One of the perks of living in Bolivia is being so close to the jungle. We've been here for over two months and just got the chance to visit this amazing place. We traveled with our whole team (24 of us!) by bus to get to CHAPARE. This is the location of one complete orphanage home and the site of two other ones. After five hours we reached the home. It takes a moment or two to adjust to the extreme climate change when you get there. It's 100% humidity and very sunny. Unfortunantly, due to the isolation of the home, there is no phone service and the house parents were not able to be notified that we were going to be there and they were gone with the kids. We did, however, get a chance to tour the village a little and hear some history of the home and surrounding village. Villa Tunari is the name of the village. It is a very impoverished place with a great many needs spiritually as well as physically. Although a beautiful place, there is a lot of unpleasant beliefs in Pachi Mama (earth mother) that influences the indigenous people of these small villages. Our prayer is that God will use the house parents of the homes there to have a positive influence on those around them
We also had the chance to visit a monkey rehabilitation park. This adventure started out great, but did not end well at all. About half way up the hill we encountered several little monkies being very friendly with the visitors. It went well and was very fun to interact with God's wildlife until that wildlife attacked and bit Emma twice on the arm. This pretty much put a stop to the fun, we headed out of there pretty quickly. Fortunantly, Emma is just fine, we did learn a little about the monkey's vaccination routine after that! She will be fine, but it was scary all the same.
We spent the evening and the next day at a resort in order to relax and bond as a team. We have 16 children on our team, so it was a wonderful chance for the kids to get to know each other while swimming in the pool. They had a blast. The adults of the team took this opportunity to meet and go over important details of the ministry together. Like the children, this was a great chance to spend time together and get to know each other and hear ideas. We are a very new team, but God has put us all together right now and we had a great time together. We praise God for that opportunity! All in all, it was a great two days in the jungle. We feel so very blessed to be taking in all these experiences and seeing a little corner of God's great earth here in Bolivia! We pray that God will arm us with courage and perseverence to continue to do HIS work here.
We pray too that you will be blessed by God's work down here. He is alive and working here and all our supporters and family and friends are a huge part of that. We appreciate all the support we get from all of you. We couldn't be here without your help!
In his hands,
Steve and Cara and Girls
