well…except for poor Pat who had foam sprayed all over her face. However, we were met on the other side by a crowd of about twenty-five Bolivians ready for action. I heard a loud war cry (which apparently signified “Get the Gringos!”) and suddenly we were all running for cover from a vicious onslaught of water balloons. Needless to say, we got soaked, and our Carnival parade experience was complete.

One major update since the weekend is that this week we have officially began our ministry internships. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Jankes’ house for ESL training with Pat. My favorite part was the Swiss Chalet-like lunch afterwards…she even had the real Swiss Chalet sauce! This morning Phil and Tarryn taught ESL at Emanuel Christian school and from what I’ve heard they had a great time getting acquainted with the students and teaching them fun facts about Canada (...apparently the CN tower is not as big a deal as we thought). I spent the morning at Jireh, the drop-in center for kids. It was challenging, with my limited capacity to communicate. The man who runs it speaks almost no English at all. But I was still able to spend time getting to know some of the kids. I suspect this will be a very rewarding ministry for me as I already feel humbled and touched after the first day. In the afternoon I also went to Emmanuel to help teach English. It was the first day of school so we didn’t do a whole lot, but English is the one of the few skills I have to offer here so I am looking forward to this ministry as well.

We don’t yet know our exact ministry schedules but we will update you as we continue to get more involved. Next week we will begin teaching our own ESL classes at Calama church on Monday and Thursday nights. We’re all looking forward to it.

Well that’s about it for now. As of right now Phil is feeling much better and we are all healthy. We appreciate your continual thoughts, comments and prayers.

Peace,

Dave

The Parade - A Video Blog

Well... here it is ladies and gentleman, our first ever Video Blog.  So grab the kids, pop some popping-corn, sit back and enjoy the movie!
          

CARNAVAL!

Hello again everyone, 

There is SO much to update you on, and I would just like to apologize to everyone because I have been unable to access the internet this week, and therein had no communication with all of you. Of all the weeks to lose my connection to home it was the one during which I had emergency dental surgery, 5 huge shots of antibiotics, and have now had something odd and terribly painful going on in my stomach for the past 2 days. Thank you all for your prayer through the surgery, everything went well and I am healing perfectly. And if you would continue to remember our digestive systems in your prayers, my insides would be grateful!

Now, to begin with the post! This post was originally going to be titled "The little puppy that missed" but due to the fact that today is Bolivia's largest national holiday, I decided to alter the name to something more fitting. I promise you, however, that if you inquire about the old title we will fill you in on the "comments" section of this post (this will be a chance for you all to learn how to comment, because we love feedback). 

Since Dave last blogged we have done some amazing things ! The three of us went to a camp in Los Molinos, just a half hour out of the city, with the College and Careers group from 

Muyarina (a church we have become involved with). The camp consisted of the usual campy things: sleeping in tents, Bible studies, sing-songs, water fights, campfires and waterfalls... wait a second, I guess huge waterfalls and raging rivers aren't normal camp things in Canada. You know, after a while in Bolivia you really learn to expect anything, because if you don't, you will end up crossing a river in your only pair of dry shoes. Yes, ladies and gentlemen that is me crossing a raging river full of waterfalls, and no matter what Tarryn says, I did not look that frightened the entire time. 

After returning to the campsite (slightly more damp that when we left), we dried off and shared in a time of Bible study led by Pat and Terry Janke (our missionaries here). We then ate some dinner, sang some songs... fast forward to... the campfire! Now, I have spent many a night at the fireside with friends and 

family, and both Dave and Tarryn can attest to the fact that I know far too many campfire songs, pranks and skits for any one human being. But what's a campfire without someone getting wet and laughed at?! We also taught our new friends how to make Smores (I don't know how they survived before), and now I'm afraid we might have some Smores junkies (we might have to start running a Smores rehab ministry for those who want to kick the marshmallowy habit)! I digress... fast forward again... As bed time draws near, a terrible sickness inside me rears its ugly head, and the longest night of my life begins. My night was spent tossing and turning in a my freezing-cold tent, with the occasional break to get up run outside and vomit somewhere in the trees(I'm sorry if that was too graphic). Interestingly enough however, I learned something that night. That is that, I would rather be tossing Smores in Bolivia than anywhere else in the world (sorry again, that one was even more graphic), and you know what? I think that means I like it here! 

Final thought: When I consider the mountains much larger than I, when I hear the raging river much louder than I, when I feel the wind swifter, the rain fiercer, and the current stronger... I wonder how I could ever be so audacious to think that I am in control of anything.

- Phil

Friends, Fiestas and Ministries

Hola!

Well we’ve had another exciting week in Cochabamba. In addition to our daily Spanish classes we’ve been able to spend a lot of time with our Bolivian friends, developing relationships and practicing our Spanish (more like Spanglish for Tarryn and I), and we’ve also had the chance to visit a few more ministries.

On Tuesday Pat took us on a tour of Cochabamba’s largest and most respected Christian school (I think it’s called Immanuel). The principle and chairman of the school were very nice and quite keen on getting us involved in the school’s ESL program. Although school in Bolivia doesn’t start for a month or so, I’m pretty sure this will become one of our ministry internship sites.

On Wednesday night we hosted our first official fiesta. Thanks to Tarryn’s homemade pizza-making genius and Phil’s exceptional knack for tidying and interior decorating, the party was a success. We had plenty of good food and we had a great time teaching our Bolivian friends some of our favorite games.

Yesterday (Friday) we had the opportunity to visit a ministry called Jireh (which we beleive is the Spanish word for Jirah, from ‘Jehovah Jirah’). Jireh is basically a drop-in center for kids ranging from about 8-15 years old. The center provides the kids with a basic meal, fun activities, and opportunities to receive homework help and to learn trade skills (e.g. electrician skills). When we were their, the director asked us to stay and have a meal with some of the kids. After eating and introducing ourselves, we taught them a few fun English songs. The kids were adorable and clearly in need of older Christ representatives whom they can look up to. I’m sure at least one of us will eventually be involved in this ministry.

Before I end this blog I need to update you on Phil’s dental situation. For those who didn’t know, Phil had an infected, impacted wisdom tooth. Yesterday Pat and Terry took him to their dentist and he had it removed. He’s doing very well. Your continual prayers would really be appreciated.

This weekend we have plans to go on a young adult camping retreat with a number of Bolivian Baptists. Please pray that it will be a spiritually enriching time. Please also pray for Tarryn, as she will be giving her testimony to a high school youth group tonight, and for Phil, as he is leading a Bible study at the retreat.

Gracias to you all for your support.

May we all continue to glorify our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Dave